Guess we could get some more information on bounty hunters in general, at the risk of look looking like one. But it's hard to look like a bounty hunter without knowing anything about them! Argh!
Well, now we're Energized, let's try a Burn Self for one level of energy and see if that puts us normal without any harm. If so, and if Inner Fire levels don't go away over time, we could return here a few times and build up our reserves.
I'm sure that powering magic using a stimulant is perfectly fine.
We will also see if Burn Self has any outwardly visible effects by doing it here. 
You decide to try forcing your body to activate its magic. Maybe then you'll get a better idea about what's going on. Doing so however is no easy task since you have yet to figure out how to do so reliably.
From the moment of your hatching you knew how everything in your body worked, how to run, how to bite, how to glide. The knowledge wasn't perfect, practice helped you improve and adapt, but that instinctive knowledge gave you a base to build upon, a starting point. The problem is that whatever this 'magic' thing is, it lacks the same instinctive knowledge. In that way it's like a new limb that you have yet to learn how to move... but it's not exactly like that. A limb is
supposed to move, to be under control. This thing... it feels more like something that works on its own, something barely influenced by your state of mind, something similar to how your heart quickens its pace when you're excited or afraid. Your long term goal is to turn that "heart of magic" into something that is more like a "lung", something that you can at least exercise some control over, even if it works mostly on its own. But right now what you have to do to test your abilities is merely quicken the beating of that "heart".
So you go about it the same way you'd go about changing your actual heartbeat: you think of something that'd change your feelings. It's not easy, especially here, in this place. There's too much noise, too much variation, top many distractions, all hurting your focus. After a long time you somehow manage to block them out. Or maybe there are just fewer of them now, you're not sure, you don't remember that well because at the time you were doing your best to stay away from the present.
You throw your mind back to that moment, trying to recall it with all its detail and then trying even harder to convince yourself that what you're remembering is real, that you're living in that moment, that all this anger and fear and excitement emerged just moments ago, that your snout and claws are covered in blood, that your mouth is filled with the taste of the enemy's flesh and the heat of their fire, the fire going inside you, warming you, filling you, becoming your own. Yes, this is it. This is the feeling. You remember now, you remember. But you have to keep going until you can bring it into yourself fully.
Status gained: inner fire, tired (suppressed by Energized)You don't know how long you stay there, trapped in your mind, in the past, reliving that moment over and over again. You don't know when exactly you finally manage to activate the magic within you. What jolts you out of your memories is the pain. It's like waking up from a nightmare with needles stabbing you all over your body.
Stop it! You feel like you're falling.
Grab something! You feel something crushed in your grip.
What's going on? Where-? There's danger? Food? You can feel them, all around. Many of them.
Enemies? Where? But only two are good food. One in front of you, barely qualifies. The other is strong. Further away. Not in here.
Kill? The feeling of vertigo slowly vanishes and you begin to realize where you are.
Need to stop the pain! Need to have control. Stop feeding fire to your limbs. Control. Stop feeding fire to your mind. Focus on control. Just keep the fire inside.
Status gained: exhausted -> tired (suppressed by Energized)It's not working! It's eating you! Stop! Stop!"Hey friend, are you OK?" you hear somewhere in the distance.
Everybody is staring! Escape! Run! Run to safety!No. It won't work like that. Stay calm. Relax.
Do something!You just need to slow down. Slow down. Close your eyes. Everything is going to be fine. Ignore the pain. Ignore everything. The pain will go away if you calm down. Breathe. Don't panic. Don't feel fear. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. And with that the fire is gone.
Status lost: inner fireYou open your eyes. One hand holds the crushed metal cup, still gripping it tightly. The other has carved a gash on the bar. The bartender looks worried. Most people sitting on the bar are also looking with a mix of surprise and fear. But the rest of the restaurant appears unaware to what happened. In hindsight, this probably qualifies as what Eiwhyl meant when she told you not to do anything stupid and not to push yourself. She's gonna be angry if she finds out. You exhale and slowly open your hand. The crushed cup clatters on the bar.
"What happened? Are you alright?" the bartender asks.
It wasn't good enough. You weren't ready for it. You couldn't concentrate. You weren't able to control it. Any fire you generated was immediately redirected to somewhere, used up, like water dripping in a leaking cup. You're not even sure if you
can control this thing. But you have to keep trying if you want to have any hope of succeeding.
Age: some months (wyrmling)
Size: about the size of a human (if bipedal)
Status:
exhausted -> tired (suppressed by Energized),
energizedHealth: fine
Weapons: claws and teeth
Armor: scales
Abilities:
- Flight: You can glide in order to survive falls and quickly move great distances. You can even fly upwards, though not for very long distances. You can use favorable winds and updrafts to increase your flight time.
- Basic Human Language: You are able to understand many of the most common words of the human language, including some that express more abstract things, though there are still a great many words and expressions that you have yet to learn. You can also read, though it takes you some time to understand the words. You can also speak, though it's sometimes hard for others to understand you.
- Communication: You have a knack for understanding other beings, even those whose language you don't know.
- Basic Nursing: You know the basics of caring for patients and preparing and maintaining equipment used in their care. You can also administer certain simple treatments. However you still lack much of the knowledge necessary for you to be able to determine what said treatment should be.
- Magic: You can cause supernatural effects, though doing so consciously and with any level of control is hard. You know of some of the effects you can cause, but there might be more you have yet to discover or unlock. See Magic section for more details.
Inner Fire: Ashes
- Burn Self: Gain a level in hunger or tiredness and in exchange gain a level of Inner Fire.
- Sense Inner Fire: You can sense the inner fire of other beings, allowing you to detect most living things in your surroundings. This also gives you an indication of the danger they could pose and the amount of fire you could gain from consuming them.
Cost: Minor - Cleansing: Direct your inner fire to a part of your body to cleanse a debilitating status effect.
Cost: Low-Medium - Fiery Strength: Direct your inner fire to your muscles and bones, granting you supernatural strength.
Cost: Medium
- Maintenance Tunnels:
- Large Sonic Rifle covered by old torn clothes
- 2 holdout blaster pistols (roughly 20 shots each, effective range 20m, HSB-200)
- Low quality vibroknife (low battery)
- Eiwhyl's Clinic:
- 576 credits (5 orange, 11 blue, 7 red, 4 grey, 6 cyan, 4 pink)
- 2 packs of smoke sticks
- small can of droid oil
- small metal toolbox
- Warm blanket
- Datacard with human medical information
- Datacard with human language dictionary
- Datacard with dragon info compilation
- Datacard with story about hunter of dragons
- small glass statue of bird
- Pack with plastoid tape modifications (dropped in hallway)
- Large hooded cloak
- Half-used medpac
- Purse with credit-reader:
- 135 credits (2 orange, 1 blue, 1 red, 1 grey)
- 155 slightly burnt credits (1 green, 1 blue, 1 red, 5 grey)
- half-used roll of plastoid tape
- flashlight
- pack of smoke sticks
- lighter
- keycard with symbol
- 2 stun grenades
- 2 fog? grenades
- 1
grenade - 2 grenade thrower mines
- 1 medpack
- 1 bottle with red liquid and unreadable label
- Basic Datapad (contains datacard with encrypted files)
- Ali's Apartment: A tiny 2 bedroom apartment. The little human Ali lives there with Dad/Jobal and Mom/Ania. Room 327.
- Ali's Apartment Tower: Apartments arranged in a circle. Clean, bright, mostly locked doors, few hiding places. Little traffic during the night.
- Eiwhyl's Clinic (Lair): Sells medpacs and other healing items and provides treatment. Warning: stabby. Room 509.
- Streets: Dirty streets, parked hovercars, shops, building entrances, street vendors, little traffic during the night.
- Maintenance Tunnels: Interconnected tunnels, small and large, going low and high. Connect various streets and buildings. Wires and pipes. Dark, dirty, with old machines constantly rumbling. Scavenger-vermin and hunters-of-vermin.
- Garbage Pit: A large room with mountains of garbage half-submerged in a sea of sludge. More garbage frequently arrives from holes in the ceiling. A monster lurks here, may pull prey underwater.
- Hydroponic Pool: A room with a large pool filled with plants. A ceiling full of bright lamps. A spherical gardener-droid takes care of the plants. Patrolled by hostile gunmen. A corridor leads to other rooms. Storage room. Processing room. Other rooms are unexplored.
- Iyran Grower Shop: A store located deeper into the tower's streets. Operated by a cephalopoid. The grower sells cheap synthetic meat, amongst other things.
- Upscale Cafe: A small place with tasty but somewhat expensive food and hot drinks. The bartender is nice but the waiter droid is annoying.
- Upscale Streets: A section of the tower mimicking a suburban neighborhood, including a fake sun. Most buildings guarded.
Poll
1 (6.7%)
Author
Topic: Surviving in an Alien World [Suggestion Game] (Read 106648 times)