King Cosmos

Fate/Dark Heritage

Berserker

It was decided then; for this first night of the war they were to go on the offensive. That approach suited Hang Jebat just fine; even if he were not in his current form he would have approved of a direct approach over a more passive one and he appreciated the fact that his master could be decisive when presented with a division. But the Servant couldn’t help but wonder whether or not the young mage truly knew what he was getting himself into and whether he would hold up once the fighting began in earnest.

The sword that Shou carried at his side was a good sign, but carrying a sword did not necessary come with the attitude or the willingness to use it. Berserker’s knowledge of this era told him that it was a relatively peaceful one and there were many young men Shou’s age that had never experienced combat, never seen death, or dealt it themselves. Perhaps Shou was an exception, he had entered a war of his own accord after all, or perhaps he was just naïve and optimistic.

Time would tell.

“Let us get the lay of the land first; scouting can be useful even if it does not reveal the enemy.” Acquiring first-hand knowledge of landmarks and the terrain would be useful when it came to setting up or escape ambushes. If they were lucky, they would stumble across one of the more conspicuous Servants while they were at it. “Once we have our bearings, we can move with less subtlety and see if anyone notices.”

@Iamme

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

On one hand I do like the idea of the stacking effects on a target, but on the other I'm still a little concerned it's too potent of an autohit to work around when GMing a fight scene with her.

@VitaVitaAR

I'm in the camp of "probably not workable if not tuned more towards utility/ability unlock at 9s" over "9s autohit burn until all LoS is broken"... Y'know, on top of the 15s poison application that makes it even easier to force the DoT...

@PKMNB0Y

Alright, a line-of-sight based ability that can actually kill enemies doesn't really seem viable; unless there are so many restrictions on it that it ends up never being used anyway. So I guess there's two ways I can approach this.

1. I remove the fire entirely and just design the power around applying a poison-based debuff/crowd control/hindering effect and have Nao play a supporter role alongside the rest of the case.

2. I ditch the Dodomeki concept and go with something else. Probably give her something with a kitsune and say she stole one's Hoshi no Tama without realised what it was and unknowingly strong-armed one into a contract.

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

Not a GM, but doesn't that run into the same fundamental problem that any opposition that doesn't have super speed to constantly break line of sight or a hiding focus won't be able to avoid or contest the end result in any way without significant metagaming?

@Raineh Daze

Maybe I'm overestimating these Grudges, but I don't think it's that difficult to break line of sight in an urban environment and a total of nine seconds for the full effect to come into play is a long time in a fight; I don't think you need super speed at all. Even accounting for the fact that the Grudges wouldn't know to avoid the eyes at first, that's still nine seconds where Nao has to not get herself killed by the thing attacking her with no real method to defend herself and being attacked is probably going to force her to break line of sight herself anyway.

I just didn't want to do something a basic as "shoots fire and has eyes", but if a line-of-sight based power doesn't work then I'll come up with something else.

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

@Zeroth I think I'm going to take the skill rank point and, assuming I can allocate it, put it into Akeno's martial arts skill.

After that I think she would just spend the rest of her time that night finding a relatively isolated spot to sleep for the night (not outside the camp, but somewhere out of the way) and then do as many sit-ups, push-ups and squats as she could managed before falling asleep; the exercises are in that order, so if she can't do all of them before getting worn down she's starting with the sit-ups.

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

Lighting fires on eye contact is a bit too much, since it's a pretty potent ability that'll immediately handle most threats. I'd say try and figure out a different effect or find ways to make it a little more restrained so it's not an inescapable autohit.

@VitaVitaAR

That's fair. I've amended her power to be far more convoluted and make it less of an instant win.

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

I present to you my terrible child. Feel free to bully her.

Hoga Nao - She kinda deserved to get cursed

Hoga Nao

• Name: Hoga Nao
• Age: 16
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: At around 5’ 6” Nao is taller than average and has a slim build. Her black hair is cut into a messy bob that stops just below her ears, which is dyed with purple highlights at the tips. Black and purple are her dominant colour scheme in fact, the shade of her hair matched by the black and purple jacket she wears; the dark colours only broken up by its white stripes. The rest of her clothing varies, but is usually similarly dark.
• Personality: Nao carries herself with a self-assured cockiness mostly seen in people who have yet to be taught that they are not as good as they think they are; the arrogance of someone who has not been proven wrong. Her attitude towards others is combative and challenging, quick to put others down and push them to do something.
  
  However, this confident attitude is quick to turn into indignation and outrage when it is turned back on herself and Nao has a quick temper that can flare up suddenly at any perceived slight. Furthermore, Nao is a person who holds long grudges and isn’t shy to seek vengeance.
• Backstory: Originally from Osaka, and still carrying a strong Osaka-ben accent, Nao moved to Tokyo in the final year of middle school. Showing up halfway through the year, lacking in confident and being kind of loud and abrasive compared to her classmates, Nao had a hard time fitting in and didn’t make any friends by the end of the year. The following year she attended a high school nearby, as did a number of her middle school classmates, and things were not much better; in fact, they were considerably worse as rather than just being a loner, Nao’s attitude led to her getting involved in a lot of fights (with her classmates) and arguments (with her teachers) and soon found herself with a reputation as the “loud mouthed trouble maker” of her school.
  
  It didn’t take her long to get fed up with this and it was near the end of her first year that she began to skip school entirely, instead spending her days wandering Tokyo by herself. Her parents were aware of this and tried to confront Nao, but this just led arguments at home instead and only served to further push her away. It was out of boredom, more than anything else, that led her to shoplift the first time; stealing some junk food from a konbini because she was too lazy to pay for it. When nothing bad happened she did it again, finding that the thrill of maybe getting caught at least alleviated her tedium a little, until it became a regular habit.
  
  One day she bumped into someone on the street, or maybe they intentionally bumped into her, and found herself confronted by an angry young man who demanded an apology and payment for a feigned injury; a shakedown via intimidation. Nao gave him neither, instead kicking him somewhere painful and running off with his full wallet which he had foolishly been waving around. Once safely away she laughed herself hoarse as her heart beat wildly and the next day she escalated from shoplifting to pick pocketing for the first time. This did not go nearly as well and more often than not she had to run from her targets; she got quite good at sprinting through busy street and cramped alleyways as a result, as well as quickly learning how to climb her way out of dead ends. With enough practice, Nao found herself running away less and less.
  
  The money she acquired this way went mostly unspent; aside from occasionally spending it on food and entertainment during the day most of what she took was hoarded away, stolen just for the sake of stealing it. After a couple months Nao even began to teach herself how to pick locks, though never found the nerve to do anything with her new skill.
  
  It was during the break between her first and second year of high school, as she was counting her illicitly obtained money, when it found her. Some woman with really old fashioned clothing and weirdly long sleeves that fell to her knees appeared in the corner of her eye.
  
  “You have long arms.” Startled, Nao looked at her arms in confusion and didn’t think to question why this strange woman was talking to her or where she came from.
  
  “Eh, do I? Don’t think they’re as long as yours though.”
  
  Ignoring her response, the woman shuffled forward soundlessly. “That’s no good. Those long arms will get you in trouble. You should return what you stole.”
  
  Smirking, Nao didn’t look up from her counting, only pausing briefly before continuing to flip through the paper notes. “Stole? Ah, no, I just found a lost wallet. Think I’ll get a reward if I turn it in?”
  
  The woman shuffled forward again and if Nao had bothered to look she might have noticed her unnaturally pale skin or the fact that she couldn’t quite make out the woman’s face. “Do you want a reward? Will you give it all back if you do?”
  
  With another mocking smirk, Nao pocketed the money and stood, still refusing to actually look at what she was speaking to.
  
  “Yeah, sure. Why not?”
• Skills: Pickpocketing, lock picking, free climbing, running
• Spiritual Energy Grade: A
  
  
  • Contracted Being: Dodomeki – The many-eyed demon
  • Contract Rank: B
  • Contract Abilities: Due to her contract with the Dodomeki, a demon known for the hundreds of bird-like eyes on its arms, Nao is able to manifest those same eyes on her own arms and hands; the upper limited seems to just be however many she can fit on the available area. She can somewhat see through these eyes, but it is not as clear as her own vision and it can be a little different to interpret what she is seeing through multiple vantage points at once.
    
    By keeping a living target within view of one of her eyes for a minimum of three seconds, Nao is able to apply a number of effects in sequence, with each additional eye adding another effect to the target;
    
    • The first eye tags the target and give Nao an awareness of where they are; the eye will automatically track the target to keep it in view and if it escapes her view she will know where in went. The target is able to escape this effect if they can remain out of view for 30 seconds.
    • The second eye afflicts the target with debilitating poison, which causes pain and nausea and slows the targets movements. The symptoms will be reduced if they can escape the view of both her second and first eye and will disappear if they can remain out of view for 15 seconds.
    • The third eye will cause the target to spontaneously combust, bursting into flames for as long as they remain in view. The fire will quickly extinguish itself if the target is able to escape the view of all three eyes, but will immediately resume as soon as any of the three eyes can see it again.
  • Cost: As payment for using the contracted power, Nao must make offerings of some kind; to shrines, to charities, to random people, she must give something of value away to someone else. The offerings cannot be stolen, or even given to her, and must be her own. Money works best, but donating goods and volunteer work does count too.

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP Interest Check

Yokai, contracts and urban fantasy? I'm interested.

Fate/Dark Heritage

Berserker

It seemed they would be fighting this war without scouts then. Hang Jebat was no strategist or master of war, but even he knew that trying to fight a war without eyes or ears, blind and deaf to the enemy’s movements and intentions, was a futile endeavour. They couldn’t assume the others in this war were equally hindered after all and must assume that their enemies would be aware of them and suitably prepared.

“If we cannot locate our enemies, then we must either wait for them to appear before us or force them out into the open.” To wait for the opponent to reveal themselves and strike while they were out in the open, or reveal themselves and see who took the bait. “Either we make ourselves a target and surrender the initiative to the opponent, preparing as best we can, or we stay hidden and prepare to make sure we are ready to strike when an opportunity presents itself.”

@Iamme

Why Were We Reincarnated as Orcs?!

Akeno

Akeno turned her head to look across the camp, over to where the blacksmith’s forge sat. So he’d been captured and used as a slave by the human, or so people assumed; that explained his absence from the tribe, why he stood out as different from the rest and mostly explained his crafting abilities. She got the impression it wasn’t the full story though, since Akeno didn’t think it was usual to teach a slave all of the knowledge needed for a skilled trade like blacksmithing. Teach them well enough that they could build and run a forge by themselves afterwards. Or maybe it was and whoever captured Bowbh just gave him a lot of leeway when it came to his work. The details didn’t really matter to her.

She did wonder though if that meant the blacksmith knew more about the nearby human settlements than the other Orcs in the tribe; he’d probably travelled farther from the camp than anyone and seen more of the world as a result, albeit against his will. What kind of people they were, how they lived and their culture and so on. It would probably be crass to ask a former prisoner and slave about that kind of thing though, so better not ask unless it was for something important and not just to satisfy her curiousity.

Well, back to the matter at hand. If Akeno wanted to become the shaman’s apprentice then Yambagorn would teach her how to tell the time and navigate by the stars and the sun, how to mix medicines and poisons, which was more or less what she had been expecting. Being able to make medicine and deal with wounds would be an incredibly useful skill to have, as would be able to find her way if she got lost at any point; she wouldn’t have to rely on anyone else if she ever got injured on a hunt or in a fight, which was practically an inevitability, and would be able to find her way through the woods by herself. That was all definitely more useful than being able to tan a hide or work a forge, in her mind.

Useful for what though? Yambagorn raised a good question, what did Akeno want? The elderly Orc kept flipping between gross mannerism and bawdy jokes one second and weirdly wise and insightful comments the next; it was nothing ground shaking, but the shaman kept reminding her that Akeno shouldn’t take this woman’s intelligence lightly. Well, it wasn’t like Akeno had any reason to try and play word games anyway; she wasn’t trying to match wits with anyone here, just get information, so if she spoke too plainly and let something slip so be it. “Skills that would let me survive; that’s the main thing. Strength too, since the wildlife here seems pretty dangerous.” Akeno had died young once already, in a place and time that wasn’t even supposed to be that deadly comparatively. It was not an experience she wanted to repeat again, so any steps she could take to improve her chances she would take.

Beyond that? Akeno recalled vague memories of a divine being, an explanation of how she came to be here and a vague purpose being given. She wanted to know why; why do this, why her, why anyone? Was there a way back home? Would she be herself again if she went home, or would she be forced into a third chance at life? If she was stuck here, what was she supposed to do? Akeno had never been one to think of her life as having some greater purpose, but when a literal god… thing spoke to you it tended to make you reconsider if maybe it did. She didn’t want to think that they were just being watched to see if they did anything interesting.

“I guess I have some bigger questions too, but those can come later.”

@Zeroth

Fate/Dark Heritage

Berserker

That was how the war began? A conflict between legends displaced in time, to lay claim to a wish that could alter the course of the world? It didn’t seem appropriate, but at the same time maybe it was all a war fought in secret in back alleys and abandoned buildings deserved.

His master asked if he had any abilities that would let his act as scout or lookout in this war; unfortunately he did not. Though he had the skills of a trained warrior, which included some amount of tracking and such, it was far below what was useful in a conflict like this. His death as a rampaging mad man and rebirth as the same had not given him anything new in that area. “No. My skills will only show their worth in direct combat.”

@Iamme