#and even then you’ll have to pay extra for the psychic damage

[leobashi]

Would you draw Antiddy if someone happened to commission you? 😈

Well shit $20 is $20

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #145: Gilgamesh (Caster)

Today on Fate and Phantasms we bring you the long-suffering king, Gilgamesh (Caster)! Like all Gilgameshes, you’ll be able to throw things at people, but magic. And yes, you will be able to stay up for days on end without dying. Immediately.

This Gil is a War Magic Wizard to weave magical defenses and hold the line, as well as a Celestial Warlock so you can still have some magic after avoiding long rests for so long.

Check out his build breakdown below the cut or his character sheet over here! 

Next up: Snaby (Snake Baby)

Race and Background

You’re still 2/3s god, but you’re protecting a city this time around, so let’s call you a Protector Aasimar. This gives you +1 Constitution and +2 Charisma. You also get Darkvision to dunk on normal humans, Celestial Resistance against Radiant and Necrotic damage, the Light cantrip, and Healing Hands to keep yourself standing a bit longer.

Like always, Noble is a a disrespectful downplay of your station, but it’s the closest we can get, giving you History and Persuasion proficiency.

Ability Scores

Put your Charisma first and foremost, you’re still running a city, and that requires a force of personality, especially given current events. Second is Intelligence, running an all-out war for this long needs tactical skill. Your Constitution is pretty good too, we all know how long you can go without sleep. Your Dexterity isn’t amazing, if anything actually reaches the city you might have a problem. Your Wisdom is pretty low, despite everything, you’re still Gilgamesh. Finally, dump Strength. If you haven’t had time to sleep, you haven’t had time to work out.

Class Levels

1. Warlock 1: First level warlocks get proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saves, as well as two warlock skills. Arcana is an obvious pick for a caster, and Investigation will help you figure out what demonic beast left a gaping hole in the wall. You can’t fight something effectively until you know what it is.

You also gain Pact Magic, spells you can cast with your Charisma what recharge on short rests. As a celestial lock, you also get a Healing Light, 1+your warlock level d6s that you can spend as a bonus action to heal a nearby creature. The most you can use at once is your charisma modifier. This feature recharges on long rests, so don’t get too used to them.

For spells: Eldritch Blast because duh, Friends to run the town a bit more smoothly, Guiding Bolt to lead the way in battle, and Witch Bolt for longer-term damage.

2. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations to customize their features. Take Eldritch Mind right now for better concentration, and save the other for next level. 

You also learn Distort Value so that meddlesome goddess doesn’t run off with your entire treasury. 

3. Warlock 3: Third level Protector Aasimars get a Radiant Soul, giving you wings for a minute as a bonus action. They last for a minute, and while flying around you can add your level in radiant damage to one spell or attack per turn. This recharges... *sigh* on long rests.

You also get the Pact of the Tome, giving you a fancy lil book with three cantrips of your choice. I’d suggest Guidance to be better at everything, Vicious Mockery because... just look at him, and Thaumaturgy to get your volume cranked up. Those dramatic speeches aren’t going to make themselves, after all.

You also get the invocation Aspect of the Moon, removing your need to sleep entirely. To long rest, you spend eight hours doing light activity.  We’ll get something later to cut long rests out entirely, but this’ll work for now.

You also learn how to cast Flock of Familiars. Every good king needs some advisors, after all.

4. Warlock 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Intelligence so we can start off our other class strong. You also learn Blade Ward, giving you resistance to physical attacks. Your AC really isn’t good right now, so this’ll come in handy. You also learn Enthrall, so you can make sure everyone keeps their eyes on you during your rousing speeches.

5. Wizard 1: First level Wizards learn Spells that you cast and prepare from your Intelligence modifier from a larger list in your spellbook. Your Arcane Recovery means that once per long rest you can get a couple of your spell slots back on a short rest as well, a total level equal to half your wizard level rounded up.

While we’re on the topic of spell slots, your wizard slots and warlock slots don’t mix like most multiclassing, but you can use one class’s slots for another’s spells just fine.

Wizards get a lot of spells, so we won’t go over all of them here, but Mage Armor is a must, as well as Shield.  Putting metal around your hips and one hand does not count as armor.

6. Wizard 2: Second level wizards pick a school, and the school of War Magic will keep you in the fight for a long time. Arcane Deflection gives you either +2 to AC or +4 to a saving throw as a reaction, provided you’re okay only casting cantrips the next turn. You’ve spent four levels as a warlock, I’m sure you’ll manage somehow.

Your Tactical Wit adds your intelligence to your initiative, so you can start giving out orders faster.

7. Wizard 3: Third level wizards get second level spells, like Augury for some early divination and Scorching Ray for some Uruk Brand Arrows.

8. Wizard 4: Use your second ASI to become an Inspiring Leader, letting you spend a couple minutes to give your party some free temporary HP. They’re.... they’re gonna need that.

9. Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks get third level spells, like Fly. Tactics require a top-down view. You also get the invocation Far Scribe, for free castings of Message. Now even the people in the back’ll be able to hear you!

10. Warlock 6: Sixth level celestlocks get a Radiant Soul, giving you extra fire/radiant damage equal to your charisma modifier when you cast a spell that deals fire/radiant damage. You also resist radiant damage. again.

You also learn the spell Intellect Fortress, giving a creature resistance on psychic damage and advantage on intelligence, wisdom, and charisma saves for up to an hour. Tiamat’s existence is probably a charisma save against being frightened, right?

11. Warlock 7: Seventh level warlocks learn how to make Guardians of Faith, giving you the ability to create a large glowing... thing... that hits hostile creatures who get too close.

You also learn the invocation Book of Ancient Secrets, giving you two 1st-level rituals from any spellcasting class now, and the ability to copy others when you see them.

12. Warlock 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for stronger spells, like Sickening Radiance. Blow things up with real big magic arrows.

13. Warlock 9: Ninth level warlocks get fifth level spells, like Greater Restoration! This spell lets you remove one level of exhaustion, so now you can finally survive on nothing but short rests!

You also get the invocation Whispers of the Grave, which lets you cast Speak with Dead for free. Now you can finally stop and hear yourself think.

Wait...

14. Warlock 10: Tenth level celestlocks get Celestial Resistance, giving you and your party temporary HP at the end of each short or long rest. You get 10 plus your charisma modifier, the others get 5 plus your charisma modifier.

You also learn True Strike. It’s not a good spell, but it is a cheap way to keep concentration on something, which will be important later.

15. Wizard 5: Fifth level wizards get third level spells... again, like Catnap to make your short rests even shorter and Melf’s Minute Meteors for some more arrows that you can fire off two at a time.

16. Wizard 6: Sixth level war mages learn the art of the Power Surge. You can store up to three surges at a time and gain one at the end of a short rest or when you use Dispel Magic or Counterspell. They also reset to one after a long rest, so your terrible sleep schedule is finally paying off! You can spend a power surge to add extra force damage to a wizard spell for one creature.

17. Wizard 7: Seventh level wizards get fourth level spells, like Divination to keep an eye on the demonic front.

18. Wizard 8: Use your last ASI to bump up your Intelligence for an extra Power Surge and stronger magic.

19. Wizard 9: Ninth level wizards get fifth level spells, like Legend Lore, which lets you compare legendary items to the ones in your treasury to figure out what they do.

20. Wizard 10: Tenth level wizards get Durable Magic. While concentrating on a spell, you get +2 to your AC and all saves. You can also use Hold Monster to slow Tiamat down a bit, and Commune with City to keep tabs on the people of Uruk during this crisis.

Pros: 

You literally don’t have to sleep, ever, so long as you have 100 gold per day to pay for Greater Restoration. Keep watch! Catch up on that book series you’ve been putting off! The possibilities are endless!

You also come packing some solid magic defenses, with the ability to slap extra points onto any save you might need to, plus advantage from spells like Intellect Fortress.

Wizards get a ton of spells in general, but you take that variety to the next level. Features like Book of Ancient Secrets the wizard’s spellbook will expand your casting capabilities to new heights!

Cons:

Most people don’t like being woken up at 3am, so there’s not much point in not sleeping beyond the occasional crisis. 

Physically, you’re very squishy. With only 133 HP at level 20 and an AC of 14-6 without destroying your ability to cast spells, distance is your best friend. You also don’t have a ton of movement options, so good luck against monks.

War mages are built around concentration at higher levels, which is fine, but it means you need a lot of concentration spells to get the most out of the class. That also means you have to plan your defense carefully, or you might get overwhelmed.

[cyclone-rachel]

Pay the Asking Price

a Supergirl fic

chapter 22

Read on AO3 here

Previous chapters

All things considered, it was a fairly ordinary night for James.

There were two guys trying to assault a woman and probably rob her, they may or may not have been armed (James intervened and took them out too quickly for him to be able to tell, and even if they had been, his armor would’ve been able to withstand almost anything they’d have), and he was able to save her.

But even though he was there to help, the woman he’d saved looked at him just as fearfully as she’d looked at the guys he was protecting her from, and ran away without giving him a chance to defend himself.

He’d told her he was there to help… but it didn’t seem like she believed him.

No, forget that. She definitely didn’t believe him, and though it wasn’t always a problem, depending on who he saved, it had pretty much been one since he became the Guardian.

“James? Police are on their way, buddy.” Winn said, through his comms.

“Are you alright?” Brainy asked. “James?”

“Let’s call it a night.” James answered, staring at the police cars that were arriving.

Then, he headed back for the van, admitting temporary defeat.

~

“Okay. I mean, I love him. I do. I... I love him. But come on. JT has got to be the only one holding up the reunion right now.” Kara said, sitting across from Lena as they had lunch just outside of Catco. She didn’t know how long it had taken for her and Lena to discover they’d shared a favorite boy band (Kara had found them while trying to catch up on Earth pop culture right after she moved in with the Danvers, and Lena had listened to them as a little rebellion since Lillian didn’t think they were sophisticated enough for her to listen to, but she found her ways nonetheless) but now it had opened discussion topics a little more, and Kara was glad for it.

(Especially since there was a whole part of her life that she couldn’t talk about with her at all)

“Oh, obviously. Here, but let me ask you this, right? Would you rather have an NSync reunion, or JT and Britney back together?” Lena asked.

“Ugh! They were my favorites! That's an impossible question to answer, and you are cruel for asking.”

“Yeah. Well, you know, sometimes my Luthor genes just shine through.”

Kara and Lena both laughed.

“Thanks for catching lunch with me.”

“Well, since I canceled on you the last three times and you said you couldn't get away, I figured you were worth the extra effort.”

“Yeah, what's keeping you so busy?”

Things I couldn’t possibly explain.

“It's top secret.”

“Intriguing.”

“As soon as I can tell anyone anything, you will get an exclusive.”

Kara didn’t want to press her for details, but one look that she thought was charming later, and she got Lena to admit something.

“…I'm working with a new partner.”

���Mmm.”

“Yeah, she's... She's fantastic. It's... It's like having a mentor; you know? You'll... You'll love her. Promise.”

That’s one way of describing her.

“You got to give me something. I have to have something to look forward to.”

“Okay. Something to look forward to. What do you know about quantum entanglement?” Lena asked, leaning forward on the table.

Kara Zor-El knows all about it. But… Kara Danvers probably shouldn’t.

“"Quantum" wh...” Kara asked, purposefully.

“Polyatomic anions? Well, when you see what we're doing with them- it will blow you away.”

“I can't wait.”

“Oh. Actually, this is... This is her.” Lena said, as her phone vibrated on the table, and she read the name Fabala on the caller ID.

“I'm gonna have to go, 'cause we're doing our first test today.”

“Oh, it was so good to see you.” Kara said, as she and Lena hugged, and Lena ignored the phone as it continued ringing. “Next time, lunch is on me.”

“Okay. Cool.” Lena said, picking up the phone as she left. “Bye!”

Kara watched her go, still wondering who exactly she was working with- and what she had planned.

But Lena was her friend, secrets or no, and whatever it was, she had promised Kara would be the first to know about it.

Certainly, it was going to be good, because Lena was.

Right?

~

“Hey, hey! Look who it is.” Winn announced cheerfully as soon as he saw James in the park in the middle of National City, holding an umbrella in one hand and a falafel in the other. “You know what? I love these falafels. Do you? Because they are, like, the best in the city. I gotta say.”

“I concur.” Brainy answered, from beside Winn. “And I have tried every one available here, but the Biyalyan falafels are indeed superior.”

“Yeah, they are the best in the city. You know that because I told you about this falafel stand.”

“Oh, yes. Yes, you did. And I'm totally stalking you because, dude, what happened? Last night you were just... You were just, like, one and done. That's not like you.”

“In all honestly, that woman was more afraid of Guardian than she was of her attackers.”

“That can't be true.”

“No, dude, you didn't see her.”

“We did. And I'm sure she was in shock.” Querl said.

“Yeah, but it's... It's bigger than that. It's... It's happening a lot. So, people see this big guy in this scary mask and they freak out, they run away. Just like Clark's friend.”

Just like me, Querl thought.

“Oh, you mean...” Winn said, miming the appearance of bat ears with one hand, the other still holding his umbrella. But Querl understood who he was referring to, and he got the feeling that James knew too. “I feel like they're more frenemies.”

“You know what I mean. It's just that Guardian is not... He's not this beacon of hope that I thought he would be. I mean, basically, all I'm doing is beating people up.”

“Whoa, dude, we are... We are doing a lot of good here. We... We're making a difference.” Winn said, attempting to lighten the situation.

“I mean, Supergirl, Superman, they're making a difference. They're changing hearts and minds. They inspire people. Guardian inspires fear.”

“Just like Winn’s father?” Querl said. “He did, as well- but Winn has done a lot of good with the skills he has. And… I admit, I had the same problem as you. Well, a slightly different one- nobody would trust the Brainiac heir with saving their lives. They always believed I had an ulterior motive, that I wanted something from them. They couldn’t let themselves think otherwise. As you would say, Winn, no good deed went unpunished.”

Winn smiled, just a little bit, and gave him an underhanded high-five, before James looked over at them both, undeterred.

“Winn hides behind a computer screen and in a van.” He said. “Nobody sees his face anyway. And you, Brainy? At least you have technology to change yours. I’m… I’m just me.”

I didn’t always.

But then came what seemed to be an earthquake, and a woman psychically throwing a man into a fruit and vegetable stand, which collapsed immediately.

“Everybody get out of here!” James yelled, as people seemed to listen to him- or they went on their own volition, out of panic. “Go, go, go, go, go! Get out of here, get out of here, go!”

Winn braced himself against a table, and Brainy joined him.

“This is Agent Schott and Agent Dox, we have a possibly hostile telekinetic in Simmons Square.” Winn said into his communicator, hoping that if Alex or J’onn weren’t listening, at least Kara was.

“Let’s go, get out of here!” Querl shouted, making sure that the remaining civilians heard him as well. There were more civilians in the paths of dangerous objects, and James did his best to make sure they didn’t get hurt, pushing one couple out of the way of a hot dog stand. The telekinetic launched a pick-up truck into the air as well, after toppling another car, but right on time, Supergirl caught the truck, to the applause of all who were watching her there.

“Hey. Where’d the alien go?” Winn asked, as James and Querl stood watching Supergirl. “She’s gone.”

“I don’t know.” James said.

~

Alien Terrorist Attack, was the headline as footage of it aired on one of the DEO’s monitors.

“Authorities are investigating a targeted alien terrorist attack that occurred earlier today. Law enforcement has no leads on the identity of the alien or motive, but tensions are on the rise as fear of another attack...” the reporter on TV read, and Alex and J’onn watched for a moment before turning away from it.

“If the news keeps stirring up fear, there's gonna be a witch hunt for whoever this alien is. Things could get out of hand very fast.”

“Okay.” Winn started, from the other side of the table. “So, we figured out what kind of alien she is- She's a Phorian.”

“A what?” Alex asked.

“I never realized any had taken refuge here on Earth. Historically, they're a peaceful race of aliens.” J’onn added.

“Today, not so peaceful.” James said.

“Thank God Supergirl was there. Hundreds could've been hurt.”

We were there too, James thought. I helped, even if I didn’t catch any flying trucks or hit anyone with heat vision.

“Normally, their telekinetic powers are benign.” J’onn continued. “I've never heard of a Phorian doing so much damage.”

“And they're also telepathic like Martians. They are connected through their thoughts.” Winn added.

“Do you think more of them will attack?”

“For now, let's just treat this as a lone-wolf situation.” J’onn answered Alex.

“So, how do we find her?”

“Supergirl and Brainiac-5 are out surveying the city to see if they can come up with anything.”

“I'd be happy to help. I can get out there and see if there's any leads.”

“Mr. Olsen, you've been very helpful. But this is a DEO matter. We'll let you know if we need Guardian's skill set, but for now...”

“I got it.” James answered, resigned, as he left.

But DEO or not, he wasn’t giving up, and he knew there was at least one person who always had his back.

~

“Today was just our first test. You can't expect it to be perfect on the first attempt.” Fabala explained to a dejected-looking Lena, as they sat down for another expensive dinner at the restaurant where they’d made their partnership official.

“I quadruple checked my calculations on this, okay? The reaction of the polyatomic anions was supposed to be strong enough to spark the core of the generator.” Lena shot back, placing the tablet she’d used to work on the project beside her on the table.

“Neither of us has gotten to where we are without persistence.” Fabala said, voice even.

“If I can't make this work, we won't be able to power the portal that we're building. This was supposed to revolutionize the way everything was transported, eliminate famine, the need for fossil fuels. I wanted to help my planet, and get you home to your time.”

“And you will.” Fabala reassured, attempting to make her voice gentle as Lena’s face displayed an unusual expression- both skeptical and sad. (Talking to her in such a manner was as if, albeit years ago in such a scenario, she was talking to her own son, before her husband got it in his head that she was the one not to be trusted in their family.

Even though she was the one true Brainiac 4, and he was the outsider, who’d only gotten the title after he married her.)

“You're making advancements in science that most people on Earth could not even dream of. No one said it would be easy.”

“What if I can't make it work? What if I can't get you home?”

“I have confidence in you, Lena.”

Now that, she knew from Lena’s face that she had never heard before. Fabala stood up from the table, then. “I am going to the test facility to check the progress of the portal.” She said, stepping around the table to lift Lena’s chin up, cradle it in her hand as Lena looked at her with a soft, unknowing smile.

“I know you don't believe it yet, but you're going to make this work.”

She left, smiling back at Lena, before any trace of warmth left her face and she focused once more on her true plan.

~

Querl knew he wasn’t supposed to be wandering the streets of National City alone.

Especially not at night- but he’d just purchased an ice cream cone, upon Kara’s recommendation, and of course he was going to make sure to eat it as soon as possible, which meant doing so without the distraction of going into another restaurant, or a shop, or a bar.

So he continued walking, making sure he didn’t get what Kara referred to as “brain freeze”- he already had to deal with one, or more accurately three, things interfering with his brain, and though this may not have been literal he did not want it inflicted upon him either- and as he passed by one restaurant in particular, he saw someone who was unmistakable to him.

Even with the image inducer she was wearing, he still noticed her features- almost regal posture, formal clothing, the way she looked at passersby with disdain. Her dark hair, and cold eyes…

And in the distraction, someone had knocked over his ice cream cone, and it currently lay on the ground.

(But that, at least, was able to be replaced, and seeing her even after she said she was going to leave… this was far more important.)

She was gone just as soon as she had appeared, though. But he wouldn’t forget her face, and so with such an image fresh in his mind, he set off for the DEO.

~

James knew he should be staying out of things.

He should give the Phorian woman’s address to the DEO, and Alex or J’onn, or a team they would send in, would find her and bring her in to make sure she was safe, that nobody else got hurt.

But as much respect as he had for them, they also didn’t handle things well all the time, especially with cases like this. So after finding her location thanks to an interrupted drug deal, he was taking matters into his own hands.

And when the door opened behind him to reveal not the woman, but someone who appeared to be her young son, he was glad there weren’t a bunch of DEO agents in the apartment with him.

The child was clearly panicking, trying to open the door as soon as he saw James.

“It’s okay.” James said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

He got down to the child’s level, before taking off his helmet, and he seemed to relax.

“It’s alright, see?” he asked. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”

He reached out and touched James’s face, and James could only keep eye contact with him, and hold his hand.

~

It took some convincing, but James had gotten him to the DEO- where he found out the child’s name was Marcus- and now Marcus was alone with Alex, who was attempting to ask him where his mother was.

But he stayed silent, through all of her attempts, and though Alex hoped to be a mother someday, with her own kids… she sure wasn’t getting through to this one.

Or maybe it wasn’t her fault. Maybe he was just shy, or more used to communicating only through thoughts, she wasn’t sure.

Whatever the case, it was getting nowhere, and she needed a different approach.

~

“Maybe she should give him some action figures, right?” Winn said, as he, Brainy, James, and J’onn observed the interrogation from the outside. “Like… if somebody had given me action figures when they interrogated me about my dad when I was 11, I would… I would’ve sung like a canary, I’m just saying.”

“I was interrogated once.” Querl murmured. “Bribery or no, it is terrifying at any age- no matter which planet it is taking place on.”

Although Alex is certainly no Emerald Bloodeater.

“Brainy has the right idea.” James said. “This kid is completely shut down. And pulling him into an interrogation room like some criminal off the street, I don't think is the best way to get him to open up.” “So, you're not only a masked vigilante and a photographer, you're also a child psychologist now.”

“I'm just saying this kid's life has been upended badly. Okay, first, he's a refugee. Then his mom ends up missing. And if he's turned on the TV at all since yesterday, all he's seen are adults yelling about her, calling for blood. I wouldn't trust anybody either, if I was this kid.”

“James is right.” Alex said, as she exited the interrogation room. “I’ve been in there for hours, and all he does is just stare at the camera.”

Alex looked back, at the screen projecting the footage from that room, and sure enough, Marcus was staring at the camera. Almost through the camera, really- and not even at Alex herself.

“He’s looking at you.” She said, looking over at James.

James laughed, almost unable to believe it.

Even though, of course, he was very familiar with the impossible, and this was just one more thing to add to that list.

“At me? Through a wall, Alex?” he asked.

James stepped forward, with Alex behind him, and looked at the screen again.

“He’s an alien with telekinetic and telepathic powers.” She said. “You said that he connected with you.” “He thought the Guardian was a monster, and then I took my helmet off, and I guess he saw someone who looked like him.” James explained.

“He identified with you, James.”

And you remind me of my sister right now. James thought, as Alex addressed him directly.

“Are you saying you want Mr. Olsen to question the boy?” Querl asked.

“Well, Marcus doesn't trust me. Okay? But he could trust James. I mean, out of here. In a more conducive environment. We have to find his mother before she attacks again.” Alex insisted.

“If I can help this kid, I'd like to.”

“All right. Take the day, see if you can find out where the boy's mother is. We'll check in with you later.” J’onn said, and soon it was just Alex and James there, with Marcus still sitting in the interrogation room, all alone.

Or not alone, judging by the way Marcus was still looking at him, like he could read his thoughts through a wall, through the computer screen.

“Hey... You'll be good with him.” Alex said.

Yeah. Or at least I’ll try.

~

Winn was whistling, when Brainy caught up with him.

“Hello, Winslow.” He said, walking towards him as Winn sat down in his chair.

“Dude, it’s still just Winn. We’re friends now, you’re allowed to use my nickname.”

“Right. Given the argument Kara and I got into once she found out the truth regarding my purpose here… but you are not a part of that, and have nothing against me for it.” Querl realized.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Besides, your mom’s gone, isn’t she?”

“That is what I wanted to know. Can you scan the Earth’s orbit for her cruiser? Or is that technology too advanced for the twenty-first century?”

Winn sighed.

“No, no, here at the DEO we scan for many things.” He said. “And as for your parents’ ship, I certainly could, but I already did that when they led us back to Earth. I tracked their progress as they went out of Earth's atmosphere and flew away to Colu, and the future. Bye-bye.”

Winn mock-waved, when he said that, and Querl grew more concerned.

“Could you… do it again, just to be sure?”

“Alright, if you insist.” Winn said, pulling up the current image on the screen. “See? Look. It’s a bunch of satellites. The skies are clear.”

“Yes, that is… what I thought.” Querl answered, even if he wasn’t reassured at all. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Winn said, smiling at his friend. “So, hey, why did you ask?”

But Brainy was already gone.

Maybe I should work on our scanning tech. If the possibility of her being here makes him afraid…

But she’s not here.

Isn’t she?

~

Lena touched a button on her tablet, as the construction above her whirred to life.

And, just as quickly, there were a series of small explosions, sending showers of sparks into the air and shutting it down just as quickly.

Lena threw her tablet on her desk in frustration, as Fabala came up to her.

“Still isn't working?” she asked, almost like she never expected it to.

“Was it me throwing it down in disgust or the sparks that gave it away?” Lena asked, unable to take her eyes off it, imagining how she could fix it, and make it work better.

“Can you give us a minute?” Fabala asked to the humans working on the project, and they did, allowing her more concentration on the matter at hand as she turned back to her new work partner.

“Failure is a part of the process, Lena. I told you this was going to take time.” She said when she did, again trying to keep her voice gentle, placing a hand on Lena’s shoulder.

“It's not about time. I'm just not getting it.” Lena answered, clearly unreceptive to any encouragement. “You know, maybe we should pay a visit to Stryker Island. Get Lex Luthor to come in and save the day.” “You think he could get this working?” Fabala asked.

“Lex was the genius who was supposed to save the world. You know, I... I just thought if I could make this work, I would prove to the world and to my mother that I was as good as the golden boy. I think most of all, I just wanted to prove it to myself.”

“You don't have to prove anything.” Fabala insisted- though part of her only wanted Lex to stay away from the project because he knew her family, knew who she really was, just as Lena did. That would certainly lead to a failure. “You're smarter than Lex.”

But nothing compared to me.

Lena only laughed, as Fabala gazed up at the project, before looking back at Lena.

“No. I'm not saying that to make you feel better. I'm saying it as a scientist. As someone who knows. But you need to stop trying to think like your brother. From what you've told me about Lex, he's a man who's concerned with power. And that's how you've been trying to fix this. Give it more power, you think it will work.”

“Yeah, but it just keeps blowing.” Lena said.

Fabala placed a hand on her shoulder again.

“But you're not a person who's consumed with power. Are you?”

Lena didn’t answer, only giving her a tight smile.

“So, if you weren't trying to do what Lex would do, what would you do?”

Lena felt herself being tested- knew those kinds of questions, was very used to answering them- but from someone who was even smarter than Lex, the pressure was even more intense. Still, she found an answer.

“I'd try to find a way to increase the anion input without overloading the energy output. All while maintaining the element synthesis rate at a constant.”

Fabala’s expression lit up, and Lena knew she’d gotten it right.

“Not power. Balance.”

Lena smiled back, and got to work, as Fabala was left looking up at the project again.

Soon.

~

Bringing Marcus to Catco, James reflected after remembering just how many monitors displaying the news there were in his office, might not have been the best idea.

It had started out well, with him introducing Marcus to Kara (Marcus was still quiet, though now he expected it) and Eve Tessmacher even believed Marcus was his nephew, bringing both of them some food from Noonan’s.

James especially liked getting to show Marcus the game he had on his desk, and the old camera he had. Marcus seemed to like the camera as well, taking a picture of James with it.

And just when Marcus finally spoke, telling James that his own father was a soldier, and had died when he and his mother were escaping their planet… James thought Marcus was going to be okay, and that nothing could go wrong.

~

Meanwhile, Querl arrived back at Catco, dropping a large bag of Chinese food off for Kara.

It was plenty sweet, and there was no way Kara was turning this down. But he seemed worried, and unsure of himself, and Kara was definitely concerned.

“I, ah… I thought I saw my mother last night.” He admitted.

Oh. That’s it.

“I didn't. Don't worry. Winn and I checked, and my parents' ship definitely had left for Colu and the thirty-first century a few weeks ago. But thinking I saw her, it... I thought it would make me feel anger. But I felt… conflicted. I just... I hate... I hate that I still care about her, even if she wants me dead.”

“Hey, we can't will ourselves to not feel anything. Life doesn't work like that.” Kara answered gently.

Certainly didn’t work on Krypton.

“On Colu, that's exactly what we would do. We…” A hand automatically went up to his forehead, the personality inhibitors located there. Still affecting him, reminding him every day that he wasn’t the man he was meant to be, and had almost never been. But she didn’t know about that yet, and perhaps he would never tell her. “We trained ourselves to suppress our emotions- illogical ones, especially- so we literally didn't feel anything.”

Kara placed her hand on his shoulder, gently squeezing it when she saw the distress on his face, even if she didn’t quite know the source.

“You're allowed to miss her. She is your mother.”

“Well, she's gone forever. So...”

She may not be. But, for now, I choose to hope- however much said hope may be unfounded.

~

Fabala watched Lena once more as she worked.

“If my mother had given me pep talks like you, imagine the things I could've done.” Lena said once she paused, noticing her there.

“I'm happy to have mused you. But trust me, it isn't always easy being the parent we aspire to be.” Fabala answered.

Especially if you had a husband like mine.

“Shall we test it again?”

“Let me just plug in the algorithm and fire it up.” Lena said, excited. She went off to do just that, and Fabala waited, pressing the button that let her see outside- to the portal structure Lena and her team had built.

~

James was teaching Marcus how to use another one of his old cameras, when it happened.

Marcus was going to take a picture of James… but in his peripheral vision, he saw the news reports of his mother. The ones that referred to her as a terrorist, and said that the hunt for her was continuing.

He put the camera down, and James turned the TV off, hoping that that would be the end of it- at least, until another news station, on another Catco monitor, displayed her story again.

But he was still able to turn all of the TVs off, and if it made Marcus more comfortable, he would.

Until then, though, Eve had arrived with the food he’d asked for, and maybe now both of them could enjoy it in peace.

~

“Here goes nothing.” Lena said, as she started the next- and hopefully explosion-free- test, increasing the power as the machine whirred to life again and the portal started up outside.

~

The milkshakes exploded onto Eve’s clothes, and she shrieked as she dropped the bag. James didn’t know why at first, and then as pieces of paper began hovering in the air, flying around the room. The curtains had begun to move too, and all the TVs were showing static, as when James looked over at him, Marcus’s eyes were glowing purple.

“What is your nephew doing?” Eve asked, clearly panicked.

He began to walk towards them, as James tried to calm him down.

But it wasn’t working, and behind Marcus, a light fixture fell from Cat’s office ceiling and landed on her coffee table.

Eve dove under a desk, and though James tried to get to Marcus, he was thrown back.

~

“Power’s running smoothly to the core.” Lena said, elated. “And the anions are reacting at a steady rate!”

~

Marcus had begun to hover in the air, as Kara and Querl ran in.

“You know anything about Phorians?” Kara asked him.

“I do- but there are civilians here, and I must remain in my Quentin Richards persona. I will try to help here- you should go.”

Kara nodded, and was off, while he attempted to get people out, and keep the damage to a minimum.

Even as that floor of the building looked like it could collapse.

Querl got James out of the range of falling debris, and Kara came in as Supergirl, carrying Marcus out of Catco.

~

“It’s working.” Fabala said, awed by it in spite of herself.

Lena powered the portal down.

“We did it.” She said, confidence restored.

“You did it.” Fabala corrected, as they smiled at one another.

~

Marcus had seemed to calm down, and once his eyes weren’t glowing, Kara knew things were going to be better.

“Hey. It’s okay, I’ve got you.” Kara said to him, holding onto him tightly. “I’ve got you. You’re gonna be okay.”

He seemed to believe her, and she flew him to the DEO.

~

It was clear, watching Marcus sit dejected in one of the DEO’s cells, that something was wrong- and Kara knew it.

Both Marcus and his mother seemed to be victims- but of what, they didn’t know yet. And even though Marcus was safe, his mother was still out in the city, and whatever was happening to both of them could very well happen again, and put them and everyone else at risk.

Until then though, they could only wait, and Marcus had to remain in the cell as the others looked for his mother.

And though James had believed he could help… Marcus still wasn’t speaking to him much, and he felt purposeless, unable to do anything at all.

J’onn caught him by surprise though, when James was trying to leave- telling him the story of how he too had felt directionless, until he had his first daughter and decided to make a difference as the Martian Manhunter.

Going by that timeline, it certainly wasn’t too late for James to figure his hero self out- and it seemed that whatever his own purpose was, helping Marcus had something to do with it.

He only hoped that he could realize it, before Marcus’s mother ran out of time.

~

“We've been searching the city for signs of another attack, nothing yet.” Kara said, as she and Querl arrived in the DEO’s command center.

“Have you two found anything?” J’onn asked.

“We looked into the Phorian's physiology. Turns out that a major shift in atmospheric energy can cause a change in their mental state.” Alex said.

“Yes. But on Earth, what causes a shift like that?” Querl asked her.

“Okay.” Winn said, pulling up charts on the screen. “So, this measures electromagnetic activity around the city.”

“There was a large spike around the time of the first fight on the street yesterday.” Alex added.

“And let me guess, another spike during the attack on CatCo today?”

“Hey, good guess.” Winn said to Kara, as she leaned over the table in the middle of the room. “But that spike was about five times the size.”

“Have we determined what caused the spike?”

“Yes. High levels of polyatomic anions released in the atmosphere.” Winn said- and as soon as he mentioned it, Kara froze up, staring at the rest of the group.

“Wait. I... I saw Lena. She said she's working on a new project. She mentioned those anions.”

“That can't be a coincidence, can it?” Querl asked her.

“Definitely not. I'm gonna call Lena.” She said, and started to type in Lena’s number.

But it wasn’t Lena who answered the phone.

“Hello, Supergirl.”

“Fabala?”

Kara sounded alarmed as she said her name, making Alex and Querl wary too.

“You sound surprised.” Fabala answered. And she was- even if Querl was worried about her return, she’d told him everything was fine. He’d assured himself everything was fine… but it wasn’t.

“Trace the call.” Alex said, and Winn and Querl were on it.

“If you've done anything to Lena...” she started, focusing on the conversation at hand again.

“You'll what, lecture me?”

“We will find you.” Kara corrected, voice tight with emotions ready to burst from her.

“You have no idea where I am or what I'm doing. How does it feel… to be powerless?”

The gloating is definitely worse.

“If this is about Querl, you have to come to terms with the fact that he chose to stay here.”

“No, he made a choice to come home, to be a hero to his people. And we would have been happy to go, but you were too selfish to allow that.”

“What's she saying?” Querl asked, and Kara turned the speakerphone on, so he could hear his mother’s voice.

“Everything I do, I do for my people. Everything you do for yours is to bolster your broken ego. You need this planet to worship you, the last daughter of a failed world, because otherwise, your survival means nothing. Just like the Kryptonians who came before you, who forced my people to bend the knee to yours.”

“You're delusional.” Kara said, trying to ignore what she’d said about her people.

(Even if, as she’d discovered this year, there were some things that Fabala might have been right about)

Fabala laughed softly.

“No. On the contrary, I see everything clearly. I came here in peace, which you refused. And all of the ugliness that's transpired is because of your righteousness, Kara Zor-El. Everything that happens from now on is your doing. Every city that burns, every nation that falls, for every child of Earth that cries out, "Why is this happening?" The answer is Supergirl.”

“Kara has done nothing. This is… this is your doing.” Querl said, as Kara handed him the phone.

“Oh, of course you're there with her.” Fabala said, sounding exasperated when she heard her son. “The Kryptonian girl who bewitched you.”

“Mother, you're... Your quarrel is with me, is it not? Don't... Don't take it out on this planet. You are better than this. Or at least you were.”

“Anger has nothing to do with what I'm doing.”

“Then why? Why are you still here?”

Fabala’s answer was concise, and afterwards, she hung up.

“I'm here to wake you up, Brainiac 5.”

“Did you manage to trace the call?” J’onn asked, once it was done.

“No. There was too much electromagnetic interference.” Winn admitted, sighing.

~

“Was that my phone?” Lena asked, as Fabala deleted Kara Danvers’s number from her contact information, clearly having missed the conversation she’d had.

“Yes… it was just a telemarketer.” Fabala answered before handing the phone back. “No one to worry about.”

Lena looked relieved, and she continued to work, none the wiser.

~

“Okay, we're now monitoring all electromagnetic activity within the region.” Alex said, from her desk. “If anyone powers up this device, we're gonna know exactly where they are.”

“Good. Then we can strike.” J’onn answered.

“Marcus knows where his mom is, but he's gotta take us to her.”  James explained, after having left Marcus’s cell.

“I'm afraid I can't let him out of here. Brainiac 5's mother created some sort of device with Lena Luthor, and she could set it off at any moment. It's just not safe for Marcus outside of containment.”

“But his mom is still out there.” James argued.

Winn, thankfully, volunteered to go with him, even contributing a mobile version of the telekinetic dampener.

J’onn thought it was too risky- but this was James’s mission, and J’onn knew that he had to let him and Winn go.

“Be safe, James.”

“Thank you.”

~

It was worth it to see Marcus and his mother reuniting, and although there were a lot more Phorians than expected, James hoped that he and Winn could keep them all safe from what was happening outside.

~

“Tomorrow we could begin the material trials.” Lena said, but Fabala didn’t seem terribly excited about it, only looking at the machine again with a calm, cold expression.

“I’m sorry. I keep forgetting that success means that you're leaving. Working with you has meant so much to me.”

“…Me too. Whatever happens next, I want you to remember never to doubt yourself again. You are a marvel, Lena. Any mother should be proud to call you daughter.”

Certainly more than I can say about my son.

“Wait, wait… what are you doing?” Lena asked, as Fabala began to activate the portal again.

~

“We got something! A huge release of anions.”

“Where?”

“San Isidro Valley.” Alex said.

“You got a satellite image for that?”

She did, and Querl pulled it up on the screen.

“What is that?”

But it was clear that none of them knew- whatever it was, though, they were going to find out soon.

“Let's go.” Kara said, turning to J’onn.

“Right on.” He answered.

“My mother...” Querl said, watching the screen.

“I know this is going to be hard. You don't have to do this.” Kara told him.

“No, I have to. I just... I need to grab something first.” Querl answered, and Kara let him go.

~

Meanwhile, Winn tried to activate the dampener- but it wasn’t meant for twelve people, so they were going to have to find another way.

And, it seemed, James was going to try something. How well it would work, he wasn’t sure, but… Alex and J’onn both said he and Marcus had a connection.

He might as well try and use it, and hope everything worked out.

~

Fabala stood before the machine, Lena’s tablet in her hands, while Lena looked at the computers before her, exasperated.

“Why won’t it shut down?” She stared over the screens, at Fabala, while Fabala barely turned to acknowledge her presence. “What did you do?”

“What I had to do.” She said. “For my people. I want you to know, the affection I had for you… could never have been real.”

J’onn, Querl, and Kara landed then, crashing down inside the building.

“Turn it off.” Kara demanded.

“I can’t.” Lena said, looking at her helplessly. She knew how bad this looked- just months ago she’d been framed for helping a criminal, and imprisoned because everyone thought she was just like her family. But she’d never wanted things to go this far, and she hoped Kara would see that.

Querl looked first at the energy generator, then at the portal outside, realizing what his mother may have been planning- and then at Kara, who tried taking the generator down by force.

“Why won’t it turn off?” J’onn asked.

“I don’t know; she must’ve made it self-sustaining somehow.” Lena said.

“What did you do, Mother?”

“You’re a twelfth-level intellect, just like me.” Fabala answered. “You figure it out.”

~

James wasn’t going to break his promise. No matter the circumstances- the building threatening to come down, the telepathic energy overwhelming the dampener- he was going to keep Marcus and his mother safe.

And he made sure Marcus knew that.

~

“You’re bringing something here.” Querl said.

“What?”

“You’ll see.” Fabala answered.

Kara flew towards Fabala, trying to pin her to a wall- but she managed to kick Querl out of the way, and turn herself and Kara around, sending Kara into a column and knocking a shelf onto Lena.

It didn’t look like it had hit her directly, but she was out cold- Kara didn’t have time to worry about her, though, as she dodged the fist that Fabala had sent into that same column.

Kara managed to get a good hit in on Fabala, and she was out for the moment- giving Kara time to get outside, and meet whoever or whatever was coming out of the portal.

~

It didn’t seem like it was working. Marcus was still unresponsive, and wasn’t letting him in.

James knew he should give up- that was the logical response. But he wasn’t going to, not this time.

He wasn’t giving up on Marcus.

~

Kara flew in front of the portal, its purple glow illuminating her as she attempted to shoot heat vision at it.

She knew, probably, that it wouldn’t do anything- the portal was so big, it would take multiple versions of herself, all firing at the same time, to take it down. But she wanted to try, to slow it down somehow, and it was the only option she could see at the time.

The energy backfired on her, and sent her crashing to the ground, with no other backup plan.

~

“You don’t mess with my family.” J’onn said, seeing what Fabala’s portal had done to Kara. He tried to run at Fabala, but she had some kind of device in her hand- and when she pressed it, J’onn stopped moving, his eyes glowing a dull red.

“What is that?”

“A White Martian gave me this.” Fabala answered her son.

“What are you doing?”

J’onn shapeshifted back into his true form, and though he fell to his knees, it was clear he wasn’t in control of any kind of action at the moment.

“The White Martians developed this technology in order to keep the Greens under their control. It traps a Martian in his own mind. A never-ending nightmare. Pretty savvy if you ask me.” She continued.

J’onn fell over completely, and Querl rushed to his side.

“J’onn…” he said, looking over him- hoping that he could help him, in some way.

“You’ve learned a lot of things about this world, Mother.” He continued, getting up to face her.

“I’ve had to.”

“And did you learn humans have a weapon we’re vulnerable to?” he said, aiming his taser at her.

Fabala only laughed.

“My darling boy. You would not kill me with that pathetic thing.”

“I am considering it.” Querl answered, hand steady on the taser.

~

“You just have to look inside of yourself and see the strength and the courage that I see in you. You're not alone. You are not alone!”

Marcus’s eyes stopped glowing, and he collapsed into James’s arms- and James hugged him back, so relieved he thought he might start crying.

Around him, the other Phorians also regained control, and Marcus hugged his mother.

“That is a hero… without a suit.” Winn said. “And I love him.”

James only smiled at him, relieved- knowing that he’d done his job, and things would be okay.

~

“Put the taser down, Querl.” Fabala said. “You do not want to hurt me.”

“You really believe that?”

“The Kryptonian girl was right.” She continued. “I know all about your little Legion, and your precious moral code. You’re all gooey hero on the inside, a hero of Earth- or at least, that’s who you pretend to be. Would a hero kill his own mother?”

Querl didn’t answer, and she went on.

“When you were a boy and I would put you to sleep at night, you used to say to me that you would always love me. And even though you've turned your back on me, I know you love me.”

That was before I found out that you bottled worlds.

“Where's Father?” Querl asked, quietly. He repeated the question, when Fabala stayed silent.

“Where is my father?”

Fabala sounded emotional, when she spoke- and he almost thought she wasn’t lying.

“Your father was so hurt when you abandoned us that he took his own life.”

“No…”

“Querl, you are not going to kill me.” Fabala continued, putting her hands on the taser. “Whatever you think of me, I'm still your mother.”

He knew he shouldn’t listen to her. He knew, if she died at his hand, people would likely praise him for doing so- calling him a hero, for extinguishing her life.

But others could still call him just as much of a Brainiac, whether he killed her or not, and though he had said before that killing her was a solution he could choose… he still put the taser down, and she reached for him, nearly embracing him.

(though there was no love in that gesture)

Fabala turned away from him, and towards the portal.

“Since you were dishonest in revealing your motive for coming here, I figured that I could, too- but now I suppose I can tell you that Brainiac is still dead. The AI plague does not exist. But even so, I wanted to see how long it would take for you to realize that, and reveal that you wouldn’t truly help your own family or your world, if we were at risk of extinction.”

“I suspected all along.” Querl said.

“I see. Perhaps the inhibitors have not affected you as much as I thought.” She answered. “The fact remains that, as the smartest beings on our world, we ought to be ruling it- and, if I could not amass an army by their own choice, I might as well take it from them, and take control anyway. Thousands of Coluans, linked through our collective consciousness… with some help, of course. Astra In-Ze may have been Kryptonian, and may have been a part of the reason why one of our relatives was sent to Fort Rozz, but I admit she had the right idea, in one case.”

“You are using Myriad.”

“I am.” She admitted, as the Coluan cruisers began to fly through the portal. “We have hundreds of ships- they just needed a way to get here.”

~

Kara got up, looking at the ships overhead.

There were so many of them, it was hard to keep track of exact numbers- and most of them seemed to be relatively small.

But there was no mistaking the last one for being small. In fact, it was almost the size of the portal itself, and resembled a skull, with a huge, gaping mouth.

~

“Agent Danvers...” Demos said, as his computer began beeping, the radar scan map he’d pulled up suddenly showing activity.

“Yeah.”

“We have multiple bogies heading into National City.”

“How many?” Alex asked, standing closer to the computer so she could get a better look.

“Twenty-five, No... fifty, a hundred… Maybe more. What’s happening?”

But Alex had no answer for him.

~

“Welcome…” Fabala said, watching the ships arrive, as Querl felt even more helpless than he had before in this century. “To the future Bottled National City.”

[gem-quest]

[ O P H E L I A ... ]

“There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you’ll be free, if you truly wish to be.” 
- Pure Imagination

Real Name: Catriona “Cat” Walsh Age: 20 FC: Saoirse Ronan Species & Class: Specter Bard Guild: Moonstone 
 Description of In-Game Powers: Specters are Gem Quest’s non-corporeal undead player race.  They’re notable for only having 9 stats instead of 10, with Strength being omitted from their stat lineup because they literally have no physical bodies.  Instead, their Willpower stat serves as their Strength equivalent.  This means they have a rechargeable meter of how much they can possibly interact with physical objects before taking a rest or recharging with a spell or potion.  Beyond that, Specters are distinguished by their inability to be damaged by non-magical weapons, increased susceptibility to light magic, and inability to be healed via healing potions or traditional physical healing spells (only a period of rest or spells/potions aimed at restoring mental wellness can heal them).  The non-magical weapon immunity is amazing lower levels, but it’s not long before everything thrown at you seems to be enchanted or blessed or cursed or whatever.  Weirdly enough, as far as the whole “incorporeal being” conceit is taken in other aspects, Specters can indeed take potions, as well as eat and drink.  They get decreased buffs from some potions and foods, though.  To balance this out, spells that provide small buffs and aren’t explicitly light-aligned are extra effective on them.

There’s a lot of frustration with the class because of its “fake” weapon resistance, since any old dagger with any mild enchantment or magical effect at all on it can hit them.  They can’t viably hit physical things in combat without specifically taking Knight, Rogue, Rider, or Mage-Knight as their class.  And even then, they’re arguably the weakest race choice in the game for non-magical melee combat.  Meanwhile, a lot of physical things and all magic can still hit them very hard very easily. 

All of this said, there ARE skills to really like here, too - namely, superb mobility.  Specters can pass through physical materials five feet thick or thinner as long as those materials aren’t specifically enchanted to prevent phasing.  They float slightly by default and have a rechargeable flight ability that allows them to lift much further off the ground in short bursts.  They also have a rechargeable ability (with more uses per charge than flight) that allows them to teleport from where they stand to any spot they can see within 20 feet without a spell as long as they haven’t been hit with an attack in the past 5 seconds.  This gives them excellent mobility even in the heat of battle and allows them to have a lot of control over their position and angle.  It also means that it’s often smarter for them to worry less about defense than about being hard to hit in the first place.

Place of Birth: Dublin, Ireland

Appearance: Ophelia has a Specter’s signature slightly translucent skin, under-saturated color palette, and skirt hem/legs that trail off into mist.  Her eyes are a stormy gray, and her wardrobe is almost exclusively black and white.  When it comes to fashion, she prefers some of the more dark Victorian-inspired looks in the game as opposed to the high fantasy, renaissance, or medieval looks that a lot of other characters favor.  That said, she’s got a pretty extensive and well-curated wardrobe behind her.  She considers it highly important that she have at least one appropriate black and white ensemble to wear in each and every level in order to fit in with the theme.  That said, she also has her own signature look that she uses as her “default” (the outfit she’s wearing in her pic at the top of her audition - full-body edit to be shared later!).  Oh, and she loves gloves and capes.  LOVES THEM.  And kind of hoards them, tbh.

Places Most Likely to be Found In-Game: Ophelia’s favorite haunt at the moment is the City of Magic in Level 11.  It’s the logical home base for a character who’s both a crafting/magical class AND a ghost. There’s a high enough concentration of both useful items and ingredients AND sufficiently gothic-flavored areas and NPCs to suit all her needs, both practical and aesthetic. She’s set up her own little shop in one of the many background spooky haunted house locations within the shadier-looking part of the city, and her Aesthetic demands she sometimes hangs out at the city’s main graveyard.  

Beyond that, she can sometimes be found in various libraries and shops across the levels she can access, looking for interesting bits of crafting knowledge, hints of new items she could try cobbling together, and items that she could modify or combine with something to make can even more useful item.  She’s also been known to turn up in random wilderness or roadway portions of levels in the first half of the game, foraging for crafting components that grow or randomly generate within those environments.

Current Inventory:

Screaming Lute (x1): Ophelia is very, exceedingly proud of her combat lute.  She crafted it herself out of her bardic starter instrument.  Specter Bards begin the game with an instrument they are capable of interacting with consistently.  Cat has decided that, within Ophelia’s story, this was Ophelia’s lute in life, and it was destroyed shortly before her death as a way of intimidating her.  Anyhow, Ophelia has heavily modified her starting weapon to the point that she thinks of it as an entirely new item.  It’s covered in strange etched carvings and shifts between glowing with an eerie red light from the inside and constantly trailing wisps of white smoke.  She uses it as her primary weapon in the game, as strumming specific notes and chords on the lute lights up some of the etchings and fires off various spells and magical effects and spells Ophelia has been able to learn.  The lute downright shrieks whenever she uses it to cast a spell.  How does it work, you might ask?  That is a very long story, and one I’m saving for another post XD  Most of the spells Ophelia has at her disposal are cast through her rune-covered lute and will be catalogued in her lute info.

Whispering Flute (x1): Ophelia likes rhymes and the aesthetics of symmetry.  A secondary combat and utility weapon of hers, this is a flute enchanted to fire off up to three charges of Ventium per day, and one charge of Murmurationium per day.  A good insurance weapon to sneak into a dangerous social situation, as it’s a perfectly normal and usable flute until she uses it to unleash the fury of the cold cruel winds of death upon you XD

Empty Unbreakable Bottle (x5): Ophelia favors magical items strongly because Specters can interact with non-martial ones automatically, without having to expend any extra effort or have at least X amount of Willpower to do so.  Unbreakable Bottles are the cheapest magical container commonly for sale in game that’s capable of reliably holding liquids, so Ophelia likes to store all liquids important to her in them.  And she likes to have at least a couple of empty ones on her at all times in case she wants to take a sample of something or otherwise just needs one.

Unbreakable Bottle of Rune Ink (x5): Rune Ink is an item that can be used as permanent and unfading ink that’s nigh impossible to remove or cover up.  More importantly, though, it allows a PC with knowledge of the game’s runes, basically a language of magic that appears in a level or two and on some items, to write runic symbols that absorb nearby magical energy and store it within the object with runes written on it.

Enchanted Carving Tools (x1): Basic carving tools, enchanted to be able to create magical items and inscriptions.  Ophelia uses them for crafting both magical and non-magical items, since any given item needs to be enchanted for her to be able to actively use it for long stretches of time anyway.

Enchanted Mending Kit (x1): Enchanted mending/tinker’s tools able to repair magical items without damaging their magical properties.  Ophelia uses these to repair any repairable item sent her way, for the same reason she also uses enchanted carving tools for everything.

Paxanimi Potion (x3): A potion that mitigates psychic damage or corruption and provides a temporary boost to a player’s Psyche stat.  For Ophelia, as a Specter, this is the closest thing she gets to a reliably available health potion.

Psychometry Scroll (x1): Allows caster to make one inquiry about the past of an object or place, then projects a scene or quote from the object’s or place’s history that provides a relevant answer to that question into the caster’s mind.  Without crafting very specific questions, the results can often be vague and unhelpful, as the game will take the path of least resistance in providing a vision that meets the requirements of the inquiry.

Ictuium Scroll (x1)

Second Sight Scroll (x1) (Learning)

Assorted Random Crafting Bits and Scraps

She actually has more inventory kept hidden away within her home base rather than coming with her everywhere.  Most of it is just more tools and materials and many, many changes of clothes.

“How much does it weigh?  Can I touch, smell, and taste it?  Can I put it in my inventory?  Is it magical?  Is it combustible?  How many knowledge checks can I roll on it?  Does it match my outfit?  Can I keep it?” - Catriona, literally every time she sees any new item in D&D

Strongest character trait: Imagination

Strengths: Ophelia is an immensely imaginative and resourceful person who comes to Gem Quest from a background of extensive fiction reading and making famously effective TTRPG characters.  It helps that she researched Gem Quest *extensively* before starting and continued to be active in forums and the GQ Wiki right up through getting stuck, along with getting early advice and support from a beta tester acquaintance.  Her ideas are typically wildly innovative and a bit risky, but to her credit, they pay off more often than not.  She’s slow to trust others with much critical personal information, but pretty open to giving others a chance and to judging people based on her own experience rather than on gossip.  Thinking on her feet is second nature to her, and she’s rarely at a loss for ideas.  Her devotion to her character and planned story arc have helped her to maintain a degree of focus and stability that’s thus far proven to be her most valuable coping mechanism. 

She’s generally friendly and pleasant despite her spooky aesthetic, story, and demeanor, and she will genuinely try to help anyone who asks her for it.  In business and in social encounters, Ophelia is considerate, well-mannered, and often downright chatty, though she usually knows to take a hint when people make it clear that they don’t want to talk.  She makes and offers a selection of odd but useful items at very fair prices because she’s not here to make a profit - she just needs enough resources to keep going.  She’s earned a bit of good will based on that.  Her skill in puzzle and strategy-based quests and willingness to dispense hints on the above, along with her crafting, has garnered her a good reputation as a support player and PC shopkeeper within her guild.

Weaknesses: Even knowing that the game is now a matter of life and death, Ophelia still seems to care more about her in-game narrative and goals than practicality, survivability, or winning.  A vibrant creative type who wishes no irl harm to anybody, she has a hard time conceiving that even the most blatantly destructive PCs would truly do harm to anyone outside the narrative.  She catches most of the references you make and then obnoxiously, steadfastly denies that she has caught them if you inquire, because Star Wars doesn’t exist in the world of Gem Quest and of Ophelia, dammit!  While her coping methods might be working for her internally for now, her devotion to staying in-character makes her a bit of an acquired taste.  She is very, very particular about sticking to character, even when it’d be more practical and less annoying for her to drop it. She’s been known to make important decisions that risk her safety (and sometimes, indirectly, that of others) in the name of “authenticity” to her character and story plans. 

Far, far too curious and adventurous for someone with a Defense stat of 2.  She has lots and lots of interesting ideas, all of which she gives equal chance to, plenty of which aren’t good.  Just because her creative ideas pay off more often than not doesn’t mean that there aren’t times when they don’t pay off.  And when they don’t pay off, they tend to not pay off SPECTACULARLY.  Reasonably likely to get herself killed enacting some inventive and exceedingly high-risk scheme to take out a dangerous boss before it can do damage. 

For some folks, the mix of creepy aesthetics and backstory and acting choices with effusive goodwill and pleasantness is more off-putting than inviting.  Arguably talks too much, especially when she’s nervous or upset.  Has a weakness for getting emotionally involved with NPCs, particularly minor NPCs with chains of side quests or that can serve as temporary companions, despite theoretically knowing that they’re just chunks of code.  Seems physically incapable of just sitting back and relaxing for a few without having to start some new project or come up with some new big subplot or plan. 

Plenty of folks are happy to buy her crafted items, but she has a bad reputation as an active combatant due to a few infamous Incidents.  At this point, only the truly uninformed, the truly desperate, the truly experimental, or the truly crazy in Moonstone would willingly party up with her XD

“Death has made me less than kind.  And very, very creative with a broken lute, who knew?” - Ophelia

Player Stats: Ophelia’s defensive strategy in combat is just to not be hit at all.  Her Defense stat is dangerously low, with any points that could buff it up as she’s gained levels and experience instead going to Agility and Luck.  She prefers to draw her “defense” from stats that she can get more versatile use out of.  She’s unusually low in Charisma for a Bard and has only enough Willpower to allow her to craft with physical items.  She can’t wield non-magical weapons at all.  However, she opted to invest a bit more in Psyche than a lot of other players did since a lot of a Specter’s durability lies in their emotional stability.  She also has uncommonly high Intelligence, which combines with her Psyche and Luck to equip her well for puzzle-based and strategy-based challenges.

STRENGTH: X

DEFENSE: 2

CHARISMA: 6

PSYCHE: 7

WILLPOWER: 7

CAUTIOUSNESS: 4

AGILITY: 8

ENDURANCE: 5

INTELLIGENCE: 9

LUCK: 8


Personality: (A lot of this is already in her strengths and weaknesses, so I’m putting a bit of a summary and some extra detail in here.)

She eats fictional media for breakfast, means well, talks a lot and talks often, has an overall spooky quirky nice one vibe (you know the type), fancies herself an actress regardless of the feedback she might receive, will (un)live and die in-character out of a fruity cocktail of artistic integrity and spite, is the Bard equivalent of a TV mad scientist who tends to cause the problem at the start of the episode with an experiment and then solve it in the last 2 minutes with a crazy genius plan that’s then shown to have not *totally* worked in a post-episode stinger, and is too smart for anyone’s good.  

Building a clear narrative here helps her bring some degree of organization and order to the wild creative whirlpool that is her brain.  She’d never considered herself much of an escapist until she discovered GQ, where she hasn’t escaped from responsibilities and work and struggle so much as she’s found an intoxicating degree of control over what her responsibilities and work and struggle are.  She can write a meaningful story here, be its central driving force, have the impact she increasingly feels like she’ll just never be able to have in real life, and stick her epic quest out to a glorious conclusion.  Ironically, she’s a weird mix of always needing an outline and a sense of narrative while ALSO constantly bursting with new ideas and clever but risky plans that she takes quite seriously.  Cat harbors perpetual mild guilt for feeling so restless and unhappy - after all, she’s lived comfortable life and has a family who loves, and it’s not like people have to like anything she makes or does or says in order for her to have a high quality of life.

“Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” - James Joyce

Biography: Catriona Walsh was born in Dublin, Ireland to an Irish mother and an American father of Irish descent.  The family moved to New York City for her father’s job when she was just 5, but she and her mom remain close with her mom’s side of the family back in Ireland.  After 3 years in New York, the family moved to Columbus, Ohio, where Cat spent the rest of her young life, except for summers.  Most summers since she was 13, she’s stayed a couple months with an aunt and uncle who own a small tour company in Dublin.  From 16 on, she’s been helping with business while there.  Now she’s at college in Dublin and working at the company on the weekends, in exchange for staying with her relatives. She’s studying business for her parents and literature for herself.  

Cat has always had a great fondness for the tour company, though mostly for the actual tour guide end of it.  She’s a natural storyteller and explorer who delights in going off the beaten trail and sharing all she knows about xyz subject with anyone who seems interested.  Unfortunately, her improvisational bent has landed her in trouble with her aunt and uncle more than once.  There are schedules to keep and itineraries people pay to be taken through, after all.  This landed her behind the front desk of the office answering phone calls and administering group ticket sales, which she very nearly hates.

School is hard, especially with her true interest pushed to the side by necessity.  Feeling like none of her ideas ever get taken seriously is hard.  Making friends that last beyond one semester sharing a class is hard, and as she gets further into her college career, her future looks increasingly stifled and bleak to her.  Attempts to get some poetry and original music off the ground haven’t gone anywhere, ending in some spikes of faceless nastiness that prompted her to delete her one YouTube account and take a step back from social media about a year and a half ago.  Sure, she knows she’s supposed to have a thicker skin than that if she wants to go anywhere, and she *does* want to go somewhere.  But she can’t seem to make her skin much thicker.  She wants to argue with her uncle and aunt a bit more, as she increasingly disagrees with them on quite a few things, but they’re both extremely conflict averse, and she can be extremely lacking in tact about things she’s suitably worked up over.  

Through it all, she knows full well that so so many people have it worse, and that she has no reason to feel restless and dissatisfied and unhappy.  It’s just that she has a hard time connecting with people and feeling heard. She’s not alone, so why is she lonely?  Cat takes refuge in being the zany, intensely individualistic artist who’s sometimes worth inviting to a party for the interest value and who surely has friends somewhere - you just haven’t ever met them.  

For the past year or so, all the time Cat has for herself and an increasing amount of time that used to go into schoolwork has been split between her long-time refuge in tabletop roleplaying and her new favorite place: Gem Quest.  She’s part of two Dungeons & Dragons games currently being run on Roll20 (well, was a part of them, anyway), both of which she plays as a multiclassed build with some degree of casting put together for a mix of strong utility and intricate storytelling.  Gem Quest continues a years-long trend of being in love with exactly one fantasy video game at a time and playing it as much as possible, though it’s her first MMORPG.  

Catriona researched Gem Quest *extensively* before ever getting it or creating her character.  She heard about it from a fellow member of one of her online D&D groups, an avid gamer happened to be a beta tester.  Cat was drawn in by the idea of being able to entirely occupy the space of a created hero within a sprawling fantasy setting and be a version of herself designed as a protagonist in a world designed to be impacted by her.  She had a cousin who had a VR headset but decided it just wasn’t really his thing, so it wasn’t hard to convince him to let her use it for this.  After waiting to see more setting and story info during the early general release and researching everything there was to know about GQ thus far, including via discussion with her beta tester acquaintance, she entered into the game a short while after launch. She’s had time to level up, mostly in being an item crafter and utility character with a surprising capacity to serve as a highly mobile glass canon blaster (and inexhaustible source of very creative and very insane plans) in combat.

She also has a whole, novella-length backstory for her character - a summary of which I will post later! - that she treats as her character bible and guide for all in-game interactions.  It’s based on a single image of a skeleton in a black and white dress in some official art of one of the higher levels where there are a lot of scenic skeletons lying around.  This is the sort of brain Cat has XD



Ophelia, as a character, is the ghost of a minor noblewoman and court musician who was betrayed when she starting poking around into the disappearance of her older brother at court.  Her desires to find her brother and for vengeance brought her back as a Specter, but she came back a world away from the place she died and has to go on a quest to make it back and finish her story.  Cat built the character to be tied to a mid-to-late game puzzle-heavy level so she could have a big climatic Moment there.  Then, she’d continue to the end in search of her fictional brother.  Ophelia wields a spectral lute as a spellcasting focus and spends a lot of time pursuing leads about both her brother and her murderer (aka quests Cat finds thematically/aesthetically good for Ophelia).

Cat is VERY set on seeing this plot through and being the hero of her story, from start to finish, despite what’s happening with the game now.  She does her part to provide puzzle guides and crafting support for those working to beat the game, but she’s not going to rush through her story and suddenly snap back to being poor little ungrateful and inexplicably depressed Cat who has no place in anything and can’t do anyone much good with what she’s got.  While she’s in the game, she’s going to be Ophelia.  At least Ophelia has a *reason* to be unhappy and restless, a wildly creative and wildly striving brain tied to the world with a few wisps of smoke.  And at least Ophelia is good at what she does.

Never mind how much she adored aggressive exploration and creative combat at first.  She’s learned well enough that she’s just a liability there, she’s bad at being in a group, and, not so different from real life, she’s at her best when she’s just at the shop counter being support.  She’s already been booted from a couple of parties over her crazy plans, play style, and general personality. And there have been more than enough incidents with her pulling something crazy because it was in-character and genuinely seemed like a good solution with the resources given, usually with at least decent results but always with high risk, that no one in the know is willing to party up with her anymore. 

She’s kind of stuck either in her shop or going solo.  At least she makes good things, though, right?  And she’s just taking her plot slow because of she’s savoring and developing her story, not because people don’t really like conquering life beside her out here either, right?

Right?

Relationships: I’m very much open to some plotting and planning with anyone who’d like to try working something out!

In regards to side characters or such of my own, I have some ideas already for this.  I’ll fill these in as I finalize my ideas a bit more!

Char 1 -

Char 2 -

Char 3 -

Playlist: TBF Pinterest: TBF Extra: TBF

[lucy-pepperwood]

Fem Izuku Black hair from her father Not quirkless Quirk= flight/flying ( a form of telekinesis ) Fem Izuku= Izuha (meaning something like plum or plum tree) Her nickname is Futotta which translates something to chubby or Fatty (https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the/japanese-word-for-5b5fb1c9d70308c44b6bf579a82122981bd37a7c.html) Izuha can fly; she can fly without concern of air currents, but if she wants to glide, she has to follow them, she cannot fly constantly. Izuha can hover. Izuha is not immune to pressure changes, air changing or the cold, she can fly with people, but it’s limited to one or two people, she can “take off,” or fly super fast from the start, the slower she flys, the longer can, more quickly equal shorter flight time, she can do “super jumps,” ner flight is entirely self-propelled, she cannot make other things or people fly unaided, she can maneuver herself while flying unaided, she can go “super sonic” by pushing her hands forward into a diving position and then pushing them back in a breaststroke manner, this js taxing and can only be done 1-3 times, the pressure still affects her. Izuha likely developed her quirk at four but did not discover it until she was six when she let go of the swing at the park, and instead of falling, she floated. Izuha loves her quirk, she uses it all the time at home, floating above her bed, doing chores while in the air, flying down the stair instead of walking and just skimming around an inch or two off the ground, her mother loves it when she is younger, she would go up and spin her daughter in giant circles, as she grows it becomes fond exasperation. At first, Every birthday or special event, Inko would take her daughter indoor skydiving to help train her daughter on how to control herself while in the air. Still, then as she got older, its something Izuha would do every weekend. Once she is older, Izuha gets a job to help pay for this. Inko runs a family store, where she hand makes items and sells them online and In-store; while not relevant to the story, it’s related to Izuha, because she understands what’s it like living on a budget or just plain poor, Izuha is a big supporter of small business. Izuha also helps her mom out by being her social media manager, errand/post girl, and helps her with making some items. Izuha also wants to be a hero; she wants to help save people, but she is still aware of the money that comes in from it. One of her dreams is that once she gets famous enough, she can get her mom also the business she needs. Izuha is a bigger girl, she is thick before thick is accepted, her ass, waist, and breasts are all bigger, she fills out all the clothes she wears, and unless shes wearing an XL its never baggy, her mom always frets that Izuha is dressed too provocatively or noticeable. In the last year of elementary and throughout middle Izuha is bullied bc of her weight, nobody remembers her quirk developing late, so it’s not mentioned. But her being fat, working, and her average grades are all targets. Izuha works, so she does not have time to hero watch/ analyze in person; she has to watch online if she can at all, between working as a barista during the week, schoolwork and flying om the weekend, plus helping her mom, Izuha has very little time. Izuha does not have a good relationship with Katsuki, their parents are friends, and as such, they go over for dinner and other such activities. Still, it’s very awkward for Izuha. To Katsuki, she is an overweight extra that his parents make him deal with. He belittles her constantly and openly bullies her at school. Beyond that, it’s not until she is accepted into UA that he physically attacks her. He attacks the other student who got in also. From Class 3-B, Watanabe Hiro is accepted into the business class and holds the number 2 spot at the middle school. Izuha fights back when attacked and tells Katsuki to get off and to get the fuck away from me. After this incident, Izuha refuses to associate with him and thinks of him as an awful person. When he confronts her again, she tells him he will never be a hero and that if all he wants to do is kill people, then he should join the military and go fight there, “your an awful person all you do is bully people, you’ll never be a hero.” Izuha has a very poor view of the military; because Japan was allied with the USA, Britan and Russia attacked and killed million in South America, 50 years prior, and then tried to cover it up. Her maternal grandfather died fighting for what Izuha see’s as a pointless slaughter. Izuha is a very positive person; she is that way bc of her mother, who told her to take all the hate that she’s gotten and put out twice the positivity, to combat all the negativity with her positivity, Izuha is always hyping people up, or helping them, she always greets people with a smile, always willing to help. Even working in the service industry never got her down. Izuha favorite color is yellow. AT UA. Izuha hero suit is yellow and white, has wings for gliding, is a full-body, designed for pressure damage and change, comes with an eye mask, and a retractable breathing mask that is attached to an air tank with 6 hours worth of oxygen. Her shoes are knee-high and come with a minor heel. Her suit is designed to be as aerodynamic as possible. Her hero costume also comes with a parachute and two military-grade lifelines so that Izuha can attack her two people to her so that even if she drops them, they are still connected. ( her suit kind of looks like Evangelion) During the entrance exam Izuha passes with a decent grade, during the practical she gets 31 combat points and 20 rescue points from when she flies people to safety, she tries to help Uraraka but is unable to. The robot stops before it can step on either of them. She is placed in 1-A, and during the ranking event, she places 9th. The events that she kills it are the standing jump, the dash, the distance run. She pushes everyone back one. In the end, Hakagure places last, with Yuga in 19th and Mineta at 18th. Aizawa expelled no one, but gives the three notice, he tells Hakagure explicitly that her quirk has merit and she did better than the national average, but she must improve herself. The boys were also given a warning about their low scores. Izuha for her ball throw jumps into the air and through the ball while at the same time as propelling herself back downwards, her ball flys 500 meters, but unfortunately, Izuha lands outside the circle and thus renders her score useless. This, as well as her average toe touch, sitting reach, and sit-ups, lower her score. In the battle trails, Izuha is paired with Ojiro, who, instead of leaving Izuha to be targeted alone, tricks Katsuki into think they separated but instead knocks him out from behind. Izuha is friends with Asui, Hakagure, and Uraraka. Izuha and Uraraka are both “best friends” as both have similar backgrounds. They both take advantage of all of UA’s free services. As Izuha becomes closer with all her classmates and adjusts well to the school; Katsuki does not; in fact, he gets isolated for his bad attitude and reprimanded serval times, for his poor attitude and excessive use of force. Izuha is never alone, so Katsuki ends up burring all of the negative emotions, turning him into a time bomb. Izuha does end up having to quit her job, as UA proves to be more demanding of her time, she has to train more and study more. So instead of losing money, she spends extra time at the school using their gyms and facilities instead of trecking it to the city where the indoor skydiving is. Izuha and Uraraka both become tutors for the school, though, to help make more money. After the sports festival, Izuha is approached by All Might. She is picked along with six other people to be tested further. He is looking for his successor. She has to undergo Interviews, testing, and training to see if she would be the final candidate picked. From Class 1-A Izuha, Mezo Shoji and Ojiro are picked in 1-B Itsuka Kendo, Yui Kodai, and Hiryu Rin. None of them are aware of the identity of the others, but they are told it is going to be a year-long consideration. They each have to sign NDA’s, and they have to comply with a contract of silence. Izuha, as a person, is very determined. She sets goals for herself and works towards them regularly. She is also an honest person, she is sweet when talking but always gets the truth out. Her hard work, honesty, and pleasant personality plus her quirk (which is decent and would be a good one to pass down to the next user ) are what draw All Might attention to her. In the USJ, her willingness to fight and put herself in the face of adversity were all points in her favor. Her performance at the Sports festival is what secures her spot. She is a team worker, she did her best, and when she lost, she did so with dignity and grace. She always treated her opposition with the correct amount of tenacity and respect. All Might decided that he is not looking for the next number one hero, but a hero who is the truest to the title. Someone who the populous can look up to as a real hero and not just a celebrity. Why these six characters. Izuha is based on Izuku; she bears much of the same personality traits and ethics as Izuku. Mezo Shoji- is a reliable charter that is proven to be selfless and cares about the well being of others. Combined with his calm and rational demeanor, he is a solid choice for inheriting one for all. He as the psychical requirement to be able to inherit. Ojiro- Again a strong and reliable person. Calm in the face of danger, he fought off villains by himself while being surrendered by fire. He came out on top. He also has a background in martial arts. During the sports festival, he held himself to high standards and competed with respect. He is already physically able to hold one for all. Again a solid choice to be a hero, not just a celebrity. 1-B) Itsuka Kendo, Yui Kodai, and Hiryu Rin. All three have quirks that would be complementary to hand down with the rest of one for all. All three are also noted as being calm and caring people, with serious personalities and strong convictions. They are independently observed and deemed to be candidates.

[phandomphightclub]

Phinal Round, First Place Match: @reallydumbdannyphantomaus vs. @heyheyitsstillgay

The ring was repaved. Vic and Tali were back in their seats. Tucker had finally gotten some decent food.

Finally, finally, everything was ready for the final battle.

“Bug versus Anri, huh?” Tucker asked.  “Is it too late to place bets?”

“Who would you bet for?” Danny asked in return.

“Probably Bug, honestly,” he said after taking a big bite from his burger.  “They might be a pain, but they’re apparently pretty good.  Not a ton of ghosts can get the whole duplication thing down.”

“I’d still vote for Anri,” Sam argued.  “They’ve got more raw power.  Plus it looks like they have more abilities than they let on.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out who’s gonna win!”  Tali said brightly as the two ghosts once again entered the ring.

“Our phinal match here, pholks!  Winner gets all glory, honor, bragging rights, and a year’s supply of free Denny’s pancakes.”

“Really?”  Danny perked up at that.  The Denny’s might not have the greatest food, but their pancakes were pretty good.  And a year’s supply of free ones?  He might enter the tournament next time for that.

“Really!  So let’s get this phight started!  From the Observant’s Keep, a ghost who once tried to eat fake grass out of an escape room, we have Reallydumbdannyphantomaus!”

“That was one time!”  They shouted up at Tali, who just laughed.

“And their opponent from Nightmare Valley, a ghost with memes so dank they can’t be seen by the mortal eye, Heyheyitsstillgay!”

They waved to the crowd with a staff made entirely out of Danno faces.

“PHIGHT!”

Bug extended their PowerPoint staff like a lightsaber, red glow and all.  “Ready to finish this, binch?”

“I died ready.”

They two ghosts clashed over the freshly-paved center of the ring.  The Danno staff squealed each time it made contact with Bug’s PowerSaber.

“Is that, like, gonna burn your face too?”  Tucker asked Danny.  “Like some kind of voodoo or something?”

“Shut up, Tucker,” Sam said offhand, her entire attention glued to the fight.

Anri brought her Danno staff down in a heavy overhand blow, putting more of their extra-dense weight into the attack.  Bug blocked, using all four of their arms to hold up the PowerSaber.

“You… have strength, I’ll give you that,” Bug said through gritted teeth.  They couldn’t have blocked that attack if they’d used any of their energy on making duplicates; this was going to be tough.

“I’ve got more than that. I’ve been around longer than you can imagine,” They said, their face inches from Bug’s.  “My core is ancient and fueled by things you’ve only seen in your nightmares.”

“Your… core, huh?” Bug asked, getting an idea.  Twisting and diverting Anri’s staff, they slipped one hand free to punch them in the gut.  Anri grunted and gave Bug an opening to dart away.

“You’re not gonna break my core that easily,” Anri said, spinning her staff and coming back in swinging. Bug snapped theirs into two halves, blocking with one red-glowing half and striking Anri’s side with the other.

“I don’t plan on breaking it.”  Bug smirked. Then they plunged one half of the PowerSaber into Anri’s unprotected stomach.

Anri stopped for a moment, stunned at the wound – but then, as Danny knew would happen, the dark energy began coalescing around it.

“What’s Bug thinking?” He asked.  “They know Anri can’t be beat like that!”

“Why not?”  Sam asked.  That’s right, she and Tucker weren’t there for that match.

“They’ve got a special power.  Instead of being fueled by ectoplasm, the inside of their form is – well, just watch.”

The memes began to trickle from Anri’s stomach as they pulled out the Power Saber.

“You’re in for it now.” They grinned ominously.  But to their surprise, Bug grinned back and stabbed the half of the PowerSaber they had left into the ground.  The projector screen unfurled from it, casting blinding light onto Anri.

“That’s not going to—”

But blinding wasn’t what Bug had in mind.  The two halves of the saber created a link – one that siphoned the memes from Anri’s form and projected them onto the screen.

“What – no!”  Anri shouted, feeling their form begin to droop as it lost its power.  Bug folded two hands behind their back, using the other two to point to the presentation.

“And if you’ll look at this diagram, you’ll see the different types of memes that Anri contains broken down by type and percentage.  I would draw your attention to this slice of the pie chart, which depicts the percentage of bad Danno edits.  It’s unusually high in comparison to the other types of memes, though they are all equally impressive…”

“You can’t just – my memes – my PowerPoint slides – how can you take them from me!?”

Bug pointed to the half of the saber that Anri still held.  “You did that to yourself, my good binch.  You should’ve kept your hands to yourself.”

“NOOOOO!”

And with that last shout, Anri’s flesh prison deflated completely.  We won’t describe what that looked like, because we’re sure it’s already frightening enough, and probably wasn’t suitable for children to watch.  However, the Denny’s does not have insurance for psychic and/or emotional damage caused by exposure to any of the phights, so hopefully everyone could deal with it on their own, or had officially-licensed, non-Spectra therapists who could help them cope.

“Dude, are they gonna be okay?”  Tucker asked.

“Oh, Anri?”  Tali laughed.  “Don’t worry, they do that about once a century.  They’ll replace those memes with even worse ones and come back stronger than ever.  Kind of like molting, or something.  But in the meantime everyone can press F to pay respects.”

Danny looked down and saw a tiny button labeled F on the armrest of his chair.  He pressed it.

Tali blew her kazoo to the tune of Never Gonna Give You Up.  Every verse.  All three minutes and fifty-six seconds of it.  The crowd listened with their arms raised in a respectful dab.  Danny figured he might as well dab too, and eventually even Sam caught on to the mood and obliged.

When the song was over, Tali finally said the fated words.

“Heyheyitsstillgay is unable to battle!  Reallydumbdannyphantomaus wins!”

XXX

“Tucker!  Sam!  Wait!”  A voice called as Danny was about to fly them out of the Denny’s.

“Oh great.”  A resigned glare slid over Sam’s face as she turned to the ghost.  Of course, it had to be Bug.  The one ghost she’d wanted to see get their butt kicked, and it never even happened.

“What do you want?” Tucker grumbled.  “Come to make fun of us again?”

“No, well, actually…” Bug ruffled their blue hair with one hand, two others fidgeting in front of them. “I came to make up.  Here.”

With their last remaining hand, they held out three CDs, one for each of the friends.  Sam took hers with a critical glare.

“Exactly what you think?”  She read the title.  Bug’s signature was scrawled below it.

“It’s the song I wrote for the phinal.  As a friendship gift.”

“If I wanted some lame music, I would’ve gotten something signed by Ember.”

Danny elbowed her, and her she winced.  Okay, maybe it wasn’t fair to hold a grudge for something Bug said one time.  It wasn’t like they had to go out of the way to give them something.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “Thanks.”

“What song is it?” Tucker asked, a little more brightly. He’d never learned to hold a grudge like she did.

“You’ll see!”  They grinned.  “But if you want to know just how lame my music is before that, come watch the closing ceremonies of the Phight.”

“Closing ceremonies?” Danny asked.

“What, Tali didn’t tell you? She does forget a lot.  Anyway, we’re holding it out in the ring in a few minutes, if you’ve got time!  See ya!”

They flew back out of the Denny’s, leaving Danny, Tucker, and Sam confused.  They shared a glance, but figured they already knew what they’d be doing.

“So… who’s up for one last blast in the ghost zone?”

XXX

A few minutes later, the stadium was packed again, this time with ghosts holding candles over their heads. As Danny didn’t have a candle himself, he settled for lighting the tip of his finger and swaying it in time with the music that Bug began to sing.  Tali backed them up on kazoo, putting her soul into the tune’s melancholy air.

Oh Danno boy The phights, the phights are calling From den to den and through this portal side The show is on and all the blows are falling Tis you tis you must go and I must bide But bring ye back when Denny’s is reopened Or when the ring is hushed and in limbo It’s I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow Oh Danno boy oh Danno boy I love you so.

Danny turned at the sound of sniffling.

“What?”  Tucker asked, drying his eyes on his beret.  “It’s a very emotional song!”

Sam sighed and patted his shoulder, to which he mumbled a thank you.

Then slowly and more orderly than they had after any of the phights, the ghosts began to filter away. Almost like they too were mourning the end of a tournament that they’d all enjoyed.  As they left, Danny pondered the lyrics.

“Does this mean… the Denny’s is closing?”

“Only physically,” Tali said, suddenly appearing beside him.  “But in our hearts, the Denny’s is forever.”

“I’m not sure if that was sappy or ominous,” Sam said.

“Both.”  Tali smiled.  “We’ll still be around, but we’ll be on the downlow until the next Phight.”

“When’s that?”  Tucker asked.

“Next year, probably. It’s a lot of work to run a Phight Club on nothing but a few pancakes and the money we conned out of Vlad.  But don’t worry, it’ll come sooner than you know it!”

And somehow, in spite of all the crazy things that had happened in the past month of watching the Phight, Danny looked forward to it.

[creativerogues]

The Many Ways of Creating A Fighter: The Archer

Some Players get a lot of “Inappropriate Comments” when they say they’re playing a Fighter...

“Fighters are plain and boring! THEY’RE ALL THE SAME!”

Well to you, I say NAY!

And through this new little mini-series, I’m going to show you the many many many different types of the D&D Fighter...

...starting with one of the most popular visions of the Fighter: THE ARCHER!

Level 1

At first level, a Fighter must choose one of the many Fighting Style options.

Select the “Archery” Fighting Style

Archery: You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons.

The “Archery” Fighting Style has it in the name, it makes you better at Archery and attacking with Ranged Weapons such as Shortbows, Longbows and Crossbows.

This +2 bonus to attack rolls can help so much, especially at the lower tiers of play.

With Ranged Weapons being Dexterity Based when rolling for an Attack, this +2 bonus means that you can expect an average attack bonus of +6, and at higher levels it could reach numbers as high as +13 or higher...

Level 3

At third level, a Fighter chooses an archetype that they strive to emulate in their combat styles and techniques. 

The archetype you choose grants you a feature a 3rd level, and again at 7th, 10th, 15th, and 18th level.

Martial Archetype Choices

Arcane Archer

Arcane Archer Lore: At 3rd level, you choose to gain proficiency in either the Arcana or the Nature skill, and you choose to learn either the Prestidigitation or the Druidcraft cantrip.

Gaining an Extra Proficiency is VERY useful at low levels, and can really pay off at higher levels when your proficiency bonus reaches that all important +6. 

Both Prestidigitation and Druidcraft are incredibly versatile spells that offer a lot of options, from using Druidcraft to snuff out fires so you can hide to using Prestidigitation to soil the guards clothing so they have to go change, providing that moment of opportunity to sneak in...

Arcane Shot: You learn two Arcane Shot options of your choice. Once per turn, when you fire an arrow from a shortbow or longbow as part of the Attack action, you can apply one of your Arcane Shot options to that arrow. You decide to use the option when the arrow hits a creature, unless the option doesn't involve an attack roll.

You have two uses of this ability, and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a short or long rest. You gain an additional Arcane Shot option of your choice when you reach certain levels in this class: 7th, 10th, 15th, and 18th level.

This gives a great variety of options to your Archer Fighter. But notice that this Features says “when you fire an arrow from a shortbow or longbow”, so sadly crossbows aren’t good enough here...

Each option also improves when you become an 18th-level fighter, with most of your Arcane Shot options gaining the ability to do more damage.

Shot options like the Shadow Arrow and Seeking Arrow are very powerful and useful in combat, as almost zero creatures that you’re going to face will have resistance to both Psychic and Force Damage, meaning they’ll take the full force of your attacks. 

But remember..  You only have two uses of this ability, so use them wisely...

Magic Arrow: Whenever you fire a non-magical arrow from a shortbow or longbow, you can make it magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to non-magical attacks and damage.

Yet again, the ol’ “shortbow or longbow only” feature comes to nip us in the butt, so no arcane crossbow shooters here... 

But this ability is great as it means your Fighter doesn’t have to run around look for Magical Bows or Arrows,  so if you Fighter is going to be in a campaign with few or no magic items, this is absolutely essential!

Curving Shot: When you make an attack roll with a magic arrow and miss, you can use a bonus action to re-roll the attack roll against a different target within 60 feet of the original target.

This ability let’s your Fighter redirect a missed attack once per turn! 

However, this means on the same turn you can’t use Features like Second Wind to regain hit points, so there’s some sacrifice that comes with this amazing ability...

Ever-Ready Shot: If you roll initiative and have no uses of Arcane Shot remaining, you regain one use of it.

This final feature to the Arcane Archer now means that your Fighter can afford to use their signature ability, Arcane Shot, in every combat encounter. 

This is highly valuable as it no longer puts a huge restriction on the number of times per day Arcane Shot can be used...

Battle Master

Combat Superiority: You learn three special maneuvers. You can use only one maneuver per attack. Additionally, you start with four superiority dice, which are d8s, and you expend one whenever you use a maneuver.

This feature is the power behind this subclass, as almost all the other features of this subclass relate to your maneuvers.

However, the Battle Master’s maneuvers are great! Maneuvers like Precision Attack are great for your Archer Fighter, while other maneuvers like Parry and Rally allow your Archer Fighter to deflect damage and even heal allies.

And as you level up, your superiority dice go from d8′s to d10′s thanks to your 10th level “Improved Combat Superiority” feature, and eventually you get to turn those d10′s into d12′s with your 18th level feature.

So a possible +12 to the attack roll combined with your “Archery” Fighting Style could create a +25 to attack rolls, which is pretty good if you couldn’t tell...

Another great part to your “Combat Superiority” feature is the fact that your  Maneuver save DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice), and with your soon to be very high Dexterity modifier, your DC could reach 19 or higher at higher levels...

Student of War: You gain proficiency with one type of artisan's tool of your choice.

This feature is more of a ribbon ability, since the use of artisan’s tools probably won't matter much to the game as a whole...

Know Your Enemy: If you spend 1 minute observing or interacting with another creature outside of combat, you can learn certain information about its capabilities compared to your own. 

The DM tells you if the creature is your equal, superior, or inferior in regard to two of the following characteristics of your choice:

Strength score

Dexterity score

Constitution score

Armor Class

Current hit points

Total class levels (if any)

Fighter class levels (if any)

This feature won't be coming into play in most social or combat encounters, but it's a great feature to use while your big bad evil villain of the campaign is talking smack about you while you study them...

Relentless: Whenever you roll for initiative and have zero superiority dice, you get 1 superiority die back.

This final feature is very much like the Arcane Archer’s final feature, but this feature still ensures that you always have at least one superiority die ready, so you don't have to stress over using your last die before the day is over...

Champion

Improved Critical: Your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.

Mathematically speaking, this increases your chance for double damage on an attack from a measly 5% to a much healthier 10%, which in theory means you’ll be doing double damage on a ranged weapon attack about every 1 in 10 attacks.

And this feature becomes even deadlier with certain feats like Lucky, which let’s you re-roll an attack roll, making it an even higher chance of critically hitting a creature...

Remarkable Athlete: You can add half your proficiency bonus (rounded up) to any Strength, Dexterity or Constitution check you make that doesn't already use your proficiency bonus. 

In addition, when you make a running long jump, the distance you can cover increases by a number of feet equal to your Strength modifier.

This is great as it not only adds a possible +3 to Dexterity checks you’re not proficient in, but it also adds half your proficiency bonus to Strength and Constitution checks you’re not proficient in, making this feature much more useful...

Remember, it’s rounded up, so at level 7 (the level you get this feature), that's a +2 in Acrobatics, Athletics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, and several other skills if you’re not proficient in them... 

Additional Fighting Style: At 10th level, you can choose a second option from the Fighting Style class feature.

This is huge! Not only do you get the “Archery” Fighting Style, but you gain an additional fighting style.

Defense, Two-Weapon Fighting, any of these options are available to you.

However, you can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again. So no double Archery...

In my opinion, I think the Defense Fighting Style is the best option, since your Fighter is going to be a ranged attacker, so many of the Fighting Styles like Dueling and Great Weapon Fighting aren’t helpful. Protection requires you to wield a shield, which means you can’t fire a bow, which completely defeats the point of this. 

Two-Weapon Fighting is pretty nice for those who want to be able to defend themselves for long enough to run away and fire their ranged weapon. But remember that the Defense Fighting Style works with any armor, for a potential 18 to 19 Armor Class...

Superior Critical: Your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 18-20.

Another great ability that increases your chance for double damage on an attack from an already healthy 10% to a whopping 15%!

And with the potential for 8 Attacks during your turn (with thanks to Action Surge), that’s at least 1 attack becoming a critical hit.

And if you gain advantage on your attacks, or have certain feats like Lucky, this percentage chance gets even bigger!

Survivor: At the start of each of your turns, you regain hit points equal to 5 + your constitution modifier if you have no more than half of your hit points left. You don't gain this benefit if you have 0 hit points.

This feature is fantastic in that it’ll keep your Archer Fighter alive!

Combine this with your many many many attacks at higher levels and your high crit chance and you’re looking at a serious threat on the battlefield...

Samurai

Bonus Proficiency: You gain proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: History, Insight, Performance, or Persuasion. Alternatively, you learn one language of your choice.

Gaining an Extra Proficiency is useful at low levels, and really pays off at higher levels when your proficiency bonus increases to that all powerful +6.

This combined with an additional language makes your Archer Fighter great both in and out of combat.

Fighting Spirit: As a bonus action on your turn, you can give yourself advantage on weapon attack rolls until the end of the current turn. When you do so, you also gain 5 temporary hit points.

This is great, combining this with the many attacks the Samurai Archer Fighter gets at higher levels, advantage on all those attacks can become AMAZING!

The extra temporary hit points is just the juicy cherry on top of the cake!

Elegant Courtier: Whenever you make a Charisma (Persuasion) check, you gain a bonus to the check equal to your Wisdom modifier. 

You also gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws. If you already have this proficiency, you instead gain proficiency in Intelligence or Charisma saving throws (your choice).

An extra saving throw proficiency is SO GREAT! This combined with the Resilient Feat means your Archer could become proficient in 4 of the 6 Saving Throws!

And the potential for a +5 or even +6 to a Charisma (Persuasion) check at higher levels, added on to your possibly already high Persuasion, could create some BIG numbers...

Tireless Spirit: Starting at 10th level, when you roll initiative and have no uses of Fighting Spirit remaining, you regain one use.

This feature is very much like the Battle Master’s and Arcane Archer’s final features, except you gain this feature of the samurai at 10th level. 

This feature means that you should plan to begin every fight with Fighting Spirit. Come out swinging, and do a lot of damage up front by combining this feature with features like Action Surge and your Archery Fighting Style...

Rapid Strike: If you take the Attack action on your turn and have advantage on an attack roll against one of the targets, you can forgo the advantage for that roll to make an additional weapon attack against that target, as part of the same action. You can only do so once per turn. 

ANOTHER EXTRA ATTACK! GEEEZ!

This combined with Action Surge and Fighting Spirit, as well as your possible +13 to Ranged Weapon Attacks, means you could be doing 9 Attacks in 1 turn, with 7 of those attacks having advantage.

(Or you could just have the Lucky Feat and basically get advantage on every attack... you know... ‘cause why not...)

Strength Before Death: If you take damage that reduces you to 0 hit points and doesn't kill you outright, you can use your reaction to delay falling unconscious and immediately take an extra turn. 

While you have 0 hit points during that extra turn, taking damage causes death saving throw failures as normal, and three death saving throw failures can still kill you. 

When the extra turn ends, you fall unconscious if you still have 0 hit points. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

An entire turn... AN ENTIRE EXTRA TURN!!! 

Drink a potion, use Second Wind, use a racial trait or feat, just use something to get you some hit points and keep you conscious. 

Otherwise, take the Attack action and get revenge!!!! AHAHAHAHA!

Levels 4, 6, 8, 12, 14, 16 and 19

When you reach 4th level, and again at 6th, 8th, 12th, 14th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two Ability Scores of your choice by 1. 

As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature, and you can forgo taking that feature to take a feat of your choice instead.

Feats helpful for Archers

Athlete: Increase your Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.

Alert: You gain a +5 bonus to initiative.

Lucky: Whenever you make an attack roll, you can spend 1 luck point to roll another d20. You choose which of the d20s is used for the attack roll.

Magic Initiate: Choose bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard. You learn 3 spells from that class’s spell list.

Martial Adept: You learn two maneuvers of your choice from among those available to the Battle Master archetype in the fighter class. If you already have superiority dice, you gain one more. 

Resilient (Dexterity): Increase your Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20. You gain proficiency in Dexterity saving throws.

Sharpshooter: Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attack’s damage.

Skilled: You gain proficiency in any combination of 3 skills of your choice.

Skulker: When you are hidden from a creature and miss it with a ranged weapon attack, making the attack doesn't reveal your position.

Racial Feats helpful for Archers

Dragon Hide: Your scales harden. While you aren't wearing armor, you can calculate your AC as 13 + your Dexterity modifier.

Elven Accuracy: Increase your Dexterity by 1, to a maximum of 20. Whenever you have advantage on an attack roll using Dexterity, you can re-roll one of the dice once.

Orcish Fury: When you hit with an attack made with a simple or martial weapon, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice an additional time and add it as extra damage of the weapon’s damage type. 

Squat Nimbleness: Increase your Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20. Increase your walking speed by 5 feet. You gain proficiency in the Acrobatics skill.

[gosecretscribbles]

Forduary 2019 Week 4 - Family

Summary:

Filbrick is suffering from jerk-itis. Ford is just plain suffering. SO MA SWOOPS IN TO SAVE THE DAY!!

Final Forduary fic!! LET'S DO THIS PEOPLE!!!!

First fic AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17957654

Second fic AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18000998

Third AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18001061

This fic AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18001190

There was a knock at the door. Ford stayed at his desk. That's where he'd been all morning after they came home. Stan had left the room and Ford had locked it behind him, along with a little extra reinforcement. He didn't want to see or talk to anyone. Not Ma, not even Stan, and especially not his father.

The knock came again.

“Ford, sweetie.”

“I'm not hungry, Ma.”

“Good, 'cuz I didn't make anything anyway. Open the door.”

“I'm busy.”

“What a coincidence! I'm pretty busy, myself. In fact, I'm just taking a break from painting the Stan O' War's name in cherry-red nail polish. Thought that hunk of driftwood needed a spot of color!”

“Ma, that would be a lot more convincing if you hadn't said the same thing last week. And Stan hadn't buried your whole supply of nail polish just in case.”

“Honey...”

“Forget it, I'm not coming out.”

“Fine.”

A pause.

“Could you at least tell me where he buried –”

“No!”

  Stan was next. He banged on the door.

“Open up or I'll pick the lock!”

“Feel free. I'm using magnets to hold the door shut.”

“Psh. I'll just spray water at 'em.”

“Water doesn't deactivate magnets, Stan.”

“Sure it does!”

“No, that would take – ohhh, no you don't.”

“C'mooon, I left my deodorant in there! Do you know how smelly I'm gonna get?”

“As smelly as usual, since you never wear it.”

“I do too wear it!”

“Stanley, please, go away.”

  Ford had been sitting at his desk for a few hours now, writing an article on how he had solved Fermat's Last Theorem. He already had a few scholastic journals in mind where he could submit it for publication. Scientific Minds was the most likely to publish it. IQ Icons and Great Minds would be the next ones on his list. There were even a couple if articles from Great Minds he was directly referencing in the article he was writing. His near-perfect memory allowed him to quote and cite the article without needing to reference it. Which was certainly of benefit, especially now that he no longer had –

His hand shook so badly the pencil slipped out of his fingers and hit the ground.

He took several deep breaths, eyes closed. He could practically hear Crampelter's jabs about his twelve butterfingers, his father barking at him to get his head out of his books and man up.

It didn't matter. It didn't matter. It didn't matter.

He picked up his pencil, slowly, and kept writing. It was hard to ignore the stinging in his eyes, the way it was suddenly hard to swallow.

  Something screeched outside Ford's door. He glanced up to make sure they hadn't looped wire around the hinges of the bedroom door to saw it off. Not that he thought Ma would vandalize her own house, but Stan definitely would.

The door was fine. He returned to his work.

The screeching came again. And he heard the unmistakable sound of...giggles?

Ford looked up again, frowning. It sounded like Ma and Stan. What were they doing out there, setting up a booby trap? No, that would ensure stayed in his room, not leave it.

He could hear Stan guffawing and his mother shushing him. More dragging, then the sounds moved down the hall. They hadn't so much as knocked on his door.

Well, good. He was nearly finished with his article anyway and didn't want any distractions. If they'd found something else to focus on, so much the better for him.

More thumping. Then an actual peal of laughter.

What on earth were they doing?

Ford went to the door and listened, but it was just as muffled as it had been from his desk. He paused, debating. Then he pressed a button on the side of the magnets and opened the door.

“Hello?”

There was no answer.

He moved cautiously, checking the other bedroom and the upstairs bathroom and even the closet. But of course they weren't there. Everything looked pretty normal, although the beams they'd been using to prop up the closet ceiling were gone. It was already starting to sag; they hadn't had the money to fix the water damage last year.

He went downstairs.

“Ma? Stanley?”

He checked the kitchen and the living room, but both were empty. Then he realized the sounds were coming from the Pawn Shop.

He stopped outside the connecting door. He could hear their muffled voices. Stan sounded the way he did when he was about to pull off a seriously good prank, and Ma was about to rake in the cash from a gullible client. He couldn't hear his father's voice, but then again, his father was less than talkative. Maybe Filbrick wasn't in there. Maybe he was.

Ford's stomach was starting to bother him. He turned to go back upstairs.

CRASH!

“OW!”

Ford rushed through the door. “Ma! Stan! Are you – are...what are you doing?”

They'd dragged Ma's Crystal Ball booth into the Pawn Shop, along with beams from the upstairs closet. The long wood planks were now leaned against the top of the booth and covered in pink- and purple-spotted cloth, creating the effect of a very large, very garish tent. The whole thing scraped the ceiling and almost completely filled the shop floor. The tent's entrance was even pushed right up against the shop door, so anyone stepping into the shop would walk immediately into the booth.

Ma was sitting on the floor, a purple shawl draped over her shoulders, a spare beam on the ground next to her.

Stan poked his head out from under the tent and grinned. “Like it? I stole the curtains outta Ms. Wright's house down the block! A few splotches of paint and they look all weird and mysterious and completely unrecognizable to a prior owner!”

Ma rose elegantly to her feet and sashayed over to Ford, spreading her arms. The shawl made her look almost regal.

“Like it, sweetheart? Gotta look the part! Today we're puttin' on a Psychic Special!”

“What, here?” He stared at them, then at the tent. “But – what about Pop?”

Ma snorted. “Out running a few errands for me.”

“During shop hours?”

“A woman can be very persuasive.”

“Yeah!” Stan grinned and started wiggling out from under the tent. “You shoulda seen 'er, Sixer, it was hilarious! She scared him so bad Pops looked like he'd –”

“Watch it!”

Ford leaped forward and shoved at the side of the booth before it could topple over. Stan shouted and scrambled back into the tent. Ma rushed to help and the two of them managed to stabilize it just as Stan squeezed between the front of the tent and the Pawn Shop windows.

“I thought we finally got it to hold still,” Ma grumbled.

Ford lifted the cloth around the booth and checked underneath. “Ma, you know the wheels of this booth are uneven, right? On a boardwalk we can usually find boards that provide sufficient lift to the back right one so it's stable, but here you'll need to put something underneath the wheel if you want it stable. And wedge-shaped stoppers won't work very well on wheels that swivel; you'll need something like cement blocks to immobilize them completely.”

“I can grab some offa Smither's back wall,” Stan offered.

“Fine.” Ford stood up.

“Wait!” Ma grabbed him as he started to move.

“Ma, you've already got Stanley to help. I really don't want to be here when Pop –”

“No, no, watch your footing! You almost stepped on those and I barely got 'em rigged the way I wanted.” She pointed to a series of wires taped to the floor. They led straight up the top of the tent and inside. Three of the wires had no rubber seal and were throwing sparks.

“Ma! You can't use wires like that, you're gonna burn the house down!”

“A little extra fireworks will just add to the spooky effects!”

“Not like that! Here –”

He squatted down, unplugged the wires from the wall and began untangling them. Ma handed him a few extra wires from one of the Pawn Shop's shelves and he quickly replaced them, tossing the old wires and then taping down the new ones so no one would trip over them. By the time he was done, Stanley had left and come back with four cinderblocks, a few small white pipes, and a disco ball.

“For ambiance!” he said, holding up the ball.

Ford eyed him. “Do I even want to know where you got –”

“Nope!”

Obviously the disco ball would have the most effect inside the booth, so Stan drilled a hole in a bottom corner of the booth and Ford threaded the wires through. Then he took a few of the plastic pipes Stan had brought, drizzled them in white-dry superglue, and rigged them with the wires and a few lightbulbs so they looked like flickering candles. They placed them around the tiny table and chairs inside, and Stan hooked up the disco ball directly above the table. Ma covered it with a sheer pink veil and set her Crystal Ball on the table as the centerpiece. When Ford turned on the candles, it created a mysterious, yet oddly soothing dappled effect, which set off the crystal ball so perfectly it almost looked like it was glowing.

Ma stepped over and polished it with the end of her shawl. “Hey, you think we could get this baby to float? That would really freak out my customers! I'd have them paying through the nose just to keep me from cursing them!”

Stan laughed.

“Sure, Ma, I...” His voice trailed off. It had just occurred to him what he was doing. Wasn't this exactly what had gotten him in trouble in the first place? Did he want to find out what else would be taken away?

“I should go.” He stood up. His chest felt unbearably heavy.

Ma squinted at him. “I know that look, Stanford Pines, don't you start thinking what I think you're thinking. You just said you could make me float and I expect to float.”

Stan snorted. “Just do it, Sixer, you know she'll wear you down sooner or later.”

“No, I can't, I have homework.”

“Thought you finished it all.”

Ma suddenly reached out and rapped Ford hard on the head.

“Ow!”

“Didn't think it was hollow,” she said with satisfaction. “StanfordFilbrick lives in this house, Stanford, but he certainly doesn't live in your head, so don't give him the space. Now you have a brain and I am expecting brain things to happen so that I can float and rake in enough money to buy my own beauty salon, capiche?”

"I..."

Stan caught his eye and gave him a Look, which very clearly said: We like you just the way you are.

“...could use the magnets I have upstairs," Ford said slowly, rubbing his head. "Actually, Ma, if you want I could get you to float.”

“Oooh, yes! Can we rig a fan for extra-spooky effects? And lights!”

“Sure! Stan, help me with the chair.” They moved around her to the opposite side of the table and Ford crouched, checking the floor. “Yep, here's the loose board. And the chair's bottom looks wide enough. Let me run upstairs and grab a couple –”

“What are you doing?!”

Ford's head snapped up.

Filbrick filled the doorway. He had bags under each arm. After being in the tent for so long, the sunlight behind him scorched Ford's retinas, turning his father into a hulking shadow. Ford's heart pounded. Blood roared in his ears. His hands shook. Stan was holding perfectly still next to him. He was glaring bloody murder at their father, but neither brother said a word.

Ma just leaned against the table with one arm and grinned. “Perfect timing! How do you like it?”

“What did those boys –”

“Filbrick, dear.” Ma's tone was sweet as iced poison. She stepped towards him. “I thought we'd do a little Psychic Special in the Pawn Shop today. Complete with the tent and a few extra-special effects. And if you have any objection to that, Fil, you know exactly where you'll be sleeping for the next three months. I'm almost hoping you forgot to fix the faucet in the bathtub.”

For a second nobody moved. The pressure in the air was like a coiled spring. Ma and Pop stared each other down, trading fire.

Then Pop dropped the bags and they hit the floor so suddenly that Ford jumped and nearly fell over. Stan grabbed him. Their father turned and stalked out of the shop, muttering furiously about having to use the employee's entrance to get into his own business.

Ma shook her head at the bags. “Men and their little victories,” she sniffed, then glanced back at Ford. “Well? The magnets?”

He looked at her blankly. “Magnets?”

“Yes, Stanford, magnets! So that I can charge customers for checking above my head for strings and then scare them with my spooky witch powers!”

Stan burst out laughing. All the tension drained out of Ford and he laughed, too, much harder than the joke warranted.

“Don't laugh yet, you two.” Ma grinned, reached into one of the bags and held up a slippery-looking purple cloth. “Every witch needs a few good servants!”

Stan groaned. “Oh, Ma!”

“Don't you 'Oh, Ma' me! Busted ribs don't prevent you from getting dressed! Now throw this on and Ford I'd better see some magnets under my butt pronto! Move it, people, we got clients to fleece!”

They moved. Ford didn't even have time to think about their father, scowling behind his counter at the back of the tent. Ma had him running up and down the stairs getting everything he needed to make the table, chair, and ball float with the merest push of a button. Stan changed into a costume very similar to Ma's, except that while it made her look like a vision of shimmering lavender that floated in her wake, it turned him into a very soggy bird.

“Don't you even,” Stan threatened, when Ford saw it. He had to stuff his fist in his mouth to keep from laughing.

Ma sewed an extra and almost-invisible flap of cloth at the back of the tent, so Ford could scrunch up and hide while he operated the magnets. When the shop opened at 9, Stan stood on the sidewalk, shouting compliments and insults at people until they entered the shop-slash-tent. At that point Ford lit the electric candles, so realistic they actually flickered, and Ma gave the best performance Ford had ever seen, telling the most outrageous prophecies in a spooky voice that actually gave him goosebumps. When she gave the cue for him to activate the magnets, every single customer was just about ready to wet their pants. Or at the very least empty them of all the cash they had in their pockets.

Filbrick, for his part, didn't say a word, reduced to fuming silently at the back of the tent. For once, Ford didn't even give him a passing thought.

Especially after Ma and Stan stuffed fifty dollars into Ford's hands at the end of the day. For books.

A/N: Stan, of course, immediately demanded 60 dollars - the extra ten being emotional compensation for wearing the soggy bird costume.

Honestly the best part of this fic was imagining the tent RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PAWN SHOP SO IT'S IN FILBRICK’S FACE ALL DAY. (“Teach HIM to take my baby's books!” - Ma)

[forduary]

Forduary 2019 Week 4 - Family

Summary:

Filbrick is suffering from jerk-itis. Ford is just plain suffering. SO MA SWOOPS IN TO SAVE THE DAY!!

Final Forduary fic!! LET’S DO THIS PEOPLE!!!!

First fic AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17957654

Second fic AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18000998

Third AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18001061

This fic AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18001190

There was a knock at the door. Ford stayed at his desk. That’s where he’d been all morning after they came home. Stan had left the room and Ford had locked it behind him, along with a little extra reinforcement. He didn’t want to see or talk to anyone. Not Ma, not even Stan, and especially not his father.

The knock came again.

“Ford, sweetie.”

“I’m not hungry, Ma.”

“Good, ‘cuz I didn’t make anything anyway. Open the door.”

“I’m busy.”

“What a coincidence! I’m pretty busy, myself. In fact, I’m just taking a break from painting the Stan O’ War’s name in cherry-red nail polish. Thought that hunk of driftwood needed a spot of color!”

“Ma, that would be a lot more convincing if you hadn’t said the same thing last week. And Stan hadn’t buried your whole supply of nail polish just in case.”

“Honey…”

“Forget it, I’m not coming out.”

“Fine.”

A pause.

“Could you at least tell me where he buried –”

“No!”

Stan was next. He banged on the door.

“Open up or I’ll pick the lock!”

“Feel free. I’m using magnets to hold the door shut.”

“Psh. I’ll just spray water at ‘em.”

“Water doesn’t deactivate magnets, Stan.”

“Sure it does!”

“No, that would take – ohhh, no you don’t.”

“C'mooon, I left my deodorant in there! Do you know how smelly I’m gonna get?”

“As smelly as usual, since you never wear it.”

“I do too wear it!”

“Stanley, please, go away.”

Ford had been sitting at his desk for a few hours now, writing an article on how he had solved Fermat’s Last Theorem. He already had a few scholastic journals in mind where he could submit it for publication. Scientific Minds was the most likely to publish it. IQ Icons and Great Minds would be the next ones on his list. There were even a couple if articles from Great Minds he was directly referencing in the article he was writing. His near-perfect memory allowed him to quote and cite the article without needing to reference it. Which was certainly of benefit, especially now that he no longer had –

His hand shook so badly the pencil slipped out of his fingers and hit the ground.

He took several deep breaths, eyes closed. He could practically hear Crampelter’s jabs about his twelve butterfingers, his father barking at him to get his head out of his books and man up.

It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter.

He picked up his pencil, slowly, and kept writing. It was hard to ignore the stinging in his eyes, the way it was suddenly hard to swallow.

Something screeched outside Ford’s door. He glanced up to make sure they hadn’t looped wire around the hinges of the bedroom door to saw it off. Not that he thought Ma would vandalize her own house, but Stan definitely would.

The door was fine. He returned to his work.

The screeching came again. And he heard the unmistakable sound of…giggles?

Ford looked up again, frowning. It sounded like Ma and Stan. What were they doing out there, setting up a booby trap? No, that would ensure stayed in his room, not leave it.

He could hear Stan guffawing and his mother shushing him. More dragging, then the sounds moved down the hall. They hadn’t so much as knocked on his door.

Well, good. He was nearly finished with his article anyway and didn’t want any distractions. If they’d found something else to focus on, so much the better for him.

More thumping. Then an actual peal of laughter.

What on earth were they doing?

Ford went to the door and listened, but it was just as muffled as it had been from his desk. He paused, debating. Then he pressed a button on the side of the magnets and opened the door.

“Hello?”

There was no answer.

He moved cautiously, checking the other bedroom and the upstairs bathroom and even the closet. But of course they weren’t there. Everything looked pretty normal, although the beams they’d been using to prop up the closet ceiling were gone. It was already starting to sag; they hadn’t had the money to fix the water damage last year.

He went downstairs.

“Ma? Stanley?”

He checked the kitchen and the living room, but both were empty. Then he realized the sounds were coming from the Pawn Shop.

He stopped outside the connecting door. He could hear their muffled voices. Stan sounded the way he did when he was about to pull off a seriously good prank, and Ma was about to rake in the cash from a gullible client. He couldn’t hear his father’s voice, but then again, his father was less than talkative. Maybe Filbrick wasn’t in there. Maybe he was.

Ford’s stomach was starting to bother him. He turned to go back upstairs.

CRASH!

“OW!”

Ford rushed through the door. “Ma! Stan! Are you – are…what are you doing?”

They’d dragged Ma’s Crystal Ball booth into the Pawn Shop, along with beams from the upstairs closet. The long wood planks were now leaned against the top of the booth and covered in pink- and purple-spotted cloth, creating the effect of a very large, very garish tent. The whole thing scraped the ceiling and almost completely filled the shop floor. The tent’s entrance was even pushed right up against the shop door, so anyone stepping into the shop would walk immediately into the booth.

Ma was sitting on the floor, a purple shawl draped over her shoulders, a spare beam on the ground next to her.

Stan poked his head out from under the tent and grinned. “Like it? I stole the curtains outta Ms. Wright’s house down the block! A few splotches of paint and they look all weird and mysterious and completely unrecognizable to a prior owner!”

Ma rose elegantly to her feet and sashayed over to Ford, spreading her arms. The shawl made her look almost regal.

“Like it, sweetheart? Gotta look the part! Today we’re puttin’ on a Psychic Special!”

“What, here?” He stared at them, then at the tent. “But – what about Pop?”

Ma snorted. “Out running a few errands for me.”

“During shop hours?”

“A woman can be very persuasive.”

“Yeah!” Stan grinned and started wiggling out from under the tent. “You shoulda seen 'er, Sixer, it was hilarious! She scared him so bad Pops looked like he’d –”

“Watch it!”

Ford leaped forward and shoved at the side of the booth before it could topple over. Stan shouted and scrambled back into the tent. Ma rushed to help and the two of them managed to stabilize it just as Stan squeezed between the front of the tent and the Pawn Shop windows.

“I thought we finally got it to hold still,” Ma grumbled.

Ford lifted the cloth around the booth and checked underneath. “Ma, you know the wheels of this booth are uneven, right? On a boardwalk we can usually find boards that provide sufficient lift to the back right one so it’s stable, but here you’ll need to put something underneath the wheel if you want it stable. And wedge-shaped stoppers won’t work very well on wheels that swivel; you’ll need something like cement blocks to immobilize them completely.”

“I can grab some offa Smither’s back wall,” Stan offered.

“Fine.” Ford stood up.

“Wait!” Ma grabbed him as he started to move.

“Ma, you’ve already got Stanley to help. I really don’t want to be here when Pop –”

“No, no, watch your footing! You almost stepped on those and I barely got 'em rigged the way I wanted.” She pointed to a series of wires taped to the floor. They led straight up the top of the tent and inside. Three of the wires had no rubber seal and were throwing sparks.

“Ma! You can’t use wires like that, you’re gonna burn the house down!”

“A little extra fireworks will just add to the spooky effects!”

“Not like that! Here –”

He squatted down, unplugged the wires from the wall and began untangling them. Ma handed him a few extra wires from one of the Pawn Shop’s shelves and he quickly replaced them, tossing the old wires and then taping down the new ones so no one would trip over them. By the time he was done, Stanley had left and come back with four cinderblocks, a few small white pipes, and a disco ball.

“For ambiance!” he said, holding up the ball.

Ford eyed him. “Do I even want to know where you got –”

“Nope!”

Obviously the disco ball would have the most effect inside the booth, so Stan drilled a hole in a bottom corner of the booth and Ford threaded the wires through. Then he took a few of the plastic pipes Stan had brought, drizzled them in white-dry superglue, and rigged them with the wires and a few lightbulbs so they looked like flickering candles. They placed them around the tiny table and chairs inside, and Stan hooked up the disco ball directly above the table. Ma covered it with a sheer pink veil and set her Crystal Ball on the table as the centerpiece. When Ford turned on the candles, it created a mysterious, yet oddly soothing dappled effect, which set off the crystal ball so perfectly it almost looked like it was glowing.

Ma stepped over and polished it with the end of her shawl. “Hey, you think we could get this baby to float? That would really freak out my customers! I’d have them paying through the nose just to keep me from cursing them!”

Stan laughed.

“Sure, Ma, I…” His voice trailed off. It had just occurred to him what he was doing. Wasn’t this exactly what had gotten him in trouble in the first place? Did he want to find out what else would be taken away?

“I should go.” He stood up. His chest felt unbearably heavy.

Ma squinted at him. “I know that look, Stanford Pines, don’t you start thinking what I think you’re thinking. You just said you could make me float and I expect to float.”

Stan snorted. “Just do it, Sixer, you know she’ll wear you down sooner or later.”

“No, I can’t, I have homework.”

“Thought you finished it all.”

Ma suddenly reached out and rapped Ford hard on the head.

“Ow!”

“Didn’t think it was hollow,” she said with satisfaction. “StanfordFilbrick lives in this house, Stanford, but he certainly doesn’t live in your head, so don’t give him the space. Now you have a brain and I am expecting brain things to happen so that I can float and rake in enough money to buy my own beauty salon, capiche?”

“I…”

Stan caught his eye and gave him a Look, which very clearly said: We like you just the way you are.

“…could use the magnets I have upstairs,“ Ford said slowly, rubbing his head. “Actually, Ma, if you want I could get you to float.”

“Oooh, yes! Can we rig a fan for extra-spooky effects? And lights!”

“Sure! Stan, help me with the chair.” They moved around her to the opposite side of the table and Ford crouched, checking the floor. “Yep, here’s the loose board. And the chair’s bottom looks wide enough. Let me run upstairs and grab a couple –”

“What are you doing?!”

Ford’s head snapped up.

Filbrick filled the doorway. He had bags under each arm. After being in the tent for so long, the sunlight behind him scorched Ford’s retinas, turning his father into a hulking shadow. Ford’s heart pounded. Blood roared in his ears. His hands shook. Stan was holding perfectly still next to him. He was glaring bloody murder at their father, but neither brother said a word.

Ma just leaned against the table with one arm and grinned. “Perfect timing! How do you like it?”

“What did those boys –”

“Filbrick, dear.” Ma’s tone was sweet as iced poison. She stepped towards him. “I thought we’d do a little Psychic Special in the Pawn Shop today. Complete with the tent and a few extra-special effects. And if you have any objection to that, Fil, you know exactly where you’ll be sleeping for the next three months. I’m almost hoping you forgot to fix the faucet in the bathtub.”

For a second nobody moved. The pressure in the air was like a coiled spring. Ma and Pop stared each other down, trading fire.

Then Pop dropped the bags and they hit the floor so suddenly that Ford jumped and nearly fell over. Stan grabbed him. Their father turned and stalked out of the shop, muttering furiously about having to use the employee’s entrance to get into his own business.

Ma shook her head at the bags. “Men and their little victories,” she sniffed, then glanced back at Ford. “Well? The magnets?”

He looked at her blankly. “Magnets?”

“Yes, Stanford, magnets! So that I can charge customers for checking above my head for strings and then scare them with my spooky witch powers!”

Stan burst out laughing. All the tension drained out of Ford and he laughed, too, much harder than the joke warranted.

“Don’t laugh yet, you two.” Ma grinned, reached into one of the bags and held up a slippery-looking purple cloth. “Every witch needs a few good servants!”

Stan groaned. “Oh, Ma!”

“Don’t you 'Oh, Ma’ me! Busted ribs don’t prevent you from getting dressed! Now throw this on and Ford I’d better see some magnets under my butt pronto! Move it, people, we got clients to fleece!”

They moved. Ford didn’t even have time to think about their father, scowling behind his counter at the back of the tent. Ma had him running up and down the stairs getting everything he needed to make the table, chair, and ball float with the merest push of a button. Stan changed into a costume very similar to Ma’s, except that while it made her look like a vision of shimmering lavender that floated in her wake, it turned him into a very soggy bird.

“Don’t you even,” Stan threatened, when Ford saw it. He had to stuff his fist in his mouth to keep from laughing.

Ma sewed an extra and almost-invisible flap of cloth at the back of the tent, so Ford could scrunch up and hide while he operated the magnets. When the shop opened at 9, Stan stood on the sidewalk, shouting compliments and insults at people until they entered the shop-slash-tent. At that point Ford lit the electric candles, so realistic they actually flickered, and Ma gave the best performance Ford had ever seen, telling the most outrageous prophecies in a spooky voice that actually gave him goosebumps. When she gave the cue for him to activate the magnets, every single customer was just about ready to wet their pants. Or at the very least empty them of all the cash they had in their pockets.

Filbrick, for his part, didn’t say a word, reduced to fuming silently at the back of the tent. For once, Ford didn’t even give him a passing thought.

Especially after Ma and Stan stuffed fifty dollars into Ford’s hands at the end of the day. For books.

A/N: Stan, of course, immediately demanded 60 dollars - the extra ten being emotional compensation for wearing the soggy bird costume.

Honestly the best part of this fic was imagining the tent RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PAWN SHOP SO IT’S IN FILBRICK’S FACE ALL DAY. (“Teach HIM to take my baby’s books!” - Ma)

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #58: Tamamo Cat

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making Chaldea’s favorite pet of indeterminate origin, Tamamo Cat! This strangely furry chef is an incredibly speedy fighter, zooming around the battlefield to deliver delicious treats and lots of scratches.

Check out the level-by-level breakdown below the cut, or the build summary over here!

Race and Background

Tamamo Cat is-as her name would suggest-a dog, so the closest fit for her is a Tabaxi. This gives you +2 Dexterity and +1 Charisma. You also get 60′ of Darkvision, Feline Agility, letting you double your speed for a turn. To recharge it, you have to take a nap and move 0 feet. Your Cat’s Claws give you a climbing speed of 20′, and you can deal 1d4 plus your strenght modifier in slashing damage instead of other unarmed attack damages. Finally, Dog’s Talent gives you proficiency in Perception and Stealth. You’re not really that subtle, but nobody pays attention to the comedy characters.

“Altered clone of a level 20 character” isn’t a background, but it is a traumatic event, so I’d call you a Haunted One. The only skills they have that match you is Investigation and Survival. 

Stats

Your highest stat is going to be Strength. We don’t really use it after level 8, but it’ll be good to have it while we can. Second is Dexterity, you’re a cat, they’re pretty agile. Third is your Constitution, because you’re still a berserker, and not too good with the thinking. Your Wisdom is pretty high for a berserker; animals like you, because you are one. Your Charisma could be higher, but we need other stuff more. Finally, dump Intelligence. You know those pictures of cats where you can just tell there’s nothing but air between their ears? Nine times out of ten, that’s you. The other one time is why you’re a Haunted One.

Class Levels

1. Wizard 1: When you start as a wizard- just kidding, of course you’re a Barbarian. Starting as a barbarian nets you proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as two barbarian skills. You’re a dog, which is a type of animal, so Animal Handling tracks. cats are also good at running around like an idiot, so grab Athletics too. 

First level barbarians can Rage, resisting bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, getting advantage on strength saves and checks, and adding extra damage to strength based attacks for a minute as a bonus action. It’ll also end early if you stop taking or dealing damage, but I wouldn’t worry about that. You also have Unarmored Defense, boosting your AC based on your Dexterity and Constitution. You’re more nimble than sturdy, so try to keep out of underfoot.

2. Barbarian 2: You can now Attack Recklessly, gaining advantage for a turn in exchange for giving advantage to others attacking you. The trick is to do more attacks by yourself than everyone attacking you can do back. Your canine reflexes also give you a Danger Sense, giving you advantage on dexterity saves to prevent damage from things you can see. Burning cat fur smells bad, so get out of the way of that fireball!

3. Barbarian 3: At third level, you set down a Primal Path. The Path of the Beast gives you a Form of the Beast when you start, giving you one of three natural weapons when you start a rage. Your Bite heals you once per turn when attacking, your Claws give you an extra attack each action, and your Tail has reach, and you can also fluff it up as a reaction to gain more ac against a single attack. You ever get an ingrown hair? What about several thousand at once? That’s why your tail does damage.

4. Barbarian 4: For your first ASI grab the new Chef feat from the new Feats Unearthed Arcana. Add one to your Wisdom score, and you get proficiency with cook’s utensils. During short rests, you can bard it up and prepare food for at least 6 creatures, adding another each time your proficiency bonus goes up. Any creatures who eats with you adds an extra 1d8 to their healing if they use any hit dice. After an hour of work (or a long rest), you can also make a number of treats equal to you proficiency bonus that last 8 hours. Anything that eats one of those as a bonus action gains your proficiency bonus in temporary HP. If this existed when I was making EMIYA, I would’ve squeezed it in somewhere, I swear.

5. Druid 1: Now that our wisdom is up to snuff, we can begin the traditional multiclassing! First level druids learn Druidic, a special language nobody in your party will likely know. That’s fine though, it’s not like they know what you’re talking about anyway. You can also cast first level Spells using Wisdom as your casting ability.

For cantrips, grab Primal Savagery for even more ways to claw people to death (albeit not very well, it uses wisdom) and Druidcraft so you’ll know if it’s a good day to nap on the windowsill. Druids can prepare spells, so you can swap them out as you feel necessary. I’d stick with spells that don’t need their saves to be high though, like Cure Wounds for some fast food or Longstrider because it’s not like you’ll be fast enough by the end of this.

6. Druid 2: Second level druids join a Circle. The moon’s a circle, and you yell at it sometimes, so that’s as good a pick as any. A Moon Druid’s features affect their Wild Shape. You’re willing to do things Tamamo Vanilla won’t, and that includes shapeshifting! Your Combat Wild Shape means you can transform as a bonus action, and you can use your spell slots to gain health while transformed. Your Circle Forms instantly max out your CR to 1, but you still can’t swim or fly. One important quirk of wild shape is that you can use other class’s features while transformed. We’ll be abusing that shortly.

7. Barbarian 5: Back in barbarians, you get an Extra Attack, letting you attack twice as an action (or three times with your special claws). You also have Fast Movement, adding 10′ to your movement speed while not wearing heavy armor.

8. Monk 1: Speaking of extra attacks and moving fast, have I mentioned you’re a monk now? Because you’re a monk now. You get another kind of Unarmored Defense that uses Wisdom instead of constitution and is therefore worse. You also gain Martial Arts. 

You can use Dexterity instead of Strength when making unarmed attacks. The rules are a bit fuzzy on whether or not your rage weapons count as “unarmed”, but your normal claws do, so I say there’s precedent. 

You can also use a d4 instead of your normal damage with unarmed or monk attacks, but all your attacks do more than that already, so ignore that. 

Finally, attacking with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon lets you use your Bonus Action for another unarmed strike. 

That means you can now make four attacks per turn if using claws while enraged, even while in a wild shape. Is this a bit silly? Yes. Are you a bit silly? Also yes, so let’s abuse this even more.

9. Monk 2: Second level monks get Unarmored Movement, adding another 10′ to your movement speed while not wearing any armor. You also learn to channel your Ki for some bonus abilities. 

Patient Defense lets you take the dodge action as a bonus action.

Step of the Wind doubles your jump distance, and you can disengage or dash as a bonus action.

Flurry of Blows uses your bonus action to make two unarmed attacks. This means that you can now get in five attacks per turn while raging, a.k.a. that thing fighters can’t do until level 20. You’re doing this at level 9.

10. Monk 3: You’re not really one for a Tradition, Monastic or otherwise, but alcohol pairs well with food, so let’s become a Drunken Master. This gives you proficiency in Performance, because you do know a couple tricks, and Brewers Supplies, because you should be able to make a full meal on your own. You also learn the Drunken Technique. When you use your Flurry of Blows, you also disengage, and add another 10′ to your movement speed for the rest of the turn. 60′ of movement, disengaging, and five attacks in a single turn is pretty good for the action economy.

You also learn how to catch frisbees like a good girl with Deflect Missiles. Use your reaction to reduce the damage of a ranged attack, and if it drops to 0 you can spend some ki to throw it back.

11. Monk 4: Use your last level in Monk to grab another ASI, and round up your Constitution and Strength for less round numbers, more AC and health, and maybe more attack damage if you want to use every part of your rage. You also learn how to Slow Fall, a reaction you can take to reduce falling damage by 20 points. Cats land on their feet, and now so do you.

12. Barbarian 6: Finally back in your main class, you gain a Bestial Soul, making your rage weapons magical for overcoming damage resistances. After a short or long rest, you can also choose to gain a swimming speed and the ability to breathe underwater, check free climbing, or a big boost to your jump distance.

13. Barbarian 7: Your Feral Instinct kicks in, giving you advantage on initiative rolls, and you can ignore being surprised if you go into a rage. For once I’ve made a barbarian build where going into a rage is always a good thing, so go nuts.

14. Barbarian 8: Use your next ASI for more dexterity, which means more AC, and more accurate/damaging attacks. If your DM’s ruled that your rage weapons don’t work for martial arts, go strength instead.

15. Barbarian 9: You get your first Brutal Critical, adding an extra die to your damage each time you roll a natural 20. You’re probably rolling 10 d20s a turn right now, so that shouldn’t be an issue.

16. Barbarian 10: Tenth level beasts have an Infectious Fury. If you hit a creature with your rage weapons, you can force it to make a wisdom save against your constitution. On a failure, you can either force it to attack another creature, or deal 2d12 Psychic damage. I’m not saying it’s rabies, but it’s probably rabies.

17. Barbarian 11: Your Rage is now Relentless! If you would fall to 0 hp while raging, you can instead make a constitution save to stay at 1 HP. Each success increases the DC, but it also resets on short rests.

18. Barbarian 12: Use your last ASI for more Constitution to get more health, more AC, and more and better Infectious Furies.

19. Barbarian 13: You get a second helping of Brutal Critical, making your claws even sharper than before. Scratching posts beware!

20. Barbarian 14: Your final level grabs you the final Beast barbarian feature, Call the Hunt. When you go into a rage, you can give a number of creatures equal to your constitution modifier the Reckless Attack feature, and advantage on saves against being frightened. Each creature that accepts this gift in return gives you 5 Temporary hit points. You can only give this to three creatures normally, but Wild Shape also swaps out your physical stats, so get creative.

Pros: 

You have a lot of attacks at a very low level, and you can go even lower if you swap the monk and druid levels around. Add in your reckless nature and brutal crits, and the other Tamamos will be your scratching post before too long.

You’re very fast, even in wild shapes, thanks to your Fast Movement, Feline Agility, and Unarmored Movement joining together for more speed than you’ll know what to do with.

You have a pretty good AC and a lot of health, which would normally make you pretty hard to kill. You can also switch into some pretty chunky wild shapes for even more toughness, just in case you never want to die.

Cons:

Just like Caligula, all your damage comes from your body, so flying enemies will cause you some problems.

Most of your stat improvements went into your Physical stats, which get swapped out the second you use a wild shape. This means your strongest defensive option is as good at level 6 as it will be at level 20, which just feels bad.

You don’t have a lot of Ki, so the worst of your rampages will get cut short pretty quickly. Thankfully you can take some catnaps between fights to get them back.

So yeah, hunt all night, sleep all day, and don’t be afraid to get a bit beastly.

Next up: Jenny from the Arc!

[burnouts3s3]

Anthem, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.) Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: Bioware Platform Required: Origin Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 59.99 USD How much I paid: 14.99 USD for Origin Premiere Access, a subscription service for Electronic Arts Rated: Not Rated as of the writing of this review. Can I play offline: No. Anthem requires a constant online connection to play. Controller Support: Yes. It was compatible with my Rock-Candy Xbox 360 controller.  Keyboard and Mouse controls are also available. How long I played: 16 Hours to complete the main story mode on Easy mode while watching the (skippable) cutscenes. Microtransactions: An in-game Store to purchase skins, individual paint jobs or emotes for various Javelins, suits in the game. Purchases can cost up to 20 USD. What I played on: My PC. Performance Issues: I would use many words to describe Anthem, but "optimized" is not one of them. With V-Sync turned on, the Framerate dips wildly between 30-60 FPS. Several instances of clipping and pop-in textures. 3 Game crashes requiring me to restart the game. One instance of the game not loading the forge yet and me walking into the bottom pit while the forge spawed up ahead and I got stuck so I had to reset the game. But hey, the facial animations are pretty passable this time around. My Personal Biases: I am a Biodrone/Bioware apologist. I’ve played every Bioware game since Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. However, I’ve been having doubts on the company since the buggy release of Mass Effect: Andromeda. My Verdict: Less like a complete game and more like a prologue to hook early adopters in, Anthem feels like the first time in a long time that doesn't have Bioware's roleplaying there. With no romance options, very few conversations with side characters with limited choices and a ho-hum story, Anthem feels sorely lacking in several areas. Wait until Bioware puts in more content and a price cut before picking this one up. Anthem, a review

And so it's finally here. After years of Development, Bioware finally releases its new IP: Anthem. After the critical and financial flop that was Mass Effect: Andromeda from even hardcore Bioware fans, will the developer be able to get back into the good graces of their fanbase? Let's find out. This is a review of "Anthem". You are a Freelancer. Riding around in your mechanical jet suit, a Javelin, you adventure outside the world collecting artifacts of, what else, the remains of an ancient and mysterious race of creators that shaped the world through the Anthem. Alongside your friends, a veteran Javelin pilot Haluk and a Cypher (psychics who can listen and understand the Anthem), Faye, you adventure into the Heart of Rage, a dangerous location where even the most hardened of veterans fall. But when the expedition goes horribly wrong and most of the other Freelancers have been killed, you pull Haluk out of the Heart of Rage and retreat to Fort Tarsis. While I can safely say that Anthem isn't nearly the disaster Mass Effect: Andromeda was, it leaves a lot to be desired. It's less of a full game than it is a prologue to something else. Then again, in the age of the ongoing dumpster fire that is Fallout 76, I suppose a less than optimized game isn't nearly as terrible as a continuing PR disaster. Two years pass and you are finding any sort of work given to you. People have begun to lose faith in Freelancers and you and your new friend, Owen, try to make ends meet. However, Tassyn, an informant from the Capital, comes with you with a job offer. However, as you continue your adventure, you meet up with the enemy faction, the Dominion (those who believe they can control the Anthem and reshape the world) as well as its bloodthirsty leader, Monitor. In order to defeat the Monitor, you'll have to reunite with your estranged friends, Haluk and Faye, improve your Javelin, pass trials and re-enter the Heart of Rage. Can you finish the mission you ran away from two years ago? Anthem is a third-person shooter in which you complete quests to earn gear. As you level up and do more difficult missions, you'll receive better gear. This is where Anthem shines: the level of customizing your Javeline is immense and there's a lot of room for originality. There are 4 classes of Javelins: the Ranger, an all-around, versatile mech, the Interceptor, a light mech focusing on Melee attacks, the Storm, a mage type class that can fire elemental attacks and the Colossus, the tank class capable of soaking up damage. While each of the 4 Javelins can equip any weapon, specific Javelins are limited to certain parts. You'll gather and accumliate parts and salvage the parts to get components. You can use components to craft new parts ranging from Common to Uncommon to Rare to Legendary. If you earn a blueprint, you can craft some Legendary gear. Earning items can be done by playing story missions, doing side-quests, participating in Strongholds (this game's version of Dungeons) or going into Freeplay, an open world element in which you fly around the vast world and look for 'World Events' random missions that have specific objectives and reward a treasure chest full of loot. Flying around in the mech is a highlight. Being able to soar through the air and water while watching for overheating is probably the best we'll get to an Iron Man experience. Combat and mission objectives aren't quite as compelling. It's mostly doing the same thing over and over again: defeat waves of enemies, collect echos or fragments, wait until the Signal is decrypted, etc. And while the Javelins have different playstyles, abilities and Ultimate attacks, it does little to change defeating wave after wave of enemies for the umpteeth time. While Customizing your Javelin is vast, customizing your player avatar is sorely lacking. There's no character creator as the game only gives you preset faces to pick from. Worst yet, the majority of the game while in Fort Tarsis is set in first-person, meaning you'll almost never see your character for the majority of the game. The lack of roleplaying bleeds out into Fort Tarsis. Frankly, compared to the vast world to explore in Anthem, Fort Tarsis is claustrophobic. It makes Dragon Age 2's Kirkwall seem big by comparison. There's very little to explore and not helping matters is the snail's pace you're forced to walk while traveling around it. For Tarsis is filled up with NPC's in which you can have conversations. To advance certain conversations, you'll either have to do missions or enter freeplay. Unfortunately, your dialogue options are VERY limited. The infamous Bioware Dialogue Wheel is nowhere to be found and you'll be left with two choices to respond. Not helping matters is that most of these conversations go nowhere and do very little to define your character. (Though there are some exceptions. For example, I liked listening to Zoe talk about her son and why her motherly instincts lead her to take extra care of Javelins or helping an old woman who confuses you for her dead child). While the results may differ depending on what choices you choose, all the major stuff is being done off-screen. It's one thing to have a veteran Javelin pilot reminisce about the old days but when other characters are having adventures and bringing you up to speed on taking your advice, you can't help but feel a disconnect. The main story doesn't really help either. You don't even get to pick dialogue choices at all and you watch as your Player Character does all the acting. It truly feels like the first time the game is on-rails and you're not voicing any input at all on how to react. Worst yet, certain points in the main questline FORCES you to do tedious grinding to advance. When Faye asks you to do trials, they can only be accomplished by doing in-game achievements (i.e. Kill X enemies with a Melee Attack or Revive X players). It feels needlessly tedious and only bogs the game down. This is (and I'm speculating here) only there to extend the playtime so that gamers who payed for the 10 hour trial do not blitz through the main storyline.

After that, you need to craft the Dawn Sheild and must help either Matthias, an Archanist who might be seeing triple or Sentinel Dax, a princess turned guard who's recklessness might get you killed, in order to do so. Worst yet, even after helping one of them, the game insists you help the other one to lower the crafting cost of the shield. The main questline is short and full of cliches. Not helping matters is that the Monitor is a completely generic big bad with no real personality and idiotic reasons for wanting to access the Anthem. I know Bioware is hardly the arbiter of original characters, but the Monitor is woefully lacking after the specific threats that were Mass Effect's Saren and Dragon Age's Loghain. And after it's done, the game 'teases' you with an after-credits scene that only exists so that Bioware can state "Don't worry; we have more content coming soon". Even after you complete the story and unlock the two other Strongholds, there's a woeful lack of content. You can repeat missions and do quests on higher difficulty levels to gain better gear, but it quickly becomes repetitive. Who is the audience for this game? In a world where Warframe is free to play, Borderlands 2 has a healthy player population and Destiny 2 has had its price cut, Anthem feels like a latecomer to the genre. But, even loyal Bioware fans (i.e. the people who bought Mass Effect: Andromeda on the first day and still defend said purchase), aren’t feeling this game. In fact, one of the Youtube creators I follow quit the game after he received a bug in which after unlocking his second Javelin, he was unable to access the account.

Why would Bioware change its formula now? And it's not as if Anthem is a priority for Electronic Arts, either. With Apex Legends continuing to dominate Twitch ratings and Playerbase, Anthem will probably be pushed to the sidelines. The game requires constant online connection and has an in-game store. Fortunately, said microtransactions are purely cosmetic and do not feature loot boxes plaguing the industry. And while it isn't as rediculous and allows you, the player, to buy the items with in-game currency, it's still a bad precedent. But I could even forgive the game as a service model as long as I got to roleplay. For example, (and I’m aware this is a very subjective opinion that is not shared by other people), I really like Star Wars: The Old Republic. Even though many gamers criticized the game of being a World of Warcraft rip-off (and rightly so, I might add), there was a sense of roleplaying and seeing my character on screen. Plus, it was cool seeing how different the class stories differed from one another. I could tell you how my Twi'lek smuggler who romanced Akaavi differed from my Pureblood Sith Inquistor who romanced Ashara. If you asked me what differentiated my Male Javelin Pilot from my Female one, I couldn't possibly tell you. (I suspect that the game will inevitably follow the footsteps of Star Wars: The Old Republic, go free to play when the playerbase dwindles while walling off things such as Strongholds for subscribers). And it's very telling how developers and animators were pulled from Mass Effect: Andromeda to help work on Anthem. CAVEAT: As a developer, Bioware has always put things like inclusion and diversity first and foremost, even at the cost of things such as quality assurance or facial animations. "Strong Alone, Stronger Together," says Haluk. And for a lot of consumers, myself included, they feel conflicted on criticizing something they view as a positive force for the games industry. But whatever the consumer is, whomever they love, whatever the color of their skin or what they identify themselves as, Electronic Arts is pulling out scummy tactics to milk them out of their money. There’s still an ongoing debate of where things like representation, inclusion, exclusion, diversity and egalitarianism have in the industry. But wherever you find yourself on the culture war, the one thing we can agree on is that the last thing required are for giant publishers co-opting those social issues in order to scam its customers out of their money. Verdict: Wait for a sale or Rental.

[luzforde79441-blog]

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[aboutroofingblog-blog]

Roofing materials

When it comes to putting in a brand new roof, you'll want to find the proper suppliers to be able to get all of the products that you simply need. Metal roofing supplies may be discovered everywhere as long as you know the place to look. You'll want to make sure that you shop around and compare the costs on metallic roofing instruments and supplies so that you get the perfect deal potential.

In case you have determined to take by yourself installation of your new roof you will want to make sure that you get the correct tools and supplies. When choosing from one of the many metal roofing suppliers, it is advisable to choose the one that gives you the products and services that you simply want at a worth that you could afford.

Not all suppliers are created equally. You want to take the time to check out all the different options that you have and discover a metallic roofing supplier that gives you the very best offers on the services that you want. You must also take into account whether or not you're getting one of the best sort of supplies, as a result of everybody has a unique opinion about which merchandise are simply.

Earlier than you go shopping, take some time to do some research on steel roofing and work out exactly what kinds of merchandise you want and/or want. That method, when someone suggests a specific product or material to you, you will know whether or not it's right for the job or not.

When you have chosen to work with knowledgeable contractor, they may need to present their own steel roofing suppliers or supplies. Nonetheless, you should store round, and decide if it's a higher deal so that you can present your personal supplies or whether it is cheaper for you to let the contractor supply them himself.

The roof of is probably one of the most vital elements of your house. If it isn't, why cannot we see a house with out a roof? Kidding apart, the roof of your house will play an excellent function in making you're feeling comfortable whereas staying inside it. The issue is what occurs when it will get damaged or every time you could exchange one thing in your roof. After all, there are plenty of things that you have to think about, but if you will search for a roofing supplier, you will be assured that all your problems might be taken care off, professionally.

Roofing is not a monopoly, even in your metropolis. There are in all probability two or three suppliers in your area, however lots of people cannot find them as a result of location of their stores. Geographical battle is the principle cause why there are a lot of people who can not seem to discover the very best supplier in their space. But with the assistance of the Internet and other providers, it will be simple for you to discover the service that you just need.

Are you not wondering why bodily phone book are as rare as diamonds today? That is as a result of the Web has all the pieces that a yellow page can comprise - even more. You don't have to flip via pages, simply to discover a service that you simply need. With the assistance of the Internet, you will be able to achieve access to all the knowledge that you just want, and it will will let you find roofing suppliers with ease. The Web has performed an incredible position in changing our lives to the point where a roofing supplier can operate even and not using a psychical warehouse.

The one thing that you want to bear in mind whenever you'll use the Web when looking is to just be sure you are only dealing with one of the best. The Web makes it straightforward for us to search out the whole lot that we need, but that is additionally a manner for lots of scammers to suck-in more cash from different folks. A few of the things that it is advisable to check earlier than coping with a roofing provider are:

1. License

2. Experience

three. Affiliation

four. Testimonials

5. Popularity

These things are crucial, so you need to just be sure you keep this checklist when in search of a roofing supplier in your area with a purpose to keep away from having issues with their service in the future.

Rubber EPDM roofing is likely one of the hottest choices of roof coverings. One of many principal reasons for that is that this synthetic membrane could be very durable and may withstand a variety of local weather situations. Along with its longevity, the material can also be very value-efficient, and the fact that it barely needs to be changed implies that it is among the extra environmentally friendly choices too.

If you're looking to buy some EPDM roofing, you want to just remember to invest in a quality product from a great retailer. These are a few of the issues that it's best to look out for from your retailer to ensure that you get value for cash and that they have the expertise that can assist you.

Initially, you must just remember to are shopping for your roofing from a provider that is very knowledgeable concerning the product that they sell. There are numerous sorts of rubber roofing, including EPDM, PVC and a number of other extra. The more information that your specialist has in this means the extra seemingly they're to offer you worthwhile advice together with an amazing product.

Do not underestimate the facility of good recommendation when you are dealing with this sort of roofing. If you're doing the job yourself, you'll need to discover ways to do such a job from scratch, and there are various things to be stored in mind when applying adhesive and then putting rubber roofing on a floor.

For those professionals who have already got skilled laying down roofs however want enhance their abilities, a rubber roofing specialist may even be able to supply advice and suggestions on the best strategies and merchandise. For this reason, it is a very good concept to make sure that you are buying only from a specialist so that you will take pleasure in good recommendation on high of wonderful products.

One thing else that's absolutely essential when buying EPDM roofing or any other membrane, is seeing if the vendor has a range of products designed to meet your particular wants. This does not only embody the membrane itself, but additionally important supplies resembling sealants and adhesives.

It's important that sealant and adhesive are complementary to the roofing membrane in order to get the best outcomes potential.

Most respected suppliers out there will offer quite a few complementary products and be capable of advise you on which ones are best for you. Search for a combination of selection and specialist data whenever you are looking to purchase numerous products on your roof.

Check that each one your purchases are absolutely protected by the retailer - this implies protected and safe on-line purchasing in addition to a great refunds and returns coverage if you end up purchasing the mistaken item by mistake. Verify all this info upfront so you'll not be disappointed after a sale if you're not allowed to return an item that you have not used.

It is also a good idea to search for a supplier that has a Loyalty Program, trade reductions or free shipping on orders over sure value. When buying a large amount of rubber EPDM roofing in bulk, you need to count on to enjoy lower costs or rewards in your custom.

All these little extras can add up and make your orders seem to be rather more value for money. When investigating a potential retailer, due to this fact check what offers they've in place in addition to their reputability as a provider. You will then be assured not solely quality service and products, however you will also make some savings too.

Rubber Roofing Direct is the UK's leading provider of EPDM rubber roofing and other roofing merchandise, serving both professional roofers and DIY fanatics. The online store presently shares a huge vary of EPDM roofing membranes, DuoPly merchandise, flashing and seam tapes, drain retailers and equipment, adhesives and sealants, edge trims and much more. Rubber Roofing Direct presents rapid and environment friendly transport,

In the event you're in search of information, you've come to the suitable place. In 22 years of leak chasing, I've realized that finding the leak is half the battle. But repairing it's the other half. Listed below are 5 tricks to get you began.

Tip #1 When re-roofing, save a few of the leftover material to make use of for future repairs. Although it won't be "weathered", like the fabric in your roof, will probably be the very same brand and type. On the very least, doc what material was used on your roof and what supplier it came from.

Tip #2 If it's good to buy supplies for the repair, pay attention to compatibility points. There is a large assortment of brands, sizes and slight color variations. Some varieties of roofing merchandise will even deteriorate different varieties. Know precisely what sort of roofing you may have and purchase only patching supplies made to work with it. An excellent roofing supplier can information you on this. In the event you're undecided what sort of roofing you could have, take some measurements and good close-up pictures. Higher but, convey a sample piece of the roofing with you to the supplier.

Tip #three Do a pleasant neat job. Ideally, the restore must be "invisible". You may't always try this, but that is the goal. Sloppy repairs, even when efficient, flip off home consumers, inspectors, appraisers, neighbors and everyone else who sees them.

Tip #4 Take away roofing debris and any leftover patching materials from the roof after the repairs are made. roofing materials Why promote to the world that you simply had roof issues. It also creates a excessive wind hazard.

Tip #5 Do not throw good cash away on a bad roof. It is a good funding to repair a roof that still has plenty of life left within the roofing. Even unhealthy leaks that end in rotted wooden might be repaired. But it's another scenario totally if the roof is on the end of its helpful life. If you have leaks popping up all over and/or the roofing itself is shot, do not waste a whole lot of time, cash and vitality on repairs. Bite the bullet and get a new roof.

For many flat or gently sloping roofs, EPDM roofing membrane and PVC rubber roofing are two of the commonest choices available on the market at this time. For that reason, many people are rightfully fascinated to learn some great benefits of each of those products, particularly compared with the opposite.

As with all constructing materials, every has its execs and cons, and it is in the end how these pros and cons have an effect on your specific venture that make certainly one of them the perfect selection. Here are among the reasons why you might select EPDM over PVC, and vice versa.

As with most supplies, these merchandise will each put on down over time, however the extent of this all is determined by the circumstances that the material is positioned in and high quality of the product and its installation.

EPDM roofing membrane is understood for being a really resistant product, and can endure all varieties of climate circumstances. That is useful in every kind of climates, including hot ones, very chilly ones, and those with variable climate circumstances all year long. Extremes of temperature do not affect this product at all.

This may be in contrast with PVC, which has better points with sure climate circumstances. That is very true in colder weather, where the material can truly shatter in colder temperatures. Because of this, EPDM could also be a better option for buildings that are topic to colder or more variable weather circumstances than PVC.

Then again, chemical merchandise and grease have been identified to trigger harm to EPDM, whereas this isn't the case with PVC roofing. In case your roofing is more likely to come into contact with any grease or chemical products, then it is potential that the latter product is extra probably a better option for you.

It must also be noted that while EPDM is hearth resistant, PVC just isn't, and this may be an issue for sure buildings the place hearth resistance is of key importance. If you are uncertain about how these resistance issues might have an effect on you and your building, it is important to talk to a roofing specialist, who will aid you make the suitable selection to your particular needs.

Each materials may be proof against other harm, together with puncture injury. In both instances, it is very important select a product from a good manufacturer that has been produced with ample thickness and resistance to puncture injury in thoughts if this is a concern for you. Generally, these products are made in comparable thicknesses, so the ultimate choice is basically as much as you.

One place the place EPDM roofing membranestandsapart from PVC is in the truth that it is a way more environmentally pleasant product. Indeed, in some countries on the planet the latter product is taken into account dangerous or toxic to the surroundings, and has actually been banned. Because of this, verify what's safe and authorized to make use of in your native area.

Quite the opposite, EPDM is considered probably the most environmentally friendly roofing merchandise in the marketplace right this moment in the building business. As the quantity of vitality used in producing it's far lower than with other materials it's considered one of the vital sustainable roofing choices obtainable, and it can be recycled and reused after it has been discarded.

Lastly, you will need to be aware that both materials have a temperature impression on the roof floor, with PVC cooling the roof, and EPDM heating it. The selection between the two is dependent upon whether or not on not there is equipment on the roof which will be affected by warmth - in that case, PVC can be the better choice.

These are only a few of the differences between PVC and EPDM roofing. There are advantages and downsides to each, however in many instances one materials will probably be better than the other in certain circumstances. If in any doubt, ask your local roofing provider which is the best choice for you and your particular property.

[allcheatscodes]

pokemon firered gba

http://allcheatscodes.com/pokemon-firered-gba/

pokemon firered gba

Pokemon: FireRed cheats & more for Game Boy Advance (GBA)

Cheats

Unlockables

Hints

Easter Eggs

Glitches

Guides

Get the updated and latest Pokemon: FireRed cheats, unlockables, codes, hints, Easter eggs, glitches, tricks, tips, hacks, downloads, guides, hints, FAQs, walkthroughs, and more for Game Boy Advance (GBA). AllCheatsCodes.com has all the codes you need to win every game you play!

Use the links above or scroll down to see all the Game Boy Advance cheats we have available for Pokemon: FireRed.

Genre: Role-Playing, Third-Person 2D RPG Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo ESRB Rating: Everyone Release Date: September 7, 2004

Hints

Rare Candy Hiiden

Go to CERULEAN CITY then go up to the house with the backyard and go to the top flowers the last one and hit A or with the VisualBoyAdvance Z.

Shiny Onix

There is a shiny Onix on victory road. It looks golden.

Easy Money

You must have the National Dex to do this. Go toFive Island and head to Resort Gorgeous. There are2 Ladies there, Lady Gillian and another one whosename escapes me. The one lady has a Lv. 48 Hoppipand a Lv. 50 Skiploom, and both have Nuggets.Gillian has 2 Lv. 47 Mareeps that both haveStardusts, and a Lv. 49 Flaaffy that has a Nugget.Gillian gives Y9800 for beating her and the otherlady gives Y10000. If you use the Amulet Coin,these double to Y19600 and Y20000. So, have alevel 100 Alakazam with Trick and another Pok�monwith an Amulet Coin and you will rack up moneylike crazy.

Delibird

Delibird can be found in Icefall Cave on Four Island. FireRed only!!!

Professors Aids

10 caught Pokemon: Route 2 gate; HM05 (Flash)20 caught Pokemon: Route 10 Pokemon Center; Everstone30 caught Pokemon: Route 11 gate; Itemfinder40 caught Pokemon: Route 16 gate; Amulet Coin50 caught Pokemon: Route 15 gate; Exp. Share

Saffron City

To get past the four guards go to Celadon city and in the mansion and talk to the old lady then she will give you tea. Go to the guards they will ask for the tea give it to them and they will let you through. All guards will let you through even the ones who you didn’t give the tea to.

Mystery Gift

When At Any Pokemart, Go to the little sheet and say Link Together With All. The Owner will say somethings. Save and Restart. The mystery gift will be under the new game.

Powerful Fire, Water, And Grass Moves

If you want to have a really strong team to prepare for the Elite Four, and you have all three starter pokemon, you should have venusaur learn Frenzy Plant and SolarBeam, Charizard learn Blast Burn and Fire Blast, and Blastoise learn Hydro Cannon and Hydro Pump. Blast Burn, Hydro Cannon, and Frenzy Plant are like the fire, water, and grass versions of Hyper Beam and cause as much damage as Hyper Beam (not counting weaknesses and strengths).

Very Quick Cash

Ok if you are in need of cash best way to get extra. $$$. Is to catch a MEOWTH as early as possible in the game, you can get one in CERULEAN CITY just before you get to the pokemaniac BILL. I got mine in lv10 aside from having the ability to pick up items including NUGGETS. It will lern PAY DAY which at LV20 will give you an extra $100 cash for everytime is use and it will go up $5 a LV. So if you use it 10 times in a poke battle at LV20 you will get an extra $1000.

Safari Zone Hint

Okay, in the safari zone, you have a limit of about 600 steps. So, if you are repeatedly spending money trying to get a chansey or tauras, this is the trick to getting them without losing steps. All you do is go to the area you want, for example, area two. Then go into any patch of grass or water, and lightly tap the pad in any direction. If you tap the pad light, then you will turn and face the direction you tapped, and you will not move. And, you still get Pokemon! Once you’ve caught the pokemon you desire, you can just hit start and retire.

Unlock Island 4

You beat the Elite Four twice then sail to island 1 and fix the net work machine.

Strategy To Beating The Gyms

This Strategy helped me beat 5 out of 8 gym leaders, Make sure that your party has Lapras, that the Lapras knows knows Perish Song, and that the Lapras has high speed or is holding Quick Claw. This only worked part of the time, but use your other Pokemon to get the Leader down to one Pokemon so he can’t switch pokemon, then switch to Lapras, and use Lapras’s Perish Song, so the leader’s pokemon will faint in 3 turns. If you don’t want to lose Lapras, switch it out and use your Pokemon with a strength against the leader’s, or with high HP because the leader’s pokemon will use it’s most powerful attack, in a feeble chance to win.

C.A.G.A.R.S Recommendations

C . A . G . A . R . S:Computer Analyzed Gameboy Anvanced Recommendation System According to the C. A . G . A . R . S System, the recommended six party pokemon team and moves are: Charizard (Fire, Flying)-Fly, Blastburn, Flamethrower, Dragon Claw Raichu (Electric)-Thunderbolt, Thunder, Double Team, Body Slam Nidoking (Poison, Ground)-Toxic, Horn Drill, Earthquake, Sludge Bomb Lapras (Water, Ice)-Ice Beam, Surf, Sheer Cold, Hydro Pump Golem (Rock, Ground)-Earthquake, Explosion, Double-Edge, Mega Kick Blissey (Normal)-Psychic, Fire Blast, Thunder, Softboiled

Two Shines!

If you have unlocked the first three of the Sevii Islands, go to One Island and head to Mt. Ember. Search the area after the first trainer battle inside Mt. Ember for a shiny Rapidash. It is a Cream-color with Blue flames, and it’ll be at level 39. Also, there is a path where you can go through the grass to get an ether. Look through the grass to find a level 38 shiny Fearow. It’ll have the Pokerus disease and is a bright gold color.

Pokemon Starters

So basically the 3 starters are Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur. Charmander: Best choice if you want ATK power, plus, He learns good moves, and the first 2 gyms you may have trouble with, but they won’t know any powerful moves. Have other pokemon to help you Squirtle: Okay choice, but you’ll want to have other pokemon, Squirtle has a solid DEF, but he won’t learn many good attacks, so you may have trouble. Bulbasaur: worst choice, because he doesn’t have alot of strong points, and too many weakneses.although he can’t be poisoned, his move list is rather pathetic.

Articuno

Surf south from Fuschia until you hit a barrier.Then, Surf west to the Seafoam Islands. When yousee boulders, push them into the pits to reach thelegendary bird Articuno.

How To Catch The Legendary Dog

First, make sure you have beaten the Elite Four twice. Next, catch aWobbuffet in Cerulean Cave. Its Shadow Tag keeps the Legendary dog from escaping. Use moves like Counter to weaken it.

Level 50 Moltres

Go to the island with the volcano on it. Once you get to the volcano, go to the very top. You will see a bird that looks like its wings are on fire. Before you confront it, you should make sure you have some ultra balls. About 50 of them. Save the game before you confront it. That way if you accidentally kill Moltres, or you run out of Ultra Balls, you can just shut of the game and try again.

Rare Candy

To get more Rare Candies, look for some Meowths. You are 30% likely to get one

Hidden Rare Candy

Go to Two Island and go to the house where the lady teaches you the special move. Go behind her house. Walk foreword until there is rooom for one more step. Then press “A”. (It is hidden)

Pokedex Complete

When you have Action Replay for GBA they will have cheats that you can give the game. Once you have checked it off start the game and all of your pokedexes will be complete.

Hoenn Items

When you beat the pokemon league, later on, go to 2 island and go to the tent mart. The clerk will sell lavacookie, timer ball, and repeat ball.

Where To Find Zapdos

Zapdos is found near the rock tunnel. Right on topof the rock tunnel is a patch of grass. There is alake on top of the grass. Surf on that lake. Thenyou get to an abandoned power plant. Then go tothe back of it. And there lies a level 50 Zapdos.

Where Dunsparce Dwells

After you beat Blaine, say yes to Bill’s offer. He will take you to One Island. After you hear what his friend Felix has to say, walk back down to the ship and go to three island. On the beach part of the island, you will see a cave opening. go through the cave and you will find a small patch of grass. This is the only place you can catch Dunsparce!!! Though it is a pretty useless pokemon to battle with.

Duplicate Eevee

To Duplicate Eevee, go to the four island and make sure you have a Ditto. Put Eevee and Ditto in the day care center, so you can get an egg. To hatch the egg ride your bike up and down cycle hill.

Master Ball

To get a Master Ball you have to have gotten the Tea from the Old Lady in Pokemon Mansion(first floor front entrance). After you get to Saffron City, train your Pokemon until they are around Level 30-35 so when you face your Rival they will be all around level 40. After you get the card key, go down to the second floor and go to a room all the way on the left. Step on one of the teleport tiles and it will take you to a small room with a man who will give you Lapras and your Rival. AFter you fight your rival and get the Lapras go into the teleportation tile and it will take you to the eleventh floor where you will fight Giovanni(Team Rocket Boss) and a Rocket Grunt. YOu should be able to wipe out Giovanni if you have a really powerfull water or grass pokemon (Blastoise or Venusaur). AFter defeating Giovanni go talk to the President and he will give you the Master Ball. Master Ball will catch any Pokemon without fail and no matter what the HP. Also, you should save the Master Ball until you get to either the THree Legendary Dogs or Mewtwo.

Legandary Dogs

When you choose your starter, later on in thegame, depending on your choice, you will have thechance to catch a legendary dog. The dog you willreceive has an element that adds a strength toyour Pokemon. * Squirtle: Raikou * Bulbasaur: Entei * Charmander: Suicune

Unknown Cave / Mewtwo

You can only go to the Unknown Cave after you beat the elite four the second time and fix the machine in Island 1. Head to Cerulean City and go north and Once you’ve crossed the bridge, go surf on the left a path and you will see a cave. It filled with powerful Pokemon level 40 and 50 or more. At the end of the cave a legendary Pokemon – a level 70 Mewtwo.

Game Corner

These are the prizes you can get for exchange coins beside the Game Corner in Celadon City.

Left side counterSmokeball 800 coinsCharcoal 1000 coinsMystic water 1000 coinsMiracle seed 1000 coinsYellow Flute 1600 coinsMiddle side CounterAbra 120 coinsClefairy 750 coinsPinsir 2500 coinsDratini 4600 coinsPorygon 6500 coinsRight side CounterTM 13 4000 coinsTM 23 3500 coinsTM 24 4000 coinsTM 30 4500 coinsTM 35 4000 coins

Stones Evolutions

Pikachu -> Raichu - Thunder StoneNidorina -> Nidoqueen - Moon StoneNidorino -> Nidoking - Moon StoneGrowlithe -> Arcanine - Fire StonePoliwhirl -> Poliwrath - Water StoneWeepinbell -> Victrebell - Leaf StoneShellder -> Cloyster - Water StoneExeggcute -> Exeggcutor - Leaf StoneClefairy -> Clefable - Moon StoneJigglypuff ->Wigglytuff - Moon StoneVulpix -> Ninetales - Fire StoneEevee -> Vaporeon - Water StoneEevee -> Jolteon - Thunder StoneEevee -> Flareon - Fire StoneStaryu -> Starmie - Water StoneSkitty -> Delcatty - Moon StoneLombre -> Ludicolo - Water StoneNuzleaf -> Shiftry - Leaf Stone

Get All 3 Starter Pokemon!

To do this you must have 2 gameboy advances(Or GBA player/ GBA SP) and 2 copies of Fire Red, or A copy of Fire Red, and a copy of Leaf Green. 1st, start both games, then pick a starter pokemon. Catch 1 other pokemon. Then, in the games, get to a part where you can trade, and trade your starter pokemon into the other game.Keep erasing and restarting your game, until in 1 game, a person is equipped with 2 Charmander, 2 squirtle, and 2 Bulbasaur. The other game should have any 1 pokemon. Trade back one of each, and you will have all 3 starter pokemon!(You can also use Ruby/Saphire as a storage unit for this trick, but that requires a normal link cable, and the pokemon will NOT show up on the pokedex!)

Special Attack

There is a special attack that your pokemon can learn. It has to your begginer pokemon though. They each have the same power points (150) and accuracy (90). Blastoise learns Hydrocannon, Charizard learn BlastBurn, and Venasaur learns Frenzyplant. They don’t learn it on their own. To get this move you have to go to two island and somewhere after their there is a lady who says that she an attack thats like the future a sight or something like that. But make sure your starter pokemon is in front.

Cheats

Currently we have no cheats or codes for Pokemon: FireRed yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.

Unlockables

Currently we have no unlockables for Pokemon: FireRed yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.

Easter eggs

Currently we have no easter eggs for Pokemon: FireRed yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.

Glitches

Currently we have no glitches for Pokemon: FireRed yet. If you have any unlockables please feel free to submit. We will include them in the next post update and help the fellow gamers. Remeber to mention game name while submiting new codes.

Guides

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