Thursday Feb 25th, 2010
Okay, look at my mini-map. I should be paying more attention to it. Jack, Bonesaw and Crawler are arrows sitting on the edge of the map. That means they are off screen at this zoom setting. The two meat-puppets, and that one spider bot that attacked us earlier are still in the house, in different rooms, and the bot is probably still in the duct-work. Don't know where any others were, enemies I haven't seen or observed yet; don't show up.
"So where are Melinda and Michael?" Jordan asks.
"Melinda is on the table, under the chandelier, it's still electrocuted, don't touch it, I'm…pretty sure she is dead." I acknowledge in a calm, even voice.
"What the fuck happened?" David asks, still angry. Greg walks closer; his lighter flame gives illumination to the grisly scene enough to confirm what I said.
"Killed by trap," I reply, technically true. "Hit me also… a bit."
"Son of a Bitch…" David curses, "We need more light."
"Torches, like he said." Robert states. A few axe swings on the chairs, and knife rips on the table cloth later, and some are in the process of being made.
I keep my eye on the mini-map as we cautiously make our way into what appears to be a family room, torches in hand, though the smoke is getting irritating.
"More traps?" Greg asks.
"Yes, hold on," I spam-observed everything.
Your Disable Device skill has increased by 1
I can see far easier than the rest, with a torch and my flashlight mode. I could use Fredrico's phone too, but people will ask why it wasn't wrecked from Shatterbird's scream. Actually, oh fuck me, who cares about that, see if it can reach 911.
I glance around to see who is watching, check observers. Shit, there's more cameras in here, two. Probably another intercom too, but Jack is being quiet for now. Another look at my mini-map shows that the relative positions of wherever he, Bonesaw, and Crawler is; haven't changed…yet.
"Uh, I found Michael. He's lying on the floor here, not moving." Marcus says.
"Is he dead?" David asks.
Move to a spot unobserved by the cameras. Okay, they're busy examining Michael, check now. "Inventory" I pull Fredrico's phone out. Fuck no signal. '911' still no signal, shit. "Inventory" I put it back. I'll need it if we get to an area that does have a signal. Cell towers probably got wrecked when the rest of the town did.
Jordan nods after examining Michael. "No pulse. Can't tell what killed him."
"Be careful then since we don't know what did it." David stated.
I do a quick Observe on Michael's corpse. "Electrocution?" I know that's the case, they don't. I need to lead them to the correct conclusion. "He probably tried to turn a light switch on. So nobody should do that."
"Yeah, probably, fresh burn marks on his palm." Jordan says, confirming it for the rest of the party.
I return to the blind spot, the obvious camera is in one corner of the room near Michael's body. Where is the other? Move around; check the camera detector to determine its location. There, on the south wall; it has to be on that table full of knickknacks. "Observe, observe, observe…" There you are fucker, got a microphone on there too you asshole.
Well, my advantage is that Jack doesn't know I know about the hidden camera, but can’t discuss any plan near it. I need to blind his whole system. The ceiling cameras are wired, the hidden one is wireless. "Observe, observe, observe…" Focus my intent on the wires attached to the camera, and the light switch panel that killed Michael. That’s too much current for normal appliances to handle, meant to kill people quickly. The camera's have to be on a separate system, lights from earlier in the other rooms probably also. A quick free camera swap confirmed a mess of electrical cabling on the other side of the wall. Look behind all the other walls of this room as well. What can I expect from them? Hmm, just how rushed was all this? A lot, shit camera installations already, repaired multiple times. Try not to think about the old blood stains on the floor. How many other poor souls did they watch die in this dungeon? Was Jack the sort to have put in valid safety protocols for his equipment? This isn't exactly a permanent lair here. Has he ever read the evil overlord's list? What the hell is he waiting for anyway?
"Robert", I whisper, getting his attention. I wince at what I'm about to do, but he is already unhinged, stress is near his breaking point.
"Yeah, what?"
I put a finger up to my mouth in the sign of silence. "He's still listening… and watching." I whisper as I point out the ceiling camera and intercom to him. I know he'll go after them again. "Wait," I say as he starts to move. "That wall and light switch near the camera is electrocuted. It's what killed Michael. We do need to blind him though, but wait." I wasn't going to send him off to die, but if Jack is going to focus his anger on anyone I don't want it to be me, or at least be less on me. He has already smashed more than one camera and intercom, so doing it again would just be expected behavior.
"You got a plan or something?" he whispers back, still a little louder than what I prefer. I shush him again, and nod.
Robert Kensington has gone from stranger to acquaintance
Jordan is making bandages, David and Greg are standing guard, Macy sobs quietly in the corner, Robert watches me and waits for a signal, Marcus stands around and blinks.
<"Simon, what can we do?"> Ruben comes over and asks me.
I'll take a chance. Maybe Jack or the other nine members don't know Spanish. Whisper anyway. I gesture for Ruben to follow and I move us further away from the hidden camera and microphone.
<"Jack wants to herd us, through specific doors, to keep going through his maze. He traps and blocks the regular doors and windows, we'll if we can't or won't go through the door and windows we'll have to go through the wall."> I gesture to a spot along the south wall. <"It's just drywall, it won't hold up to a machete, a bat, and knives."> I hand my bat to him. <"Give it to Carmen or Chela, tell them the plan, start make a hole there when I say so.">
I make my rounds whisper to the others. "What is it kid?" David whispers back to me.
"We'll need to block the vents in here again; those bots won't leave us alone."
"Yeah I know, it's too dark to see where they are."
"There's two, there and there, in the ceiling." I point them out to David, Greg and Marcus. "We'll---
DONG! DONG! DONG!...
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Our conspiratorial whispers are interrupted by an old Grandfather clock that has been quietly ticking away in the room. As soon as it stops the intercom buzzes to life again.
"Midnight, time for the witching hour. Pick someone to kill soon or get another visitation by your former friends." Jack cackles over the intercom.
"Michael already died, in this room, you sick fuck!" Jordan yells. "Why wasn't that enough?"
"Language!" I hear Bonesaw yell in the background.
"Tsk, because it wasn't by one of your hands. It could have been, I know some of you wanted to kill him for offing one of your group already. One of you should have acted sooner, hesitate and one of the others just might choose for you."
"Jeremy and Melinda weren't killed by us!"
"Pshaw, Jeremy was a freebie, because you did things a bit out of order. But, what makes you think Melinda wasn't killed by one of your—"
The intercom cut off because Robert had smashed it, again. Fuck, I hadn't told him start yet.
"Robert!" I yell and gesture my head to the camera. We have to start now anyway, I move toward the small table, Robert smashes the ceiling camera.
"Why did you do that? He's going to attack us now!" Macy screamed.
"Inventory" the quaint little brass falcon with the camera in its eye and the microphone in its base disappears into my inventory as soon as Robert finishes smashing the camera. <"Now!"> I said to Ruben, as I rushed over toward the camera Robert had smashed. "We need to seal those vents off right now."
Marcus climbs onto the back of the couch to reach one vent while Greg and David try to board up the other vent with a cabinet door and the duct tape roll. Yank the coaxial cable down, "Power Strike," smash the drywall in more to get more cable loose. Damn, there’s movement on my mini-map, "Bot's Incoming!" Drag my moto-cross gloves on from my inventory. Fuck I hope this works, shove the coaxial video output cable onto the live electrical wire…
-128 HP [Electrical Damage] (2 Resisted, 2 Deflected)
Your Damage Resistance (Electrical) skill has increased by 1
"Oh! Fuck me, that hurt!"
Turn around, and… Shit!
"AHHHH!" Marcus screams, his foot just got cut clean off, he falls off the back of the couch and continues screaming. Something is in the room, standing up from inside the couch. The couch no one would sit on because it looked like someone had died on it.
"Darren? Oh my god, what did they do to you, it's me Macy!" Darren turns around and stabs Macy in the stomach. She falls.
"DIE YOU MONSTER!" Robert yells jumping into the fray hacking and stabbing at it with the pipe and thrusting the torch in its face, lighting its head on fire.
Fuck stealth, "Inventory, Bonesaw's poison #193". I quickly wiped it on my makeshift spear and discarded the glove. "Power Strike", I stabbed it in the back.
-124 HP Backstab, Critical Hit! (2 Deflected)
-25 HP [Darren Garner has been Poisoned]
"Power Strike, Power Strike, Power Strike"
-44 HP (2 Deflected)
-25 HP [Corrosive Damage]
-52 HP (1 Deflected)
-25 HP [Corrosive Damage]
-47 HP
+290 XP for assisting in death of Darren Garner
Saved: 0, Dead: 33, Pending: 11
-0 HP (4 Resisted)
New blips appear on my mini-map. Something is fucking attacking me. Damn bots!
-0 HP (4 Resisted)
Fucking bot tries to stab me with the syringe again, but the needle won't penetrate my Avatar body. I grab it and it proceeds to cut up my hand.
-7 HP (6 Resisted, 1 Deflected)
-7 HP (6 Resisted, 1 Deflected)
Fuck, if not for Avatar's body I'd have just lost some fingers. My other glove is in shreds.
-7 HP (6 Resisted, 1 Deflected)
Smash it against the live electrical wire? Die Bastard! Ow Fuck.
-130 HP [Electrical Damage]
-22 HP [Electrical Damage] (4 Resisted)
+275 XP for destroying Bonesaw's Mechanical Spider
"We can't keep holding these in!" Greg shouts. Looking up I see Greg in a chair holding a cabinet door against the vent. David is helping drag a screaming Marcus over to the hole Ruben made in the wall.
"This fucking thing… killed me?" Robert is on the ground still holding onto another bot tightly despite it hacking his fingers off, its syringe is empty. Robert is a goner.
"Power Strike!" I stomp down on it hard, pinning it in place. It responds by flexing some bladed legs backwards and cutting up my feet, right through my shoes.
-4 HP (3 Resisted)
-7 HP (6 Resisted, 1 Deflected)
Damn these fucking things are tough, it begins shredding my shoes. "Inventory" Equip boots. Its next attacks are futile against the fresh thicker material, but that won't last. "Power Strike!" a carefully aimed strike causes the tip of my spear to puncture a small hole in the metal box that housed it brain tissue.
-6 HP (3 Resisted)
-4 HP (6 Resisted, 4 Deflected)
"Inventory" I pull out the bleach, and pour it into the puncture wound.
-60 HP [Corrosive Damage] Critical Hit!
+275 XP for destroying Bonesaw's Mechanical Spider
Riley Gray has gone from stranger to annoyance
Robert Kensington has been removed from your relationship sheet
Saved: 0, Dead: 34, Pending: 10
"They're moving away again." Greg shouts.
I listen to the skittering; it goes distant briefly then starts getting louder again. Mini map shows that the one that had attacked us earlier is moving to the vent over my head. Shit. "They're moving to this vent!" Turn look, Jordan disappears into the hole in the wall dragging Macy behind her. Mini-map, Carmen, Chela, Jordan, and Macy, are in the other room. Just me, Greg, David, Marcus, and Ruben are still in this room. The map shows Tina and Thomas are also on the move. Somebody's lost their patience now.
A click and one of Jack's Door's pop open,
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"Fall back!" David yells.
Despite scrambling backwards, the three bots come out of the vent and drop down from the ceiling… onto me.
-0 HP (4 Resisted)
-0 HP (4 Resisted)
-7 HP (6 Resisted, 1 Deflected)
-7 HP (6 Resisted, 1 Deflected)
It is suddenly bright because the couch catches fire from Robert's previously dropped torch. Bleach, Electricity, what about Fire?
-0 HP (4 Resisted)
-7 HP (6 Resisted, 1 Deflected)
-0 HP (4 Resisted)
-7 HP (6 Resisted, 1 Deflected)
What are they stupid? The poison injection doesn't work. One looks empty, I try to grab the two that aren't as I get the hell away from Tina. At least the couch fire gives enough light that Greg, David and Ruben can see enough to attack her.
-0 HP (4 Resisted)
-7 HP (6 Resisted, 1 Deflected)
-0 HP (4 Resisted)
-8 HP (6 Resisted)
-8 HP (6 Resisted)
-12 HP [Fire Damage] (4 Resisted)
-16 HP [Fire Damage]
Got one of you fuckers! Except the fire isn't doing enough damage to it, and just as much to me. I have to do something else quickly. Fuck, "Inventory Bonesaw's Mechanical Spider" Holy shit that works? Two more to go.
+55 XP for defeating Bonesaw's mechanical spider
-0 HP (4 Resisted)
-8 HP (6 Resisted)
-8 HP (6 Resisted)
You are suffering from the status effect 'Minor Smoke Inhalation'
Got the other one you little shit.
-8 HP (6 Resisted)
-8 HP (6 Resisted)
-8 HP (6 Resisted)
-8 HP (6 Resisted)
Fuck manipulating my inventory screen takes too fucking long! "Inventory Bonesaw's Mechanical Spider" Guess they count as more machine than living thing, or the metal box the living thing is in counts as a container. One more left, but no more poison danger unless she sends more. "Observe" targeting the house. No new enemies.
"Simon look out!"
+55 XP for defeating Bonesaw's mechanical spider
-8 HP (6 Resisted)
-94 HP (6 Resisted, Critical hit!)
Your Damage Resistance (Physical) skill has increased by 1
Fuck me! I hit the floor, my spear clattering away. I get stabbed, right in the fucking back. What's stabbing me? Oh, I fell onto the fucking spider-bot. It's squirming underneath me as
-6 HP (8 Resisted)
-6 HP (8 Resisted)
The fucking spider is slicing me up from below, Thomas is trying to stab me in the face with his blade hands. Not strong enough to… "Inventory" Can't take his blades, controlled objects…
-24 HP (8 Resisted)
-80 HP
"Ow, ow, shit!" What? My axe is sticking out of Thomas's back now. Thomas doesn't react other than to reach his hand out, and cut David right across the leg. David yells. Thomas' hand moves, it lightens the leverage on me.
"Inventory Bonesaw's Mechanical Spider" the one underneath me disappears, as one of my free hands sweeps my window over me. Now, grab one that still has a working poison vile. With mental intent, in a flash of light it appears in my hand, now grasped firmly on the syringe tail and its bladed legs facing away from me. I stab Thomas in the eye with it, the hydraulic hiss of the syringe sounds, and Thomas goes limp. I push him off of me.
+55 XP for defeating Bonesaw's Mechanical Spider
+385 XP for killing Thomas Cruise
Saved: 0, Dead: 37, Pending: 7
-6 HP (8 Resisted)
Oh right this fucker. "Inventory Bonesaw's Mechanical Spider" and the one I am holding disappears.
+44 XP for defeating Bonesaw's Mechanical Spider
"You're a fucking cape?" David asks as he limps to a standing position, and coughs from the smoke.
"We're trapped in a house that is about to be on fire." Thirty Seven dead? Who the fuck else had died?
Oh, I see. Marcus has bled out and Tina was killed by David, Ruben and Greg. Clear my notifications. No XP from Tina? Fuck that was a person, why am I thinking that shit?
The status effect 'Minor Smoke Inhalation' has been upgraded to "Smoke Inhalation'
"My leg is cut up." David said, but yanks the axe out of Thomas' back and limps to the hole in the wall anyway. "You first." He says heroically. I crawl through and he follows me.
"Barricade the hole" David speaks again with authority.
"She's dying." Jordan says. Macy is lying on the floor in a pool of blood with a stab wound to the gut.
"Greg, Ruben, Carmen, and Chela are pounding away at the outside wall of the room making another hole. It's a small bedroom. There is a wrecked camera in the corner. I spam Observe again for more booby traps. Found one that has been tripped already, no others. Carmen has a bandaged up arm that she did not have moments ago.
"Greg, Axe, take out the wooden studs." David says and hands it off. They'd already gotten the drywall down, ripped out the insulation, and had been pounding the exterior brick from the inside of the wall.
"We have to get out of here now. The house is on fire." I say.
"Don't let them… turn me into a monster…" Macy chokes up, then she stops moving.
"She's gone." Jordan cries, wiping her face and closing the girl's eyes.
Macy Sitwell has been removed from your relationship sheet
Saved: 0, Dead: 38, Pending: 6
I pull my sculpture chisel out of my inventory in a flash; Greg and Jordan give me a look but say nothing. "Hit the mortar, with this and knives, to loosen the bricks first." I say, coughing. The others are coughing heavily also.
"Hold on," stand up, inventory screen ready. "Inventory smoke" I spin in a circle... Fuck that did nothing.
"Power Strike, Power Strike Power Strike!..." Greg holds the chisel while I hammer on it with the bat. We settle into a rhythm, alternating with the chisel knocking out mortar; then we alternate bat and the backside of the axe, swinging as hard as we can. Greg swaps out with Ruben or David as the room fills with more smoke. I have the stamina reserves to keep going despite Power Strike draining it fast. Seems I get to gain skill in it even if it's an inanimate object, if it's a life or death situation. Fuck you power.
After several minutes, the hole is large enough that Chela, Carmen and Jordan crawl out. A few more minutes and the rest of us make it through, in a tight fit.
<"We're in the back yard, tall fence, but climbable"> Chela says between coughs as I crawl through.
Notifications pulse at me.
Your Drug & Poison Resistance skill has increased by 1
The status effect 'Smoke Inhalation' has been downgraded to 'Minor Smoke Inhalation'
+2200 XP, 'Escape the house that Jack (sorta) built!' quest completed
Thank god. Smoke counts as a poison? A glance at my mini-map, fuck the nine are moving, and I still don't know where the others are.
"We have to get out of here now." I yell. Greg, Ruben, and David all have injuries bandaged up by scraps of table cloth and clothing that Jordan has harvested. They move slowly, and are still coughing from excessive smoke inhalation.
<"Come on! Climb!"> Ruben says, boosting Chela up to the top of the wooden fence, I help Carmen follow after, then Jordan. <"You go!"> He yelled at me.
<"No, you first, you're injured, have to help you and them up."> He nods and steps into my hands and I push him up.
David and I push Greg up and over, and we scramble up after him. I jump down and turn back to look at David…
He falls, crashes to the ground off the fence, and lays on the grass, not moving, a large spear of broken glass protruding from his face. The glass then moves backwards, pulling itself out of his head and the bloody tip points back towards my direction.
I glance up at the figure floating above us in the air, "Observe"…. it's Shatterbird.
David Archer has been removed from your relationship sheet
Saved: 0, Dead: 39, Pending: 5
Simon's Character Sheet:
Name: Simon Clarence Anderson
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Race: Human (Parahuman)
Class: Teenage Runaway / Rogue
Faction: None
Money: $5.16
Title: Gentleman Thief
Level: 18 (89.69%)
XP: 32039
Primary Attributes
STR: 11 (+0.00) 11.00 (60.66%)
AGI: 9 (+0.00) 9.00 (15.48%)
CON: 35 (+0.00) 35.00 (65.54%)
INT: 30 (+0.00) 30.00 (0.00%)
PER: 12 (+0.00) 12.00 (29.16%)
WIS: 22 (+0.00) 22.00 (30.14%)
CHA: 13 (+0.00) 13.00 (60.95%)
LUC: 15 (+0.00) 15.00 (53.31%)
Unspent Points: 35
Secondary Attributes
Health Pool: 533/1090
Stamina Pool: 412/836
Mana Pool: 6158/6750
Stress Pool: 520/520
Attack: 12.50
Speed: 2.80
Dodge: 14.44
Armor: 0.40
Carry: 110.00
Allure: 3 (+0.50) 3.5
Status Effects
Teenage Acne: ALU -0.50
Alluring Charm*: ALU +1.00
Skills
Max Slots: 58
Free Skill Slots: 18
Artistry: 10 (85.89%)
Athletics: 12 (37.43%)
Basic Academics: 9 (0.00%)
Computers: 10 (11.23%)
Crafting (Stone & Pottery): 10 (5.67%)
Create Mana Golem: 12 (18.03%)
Damage Resistance (Electrical): 2 (38.75%)
Damage Resistance (Fire & Heat): 2 (5.91%)
Damage Resistance (Physical): 4 (26.61%)
Disable Device: 12 (2.45%)
Disease Resistance: 6 (60.13%)
Disguise: 4 (25.98%)
Drug & Poison Resistance: 19 (6.34%)
Empathy: 11 (59.18%)
Firearms: 1 (0.00%)
Gamer's Body: MAX (0.00%)
Gamer's Interface: MAX (0.00%)
Gamer's Mind: MAX (0.00%)
Language-English: MAX (0.00%)
Language-Spanish: MAX (0.00%)
Mathematics: 4 (0.00%)
Medicine: 3 (0.00%)
Meditation: 12 (48.91%)
Melee Weapons: 4 (30.76%)
Null Resistance: 3 (13.69%)
Observe: 23 (18.11%)
Parahuman Lore: 7 (92.56%)
Power Strike: 10 (8.07%)
Programming: 10 (0.54%)
Psychology: 5 (0.00%)
Science (Biology): 1 (53.22%)
Science (Chemistry): 1 (0.00%)
Science (Earth): 1 (0.00%)
Speech: 10 (34.52%)
Stealth: 12 (33.75%)
Strategy: 5 (25.87%)
Thievery: 11 (0.00%)
Unarmed Combat: 5 (4.47%)
Vehicle Operations: 3 (0.00%)
Video Games: 26 (16.74%)
Unspent Skill Points: 6
Perks
Free Perk Slots: 1
Gaia's Blessing: Mana Pool and Mana Skill access
Gaia's Attunement: Elemental Affinity access
Light Sleeper: Need only 5 hours to get fully rested
Mana Reserve: Bonus MP per level increased by 25%
XP Whore: +10% Level XP
Flaws
Selective Amnesia: We had to make room for stuff in your head
A Bit of a Troll: Sometimes you just can't help yourself
Unnatural Curiosity: Can't always resist the urge to find stuff out
Affinities
Earth: 6
Water: 1
Plant: 1
Lightning: 3