Your eyelids pull apart, and your eyes are flooded with golden light. You’re not super religious or anything, but some part of your brain that’s actually in gear when you wake up figures that might not be a good sign for your corporeal survival.

Then you hear a steady beeping noise.

Well shit, unless St. Peter is trying to punk the recently deceased, it seems like they finally replaced those god awful fluorescents in the Hospital.

Your eyes adjust to the light and you look around, blearily. You’re on one of those hospital beds, the high tech ones that can adjust the resting angle at the press of a button to be more comfortable. Once, when you were in high school, you got a major blood infection and had to go in for some IV antibiotics. The beds were awesome. As was the fridge stocked with mini cups of ice cream. Yeah, it was a good time to be in the pediatric wing.

This on the other hand is definitely not the pediatric wing. Less refrigerators stuffed with ice cream and more medical equipment that’s worth your decennial salary. Probably the ICU. Shit, this better be covered. You suppose that makes sense, considering what you were up to right before you fell unconscious. You sit upright, only realizing after you complete the motion that you probably shouldn’t have done that. Or been able to do that at all.

You glance down at your side, the side the wendigo hobo eviscerated. No wound vac. You can’t even see any evidence of bandages either, unless they’re real small.

A door opens, and a nurse looks in, hair clipped exceptionally short, fangs jutting out of her lower jaw. Half orc probably. The head of another half orc pops out from around the door frame, this one male and with a short crew cut. From his collar, he looks like security. You stare at each other for a little while.

>”Hey, who are you?”
>”How long was I out?”
>”What happened?”
>”Hi.”
>”I’ve gotta talk to the Captain.”
>”This is all covered by EnRA, right?”
>write in

>>39267928
>>”This is all covered by EnRA, right?”
paychecks are important. They make this job worth doing.

>>39267904
How much freedom is there in tatoo effects? Could you make a tattoo that essentially projects a layer of kevlar in front of your body/head/limb? Would this just be a flat HP bonus?

>>39267928
>”Hi.”
>”How long was I out?”
>”What happened?”
>”This is all covered by EnRA, right?”

>>39267928
>”How long was I out?”
>”What happened?”

>>39267928
>”How long was I out?”
>”What happened?”
>”This is all covered by EnRA, right?”

>>39268038
Yes, that's a rune I considered in the past. If I had to come up with how it worked, I'd lower the amount of HP before crippling effects came in to play AND boost overall limb health. I'm thinking that for runic upgrades I'll let the players write in, email, ask.fm me tattoo ideas. One, less work for me trying to think of stuff, and two it would reflect the sort of free for all nature of an upgrade tree like that.

>>39267928
>>”This is all covered by EnRA, right?”

You stare for a bit longer before opening your mouth. “Hi.”

Great opening! Ten outta ten. The nurse blinks and steps fully into the room. Half orcs get a bad rap for being dim. In truth, they’re just as smart as full blooded humans, and a damn sight stronger. Thing is, they also have a much higher incidence of anger management issues, AD(H)D, dyslexia, and other minor behavioral foibles and learning disabilities. The nurse blinks at you again before speaking. “Oh wow. Uh, okay. This wasn’t the best timing for you to get up.”

You raise an eyebrow. The nurse hurries to correct herself. “Not that it’s a bad thing you got up I mean! Just that there’s quite a lot of people who were waiting to speak with you as soon as you were up.”

“Oh? Where are they?”

“Out to coffee,” the nurse replies lamely. “I’m pretty sure they wanted to be the first people to talk to you.”

“Oooookay,” you reply, squinting slightly. “Well. Now that’s been shot to hell, how long was I out.”

The nurse blinks again. Her security counterpart answers you from around the door. “Week and a half, I think.”

File: Tom_Selleck_2.jpg (470 KB, 2077x1560)

470 KB JPG

Now it’s your turn to blink. “That’s… quite a while.”

“Yeah.”

A very worrisome thought occurs to you. “Hey, I was injured in the line of duty, yeah? All this shit is covered in the health plan, right?”

The nurse and the security guard are both silent for a second before intoning the word “uh” simultaneously. Their response is cut off by the arrival of a large man in a suit. Captain Kolburne is the sort of man who would make your mother’s panties drop. Mid fifties, and rocking a mustache straight out of Magnum PI, your Captain would probably qualify as the coolest motherfucker you ever met were it not for the fact that he always wore socks and sandals to the Enforcement Division summer grill.

You speak before he can get a word of greeting out. “This is covered by EnRA’s health plan right?”

Kolburne blinks at you before chuckling. It sounds like a boulder cracking. “Damn, shooter. Not even a hello?”

You look at him expectantly. He pulls up a chair and sits down on it, holding a coffee. “All EnRA employees injured while performing work related functions will receive full medical treatment at no cost to themselves. Last time I checked, you were still on the clock when you blew yourself up.”

>”Blew myself up?”
>”That’s a relief.”
>”So I heard I was out for a week and change. That didn’t come out of sick days, right?”
>”So wait, what all happened while I was out?”
>Write in

>>39268769
>”That’s a relief.”
>”Blew myself up?”
>”So wait, what all happened before and while I was out?”

>>39268769
>>”That’s a relief.”
wait
>”Blew myself up?”
>”So wait, what all happened while I was out?”

>>39268769
>”That’s a relief.”
>Wait a minute...
>”Blew myself up?”
>”So wait, what all happened before and while I was out?”

>>39268769
>>”That’s a relief.”
>"I mean, besides the blowing myself up part."
>"Are their protocols for double-tapping that need to be updated, because I shot that bastard to hell and he STILL got up."

>>39268769
>>”So I heard I was out for a week and change. That didn’t come out of sick days, right?”

>>39268848
This please?

>>39268769
>>”Blew myself up?”

>>39268769
>>39268848
Backing

“That’s a relief,” you sigh, thinking of all those poor shekels. “Aside from the blowing myself up part. I’d like to hear a bit more about that.”

Kolburne rumbles in the back of his throat, rubbing his neck. It takes you a moment, but you realize that for the first time in recorded memory, the Captain actually looks uncomfortable. “Well… how much do you remember, shooter?”

“Got mauled, told the hobo to fuck himself, big flash of light.”

The Captain nods. “Alright. Well that wasn’t just no flash of light. That was a spell. A big fireball. You got pretty badly burned, shooter.”

You squint a bit. “Can’t have been that bad. It’s not even been two weeks and I feel fine,” you wave your hands around. “Hell, I look fine too.”

Kolburne grunts. “You had third degree burns over 50 percent of your body, Amber. Your left hand looked like the burgers the last time I let my son grill. All charred on the outside and blood red inside.”

Your mouth opens slightly and you blink.

>”That’s impossible! Third degree burns don’t heal that quick… ever! I’d need skin grafts!”
>”So what, am I Wolverine or some shit?”
>”That’s a joke right?”
>”What the hell happened.”
>Write In

>>39269055
>”That’s impossible! Third degree burns don’t heal that quick… ever! I’d need skin grafts!”
>”That’s a joke right?”
>”So what, am I Wolverine or some shit?”
>”What the hell happened.”

>>39269055
>”That’s a joke right?”
>”What the hell happened

>>39269055
>>”That’s a joke right?”
>>”What the hell happened.”

>>39269071
In this order. Cuase we need the snark right now to cope. Least ways I think so.

>>39269055
>”That’s a joke right?”
>”What the hell happened.”

>>39269055
>>”That’s a joke right?”
>>Did you had some wizards use fancy healing magic on me?

How much does the EnRA have on LL and Jason as a whole? Or is that not something you can share?

>>39269055
>>”That’s a joke right?”
>>”What the hell happened.”

“That’s a joke right? I’d need skin grafts, and third degrees don’t heal that quick.”

Kolburne shakes his head, his mustache in the serious curve, not the joking one. “No joke.”

“Then what the hell happened?”

Kolburne sighs and looks up at the ceiling. “It isn’t easy to explain. Hell, I’m not even one hundred percent on how it works shooter. Basically, you awoke your potential as a mage and promptly flambeed yourself. You were looking at months of recovery time, even then years before you could use your left arm again, and we’d have to hand you over to the Aethralion.”

You nod, somehow living years as a cripple in Danzig’s seekrit club didn’t sound terribly enticing to you.

“So one of the eggheads in Research came up to me and made an offer. He figured he had a way to completely heal you and make it so the Aethralion couldn’t force us to hand you over. I figured you’d prefer that and approved the procedure.”

>”Damn right I didn’t want to get gangpressed into the Beard and Bathrobe society.”
>”What procedure?”
>”Wait, you approved some major medical, what experiment on me, without my permission? What the fuck Captain?”
>Write In

>>39269304
>>”What procedure?”
Note to self: buy a shaving kit and find out where the captain lives.

>>39269304
>”Damn right I didn’t want to get gangpressed into the Beard and Bathrobe society.”
>"waitwaitwait, I'm a MAGE!?"
>"......do I get better guns?"

>>39269304
>”What procedure?”

>>39269304
>”Damn right I didn’t want to get gangpressed into the Beard and Bathrobe society.”
>”What procedure?”
>"......do I get better guns?"

>>39269304
>>Write In
...so they rebuild me. Because they had the technology. I se-- sorry chief, NDEs trigger my bad humor. Dad had it too.

Pause. Blink like a total dumbass. Then:
>"waitwaitwait, I'm a MAGE!?"
>"......do I get better guns?"

”Damn right I didn’t want to get gangpressed into the Beard and Bathrobe society,” you reply with iron conviction. An organization of Danzigs… you shudder at the thought. Then another thought occurs to you. You blink once or twice “Waitwaitwait… I’m a MAGE?! ...Does this mean I get better guns?”

The Captain inhales through his teeth. “Well, more like was a mage. You can’t really do all that much casting any more.”

Your eyes narrow immediately. “Just going out on a limb here Cap… this has something to to with that procedure you mentioned?”

Kolburne winces. “Yeah… It’s kinda hard to explain properly. I don’t really get it myself shooter. You want me to call in the guy who actually knows what he’s talking about?”

>”Yeah, call in the expert.”
>”No, I want to hear this from you, not some egghead.”
>Write in

>>39269533
>>”Yeah, call in the expert.”

>>39269533
>”Yeah, call in the expert.”

>>39269533
>”No, I want to hear this from you, not some egghead.”
Then
>”Yeah, call in the expert.”

get the simple explanation first, then the expert who we can slap around

>>39269533
>All I want is an easily understandable explanation or someone who can give me an understandable explanation whichever will be faster to get

>>39269533
>”Yeah, call in the expert.”

>>39269533
>>Write in
Yeeep. After seeing what I did to his intestines maybe they'll hire me as surgeon here.

Sigh. Never mind. Yes, show the man in. Tell him my mood will improve considerably if he throws a talking dog and some laser fingers in.

>>39269533
>>”Yeah, call in the expert.”
BLOOD SHALL FLOW FREELY UPON OUR MEETING WITH THE SINFUL SCHOLAR WHO CHANGED US.

>>39269678
...I wish I had an idea what that referenced, if anything. You're making us sound like a Gilmore Girl's character.
>>39269562
Seconding.

You grunt. “Fuck Cap. Last thing I need is a lesson from you. Bring in the expert.”

Kolburne nods, and gets up. You watch him talk quietly to someone outside of your room for a second then he stands aside. A small man with the most impressive jewfro you’ve seen in your life walks in, wiping doritos dust onto a stained lab coat. Your lip curls in involuntary disgust. He fails to notice and fortunately takes a seat further away from you. After squirming around in it for a few seconds he looks up at you and says “Hey Agent Jensen. I’m Dr. Parker. I, uh, hear that you were curious about the symbiote?”

You blink at Dr. Parker. “Buh?”

Dr. Parker’s ample cheeks flush red. “Oh my. So you don’t know about the…? Oh okay my bad my bad. Uh… how much do you know about magic?”

>”What the hell does that have to do with anything!”
>”Uh, some stuff about aether and words of power?”
>”SYMBIOTE?”
>”Not much really.”
>Write in

>>39269533
>"Both? I have a feeling I'll be needing the sockpuppets explanation after the real one."

>>39269740
>SYMBIOTE!!! The fucking hell did you PUT IN ME!?!?

>>39269740
>>”Uh, some stuff about aether and words of power?”
>”Not much really.”
>”SYMBIOTE?”

>>39269740
>”SYMBIOTE?”
>"SYMBIOTE!?"
>"Venom or Carnage?"

>>39269740
>”SYMBIOTE?”
>"YOU PUT A WHAT WHERE!?"

>>39269740
>>”SYMBIOTE?”
Lunge at him, prepare to throttle.

So I guess she didn't ask for this?

>>39269740
>>”SYMBIOTE?”
DOESN'T THIS ONE FEEL FEAR WHEN GAZING UPON HIS DEATH?

THE SCHOLAR WEARING THE STAINED COAT SHALL BE OUR FIRST VICTIM.

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>>39269740
>”SYMBIOTE?”

SKULL GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRLS

“Symbiote?

“...SYMBIOTE!?”

You lunge out of bed, covering an absurd distance before landing on the startled Dr. Parker, hands attempting to find purchase on his greasy neck. “WHERE THE HELL DID YOU PUT THAT THING?”

You feel yourself getting lifted up off the ground and the quivering doctor. Captain Kolburne leave you dangling in the air for a few seconds until you calm down. He plops you on the bed and glowers back at Dr. Parker. “They must rank you real high on interpersonal skills doc.”

The doctor stands up, brushing his hands on his coat. “Actually not reall- oh. Yeah. Right. Okay, so uh… you know what a symbiote is?”

“Yeah, it’s a nasty ass bug thing that leeches off of its host.”

“Well that’s actually a parasite, and most of those aren’t bugs at all,” both you and the Captain glower at Dr. Parker. He swallows nervously. “Right. Uh so a symbiote actually lives alongside or inside the host, working for their mutual benefit.”

You narrow your eyes. Dr. Parker realizes he needs to get to the point. “Alright. So Aether is the energy that fuels magic. It’s sort of like this omnipresent background radiation and it responds to emotions and thoughts. Mages can draw upon Aether to cast spells, yeah?”

“Obviously,” you snarl not feeling terribly charitable at the moment. “Everyone knows that.”

“Right,” replies Dr. Parker nervously. “So you awoke as a mage right? Basically mages are kinda like Aether magnets. Aether is attracted to their… soul… for want of a better word and when a mage casts a spell they’re basically projecting these concentrated bursts of aether, like a solar flare.”

“I’m hearing a lot about mages and not a lot about parasites right now,” you snarl.

“Right! So we implanted this symbiote in you, but instead of leeching nutrients from you, it consumes the aether you would normally project outwards to cast spells and feeds on that!”

“So, so what? Are you telling me I was a mage, then you people put a magical tapeworm in my gut and now I’m effectively not?”

Kolburne finally speaks up. “It’s not really like that shooter. The symbiote, it’s the reason why you healed so fast.”

You look back at the Captain. He has a slightly pained but earnest expression. You take a few deep breaths to calm yourself.

>”Alright, tell me more about this symbiote. What is it, what does it look like? Is it intelligent?”
>”How did I heal so fast? How does this work?”
>”Am I still in Enforcement?”
>Write In

>>39270240
>”Alright, tell me more about this symbiote. What is it, what does it look like? Is it intelligent?”
>”Am I still in Enforcement?”

>>39270240
>”Alright, tell me more about this symbiote. What is it, what does it look like? Is it intelligent?”
>”How did I heal so fast? How does this work?”
>”Am I still in Enforcement?”

>>39270240
>>”How did I heal so fast? How does this work?”
>>>”Alright, tell me more about this symbiote. What is it, what does it look like? Is it intelligent?”

Also, start planning for your eventual rebellion.

>>39270240
>"So it gives me superhuman powers in exchange for eating all the aether I....attract."
>>”Alright, tell me more about this symbiote. What is it, what does it look like? Is it intelligent?”

>>39270240
>”Alright, tell me more about this symbiote. What is it, what does it look like? Is it intelligent?”
>”How did I heal so fast? How does this work?”
>”Am I still in Enforcement?”

>>39270240
>”Alright, tell me more about this symbiote. What is it, what does it look like? Is it intelligent?”

>>39270240
>”Alright, tell me more about this symbiote. What is it, what does it look like? Is it intelligent?”
Oh gods it's not going to start talking in my head or something is it?

File: is that a fleur di lys.jpg (34 KB, 575x323)

34 KB JPG

>>39270372
>>39270290

> symbiote that encourages fast healing... for a price
Kree, motherfuckers.

>>39270436
Does dressing like a butch turbolez domme come as an automatic side effect?

>>39270477
I suspect we mostly dress the part already.

>>39270508
Silly anon. Tried are for kids. And sex slave subs.

>>39270530
Tried?

>>39270556
God damnit. Trix. Phone changed that.

>>39269740
>Dr. Parker
>Symbiote

>>39270571
Trix?
>>39270615
Black claws confirmed.

>>39270633
Yeah the cereal. Way too tired to actually make sense right now so I'll stop posting and sleep.
Uncle Vinny thanks for running.

>>39270686
Alright. I should be in bed too but then I got high.

Test.

“Okay, first thing is fucking first. What the hell sort of thing did you put in me? What is it?”

Dr. Parker nods. “Alright. So the symbiote in question looks like this. He holds up a picture of a remarkably cute looking slug with an orange back and white stripes. It’s about the size of… oh the last joint on your pinky. It’s very small. Their size seems to be related to how much aether the host draws in. So far we only think they are naturally found in rabbits and tomcats. The ones in tomcats are a lot bigger than the ones in rabbits.”

“Wait, are you telling me animals can be mages?”

Dr. Parker shrugs. “Not like humans can, but animals can still manifest the aetheric spark required to use magic. It’s especially common in cats and dogs. Nine lives, dogs bark at ghosts, that’s a limited manifestation of aetheric power.”

Kolburne snorts. “Figures cats would use their magic to look out for number one.”

“But anyway, these symbiotes have very limited effect on their hosts. We first noticed the symbiotes while testing animals for magic potential. We tag them you see,” Dr. Parker explains, “and follow them and see how they’re doing. The collars give updates on position, aether usage… one of the cats we were follow, ABG-142, stopped using aether all of a sudden. Took us a while but about four years after his aether went dark we finally caught him. Naturally we removed the symbiote, aether came back, but in a few days he developed massive arthritis, became hugely lethargic, and his body started acting as if it was in starvation mode.”

“So, these symbiotes keep people healthy? How does that work?”

“Yes. We believe they are somehow able to convert aetheric energy into… I don’t even know how to describe it… biological growth potential? It’s an utterly bizarre phenomena. Mages can convert aether into phenomena, right? Well this symbiote can do the same thing but with biology. They can fuel cell growth, metabolism, all sorts of things with aether. In most animals, the aether is used up keeping the host healthy in old age. But we theorized that with a human mage, the symbiote could do much much more “

“More like what?”

Dr. Parker shrugs. “We don’t know, honestly. We were hoping to find out.”

>”I’m an EnRA agent, not your damn lab rat.”
>”Well fuck, I mean I guess it’s a fair trade.”
>”Get this THING out of me.”
>Write in

>>39270861
>”I’m an EnRA agent, not your damn lab rat.”
>”Well fuck, I mean I guess it’s a fair trade.”

>>39270861

>”I’m an EnRA agent, not your damn lab rat.”
>”Well fuck, I mean I guess it’s a fair trade.”

>>39270861
>>Write in
Become Alex Mercer.

>>39270861
>"Still better than joining Danzig's Sekrit club, I guess."

>>39270861
>>”Well fuck, I mean I guess it’s a fair trade.”
seconding >>39270922

You restrain yourself from saying “We Mercer now” and instead address the facts at hand. “While this is lightyears better than joining Danzig’s Seekrit Club, I’m still an EnRA agent, not your damned lab rat.”

Dr. Parker and Captain Kolburne both rush to correct you. “Oh no, not at all Agent!” Cries the good doctor, while Captain Kolburne announces “Like hell I’d let them drag you off to some white padded cell to stick needles in ya shooter.”

Captain Kolburne takes over from here. “Listen shooter. You might be some sort of new superhero or you might just be an agent who heals paper cuts extra quick. The only way anyone will find out is if we have you out in the field. So you’re still an EnRA agent. Hell, we didn’t tell anyone else in the Division just how bad the burns were, so they don’t even have to know you got this symbiote business going on period. The eggheads just want to be kept posted of any major developments with the symbiote.”

You take that in for a second. This is actually a pretty great deal all things considered, You’re a bit of a dweeb, so this symbiote thing doesn’t bother you nearly as much as it should have. Already you’re mind is racing with some nutty possibilities. “Well fuck. I guess it’s a fair trade. Better than I could’ve hoped for honestly.”

Dr. Parker grins. “Of course. Considering we didn’t have your direct consent when we implanted the symbiote Research is taking a very hands off approach with you. We wouldn’t want you to feel like you’re being coerced or anything.”

You look over at the Captain. “So what, am I cleared to go back on the beat?”

>”I think I’d like to take a few personal days.”
>”No point sitting on my ass any longer than I already have.”
>”I’d like it if I could head back to the office and get debriefed on any recent developments.”
>Write in

>>39271296
>”I’d like it if I could head back to the office and get debriefed on any recent developments.”

>>39271296
>>”I think I’d like to take a few personal days.”
we've been out for a week, we need some rest and a lot of delicious food to make up for the hospital shit and IVs
then we can do
>”I’d like it if I could head back to the office and get debriefed on any recent developments.”
and we also need a better gun

>>39271296
>”I’d like it if I could head back to the office and get debriefed on any recent developments.”

Gotta see what those fishy LL bastards have been up to.

>>39271283
>>39271283
Lets find out the limit of the symbiote through extreme sports and junk food.

>>39271296
>>”I’d like it if I could head back to the office and get debriefed on any recent developments.”
>"And maybe get some double-tapping protocols updated. Never going to call anyone paranoid again."

>>39271296
>”I’d like it if I could head back to the office and get debriefed on any recent developments.”
>”No point sitting on my ass any longer than I already have.”
>Also where exactly is this thing in my body? Do I need to worry about banging my shin and suddenly all my powers go away?

>>39271318
>and we also need a better gun
I'm personally a fan of the Detonics MTX

>>39271296
>>39271318
This

>>39271378
That looks sexy as fuck, and pretty cool in how its modular, swap out slides and barrels and grip sizes etc, make it full size or compact with good mags that can come close to our Glock 19's mag capacity but with .45s

You shake your head and sigh. You’ve been on your ass for a long while now, and to be honest, you’re a bit of a workaholic. Maybe nothing quite so extreme as going out on the beat, but it would be nice to be kept abreast of any recent developments. “Let’s head back to the office. See what happened while I was out.”

Kolburne nods. “Sure thing shooter. I’ll tell the nurse you’re ready to go. She can bring in your clothes.”

You know that probably violates hospital protocol, but the Captain can get away with it. Oh, the wonders of working in the government. Kolburne and Parker leave, the nurse comes in, bearing brand new copies of the clothes you were savaged in, tags still hanging out. You kinda figured the hobo’s rake like talons had trashed your original outfit. You thank her and get changed. You notice a surprising lack of scar tissue on the area that was slashed. Once you’re done, you step outside. Kolburne nods and you follow him out.

EnRA has it’s own hospital. The Administration isn’t just around to keep the supernatural down. A lot of extranatural individuals, elves, fae, even ogres and vampires, a lot of them rely on the protection of the Administration from their more feral cousins. Since they can’t exactly go to a normal hospital, the Administration has a network of “underground” hospitals and clinics around the nation to deal with the unique medical needs of the supernatural. It was also part of a sub economy that was meant to give extranormals a place in society outside of the criminal underground. Carter Memorial Hospital was the EnRA hospital for Saintsburgh. You walk into a large lobby cheap armchairs set up in lines on an easily cleaned carpet where a family of elves are sitting, presumably for their vaccinations judging from the mickey mouse band aids on the eldest child’s arm, as well as a couple of vampires looking for their blood fix. You look over at the reception desk, and see Dr. Parker leaning over some paperwork. He glances over at you and Kilbourne and waves you on.

Good, you’ve got enough paperwork crap to deal with from your job. Let someone else figure out which forms to fill out for symbiote implantation.

The Administration’s Saintsburgh headquarters are all in roughly the same area, a set of intentionally non descript office buildings down a long multi laned service road. The Enforcement division has a few precinct houses throughout the city but aside from that everything EnRA is right here. Despite the proximity of the Enforcement Division’s offices to Carter Hospital, you climb into Captain Kolburne’s Dodge Challenger and drive to his parking spot.

The two of you head into the Enforcement Division’s office, which looks like your average police house on the inside, and walk to the office space. Captain Kolburne pushes open the door to a large room full of desks, no cubicle wall or anything various agents turn to look. “Guess who I picked up on the drive over?”

You walk in after the Captain and grin at your fellow agents. Most of them give you polite but friendly greetings before getting back to work, the sole member of the Lower East squadron is far more welcoming.

“Jensen,” cries a huge quarter orc, seizing your hand with his own much larger and much more weathered ones in a viselike grip and shaking it vigorously. “Where the hell were you? Heard you got scorched!”

You grin back at agent Ritter, almost straining your neck in the process. Kolburne is tall, but he’s got nothing on Ritter. The man has an orc granddad and as such looks perfectly human, maybe a bit rougher than most. No, his prodigious height and refrigerator like build are just one of those flukes of nature.

>”Hey Ritter, wasn’t too bad. Just wanted a few more days off.”
>”It wasn’t pretty, but they got me fixed up real good.”
>”I awoke as a mage, and got third degree burns over most of my body. They implanted a magical parasite in me that’s eating the excess aether.”
>Write in

>>39271796
>”It wasn’t pretty, but they got me fixed up real good.”

>>39271796
>”It wasn’t pretty, but they got me fixed up real good.”

>>39271796
>”It wasn’t pretty, but they got me fixed up real good.”

>>39271796
>>”Hey Ritter, wasn’t too bad. Just wanted a few more days off.”

“Wasn’t pretty, but they fixed me up real good.”

Agent Ritter nodded, looking inquisitive. “Yeah, I can see that. Must not’ve been as bad as I heard, can’t barely tell you were hurt.”

You grin and rub the back of your head sheepishly. Ritter’s a nice guy, but he can sometimes be surprisingly observant. “Yeah well, I’m grateful to be back. So I was hoping to get caught up on what’s happening here.”

Ritter nods. “Big stuff happening in our area. Seems like Limited Liability’s been going on a bit of a warpath with it’s dealers.”

“Oh? I thought they had the local dealers pretty well under their thumb.”

“So did we. In fact it was right after that TK15 warehouse incident. Those crates, they had some new drug in them. Kinda like pink cocaine, if I had to describe it’s look. Research took a look and there’s some scary magic going on with those things. We’ve been keeping an ear to the ground ever since, but we only heard rumblings till last night.”

“What happened last night?”

“Guy, name of Kendall.”

You nod immediately. He was one of your projects. “Guy’s a scum bag. What about him?”

“Dead. Him and his bruiser Mart. They got torched too, and they weren’t nearly as lucky as you were.”

“How bad?”

“The row home they operated out of… it exploded. And burned down two houses next door too. We had the mundane SPD transfer it to our jurisdiction. I’m actually about to get a look at it, if you want to come along.”

>Sure
>No

>>39272252
>Sure

Ride alongs!

>>39272252
>Sure
and grab a new gun before we leave

>>39272252
>Sure
Grab a better gun with anti-magic bullets, fuck hobos.

>>39272252
>>Sure
>>Can we get something to eat on the way? Hospital food isn't the best."

>>39272252
>Sure, you mind not driving like an old man today?

“Sure, lemme just load up.”

“No need to rush,” replies Ritter, “I’ll warm up the car.”

You nod and hurry over to the Armory, where you requisition your semi, and two magazines of ferro core bullets. Lead can interact with magnetic fields, but can’t hold one itself. Ferro core bullets, much like full metal jackets or hollow points, are bullets designed with an application in mind. In this case, the loss of mass from the iron core is made up with the brutal potency of the magnetized iron against magical creatures, wizards, spirits, and constructs. Magnetic fields are highly disruptive to aetheric fields, which makes magnetized weaponry one of the most potent tools EnRA has against the supernatural. While normal bullets put the wendigo down for a bit, ferro cores would probably keep it down by disrupting the aetheric matrix that was the wendigo itself.

You know it’s a little silly to be worried, odds are it won’t run into again at a police investigation site, but sometimes… its worth the peace of mind. Can’t always be totally rational when dealing with the extranatural.

You meet up with Ritter and drive out to Kendall’s house.

Well, more like Kendall’s crater now. The house and the few surrounding it have been utterly desiccated by the flames, there are scorch marks on the steps leading up to the front door and on the sidewalk across from the windows. This wasn’t a simple dryer fire (those things are surprisingly flammable. Always change your lint filter) this was more like an explosion you’d see in the movies.

You step over the police line and walk onto the crime scene with Ritter. The huge man whistles. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Now this is arson.”

>Check the bodies
>Check the source of the fire

>>39272579
>Check the source of the fire

>>39272579
>Check the source of the fire

>>39272579
Maybe we can get some clues from their corpses.

You let Ritter take over looking at the corpses of the former Kendall and Mart, and check out the source of the fire. Judging from the fact that the basement seems to have been literally blown open, you figure that’s the likely source. The SPS obviously had the same thought, as you notice a well secured ladder leading down to the basement over the ruined stairs. You follow it down and quickly ascertain the source of the flames. The ruined husk of a square machine is pressed against a scorched wall. The plastic panels are melted and the door was completely blown off. Obviously this was the source of the fire in the first place. You walk over to the machine and crouch down near it. For something to explode that forcefully… Someone was seriously violating the user’s manual.

>Roll for acuity. Taking 5 rolls

Rolled 7, 2, 7 = 16 (3d10)

>>39272845

Rolled 3, 2, 2 = 7 (3d10)

>>39272845

Rolled 6, 4, 10 = 20 (3d10)

>>39272845
Come on parasite power!

Rolled 8, 9, 10 = 27 (3d10)

>>39272845

Rolled 8, 9, 7 = 24 (3d10)

>>39272845
DO IT

>>39272887
>>39272949
>>39272970
Look at this nonsense, we beat the average for once.

You lean over the ruined dryer and sniff the air. Gasoline leave a smell when it’s burned. And someone burned quite a lot of it in that machine. Building on your suspicion you begin to pull at the lint filter. The filter is melted into the case but a few sharp tugs yank it free. You look at it carefully. Blackened material is blocking the filter. You imagine that if the explosion hadn’t blasted at least part of it’s fury out of the air vent, you’d find material blocking that too. Someone had set the dryer up to blow. You stand up and ponder it for a while. Jammed gas soaked clothing into the dryer, block the ventilation so the gas just aerates inside the tumbler until a bit of fabric starts smouldering and… boom. It’s not exactly the most refined bit of arson you’ve seen, but you suppose as an improvised timer the dryer was effective.

Still, one dryer explosion would not lead to the entire house going up. You climb back up out of the basement, and begin to wander around through the ruins of the house. You continue sniffing the air, the smell of torched gas hadn’t entirely dissipated by now. Which is saying something all things considered.

You wander into the living room, where two charred corpses are lying on the ground. Ritter is kneeling next to the larger one, prodding it with the eraser on his pencil. He probably shouldn’t do that, but whatever. EnRA doesn’t exactly operate within the judicial system. Ritter looks up at your arrival. “See anything?”

You nod. “Yeah. Whoever did this used the dryer to set it all off. I think they probably flooded the rest of the house with gas from the stove top. Just massive overkill.”

“So not a habitual arsonist?”

“Amatuer hour for sure. What surprises me is how Rube Goldberg-esque the entire thing was. Fill the dryer with gas soaked clothes, block the vents, flick on the gas. Most people just soak a bunch of shit in gasoline and call it a day, right?”

Ritter grunts in affirmation and returns to the larger body. You decide to take a look at the smaller body, the one that’s almost melted into the recliner.

>Rolls. 4 of them.

Rolled 6, 8, 10 = 24 (3d10)

>>39273304

Rolled 1, 5, 4 = 10 (3d10)

>>39273304

Rolled 8, 5, 4 = 17 (3d10)

>>39273304

Rolled 10, 7, 1 = 18 (3d10)

>>39273304

Rolled 10, 9, 10 = 29 (3d10)

>>39273304
I believe.

Damnit Amber stop stealing Jason's dice.

>>39273311
>>39273335
>>39273362
>>39273374
You fucks! Look what could have been!
>>39273386

>>39273386
....

of course its the 5th roll

>>39273386
Does anyone want to roll over the critical to something else? I feel bad having a 29 go to waste.

>>39273525
no idea what to use it on that would be appropriate and there isn't a system in place to bank it for saving from a shitty roll so dunno

>>39273525
maybe we get some power or something from our SYMBIOTE?

>>39273525
>>39273551
Perhaps the Symbiote evolves a fire-related ability? I mean, it would fit a bit given the injuries we sustained in order to get it put in.

Or you can bank that shit as an instant crit success.

>>39273525
>>39273578
I'd like either of these options that anon suggested.

Did 4chan break again?

You walk over to what you presume to be the body of Kendall and lean down next to it. Unlike Mart, who was sporting an obvious hole in his head, Kendall seems to be no worse the wear outside of getting charred to a crisp. You very much doubt that you can gain anything from this examination, but hey, hope springs eternal.

You fuss around with the corpse in front of you, or as much as one can fuss around with a corpse that’s been burned to the point of becoming charcoal. It doesn’t take long for you to notice the remnants of some sort of bindings on the body. Sort of like tightly wrapped fabric and plastic…

“Son of a bitch,” you swear, not aware that the individual in question would take great umbrage at the insult to his mother. “Kendall was tied up.”

Ritter looks over at you. “You figure he was alive at the time of the explosion?”

You nod, feeling a little sick. “Yeah. Yeah probably that. So Mart, his bruiser, was dead at the time of the explosion, Kendal was still alive and was restrained.”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Ritter mutters. “That’s twisted. Tying a man up like that to be burned on his recliner.”

"Yeah. We're not dealing with nice people."

Ritter nods. "I'm just surprised is all. Kendall was always in Limited Liability's pocket. Never one of them, but always doing what they said anyway. I'm surprised that anyone would attack him like this."

You scratch underneath your chin, thinking "You mentioned that dealers are moving against Limited Liability earlier?"

Ritter shakes his head. "Maybe I wasn't clear. Dealers aren't moving against them per se, they're just acting out of their control. Or at least we think they are unless there's a new policy among LL."

"Well, what if Limited Liability did this," you say, gear turning, "As a lesson to the other dealers to start toeing the line again."

Ritter swallows. "I really hope not. If that's the case than we could be looking at a civil war."

"Not a civil war," you correct, "A gang war. Between Limited Liability and TK15."

>><<

Alright guys, I'd love to run later but I'm dead tired. Next thread on Monday and hopefully then we can get some Amber/Symbiote action going. Which would have a very different meaning if this was a smut quest.

>>39273934
Thanks for running SG/FG/MG/UV

Good night senpai, thanks for running.

>>39273934
thanks for the thread boss

>>39273934
Thanks for running.

>>39273934
Thanks Fallguy, you da man!

>>39272252
>You grin and rub the back of your head sheepishly.
> Ettooooo~
> [blushing intensifies]

>>39273934
That was breddy gud. Thanks.