TURN ELEVEN: THE DIALOGUE DROUGHTTurns out that I have received a mountain of more homework.
Great.
((Um, fire failure changes my tactics significantly actually. I need to upend the table and use it to block the doorway and reduce heat loss since that happened. Also, please tell me that I auto-retrieved the throwing knife that missed, there's no reason for me to abandon it.))
Threat, probably predatory human. Ambush unless he calls out before entry.
Silently gather myself and ready my blades. as quietly as I can, walk to beside the doorway and face both the doorway and the open window, hidden in the darkness and at an angle that isn't in the field of view of someone entering the room through either entry point. Listen, hard, for movement. If whoever is out there steps into the building without identifying themselves first, slip up behind them and put one knife (my right-hand one - the combat knife) against their back and another (my left-hand one - a throwing knife) across their throat. keeping my right-hand ready to stab them if they make a move against me, use the heel of my left hand to shove against their shoulder and signal for them to turn around. Circle with them this way until we're both facing out the doorway, my blades still ready to stab the invader, and where I can see if anyone else is coming. If I am attacked at any point in this process, either by my hostage or their allies if it has any, then slide my throwing knife across his throat while I stab deep with the combat knife, twist, and then pull it out while shoving against the victim, shoving them over and using their body weight to help extract the blade. if the blade doesn't come out quickly despite this, then allow it to stay in the victim and replace it with another throwing knife as I turn to face my second assailant- I don't have the time to waste. In order to combat subsequent attackers, use the right hand knife defensively, forcing them to keep their distance. Use my off-hand to throw additional blades. If it looks like I might not win this, then bolt out the window and run for it.
If they do identify themselves before entry, what I do will depend on what they say/do at the time, same goes for if they're a well-behaved hostage.
LirianYou crouch up and ready a couple of knives in your hands in the case that this newcomer is hostile. Moving out of the corner, you turn yourself to face the only window and the door, watching for any movements outside. You listen intently for any movement, but you are only able to hear irregular bouts of movement. It doesn't appear that whoever this is wishes to enter anytime soon. With your knives still at the ready, you peek out of the window slightly. You can't see anyone within your current field of view, but you still hear the occasional movement from the left of the doorway. The sounds aren't that close, but they are still within the area of the shack.
Crouching back down, you keep watching the doorway and the window. You have the chair and table in front of you, blocking some of your body in case whoever is outside decides to enter.
While waiting, you hear a faint noise from the same direction that the movement came from.
"Mew."
Get the desalination machine working. If I have spare time, make another golem. I like how this one looks.
Rune(Creation of multiple objects allowed due to proficiency in this affinity.)
Roll for focus (+1) succeeded! 3 + 1 = 4
Domain bonus received for focus! +1
Desalination Machine: 4 + 2 = 6, success
Golem: 2 + 2 = 4 -> good quality
You pick up the various parts for the desalination device now that you've baked them all properly. Time passes and you are finally able to assemble the whole thing. It's ready to go and you move it to one of the corners of the cave. You go back to the well and find that it's slowly gaining a pool of water. You can't see the depth right now, but you assume that, since time has passed, maybe a sizable amount has collected. To pass even more time, you begin building another golem. This one turns out nicely, though it doesn't look as good as the first one did.
You look outside. It's still very deep in the night, though the two moons are moving across the sky even further than they have.
Go the way she pointed, be stealthy as an earthworm.
Eh AhYou look around over the desk and check for anyone nearby. You don't see anything, so you assume it's safe and walk over to the back door as quietly as possible. You exit the door slowly. Pointing at you is the same gun barrel from before, with that same girl watching you as you exit. You stop in your place, wondering if she actually meant that she was going to shoot you out here instead. As far as you can see, you are in a back alley behind several three and four-story buildings, mostly office complexes. You wait to see what she does.
She lowers her rifle again and pulls up her visor. She observes you for a few uncomfortable moments. You decide that maybe she's waiting for you to speak, and begin to ask what she is doing her, but she cuts you off.
"I'm assuming you're an Atis national, yes?" She leans against the wall behind her and bites her lip. She doesn't look to be much older than you, though you can't tell much of her physical self behind her body armor and helmet. You nod yes to her question. She looks down at the ground in front of her.
"I never wanted to be here," she says softly.
"I never wished to go out onto the ocean and carry a rifle with the intention of shooting soldiers and civilians alike."She looks back up to you and shakes her head slightly.
"My name's Anna, by the way. I won't hurt you."
Jump into the water
Alex RamanYou feel the sudden need to jump into the water. Ignoring, of course, the fact that jumping in what seems to be frosty water is not the smartest thing to do when there's soldiers dying around you. You could try running, you know. But no, it
has to be the water.
You pick yourself up from the ground as more of the frosty spikes break off and start flying towards the soldiers. They are too confused at the moment to notice you and some of the other civilians running away from the area. Making it to the shoreline, you take a deep breath and dive straight into the water. You expect to feel the cold frost bite at you, but you don't feel that.
The frost forms around you and solidifies into ice. You try to swim against it, but the ice is too quick, freezing the water around you and turning you into a solid human Popsicle. The ice continues to solidify until you can see nothing but ice.
After a few minutes, you flop onto the ground. Er, it's still ice, actually. All of it's ice, really. You look around and it's like you're contained within one big giant ice cube. There is ice in every direction.
And even with this, you still don't feel any cold.
Try to find someone who may actually be in a position to deal with this.
ArnequerYou head back into Summer Hall to find that things have been progressing smoothly, with a low murmur of voices to complement the busy atmosphere. You approach a group of government workers conversing among themselves. They appear to be an older group of gentlemen and women. You ask one of them if they know someone who could tend to ambassador duties.
"Well, of course. The President himself acts at the ambassador of Atis. You may find him over near the other end of Summer Hall, where the provisions stands are set up. And then there's-"Before you can hear him finish, a sudden, blinding flash of pain goes through your head. You put one of your hands up to your head and grit through the quick pain. You look back up and whoa what is that in your vision?
The men and women in front of you are no longer whole. Instead, they seem to be images of other times. You can see soldiers moving across plains, bombs being detonated inside of buildings, money being handed to other businessmen, people dying en masse of famine, a tall, regal man with dark hair, and hundreds of other images flying through your mind. They all seem to culminate in showing you images of war, greed, and death. You blink several times and the images go away, returning the men and women to the physical plane. They chatter about as if nothing ever happened.
You wonder what that was about.
Hmm, wait a bit and see if they leave the building first, it might be better to meet them outside, on neutral ground. If they don't appear to be leaving anytime soon, try to get a little closer, but stay hidden.
Cromwell JacksonYou stick close to a tree with the little kitten inside of a hole in the tree. The kitten shuffles around inside of the tree, trying to make a comfortable spot. While you listen intently for any sounds and look for anyone coming out of the shack, your kitten pops his head out of the tree and mews audibly. You try to shush the kitten back into the tree and hope that whoever is in the building did not hear that.
After a little bit, you edge somewhat closer to the shack, but stay near the forest line. Whoever is in the shack doesn't react, so you move a little closer. You're now about fifteen meters from the shack, to the left of the entrance.
Don helmet, body armour, backpack etc. If his uniform looks like it'll fit me, wear it as well. Take the radio, rifle, ammo dagger etc. Afterwards slink out of the guardhouse and take stock of my surroundings, but trying to avoid being seen.
UnknownYou quickly take up his equipment, all except for his uniform. It doesn't appear to fit your size. It's rather small compared to you, but it doesn't really matter. The uniform would only work from such a distance, anyways: if anyone got too close to inspect your equipment, they would be able to tell that you're not from their military.
You go up the stairs and look around. To your left and to your right, the path in the wall runs around all the way to the mountainside and some distance from the shore. About thirty meters to your left, the wall has been partially destroyed to make way for the soldiers. Speaking of which, the patrols are fortunately pretty far from you right now. A fire is burning steadily in front of the destroyed part of the wall, where it is consuming some vegetation and forest area in front of the wall.
You check your ammo. You have three magazines in reserve and one loaded into the rifle. You're not sure how many rounds are in the magazines, nor how much recoil this rifle will have, but you're confident in your ability to shoot.
Watch humans.
Warren DrakeYou stay back behind one of the trees and observe the group. For a while, they merely converse among themselves. Eventually, the girl, the noble, and the guard separate from the group and move more inland. Thankfully, they're walking on a diagonal to the right of your position, so they won't find you. Hopefully.
The two who remain are the hobo and the younger male with a jacket. They sit around for a while and attempt to make a fire, but haven't succeeded yet.
You begin to feel your stomach rumble. Along with that, it's gotten really dark. The only thing lighting up the area is the presence of two out of the three moons that light this planet.
Cecil G. Palmer, Jorji Constanza, and Diana CrownMuch to Cecil's disappointment, he can't get any information out of Jorji yet. Either that, or he doesn't know much about anything at all. You're going to go with the latter.
Diana decides to take the initiative and tells her brother that they should probably move inland and seek out food and shelter.
"Of course. Guard, will you accompany us? It would certainly benefit us to find food and shelter soon. Of course, we do have a reserve supply of food, but even that is limited." He motions for the guard to follow, and the three of you set off to find some food. You start by following the edge of the mountain that surrounds the wetlands. You leave Cecil with Jorji. It's probably for the better, considering that Jorji seems to be lacking in areas of knowledge that you would like him to have.
Jorji sits contently with Cecil and enjoys a cup of water from the boat's supply. Cecil tries to talk and find some information from Jorji, but unfortunately Jorji is just not interested enough at the moment. Jorji wanders off somewhere in the wetlands, rambling about plants. Cecil huffs and sips at his drink. Bored, he attempts to start a fire with some of the planks that Jorji had collected earlier.
The moons pass overhead. It's pretty deep into the night now.
((
Pufferfish: By the way, your Charisma did come into play when trying to get information from Jorji. It's just that he really didn't know much at all.
Just a little hint, because you can still use this to your advantage later.))
Author's Note: Things are changing for some people, things are staying the same for some. I guarantee that I will make more use of your powers once the current events pass.
Hehehehehe.