Stalkers RPG Main Action and Team Status [SEASON 5]

[Neo Emolga]

Misty had taken a look at the day's findings and she was awestruck. Cheap berries and even instant healing and base upgrades?! Misty was normally calm, but this discovery had left her buzzing with shock. But through her excitement she knew that becoming mincemeat wasn't nice. So she decided to hunker down and get something done.
(Use Handymon magazine on [Damaged Namaxa Broadcasting Console: <Technical> AND <Repair>])

Deciding to take a break from venturing out in the eerie silence of the darkness, you decide to stay put and focus on repairing the Namaxa Broadcasting Console. As you take the electronic device off the shelf and put it on your workbench, you first take a few hours to read through the magazine, thoroughly reading through the issue’s articles to gain some insight on some tips and tricks with repair, especially with electronic circuitry. You can easily tell this is definitely a magazine written by experts for experts in the field, but you’re able to grasp most of it despite it being quite a few levels into the major leagues.

Misty has used the [“Handymon” Magazine].

After reading several articles, you gain an understanding about what to look for in the circuitry’s resistors and capacitors and how to understand the numbers and colored bands they’re using. It’s enough to identify which capacitors and components will need to be replaced and the best method of doing it.

With this insight, you also learn how to remove the damaged ones with your soldering iron and replace the with new components that have the same coding and markings to make sure the tolerance and voltage levels align with what the boards need to function correctly again. While it doesn’t make you a subject matter expert in the field of electronics, it helps you get by enough to at least grasp the differences between µF and pF.

[Damaged Namaxa Broadcasting Console: <Technical> AND <Repair>])

While you can’t say it’s exactly good as new, it’s definitely now in functioning condition and looks a lot more cleaned up and refurbished from how it looked previously. As you perform the diagnostic checks, the console now turns on and you can tell the functionality is in full working order, but it needs a technical expert to recalibrate the console’s software. But at least the water damage that was inflicted upon it was resolved and won’t be an issue moving forward.

Misty the Palpitoad (M: Water/Ground)

Health: 20/20 | Sanity: 20/20 | Purity: 20/20
Battle Stance: Flee
Perk: Medicine | Abilities:
EQUIPMENT:
Attack Weapon: [|AW| Utility Sledgehammer] (Adds 3 damage to successful attack rolls)
Defense Armor: <Empty>
Jewelry: [|JY| Gold Triad Amulet] (Reduces incoming Sanity damage by 2 points each time Sanity damage is taken and reduces incoming Purity damage by 2 points each time Purity damage is taken)
Utopian Aspect: <Empty>
MERCENARIES:
#1: <Empty>
#2: <Empty>
PACK:

• $550 Sochas

[Neo Emolga]

Nico was absolutely buzzed by the recent finds and grinned widely. It was time for some yee-flippin-haw explosion action.

She peeled away her current equipment and clamped on the biggest chunkiest gun she could find, the most metal looking armor, and the most badass of jewelry.

Put on:
[|DA| Shadowmarch Nightlock Armor]
[|AW| Shadowmarch Xalafu Armament]
[|JY| Armband of Retribution]

As the final piece clicked into place, she delicately placed an oreo cookie over one eye, just to add to the badassery with an eyepatch. She didnt need to aim that gun anyway, it had self aiming capacity.

Looking at her pack, she tossed out everything she no longer needed into the team inventory (machete, colossus armor, reaper blade, starburst ring, revealing glass) and grabbed an extra $500 sochas. Its upgrade time!

Hopefully the shops would still be open...
If not, it was going to be a very boring night and she would probably do something dull like search (18) Graybench Industrial Warehouse, and look longingly at the vehicles.

Nico has changed Equipment (this Emolga is too lazy to list out each individual item exchange) and deposited $537 Sochas into the Team Inventory.

Congratulations. You re now the most badass Alcremie to have ever existed.

Unfortunately, despite your passion to break the sound barrier with caffeinated speed and insomnia, the stores are closed. But you decide to head out with your new gear and see what could potentially be lurking in Industrial Warehouse. And promptly explode their head.

The night air is surprisingly quiet and still. As you slide your way toward the warehouse and keep your creamy fingers wrapped around the Xalafu rocket launcher, it seems as though there aren’t any threats lurking here tonight. Either that… or they saw you with enough firepower to blow Giratina’s head off into the stratosphere and completely ran the hell out of there.

You first search around the exterior of the warehouse, noting that the large building has barely taken any damage at all despite the earthquakes. Unlike some other structures, this seems relatively safe and isn’t too far off from the refuge area to be a major area of concern.

You don’t find anything weird and uncanny on the outside of the warehouse, so you decide to head inside, still looking to see if there’s a random ghoul to practice on. Unfortunately, there’s not. Upon sliding your way into the large warehouse, you can easily see there’s a vast space of emptiness where you imagine at one time, it must have been filled with a large amount of either supplies or vehicles. For now, Aurorawatch stores some patrol vehicles here, though it doesn’t look like many of these see too much action and you can’t recall the last time you saw Aurorawatch driving around with anything. It seems they’re trying to preserve fuel and save them only for needed occasions.

There’s a small mechanic’s workbench by the side of the wall where most of the vehicles are stored. You decide to check it out, and it seems to be there mainly for very light work like oil changes, air filter replacements, detailing, buffing, and other light-duty tasks. You imagine severe combat damage likely would be too much, but then on the flip side, you don’t imagine ghouls imposing too much of a threat to these vehicles. It’s mainly their fleshy occupants that need to be concerned.

On the workbench, you find various tools, spare parts, and other similar supplies, but something sticks out. On the bench appears to be some kind of circuit board, which doesn’t look like it’s in need of repair. But as you approach it, you sense Stalker taint coming from it, and from what Syrax told you and taught you, you have a feeling you know which Stalker handled this last. It’s got Exclude’s hollow and melancholy taint to it…

EXCLUDE: [AG0143 Module] was added to the Team Inventory.

You decide to take this along, although you take care not to droop too much sticky cream from your fingers all over the more intricate components. You have a feeling it’s quite possible Exclude yanked this out of some machine or system to cover their tracks. Once you figure out what machine or contraption this belongs to, things will start to make sense and you’ll likely find something Exclude wanted to keep known only to themselves.

Shortly after, you then start searching some of the vehicles that were left unlocked for now. In one of them, it looks like a long-neglected satchel case was stuffed under the seats. Most of what’s in it is essentially nothing but junk, but you do find a sizeable wallet inside with some extra money.

$350 Sochas$ were added to Nico’s Pack.

Meanwhile, in the truck of a military SUV-like vehicle, you find some military gear and documents. Most of it looks to be shipment manifests, ammunition boxes, MREs, and things of that nature, but one blade left behind by what was probably a covert operative still remains here. You decide to take it with you, obviously not needing the MREs because as weird as it is to admit… you’re already made of food yourself.

[|AW| Assassin’s Blade] (Adds 3d8 damage to successful attack rolls) was added to Nico’s Pack.

Having searched through the whole warehouse, you decide to slide your way back home and see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully then those coffee shops will be open.

Nico the Alcremie (S: Fairy)

Health: 16/16 | Sanity: 20/20 | Purity: 24/24
Battle Stance: Ferocious
Perk: Diplomacy | Abilities:
EQUIPMENT:
Attack Weapon: [|AW| Shadowmarch Xalafu Armament] (Adds 4d8+10 damage to successful attack rolls, requires following turn to be used to reload after each attack. Never misses the target.)
Defense Armor: [|DA| Shadowmarch Nightlock Armor] (Reduces incoming Health, Sanity, and/or Purity damage by 4 points each time Health, Sanity, and/or Purity damage is taken)
Jewelry: [|JY| Armband of Retribution] (Attackers take one point of Health damage for each point of Health, Sanity, or Purity damage they inflict to the wearer. Destroys reoccurring traps and hazardous areas after triggered effect takes place.)
Utopian Aspect: [|UA| Aspect of the Fourth Seal] (25% chance of triggered effect taking place upon being struck by an attack during Hostile Attacks: Death arrives upon a pale Rapidash and instantly slays the attacker. All remaining opposing enemies lose their next turn.)
MERCENARIES:
#1: <Empty>
#2: <Empty>
PACK:

• $850 Sochas$
• [OMEN Sample Collection Jar]
• [|AW| Assassin’s Blade] (Adds 3d8 damage to successful attack rolls)

[Scarlet the Weavile]

Feel like checking out (39) Newpoint Building (ABANDONED) just because it sounds creepy and won’t have a nutcase trying to sell me “luxury” cosmetics or overpriced shampoo.

[Neo Emolga]

Investigate (88) The Headmaster Houses

Feeling brave and ambitious this evening, you decide to head south and go deep into the Southern Reach. It’s a long and difficult journey, especially in the heart of the night, but you decide you’ve made it this far and it hasn’t stopped you.

Outside, the air has become still and seemingly calm unlike this morning’s mixed soup of indecisive weather. But it’s almost eerie in terms of how quiet it is. Any sound made seems to echo louder, and as you make your way over the West Exacta Bridge, you hear the moans and howls of the ghouls with more clarity. It’s as if they feel even closer than ever before, and their dark voices echo and bounce throughout the ruins of the Southern Reach.

As you make your way through the shattered and ravaged streets near the OMEN crater, you deftly use the ruins, vehicle husks, and other piles of debris to conceal your position.

You safely arrive at the headmaster houses, which look like the years haven’t been kind to them. The first of the houses appears to be a large black mansion, and despite being close to the old industrial area of the Southern Reach, it appears it was still built to provide a life of luxury to whoever Kenwiv is or was, wherever they are now. From investigating the exterior, you can see the stone siding of the house has become cracked and filthy over the years, and it’s impossible to even see through the windows.

You decide to head your way in through the front door, and it looks and sounds like it’s been well over thirty years since anyone has opened it.

Inside, the front hall is an absolute mess of dust and cobwebs. You can tell it used to be fancy with marble stairs leading to the second floor, a once-fancy foyer chandelier now wrapped with cobwebs, and dusty still-life oil paintings of fruit baskets, nature scenes, and old farmstead buildings. All types of fanciful furniture and rich features are about the mansion, but they’ve all become victim of dusty, disgusting neglect. You earnestly believe this could definitely pass for a haunted house with no problem.

The other rooms share the same pattern of what rooms would look like with decades of neglect. The wood is splintering, the metal is rusting, the paint is peeling, and the fabrics have faded. It would need an enormous amount of restoration work to even just make it habitable.

Despite the eeriness of the Kenwiv Mansion, you don’t come across anything suspicious, at least in terms of long-neglected houses are concerned. It seems not even the Stalkers ever had their sights on this particular place, so you decide to move onto the Alcoi house.

The Alcoi house shares a similar pattern to the Kenwiv Mansion. Dust and cobwebs everywhere, along with a tendency for black mold to be speckled about not just on the outside, but also in places around the exterior.

One thing about the Alcoi House that seems disturbing and seemingly unnatural is whoever Alcoi was, they had a strange and bizarre obsession for baby Pokémon. At first, you thought they might have been old family photographs of their own children or possibly nieces or nephews, but as you came across more pictures, figurines, and slews of other depictions all over the walls and even as part of the carpeted rugs and painted ceilings, it instantly made you concerned on a number of levels.

The main floor didn’t appear to be quite so bad at first even though it appears Alcoi didn’t do too much entertaining, but the upstairs are manifest with depictions of children Pokémon, which obviously aren’t even Alcoi’s own. While searching, you find some money within the nightstand that stood besides the master bedroom king-sized bed. It’s not as dusty and old, but the coins and bills should definitely be considered legal tender despite having had no action in the economy for the past thirty years or so.

$650 Sochas$ have been added to Sacred’s Pack.

When you get around to checking the lower basement floors, things take a different turn and it’s not very nice. You start seeing modifications to the depictions of children, and your senses tell you this wasn’t even Alcoi’s work. The modifications like bloody X’s on the eyes and deranged cursive scrawl over the faces of the Pichus, Azurills, Cleffas, and so on look relatively fresh.

It becomes all too clear one of the Stalkers was recently here, and it makes the feeling of this house feel even worse, as if these hundreds, if not thousands of depictions of kids are all watching you.

It’s when you get to the cold, ugly, and dark metal door of the cellar do things get even worse…

#Infernal Deranged Essence (4 Sanity Damage, 2 Purity Damage)# Trap 20% Evasion Test: 30 out of 100: Failed!

And it’s as if it m͙̱̘̹ͤ̂ě͂ͧͧ͒̀l̽̔̇͒̇t́͊͐̑̈́ͬ͆s̫̲̼͍͉̝ before you.

You’re not sure if what you’re hearing is real anymore. At one point, it sounds like a d̽͂ͨ̽͗r̥̖͇͓ͮ͛̈́̊̔i͖̰̗̲̜͕̦l̝̆͒̎̑l̯̫͓̳̲̘̞͐, and then a child’s scream of death, and then it just sounds like the r̩̹͖͔̰o̤o̭̞̗̱m̜̬͎ͅ ̻̦̯̠͎͉is̯̠͖ f̺͕͚i̫͍̭͉ll̯i̝̝̩̙̤n̟̰̦̰͙g̳͖̠̘̺̳ ̠̣̺̭w͇it̫̖̲h̹͉̦̘̪̻̰ ̦̠͙̯̯̖ͅbl̤̭̭̳̩a̱͚c̤̘͙̹̖k͈ͅ,̻ͅ ͓̙̫̪̞̦̮o͍ͅi̙̮͖̙͙l̗͖̹y̳ ̝̖̱̲l̥͎̜̰i̮̝q̠̯̩̜͎̝u͙͔̭i͉͓̹d̺͉̥ before you suddenly feel like your body is lost in the void of a whole other planet while your soul is just wandering here, barely surviving like an insect in a prison that only has v̖̦̥̝̝͎̪̯̺͇̟͊̓̂́ͬ̋̄͆̾̊͑̒ͭͥ̐̐̚ͅo̦͈̦͇̠̒͋̽̊̒͑ͅm̔͛͊̿̂̇ ̻̗͈̮͈̻͊̈́̿̇̍͋͗̉̌̓̇̄ï̻̺̱͕̻̯̟̪̤̼͓͍̲̺ͭ̇̈͊ͫť̎ͣ̔̽̌ͩ͊̃͗ ̗͓̱̼̳̠͔͖̞̤̪͕̙̳̱̙͇ͯͥ̾ͫ as sustenance to survive.

You try to scream in madness, but it only comes out as a noise that sounds like a g̠̪͇̣̝̯͔̘ͯ͋ͦ̈́͆̍̚i̠̝̜̯̻̪̝̟̝̰͍͚̗͉͔͒̇ͧ͆̊͛ͥ̈́̑̒ͪͅͅg̉͂ͥ̄ ̖̰̣̰͍͉͉̺̩̠͆̀́̃̐g͓̣̬̞̤̖̖̭͎̦̺̯͍̰̰͕̔̓ͨͩͪͩͫͦl̻̝̞̣̠͗̔̓̄ ̘͔̗̟̪̫e̤͖͉͔̖͉̱̹̼̪̍ͫ̊͑, as if a floating mouth that stole your own voice is trying to talk back to you. You try to turn back only to see there’s a tunnel to nowhere now, but you decide perhaps it’s worth trying anyway. And though it looks like it’s only about three hundred feet, by the time you race toward the opening, it feels like thousands of years have passed and y͔̩͇̝̫̻o̮̭̯͇̠̻͍̻u̙͓̬̜͔̱͓͓ͅr̘͚͎͍̳̹͈̭ ̳̝͙m̝̖̻̦͎̙͓i̙͍͖̲n̟̲̞d͚̰͍̬ ̙̜̖h͍̻͈͇͍a͈̺s͎̙͇̫̖ ̻̺͔̥l̝̱̦͓o͚͇͕͓̟̘ͅͅn̪̥̱̙͎g̪̺̫͎̜ ͙͎̩̤r͍̙̮͓̟̥o̮͓͖t̙͇͈͙̪t͔̠̫e̱̹̳d͔̠͙ ̖͔̻̗͚̙̘͖o̭̜̪͖̙̤u̪ṯ͚̤̞̗̬͇͚̜ ̘̝̹b̩̫̥͖̪͓̰̪y̻͈͓̦̫̮̻̫ ̗͍̺͎̬n̖o̭̪w̟̬ͅ. And just as you feel you’re about to exit out of that tunnel of nightmares, your vision goes dark and you see only outlines, scribbles as if to insinuate you didn’t need eyes in the first place and it was just inane to ever have them. But the optimism of this madness tells you the deranged, crayon-like scribbles are there for you. Forever.

They tell you the scrawled obscurity and chaos is okay, and you go along with it before it just ends, and you’re left staring at that horrendous cellar door again…

Scared has taken 4 Damage to Sanity and 2 Damage to Purity.

With the few scraps of sanity you have left, you try to read the plaque on the door, and it just seems unnerving.

“Everyone can live forever. Because Mother wills it! If Mother wills it. Will Mother will it? Only if M-“

And the rest of it becomes deranged and horrendously grotesque scrawl.

Despite the cold darkness of the metallic cellar door, you find there’s no handle, no lock, only a circular indentation that seems to be a mount for a circular-shaped object. For the glimpse of a dark moment, you sense the feeling of undeath, but not like a feeling of divine resurrection. Instead, it feels twisted, unnatural, and absolutely horrific that’s more akin to coming back to life as a zombie rather than a raptured soul into paradise.

It seems the cumulation of this dreaded feeling of undeath has to manifest itself in the shape of this circular mount…

#{Undeath Vault of Reanimation: Missing Undeath Keystone} Infernal Deranged Essence (4 Sanity Damage, 2 Purity Damage)# was noted in the Team Records.

Unable to move on any further, you decide to turn around, head back out, and finally move onto the last and final house, the one that belonged to Bensiri.

You don’t find anything too out of place on the outside of the Bensiri house and it shares the same tendency as the other two headmaster houses. Moldy walls, dirty windows, weathered walls, and the like are definitely the norm around here.

Inside, the Bensiri house doesn’t seem too strange besides being a dustbin and a cobweb circus. From what you can see, Bensiri seemed to be into depictions of nature and natural scenery. It also seems like they used to own many potted plants, all of which have long met the reaper decades ago and essentially nothing but dead, cracked, and dusty pots of dirt are all that remains of what might have been a nice array of lively potted plants. It leads you to believe Bensiri could have very well been a grass-type Pokémon trying to recreate a piece of nature in their home despite now living in this industrial area of town as needed for their career.

Thankfully, at this point, you don’t find anything else in the house that links to the Stalkers. Because after what you ran into at the Alcoi house, you don’t think your head can take much more…

You then decide to head back home to the steel mill, and yet those twisted depictions of scrawls still persist in the corners of your eyes, making you question if perhaps the nightmare is still going on in a somewhat more limited capacity…

Sacred the Heatran (M: Fire/Steel)

Health: 20/20 | Sanity: 4/20 | Purity: 18/20
Battle Stance: Heroic
Perk: Seinaru | Abilities:
EQUIPMENT:
Attack Weapon: <Empty>
Defense Armor: [|DA| Renegade’s Cloak] (Reduces incoming Health damage by 1 point each time Health damage is taken)
Jewelry: <Empty>
Utopian Aspect: [|UA| Angelic Warfury] (50% trigger chance user’s attacks attempt to strike all opposing enemies in the same combat turn. If there is only a single target, it becomes a 50% trigger chance of striking the sole enemy twice.)
MERCENARIES:
#1: <Empty>
#2: <Empty>
PACK:

• $1058 Sochas$

[Daz the Reuniclus]

I'm not too much when it comes to furniture, but I think someone should check the (24) Northpoint Furniture Store (ABANDONED). Maybe we can find some use from something there. You think there might be some hardware too?

[Neo Emolga]

I will bring the memo to Queen Nytalia the Aurorus, plus some of the Shadowmarch equipment I found.

As the sun begins to set, you decide to head out as soon as you can and you grab the Shadowmarch memo with a few of the pieces of equipment that were found hidden at the steel mill. You decide taking along the Aylith Armament, the Gtuhanai Armament, and a set of the Colossus and Nightlock armor should be enough to provide evidence to validate the memo. It feels like quite a bit for a Pikachu like yourself to carry, but you imagine every piece you can present before the queen will demonstrate the urgency regarding this whole matter.

Once you’ve gathered essentially all that you can carry, you head south to the Exacta Military Compound, and you too, notice how oddly quiet it now seems compared to the strange, seemingly chaotic weather that was going on this morning. Nonetheless, you press forward and after a bit of a walk, you arrive before the compound, standing before two Aurorawatch guards on night watch at the gate. One of them is a gruff-looking Arcanine while the other is Leafeon who looks rather young and casual. When you arrive before them, the Leafeon addresses you first, looking curious.

“Name?” the Leafeon asks, tilting his head to one side. “What are you here for?”

“Lita,” you tell him. “I need to speak with Queen Nytalia. It’s very urgent.”

“It’s got to be pretty darn urgent to need to talk to her at this hour, you know,” the Leafeon tells you as the Arcanine is looking very skeptical now. “What is this about?”

“It’s about this,” you tell the Leafeon, handing the leafy fox Pokémon the memo. “They’ve been smuggling contraband military equipment throughout Exacta City, though it seems like the steel mill was a central storage area for it.”

At first, the Leafeon is a bit confused about what you’re referring to exactly, but then he reads the note. His eyes suddenly go wide halfway and after noticing his reaction, the Arcanine looks over his shoulder to read the note as well.

When he finishes, he looks up to you and he sees you have brought forward several pieces of this advanced equipment to confirm both the authenticity of the note and the foreboding threat it is talking about.

“This… this is bad,” the Arcanine remarks as he wears a grimace on his face.

“Okay, yeah…” the Leafeon tells you with the sound of anxiety in his voice, totally convinced you weren’t kidding. “Queen Nytalia should still be in the central hall. When you get there, tell her your name and that it’s a ‘AW Severity 1’ matter you need to talk to her about. She’ll immediately drop what she’s doing, but please… don’t tell anyone else where you’ve heard that, we save it for very high-profile concerns.”

“You go with her, Vake,” the Arcanine tells him. “I’ll keep watch out here and I’ll radio Fesan to fill in for you.”

Vake the Leafeon nods, and shortly after, he opens the door and you both head inside. As you can quickly tell, only essential staff like guards and medical personnel are still up and active at this hour, while most of the soldiers, scribes, engineers, and researchers have headed off to sleep.

Once you arrive at the central hall with Vake, he takes his front right paw and knocks on the two large wooden doors to the central hall, knocking three times in rapid succession for the first round, followed by a second round of three rapid knocks. Shortly after, the right door opens just a crack and you see an Aurorawatch Beautifly look at Vake, not looking all too thrilled about the Leafeon’s presence as you can clearly see the look of doubt in the Beautifly’s lowered eyelids.

“Vake, seriously?” the Beautifly asks, looking at the Leafeon as if he’s gone daft. “You do realize there’s an ambassador conference with Queen Nytalia going on right now, don’t you? Not the kind of thing you want to interrupt.”

“Yeah, Rakol, whatever they’re talking about can wait,” Vake tells the butterfly Pokémon. “We’ve got an AW Severity 1 issue on our hands. They might want to change the conversation to this on the double.”

“Unless the building’s on fire, I don’t think what you have there could possibly be that severe,” Rakol rolls his eyes. “What is it anyway?”

You present the Shadowmarch memo to him and he casually grabs it as if it’s nothing more harmful than a Valentine’s Day card. He then starts to read it over and as before, his expression changes, and not in an uplifting way. When he looked up from the note, he then sees you, carrying multiple pieces of highly-advanced Shadowmarch equipment to confirm the memo’s authenticity.

“Oh… god,” he mutters, looking like he took a hit to the stomach. “…That damn ‘night killers’ rumor was true…”

“Yeah, open the door so we can talk to her,” Vake insists.

The sudden change in response and attitude from Rakol quickly opening the door to allow you and Vake to pass in speaks for itself on how bad the situation looks.

You and Vake enter the central hall where quite a few Pokémon have gathered, looking a bit perplexed as to what the meaning of the sudden interruption. Despite the late hour, the fanciful hall is fully lit for this gathering, and you can see it appears to function as a sort of council gathering and throne room for Nytalia.

One of the ambassadors, a Sawk, was halfway through a sentence when he suddenly became aware of the commotion and stopped to take a look at what was going on, not looking at all pleased about being suddenly interrupted. Those who were listening then looked to you as well, all mostly fully-evolved and very experienced Pokémon in terms of tact and diplomacy.

Before them all is Queen Nytalia, who is a bit taken back about the sudden intrusion, but is willing to first learn what it was about before casting judgment.

“Your highness, we have an AW Severity 1 concern that needs to be addressed immediately,” Rakol tells the Aurorus.

“This better be really good,” the Sawk replied, not looking pleased about this.

“How’s confirming the night killers rumor and providing enough evidence it’s a million times worse than we thought?” Rakol countered the Sawk.

A sudden wave of murmurs and commotion soon grows among the crowd of Pokémon, but Nytalia stomps her left foot to order silence among the council.

“Please, let there be order in the council,” Nytalia demands.

“Show her the memo,” Rakol advises you as you and Vake approach the throne.

Once you approach Nytalia, you lay the Shadowmarch equipment down before her and you show her the memo that was addressed to Commanding Officer Evrik from Kurtva, head of Shadowmarch’s Research and Development. Nytalia looks at the note, and then reads aloud for the entire assembly to hear and witness.

“Shadowmarch Commanding Officer Evrik,” Nytalia begins. “By your request, we’ve provided you and your regiment with the experimental prototype weaponry, armor, and gear as designed by ANKH Research and Development as part of the Shadowmarch Operation Blackstorm Distribution Phase: Stage 7. As you may have already been informed, many of these prototypes are considered contraband and are distinctively out of compliance with Decree 9, Section 4 as well as Decree 12, Section 3 of the International Clearwater Accord due to their combat capabilities that the Clearwater Council deems “wantonly violent” and “dishonorable” in their opening statements.”

“Who the hell… ARE THEY TRYING TO START A WAR!?” the Sawk shouts. “AT A TIME LIKE THIS!?”

“If you or any member of your regiment is compromised upon discovery of this equipment prior to the Year 2934, Varon the 18th Advent Date,” Queen Nytalia continues, “we will disavow any relationship with you and sever any network connection to ensure security to the Shadowmarch and ANKH network as declared by Operation Blackstorm.”

“That’s only in seventy-three days, your highness…” a Clefable council member tells her, looking anxious at how soon that day is.

You see Nytalia nod in acknowledgement, and it looks like she too, has become anxious about this new, dark discovery.

“We request that all use of this equipment be thoroughly documented for recording and research purposes,” she continues reading the memo. “We also request that all storage of this equipment is done in secrecy and in concealed areas, only. Any unaffiliated personnel, whether governmental or civilian, discovering Shadowmarch correspondence or ordinance is to be terminated immediately along with any reproducible accounts or documentations that may have been created as a result. Victory to the Midnight Regime. Kurtva, Tyranitar, Shadowmarch Executive of Research and Development.”

“Is what that Pikachu brought…?”

“Yes,” you explain to the council. “My name is Lita and we found a large number of these weapons, armor sets, and military ordinance at the steel mill. All of these prototypes were hidden within the walls and flooring. The Keepers Self-Storage facility was also being used to store and smuggle this equipment. My friend Lycellus came across this as well. There may be other locations throughout the city that we haven’t found yet.”

Despite having not even seen the weaponry and armor in field use, yet, they can see with their own eyes the sheer amount of advanced engineering and technology in the equipment you’ve brought before them. To them, it’s as if you presented an alien supercomputer before NASA…

…and you can see from the looks of their anxious and worried eyes that being up against a paramilitary with equipment like this would be horrifying beyond anything they’ve experienced before…

“We’re still unable to contact anyone outside the city, aren’t we?” Nytalia asks the council and the Aurorawatch soldiers and officers. “We need to make contacting the Clearwater Council an absolute priority at all costs. This will be more than enough justification to merit receiving their aid and reinforcements in light of this crisis as they perform a thorough investigation. But in the meantime, they might even be able to help us get the power plant back online.”

“We could really use that kind of miracle right about now…” the Sawk ambassador remarks.

“Paladin Crez is still in the process of trying to get some of the broadcasting equipment operational to reach outside the city,” Rakol informs her. “Until that happens, we’re still in the dark, your majesty.”

“Lita, I’m afraid we need your help again,” Nytalia tells you. “Do whatever you can to help Paladin Crez get that broadcasting equipment online. We need that support more than ever. As for this Shadowmarch equipment, it’s best if you see what it’s capable of in the field against these OMEN infected. We need to learn everything we can about this ordinance if there’s a chance we may be up against it. Maybe there’s even a chance we can reverse-engineer it and make some of our own that’s within compliance of the International Clearwater Accord. Or at least find possible counter-measures in case of a Shadowmarch attack.”

SIDE MISSION UPDATED: When It Rains, It Pours.

Spoiler:

Complete Paladin Crez’s “Hello? Anyone Out there?” side mission, as it has now reached a whole new level of criticality. Aurorawatch’s future, as well as the future of Exacta City, now depends on it.

Rewards:

• All members of Aurorawatch become Compliant.
• All Emissaries become Aurorawatch Knights and can recruit Aurorawatch Mercenaries free of change (you essentially become a squad leader and they’re your squad members).
• Unlimited copies of [|AW| Aurorawatch Combat Vulcan] (Adds 1d10 +5 damage to successful attack rolls). You can simply state you’re equipping one at any time as if they always exist in the Team Inventory.
• Unlimited copies of [|DF| Aurorawatch Versatility Armor] (Reduces incoming Health Damage by 4 points each time Health damage is taken) You can simply state you’re equipping one at any time as if they always exist in the Team Inventory.
• 2 days after Mission Completion - Effect Over Time: The Clearwater Council sends reinforcements to Exacta City and annuls OMEN encounter chances in the Northern Reach. Encounters in the Southern Reach are reduced by half.
• 2 days after Mission Completion - Effect Over Time: The Exacta City Enrictine Power Plant comes back online and the path to Knave Territory gets secured. Tensions between Aurorawatch and the Knaves are resolved, traveling to Knave territory no longer bears risk of encounters.
• 2 days after Mission Completion - Effect Over Time: The Emissary Steel Mill becomes an Aurorawatch outpost base and can support two additional facilities. Navin the Chatot and his employees get contracted by Nytalia to build whatever you need at no expense to you.

You salute the queen, pledging that you’ll do what it takes to help Crez accomplish this critical mission objective…

Lita the Pikachu (S: Electric)

Health: 16/16 | Sanity: 20/20 | Purity: 24/24
Battle Stance: Tactical
Perk: Security | Abilities: Clairvoyance
EQUIPMENT:
Attack Weapon: [|AW| Steel Bow] (Adds 1d4 damage to successful attack rolls)
Defense Armor: [|DA| Bronze Guard] (Reduces incoming Health damage by 1 point each time Health damage is taken)
Jewelry: [|JY| Prismatic Amulet] (Bypass all Pokémon type-related barriers and obstacles upon encountering them)
Utopian Aspect: <Empty>
MERCENARIES:
#1: <Empty>
#2: <Empty>
PACK:

• $495 Sochas$
• [Starf Berry] (Restores all Purity)
• [|AW| Combat Longbow] (Adds 1d6 damage to successful attack rolls)
• [|AW| Razor Composite Bow] (Adds 2 damage to successful attack rolls)

[Neo Emolga]

(Haven't had time to catch up and read thorugh everything yet, so just gonna search a place at random.)

I'll buy and consume another Starf Berry from Friend in Need Pharmacy in Silverlight Shopping Mall to restore my Purity, then deposit everything in my inventory that's not equipped, including all my money.
After that's done, I'll search (24) Northpoint Furniture Store (ABANDONED) (By ripping the roof off to see what's in there :P)

Feeling a bit unwell as though your spirit’s been defiled and corrupted, you head to the mall first, and though you’re too big to enter the mall itself, you request to have Borsei meet you outside to perform a curbside pick order. She fulfills it to your relief, though for one berry, she was hoping for a bit more of a transaction for the trouble. But nonetheless, you pay her the money and she hands it over to you.

Lycellus has spent $25 Sochas$ to purchase a Starf Berry.

As she heads back into the mall, you eat the berry, which is quite tiny for a Pokémon of your size, similar in scale to a human eating a pea. Nonetheless, even despite the size difference, it cleanses your ravaged soul, washing away the vile impurities and corruption.

Lycellus has used the Starf Berry and has restored his Purity.

With that done, you then head back to base to drop off some of the surplus you’ve been carrying, just in case something happens.

Lycellus has placed [Sitrus Berry] (Restores all Health) and $800 Sochas into the Team Inventory.

You then head eastbound to the Northpoint Furniture Store, hoping to find something that perhaps someone left behind. The night is still and silent, and while you believe it should be a relatively safe flight, it seems that isn’t quite the case tonight.

Initially, you believed the worst you might run into tonight would be a few pesky ghouls, but instead, your large size attracts the attention of something much worse.

A chimera. And a horrendous one at that.

You first hear it roar with a deranged and psychotically feral shriek, and you look to see where the horrendous noise originated from. And then you see it. An ungodly abomination that looked like it started as a Aurorus, but then its torso became a grotesque rendition of a Claydol, before sprouting a horrendous pair of Machoke arms while covering its body with a sickly, gray skin.

You roar in retaliation, ready to put this travesty of a creature out of its misery.

HOSTILE ATTACK!
You have been intercepted by OMEN Infected and must defend yourself!

Battle Track: Resident Evil: Retribution (This Is War- Cliff Lin)


Lycellus the Eternatus
Type: Dragon/Poison, HP: 24, Dodge Rate: 20%, Attack Roll: 1d12+1d10, Speed: 130, Battle Stance: Tactical





Vixaka the Aurorus/Claydol/Machoke Chimera
Size: Large, Type: Rock/Ice, HP: 64, Dodge Rate: 20%, Attack Roll: 1d12, Speed: 58

Attack Order:

#1: Lycellus
#2: Vixaka

Fight!

You quickly charge in, opening your maw and unleashing an horrendous torrent of biting, consuming draconic flames.

Lycellus strikes at Vixaka! Rolls 96! Hit for 19!
Vixaka: 45HP

And much to your satisfaction, it smothers the abomination chimera, driving it to unleash yet another fiendish howl that pierces the skies.

Driven berserk for revenge, it charges at you, attempting to launch a jagged wedge of ice at your body.

Vixaka strikes at Lycellus! Rolls 63! Hit for 0! (Annulled: 3 Damage – 4 Armor Resistance)
Lycellus: 24HP

The jagged wedge of ice breaks into nothing but fragments as it bounces off of your Shadowmarch mesh armor. After circling around in the air again to gain a better attack vantage point and position, you spit a burning orb of dragon fire at the chimera.

Lycellus strikes at Vixaka! Rolls 40! Hit for 5!
Vixaka: 40HP

The burning dragon orb hits it in one of its Machoke arms, setting it aflame and causing it to burn off as a steaming husk.

In its rage of anguish and fury, it attempts to barrage you with a savage Blizzard attack, trying to smother you with razor-sharp shards of ice.

Vixaka strikes at Lycellus! Rolls 4! Miss!
Lycellus: 24HP

You deftly dodge the assault, attempting to quickly react and respond with another fast assault, attempting to bury your claws into its neck.

Lycellus strikes at Vixaka! Rolls 13! Miss!
Vixaka: 40HP

Unfortunately, your claws only dig into air as the chimera swings its neck out of the way. As you fly by, it tries to bite into you, as if to attempt to taste your flesh before the feast.

Vixaka strikes at Lycellus! Rolls 94! Hit for 1! (5 Damage – 4 Armor Resistance)
Lycellus: 23HP

However, despite a minor ping of pain, most of the damage gets absorbed by the armor. While the chimera is bewildered from the strength of your armor and the lack of effect from your attack, you let loose another breath of draconic flames, attempting to smother and consume it.

Lycellus strikes at Vixaka! Rolls 71! Hit for 10!
Vixaka: 30HP

The dragon fire burns its abdomen, and you can smell the grotesque burning of its mutated flesh. After a hideous nightmare scream that rocks the Northern Reach, it again launches another boulder of ice at you.

Vixaka strikes at Lycellus! Rolls 60! Hit for 7! (11 Damage – 4 Armor Resistance)
Lycellus: 16HP

The massive wedge of ice strikes you hard in the side, causing you to tumble and nearly be thrown out of the sky. In your anger, you unleash another furious orb of dragon fire, aiming for the creature’s head.

Lycellus strikes at Vixaka! Rolls 37! Hit for 11!
Vixaka: 19HP

The orb makes a furious impact and ignites the abomination’s head in dragon flames for but a few seconds, scarring its face for life. However, with the abomination’s adrenaline at an unholy level, it lunges at you and throws a furious and monstrous blizzard head-on in your direction.

Vixaka strikes at Lycellus! Rolls 43! Hit for 8! (12 Damage – 4 Armor Resistance)
Lycellus: 8HP

The assault of razor-sharp ice crystals feels like all hell as they lacerate your body and face. By now, you’re bleeding badly and it looks like things are getting progressively worse.

TACTICAL BATTLE STANCE: Lycellus has fallen below 50% Health and is attempting to Flee the battle.

You decide this battle really isn’t worth pursuing at this point, and decide to make a break for it before things get too ugly. The furniture store can wait another day and definitely isn’t worth dying for.

You try to make distance away from the abomination, attempting to fly away from it as much as possible.

Lycellus attempts to get away! Rolls 31! But couldn’t!
Lycellus: 8HP

However, as you soon realize, this chimera is incredibly fast now that it’s fully charged with ungodly adrenaline. It continues to give pursuit, and throw yet another hulking sledge of ice at you.

Vixaka strikes at Lycellus! Rolls 65! Hit for 0! (Annulled: 1 Damage – 4 Armor Resistance)
Lycellus: 8HP

While the attack hits, you don’t even feel the impact as the Shadowmarch mesh armor absorbs the impact. Meanwhile, you focus on trying to flee, hoping to break way from this monstrosity as much as possible.

Lycellus attempts to get away! Rolls 76! But couldn’t!
Lycellus: 8HP

Deranged and hellbent on destroying you, the chimera continues to chase you, leaping and climbing over buildings in a blood-drunk frenzy. With another howl, it spits a furious beam of ice at you as you attempt to break away.

Vixaka strikes at Lycellus! Rolls 50! Hit for 0! (Annulled: 4 Damage – 4 Armor Resistance)
Lycellus: 8HP

The ice beam connects, but yet again, the armor takes the impact and saves you from harm. Attempting to flee yet again, you anticipate the route the chimera will have to take by looking at the ground layout below. Once you’ve found a very difficult route for it to transverse, you quickly dash to break away from it.

Lycellus attempts to get away! Rolls 95! Ran away successfully!
Lycellus: 8HP

It seems to work, and you create distance between it and you as you see its dark adrenaline has worn off and the crippling pain has struck it down, leaving it to shriek in disappointment as its unable to give chase.

Lycellus has fled the battle!

Loot Collected:
<None>

You leave the chimera behind, not sure if it will ever surface again, but for now, it’s no longer a threat and you safely make your way back to the steel mill. Your cuts, bruises, and lacerations are bad, but you know they could have been much worse.

You take a breath, knowing that while you weren’t able to stop that chimera abomination, at least you’ll live and be ready to fight another day.

Lycellus the Eternatus (L: Dragon/Poison)

Health: 8/24 | Sanity: 15/20 | Purity: 16/16
Battle Stance: Tactical
Perk: Security | Abilities:
EQUIPMENT:
Attack Weapon: [|AW| Military War Sword] (Adds 1d10 damage to successful attack rolls)
Defense Armor: [|DA| Shadowmarch Commando Mesh Armor] (Reduces incoming Health damage by 4 points each time Health damage is taken, prevents Super-Effective damage effects)
Jewelry: <Empty>
Utopian Aspect: <Empty>
MERCENARIES:
#1: <Empty>
#2: <Empty>
PACK:
<Empty>

[Neo Emolga]

Feel like checking out (39) Newpoint Building (ABANDONED) just because it sounds creepy and won’t have a nutcase trying to sell me “luxury” cosmetics or overpriced shampoo.

You head out tonight into the quiet, deadly darkness, feeling cozy in your element. You’ve heard some interesting rumors about the old, creepy Newpoint Building, but haven’t been able to get around to it in the past. Tonight’s the night you set that all aside and decide to check it out, heading east into the Northern Reach.

The ghouls don’t seem to be too active tonight, and though you hear the occasional moan or wail, you don’t actually see where the source of the ghastly noise is coming from. On the way to the Newpoint Building, you discover the dead body of a Lurantis ghoul with an axe buried deep into her head. You imagine the original owner never got to recover it, but you decide to rip it out and take it with you. It’s a little bloody, but definitely still in good condition. You feel it might be right at home in another ghoul’s head sometime.

[|AW| Combat Axe] (Adds 1d10 damage to successful attack rolls) has been added to the Team Armory.

Once you get to the large abandoned apartment building, you decide to start with investigating the exterior of the old, dirty brick building. No one’s been living here for a while, and you can honestly see why. It’s not the dirty environment of the building, but the building itself and everything around it is unsightly. To the west, there’s nothing but a vacant parking lot while every side of the building has nothing but walls to look at. It doesn’t even get an ocean view of anything.

Toward the side of the building, you find a few loose bricks in the wall, and you know for a fact someone manipulated these bricks. And as you suspect, someone hid a hidden cache here. You slide the brick out of the wall and inside you find a nice pouch of money. There’s some useless trinkets and jewelry here as well, but the money is definitely worthwhile.

$325 Sochas$ has been added to the Team Inventory.

With that done, you decide to see if this “Blood Letter” ghost story has any validity. You head to the back side of the building, the one that faces the parking lot, and you see if there’s anything unusual.

And that’s when you come across this.



It’s distinctly a bloody letter “B”.

From what you’ve heard about the urban legend, supposedly the letter in blood is the first letter in the name of the Exacta City resident that would be the next to die. Once they’ve died, The Blood Letter changes. Well, you’re happy it’s not an “S” so you feel a bit safer with that, but you try to think of as many Pokémon that you know of whose name starts with a B. None come to mind right away, so you decide to move on.

You head inside and the interior is actually not too bad, but there’s just dust and cobwebs everywhere. The walls are also really drab and have nothing but white paint that’s now peeling and yellowing. Most of the apartments are clearly empty and whoever the landlord was simply looked like they completely stopped caring as so many of the apartments were left unlocked. Well, either they got careless or they simply just died.

You almost get bored, opening every door trying to see if there’s anything even inside only to find nothing, nothing, over and over again. Every apartment is completely devoid of anything but an empty floor and empty walls. Meanwhile, none of the lights work either, so you end up having to rely on a lot of your night vision and moonlight coming from the broken windows to make out anything.

After opening a dozen or so more doors to empty apartments, you open the next one and it’s… odd. There’s nothing but a single chair in the middle of the room and it actually looks like there’s someone sitting in it with their back facing you as they seem to be staring out the broken, dirty window. Heck, the Pokémon in the chair even seems to be a fellow Weavile!

“Hey… hello?” You ask, slowly coming into the room.

…Silence.

You move in closer, having no idea who this other Weavile is. Or why they’re not answering back.

“Hey, wake up!” You shout.

…Silence.

Come on, they had to have heard that! You decide to see what’s the deal with this unresponsive Weavile by circling around the chair to see if this is just some kind of stupid joke or not. And then when you get a good look at them…

#Macabre Discovery – Decapitated Self (8 Sanity Damage)# Trap 30% Evasion Test: 9 out of 100: Failed!

It’s… you. And you’re d̖̩͕͔̪̠e͖̹̬̘Ḁ̹̞͘ͅD̮͙͙͘.

You feel a sick, grizzly lump in your throat, and then you see the head of this Weavile… your own decapitated head, suddenly roll off the neck of its Weavile body, onto the hardwood floor, and it rolls and rolls before it stops right at your foot, looking upward right at you. Smiling. L̪͇͎͚ḁ̵̸̤̬̠̜̖̮Ṷ̡̙̝̥͠͠G̰̼̹̱̼̠h̡̞͖̟͔̭̭̀I̴̠̻͢N̷̢̟̘͢ g̸҉̦̳͙̬̭̩̪͈́.

“Never go home, right, Scarlet!?” your own severed head laughs. “Never go home. N̷͚̮̙͠ͅE̸̱v͘͏͖̩̳̗͍̖̥͍E̖̙̖̯͠r̛̤̟̜̩ ̸̮̼̭̯̰̻͈̗̯͜͜G͙̺̣̤͈ơ̡̥̪̱̬̗̜̲͖ͅ ̜̪̭̣̺H͏̩͉͇͓o̘̲͓̭͇͞M̶̥̲͖̝Ȩ̛̦̫̝͇̫͎̟̱́,̷̺̕ ̷̪̬̣͎ͅŞ̴̜̫c͇̹̣͇̭̕͞A̡̱R҉̠͇̖͖̲̣l̴̤̰̮̖͇̜̳̕È̠͎̣Ţ͏͈̪ ̰̫̜̖ͅ!҉̳͓ͅ!̴͚̳̫̠͕̮̥!̼̥́ͅ”

N̼͇̺͇̼ͅe͉͔̪͈̣̰̒̂͌̾̐͆̆V̄e̱̙͋̈R̤̾ͬ͐̒̒̐ ̼̬͖̯͔̜N̦̟͖̪̪̠̮͗̓ͬ͌͗̎ẹ̗ͅͅV͉͗ͬ͂̓̑̿E͕r̮̼͎̔ͩͨ̄̋ͩ ̠͍͍̓̈́͛̽̅̓Ṋ̐e̅́̄̃̂͗V̥̞̱̳͆̂̎̚eͯ̏R̞̼̿ͬ͒̓̏ͮ̌ ̜̰̥̊ͤ̍̋ͩ̈N̼̜̘̣̥̱̘ͭ͗ͩ͆̑ê̱̬͉̮̠̍̄ͥv̩̻̫̼̩̠̉̋͋͋̽͑E͈̪̠̓ ̞̪̯R̰̲ͦ ̯͎͔̤ͩ̎N̗͕̬e͕̦̫̰̾V̝͉̟̫̯̗̓͂̾̿̆E̱̬͖r̰̰̜̙̤̉ͥ̇̄̍ ̹̬̜͈̝ͪͤͅN̈e̖͛͒ͯ͂ͥ͆͒V̘͓̣̼̥̉̆͛̌̅ͭ͌E͉̻̮̙͇̭̝̽ͥ̐R̭͙͒̀ͦ́ ̠ ̮̞̃ͨ͆̓͒N͔̣̫̜̗̱̭̈́͂ͫE͇̤̳v̼̇̍͌e͚̝͕̭̅R̔͊͊ͨ ͂̀́ͬ͋ͣN͍̦̒̔͌̆e̩̥̺̣̝ͪͯ͌͆̀V̦̞͖̱͉̫̳̽ͬ͆͂̂̄̏eͥ͗ͦ̎̑ͭ̚Ŕ̒ ͇̪ ̠̩̪̮̫͕̾̐ͧͫ͌̃ͅN̥̞ͣ̓ͤ̋̈́ë̼̣͎̖͈̟́̿̏̓͑VͬE͇̞͔̮̘̫̺͆̊ř̎̅̏ ̲̥ ̞̤̼ͬ̆̃̑͐N͍̗̥͈̭̜͕̏̆͌̽͂ͣ͗e̙̜̝̫̣̘V̰ͦ̈́ͩ́ḛ̞͎̺͇R̩̻̮̻̆̋ͅ ̠͔ ͎̥̫̺̈ͅŃ̜̺̲ë͙̖͎̱͇̤́̆͒̈͋̚v̮͉̖̈ͦͅE͑̆̔̓̒ͨ̾R͛ͩ̽̏̔̅ ͓͓̖ ̪̯̻̰̹̩̞̓ͧͪ͋Ǹ͈̙̫̞͈͍̅ͫͮ̂̚ͅe͍̭̭͙̱̯̎̅ͤͅV̭͉̞͈̳̠E͙̜̞̦̰͐ ̹r̳ͪͯ̓ͣ́ ̹̫̰̪̿́̒N͇͍̻͚̲̣͎̽e͙̦̙V̰̩̭̯͓͉͂̓̓͐̍Ẻ̦̗̳̜̓͗̓R̓ͬ̓͗ ͓̭ ̖̳̫̤͂͂ͬN̼͉̊̽̓̀E͓͔̜͇͛̐ͥ͊͌v̜̼̓e͙̮̮̻̽̒̈̒̾̐̚Ṛ̜̺̖̈́ͩ̇ͦ̌ ̠͖̞ ̘̲͖͉̝̯̰̔̎̓N͕̞͉͈̠̔̽ͮͥ̓e̱̳̪̯̠̼̼̍͗V͖͉̙͎̟̖͇̉ẽ͎̝̳̑͑̀ͬ̚ ̞R̀̃͛ ̥͔̬͔̯̥͙N̦͓̻̒̆ͯė̔̎̾ͯ̋ͫV͕̝͔̜ͩ̄̈E̘ͨ̓ͣ͛̓r̲ͪͮͮ͑͋ ̟͚͓̟͕͌͛ͧ̉̿ͯ̚N͖̰̪͚̹̰͋e̪͍̙̻͂͂V͚̥̱̤̈́͌ė͇ͮ͒̾̾́R̀ͤ͒ ͚͎ ̼̲͙̘̠̋̏ͣ̐̊ͤN̺̜̳ͯ͐͛͌͌e̙͇̺̠̜̯͓v̫̞̻̿̉͊̊̾̓̆E̬͕͎̿ͦ̂̽̂ͯ̚ ̝R͎͍͈̃ͤͣͯ̓̔ͫ ̟͙͉̠̓ͭ̔̾̐N̬̺̥̦̫̮ͪe̲͕͊͆̊̀ͣ͆͗V͎̱̔Ë͑̎r̖̫̥͎̙̃̄͊́͊ ͇ ͈̥̣͕̩̅̽͑͛̚N̹̘̬̉ḛV̱̟̼̬̹͖̩͌ͤ̆ͦE̞̱̰͖R͍̐̌͑̿ ̠͖ͨ̾͑͗ͨ̉͗N͍̱̈́̈͌ͣͧ͑E̞͚v̺ͧ̓͂̊ë̞̰́Ŕ̬̝͍͍̭ ̮̖̮̭͓̭ͫN̠̗̗̣̐ͮͬ̑̓e̠͍͉̠̻̮͊̾͌͐̈́Vͦ͊̑͐ͯè͎̞̝̻̞̭͒̋͊̑̓ͣR ̩̻ ̲̩̳̪̇̒N̖̬͕ͪ̐͌̿e͖̔̓̃̄͆V͍̣̭̞͍͓͆̆Eͭř̼͕̲͓̫̻̽ͫ͂ͬͯ ͎̥̻̝͚̿ͅN̩ͩͦͨ̿̃ͭe̳̳̮ͪͮͅV͍͕͎̟̘̫ͫẻ̮͈̥̹̜͉́̂̈́R͐ͪ̍͛ ͕͖̫̹ ͓̫̩̂Ne͑̾v̦̺̱ͯE̙̜̺͒̉ͩ̀͊Ṟ͍̤̭̼̫̥͐̉ ̓̇͗͒̒͋̚N͙͔̆͒̉̒̔͛e̥͖̣̦̮̗V̲̣̘̦̠͖̔̔̈́ͫͭ̽ͅE̞͋̓̇ͣͧ̿̈r̽̓ͫ ̯̟͖͒̌ ̬͍̥͖̥̩̎ͩͭ̔ͫṊ͓̻̭̤̜ͅe̞̬̪͚͐V̻͇̉̊ͫͧE̞͈̠̒͌̽ͯͥ͌Ṛ́̾ͦ͗̓͑ ͚̙̰ ̼̘̠̻̑N͖̬̪̘̠͉̱̽E̯̬̤̝̹̜̝͒̏̆ve͑̅ͭRͤ͂ ̭̭̼͚̹̫͂̄ͪ͛̌̅N̦̩͈͓̼e͇͉̥̞͙̞̗V̪̬̤̽ͫ͐ͨͦe̼̲͙͎̒̒ͩ̃R̯̻̬̐̐ ̞ ̰Ñ̘ͥ̐͐ẻͫͨ͒ͮ̎͑V̠̹̦̬̦̞̏͐̈́͛̅E̯̻̘͎͚̙̜͒͛ͣr̝͉̱̂́ ͩ̃̅͆̈́ͬ͊ͅṈ͒e̻̖͈̯̠ͅV̜̍̒̓͛̚ẻ̮̮͚̘͑ͪ̊̈̐̅R̩ͦͨ̊̆̀̇ ͕̫̺̱̣ͨ̌ͮ̉͑̂N̲̜̥͖̊̏̑e͓̗͇̺͛ͮͣ̽v͕͙̐ͮĖ͖ͫ̎R͍̼͕̤͔ͅ ̬͖͚̏̈͛̽͗ͧ̌N̒e̪͙͖̦͂ͅV͓̽̎̎͊̽̚E̯̣̘̞̮̜̐͌̋͆r̰͎̉̃̌̽̄ ͈ ̄͐͗ͬ̊̍͊N̘e̦̻̳͎͈̫͐́V̘̤̳̺͍͙E͕̞͎͑R̳͛ͥͤ̾̏̔ͯͅ ̪̩͓̉̒̚N̺ͫĒ̼̤̻͍̭͍̍ͦv̜̻̦̭͓̞͉ͧ͑̇ͧ͗̒e̯̒͛R̼̭͔̰̯ ̺͚̖͎̑N͍̬̓͛̈́̀̈ͣͨͅĕ̼̤̦̫̠̻̳͊̋̒͒͂͒V̜̫̫̲͙̼̈̒̏͌̉ͮḛ̉ͪͥͯ ͕̖̮͇͍̖R̮ͪ̈́̑ N͖͚̼̳ͥͩe̪̭͖͑ͨ̓V͉̲ͨE̥̗͍̙̻ͬ͐ͫ̒ͅr̜̞̿̐ͮͫ ̝̜͚͇̤͔͂͆̌͐͒ͥ̔Ň̩̩͉ͪͅë͉̫̰̭̩̑̎̓̍̚V͓̺̟̜̣̓̓̌̆ͧe̳̻̬͇͔ͩ ̭̙R̋ͯ̽̽ ͙N̤̘̜̳͙̯̓͆̐̐̓ͅe̺̜͔͖̳͌ͯͨ͑ͩv̌ͬ͋̀E̩̮ͮ̉͂ͨ̿̾͒R͌̒̿ͥ̑ ̞̞̥͇ ͚̱͇͕͙̒N͊͂͋͂ͣͨ̊e̫̗͊V͉͓̙͊ͦ̊E̼̱̿̒͊͋̽͒r̜̥̳̭̦̮̞̒ ͍̿ͫ́̽Ṅ͔̦̠̦̻ͬͯ̋͊̓e̜͈͙͉̯͒͗̿̽ͅV̱̖̳ͬͨ̊̀E̬̳̭͈͌͊R͗ͫ ̭͖͓̯ ̼͉̊̂ͮͪ̄͑N̰͕̗̦̥̖̑E̥̤v̞̗̪̤̥̾͊̋̌̊̇e̘̠͔̭̱͓ͫ̋R̻̞̰̲ͫ̽̿͋ͭ ̹̤̹ ̱̗̖̠̤̲̊ͅN̳̹̭̪̦ͩͪͪ̒͐͒ȅ̜͙͖̹͌͂͆V̪̮̣̻͈̟̖e̞̤̳͍̘̟ͪ͒̒͐R̊ ̫̣͓ͩͬ̃ ̱̦͌N͉̙͚͓̗̥ͬḙ̬̱̰̤̄V̙̖̜̮͔̊̔̽̚ͅĒ̘̣̰̜̾̈͗r̖̿̆ͮ̔ͮ͐ ͓ ̙̳̠̰̩̗͔́̅ͤN̳̦̥̠͐̋̍̓̚ȇ͍͙̖V̥͉͉̠̲ͬ͊̿e͚̱R͛̆͒͌̽ͩ͆ ̖͚͖̠̓ͥ͛̐̊̽ͅNͮ̉ͤ̐̂͋e̬͚̮͙̙̘͛ͣ̌v̿ͤE̹̰R̲̪̩̺̿̎ͧ̔ͧͬͅ ̤ ̦̤̠͇̺͍̃͌͌ͦ́̎̚ͅN̓ͧ̃͊̆̈́̌e̽ͭͥ̏̋͂V͎̀͌̓ͨ̓ͭḘ̯̿r̪̙͑̿͋̽͆ͦ ̬̯̟̰ ͖̆̿̐̿̃͑̍N͇̠̘̹̦̔̆̀ͮͫe͍̠͇͍͂ͅV̺̟̻̣̼̖̜ͤ͛̊ͦE̮̠̹͆̒ͬ̊͌͆͌R ̺̮͖̜͉ ̹̰͕̰̦̲̝Nͥ̄̎̃͂E͔̪̭̪͇͋̑ͭ̒v̝̬̍ͭ̋ȅ͉͎̙̲͔̰̟̈́ͬͬ̌R͉̐̃̽ͧͦͥ ̲͈͉̻ ̹̫ͦŃ̹̰͙̲̮̟̠̂̄̒̋e͙̰̩̦̟ͫ̀͋ͪ͋ͦ̌V̖ͭ̔ͯ͗̚e͙̻̿͛ͫ̿̊̈́ͅRͨ̋͋ ̭̙̤̰̯͓̫̔ ̬̞̽̒͗ͤ͌̄ͫN̰e͎̦̬̼V͙ͧͣẸ̅̌r̖͈͍̆ ̻̬̱̰̈́̓ͪŃ̬̲ͬ͒ͧͫͨȅ̐͌̚V͚̲̹̼̔͂ͩͅe̬̖̫̟̹ͮ̉R̳͎̖͋̋̎͒ ͕̯̲͍ N̰̘̓̄ͧe̊͒ͧ̚v̥̜̱̪̮̦͚E̝͍̫̟̙ͨR̬͇̼͋̇̄ͪͯ̆ͥ ̪͖̼̹͂ͥ̂̊̚N͖̜͈̬̻e̬̯̝͒ͨ̽̾̄ͅV̳̄ͤE̱̯͍r̫͙̩ ̝͎͉̳̩̘̥ͧ̓ͨ͂ͦ̍ͩN͖̱̙̅͌̊ͨ̉ͪͦe̗̠ͩ̍̈́͐V̳̩͇̜Eͤ̂̂̾͌̚Rͦ̓̋̔̓ ͅ ͓̠͂ͤͯ̽̈ͦͫN̗͖͇̝͚͋ͩ͗ͭ̀E̱̝ͩvͭ̑͋e̲̝̟̲͖̍̊ͅR̖ͨ͋ͬ

Scarlet has taken 3 Sanity Damage.

“SHUT THE HELL UP!!” You scream.

And it bounces. Everywhere. All the along the walls, echoing with the laughing head of madness that is your own, sounding like a deranged chorus of ț͇̠̜̝͉̭w̩̥͓i̫̤̫̯̙̟̿̿̆̓s̝̻̣͓̆͒ͩͤ̚t̳̗̟͖̰ͭ̓̑ͮe͚͔̳͈͊̑ ̣̪͈d̳̓̓̈́ ̫̝͖̮̗͂̂͒́ͬ̋i͚̻̖͉͔̳̤̒ͫ̈n̻c̲̱̞̗ͤ͊̓o̲͉͙h̹͌̇̾͑̚e͙͕̊̐ͮ̚ ̭̖̫r̃ͤ̐e̟̝̲͌͐̑ͪ̓ͧ̒n̳̥̝͕̟̹̋ͫ̍̍c͓ͥ̊ḛ̩͈̮̭̭̹̒̐. You twitch, shiver, and then suddenly in the doorway, you behold something horrifying.

It’s y͕̳͙̫̦͓ͅo̹̬̗̼͓̩̹u̹̭. Again, but this time you’re younger, still a Sneasel. B̩̮̺u̟̥͈̱͉̹̘Ț͎ ̱̲͇͙̗ͅs͖ͅṯ̻i͎͎̳͉̦̼̼̩L͔̻̭͖̫̦͍̜L̗͍̫ ̳̯͉G̝̦͈͚̳͚i̞̟̞̺̟͚̥̦̜D̻̻̘̙̜̯̭D͚̥͓̰͈̺̫Y̬̩͙̬̜̗̝ͅ ̰͉w̠̲̼̹̳̖͚̱i̮Ț̬̘͙H̙͇͇͎ͅ ̮̻͎͔̱̼b̩̩l͔͎o̲̬̻O̙̳̯͍̩͕͎͎D̞̬̻̝͖̹̦ ͕̥̥̳a̪͍̫̦̻͔͖̟l̯̪̟͖̩̗̤̯L̗̯̳ ̟̝̥̘̺̺͖O̯̦V̮͍̼̖̯e̹̘̞̠͇̺R̭̩̜̤̹ ̥̳̯̖̠ͅy͔̻͓͕̪o̠͉̝̳͈͍U̱͚̲̹.̭̦̥̣͈̪̫͓

“Do you wanna hear a joke, Scarlet?” your bloody, younger Sneasel self asks, smiling. “Do you? You wanna?”

“PISS OFF!!” you shout back at the apparition.

“…That wasn’t very nice, Scarlet,” she tells you, looking very disappointed. “I’m going to have to punish you, now. Clean your dirty thoughts. P̲̦̬̝͕̬̲U̸̵͚̲̗̤͜r̴̖̫͚̞̣G̵̶̸̗͍É̡͎͈̞ ̷̺̜́͠Y̷̛̪͍̤̮ͅo̸̡͎̫͙̠̘̞̣̟͞U̷̡҉̖̘̘R͇̭̯̟͠͝ ̡͇̬́F͝҉̛̤̣̺͍̩i̺̫͎̘͖͠L̸̨͍̤̫̮͎̺̲͡T̸͎̩̦̩͟H̡̩͔̘͇͓̲͇͖̘́ y̵̯̥̰̙̻͕̰̥ ̵̢̘͈̯̩̮̩̻̰͈͘Ṭ̟̜H̤͍͉̱̪͓̩͡ͅO̞̙̜u̠̟͇͉G̵̰̖͟H̨̛̭͍͍t̀͝͝ ̖͉̗̱̙S͔̤͎͓!̳̝̙̪͔̣͟͝!̸͇͈̩̮”

She suddenly leaps toward you, dematerializing into a horrid abomination ghost and she flies up and in through your nose, making a be̳͙̠͕ͅḛ̘̼̤͍͕ͅl͍͓̙̲in̼͓̜̟̗̰e̟͙̯̞̯ ͚̤̙fo͎̘̫̥̘r͓̜̼͔̱̦̩ y̦͕̠̯̤̬o̬̘̠̬̤̤ur͚̳̬̙̙̲̜ ͎̱̮̳̖̲br̪a̩͉̭̳̗̯in̪̰. And once she’s there, she immediately floods your mind, making you feel like you’ve been m̟͎͔̼͈̞̮u̻̯r̰̤͕̮͈͚͍d̤̞͉̟̪e̲͇̠͇̝̞̟r͓̬e͍̱͔ͅd̰͕̻ a̦̞͔̖̳̖ ͉̜̲̪̳̘t̳̮h̝̘͚̱o͎ṳ̳̲͓s̙a͓̫̭̖̦ṉ̫͚ͅd͈͍ ͚͍̰͚͖̤̗t͚̩̪͖i̮̥̼̼̮ͅm̱̟e̙̼͈̭̗͇ͅs͎̰̘ before the nightmare finally stops, leaving you almost feeling like suicide would be euphoric right about now…

Scarlet has taken 5 Sanity Damage.

They’re gone. Your ghost, the body of… yourself. All that remains is your head. Still smiling. Still looking up at you, as if a baby in need of nurturing after being abandoned by its mother.

You growl, taking this hideous thing off the floor with you, VERY sure it’s something stupid and ungodly that a Stalker cooked up. While you’d rather kick it and fling it off back to the Abyss where it belongs, you know this is part of something bigger and this reeks of something stupid Astralnox would do.

ASTRALNOX: #[Head of Scarlet the Weavile] Macabre Presence – (3 Sanity Damage)# has been added to the Team Inventory, Astralnox Stalker Key Items.

After that whole nightmare experience, you’re honestly not in the mood to deal with any more of it. You head back home to the mall and decide to get some sleep, wondering if you’ll even be able to get a wink after that whole miserable experience.

Scarlet the Weavile (M: Dark/Ice)

Health: 20/20 | Sanity: 12/20 | Purity: 20/20
Battle Stance: Heroic

[AgloMe Oen]

I'm not too much when it comes to furniture, but I think someone should check the (24) Northpoint Furniture Store (ABANDONED). Maybe we can find some use from something there. You think there might be some hardware too?

Hey, good to seͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖e you too, blobby!

So you decideͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖ to head ȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬver to the Northpoint Furń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣiture Store, on your own, because Neo laughably forgot to check thiń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣgs first like he always dȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬes, and it seems all is quieͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖t, dark, grim, and cozy like it usually is arouń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣd Exacta. Just kidding, it’s a hideȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬus hellholeͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖.

And you see it! Just up ahead, yȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬu find the Northpoint Furniture Store… and theͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖n someoń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣe sees you, too. Because you got stupid and careless and leͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖t both a ghoul ań̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣd a FREAKING CHIMERA spȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬt you. Brilliań̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣt, dȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬrky. I seeͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖ you’re a dumb move kinda guy.

You look behiń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣd you and see a freaking ghȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬul Rillaboom and a laughably groteͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖sque Meinshao chimera with a Meiń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣshao bȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬody, Crobat wings, and flesh and skin that slightly resembleͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖s an ̲͓̖̳u̬n̪̦̰g̼̤̱̦̤ͅo̹̮̖͉̜̳̝d̟̤͓̼̰͇l͓̦̜y͔̼̬̥̲ ̪̥F̭̳̘̳̲̙r̖̩͓͙͉̮̪o̥̟a̠̺k̠͇͉̗i͍͕e̟͇. If he wasn’t so damn hungry, he’d probably want yȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬu to put him out of his miseͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖ry, but ń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣah.

They go charging afteͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖r you like two kids ready tȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬ ram their teeth into a H̤͇̱̬̖̼̞̙a͓͕̖̯̭̞̦͔͖p͚͔̥p̝̘̣̳y̗̯ͅ ̼̻̹M̤͕ͅe͔a̦͓̝l̖̟̮͉̜̩!̲̠̭͔ I wonder what toy you haveͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖ inside!?

HOSTILE ATTACK!
You have been intercepted by OMEN Infected and must defend yourself!

Battle Track: SKOLD - Chaos


Daz the Reuniclus, Size: Medium, Type: Psychic, HP: 20, Dodge Rate: 30%, Attack Roll: 1d10, Speed: 30, Battle Stance: Heroic





Uskon the Ghoul Rillaboom, Size: Large, Type: Grass, HP: 24, Dodge Rate: 20%, Attack Roll: 1d12, Speed: 85

Krunxev the Meinshao/Crobat/Froakie Chimera, Size: Medium, Type: Fighting/Flying, HP: 50, Dodge Rate: 30%, Attack Roll: 1d10, Speed: 105

Attack Order:

#1 Uskon the Ghoul Rillaboom
#2 Krunxev the Meinshao/Crobat/Froakie Chimera
#3 Daz the Reuniclus

Fight!

Uskon comes raging right after you, takiń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣg advantage of the fact you’reͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖ so blȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬody slow it’s like your askiń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣg to have yȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬur heͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖ad punched in! He swings his massive fist in your face!

Uskon strikes at Daz! Rolls 90! Hit for 6!
Daz: 14HP

And boy does it hurt like a mother trucker! Yȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬu feel like half your heͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖ad has goń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣe numb it hurts so much and then Krunxeͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖v tries to fly in and punch your head in from the ȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬther side!

Krunxev strikes at Daz! Rolls 61! Hit for 6!
Daz: 8HP

You feel like your brain just got c̠̪̣͔̦͈ru̟̼s̤̩h̥̠̱e̫̜͇ḍ͔̞͖͕ ̞̟̥i̠n͇̗͚͉̲ ͇̹y͇͕̥̤̗̺o̱u̮̞̗͍̱̤̠r͍ ̲̫ow̯ͅn̬̦͈͓̭͔ ͔̣̫͎f̗͉͎͚͈̣r͍̥e̬̝̱ͅa͔k̺i̜̳̥͚̦̥n͇̪͖̣̞͈g s̪̹̘̰͉k̤̞͔̻͓̤u͈̻̰̰̮l̰͎̖̺̣̩l͎̺̠̣̘̬͓. You almȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬst unleͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖ash your psychic attack robȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬtically you’re iń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣ so much crazy pain right now.

Daz strikes at Krunxev! Rolls 82! Hit for 16! (8 x 2 – Psychic VS Fighting)
Krunxev: 34HP

Your psychic attack actually lands niceͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖ly on Krunxev, warpiń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣg his brain, causing him tȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬ moan. And theͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖n just at that mȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬment, Uskoń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣ takes a swing at you.

Uskon strikes at Daz! Rolls 26! Miss!
Daz: 8HP

You manageͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖ to narrowly avȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬid it, and you laugh at his feeble attempt. And while you’re not lookiń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣg, Krunxev attempts to cross chop you frȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬm beͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖hiń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣd!

Krunxev strikes at Daz! Rolls 91! Hit for 10!
Daz: -2HP

You get throwń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣ to the ground and you feͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖el like you’re fading, but you rȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬll over and stay alive just long enough to see Uskon and Krunxev begin to EAT yȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬu. And they are soon joiń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣed by lots of otheͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖r ghouls also interesteͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖d in eating yȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬu.

Turns out they didn’t find a tȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬy in their Happy Meal, but they defiń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣitely searcheͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖d thȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬroughly through eveͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖ry nook and cranny!

DAZ THE REUNICLUS HAS BEEN S͈͉̙̥͔̻̞̘L͇͉̥̻ͅA̯̺̝̖̜̳U͉͍̮G͇̝͎̹͓H̯̹̱̼̱T̻̤̖̯E̫̝̙̟͉̻ ̗R̘͉͍E̺̭̙̪̣̹̼̩D̰ BY THE OMEN INFECTED!

I hear yȯ͇̝̭̯̘͚̺̓̆ͨͫ̓ͫͬu wereͨ̆̂̂̾ͩ̈́̚͏̷̡͓̖͈̖ not eveń̸̢͚̖̖̍̉̇ͧͣ all that tasty.

Daz the Reuniclus (M: Psychic)

Health: 0/20 | Sanity: 20/20 | Purity: 20/20
Battle Stance: Heroic

[Neo Emolga]

#50 Borsei the Clefairy has been murdered by the Stalkers.

It was becoming almost routine to Aurorawatch.

“I… I really don’t think I know how to handle this!” Rali protested.

But it didn’t matter, she was assigned to investigate Borsei’s death by her superior officers. The odd and unsettling thing about it was that Borsei’s killer… had already done all the investigation work. Even detailing how they did it and why.

When the Treecko found the Clefairy’s body at the Friend in Need Pharmacy at the mall, there was a note besides her body, detailing everything.

So I did double duty. Wasn’t pretty, but that’s how things go sometimes.

If there was one big thing I discovered about Borsei, it was that she really didn’t like her job as a pharmacist. She had the skills and knew how to handle the role, but she hated it. Seemed like it was maybe her parents or someone she was close to that forced her to go into this kind of field. Those stories always suck to hear about.

Borsei wanted to be a painter instead. Live, breathe, and think creatively. Yeah, pharmacists don’t get that opportunity. Instead, they come with health lectures and bossy customers who think they know how to do the other person’s job. Borsei really hated those things too, but beyond that, she absolutely hated having to stay late and do overtime for whatever reason. She was the clock-watcher type that couldn’t wait until her shift was over, and then she’d run right when that minute hand struck the hour.

She also really didn’t care much about anything. It seemed like she had become so numb to the kind of mental agony the job was inflicting on her that she really didn’t put her heart into it anymore.

So I had to off her based on that.

I waited until closing time, and then I seized control of her body while her mind was just stuck in there. I forced her to stay late. Insanely late, like all night even though there were no customers. I forced her to do frivolous busywork instead, just to keep her stressed out and exhausted. And I knew she hated that, but I had her doing that well into the super early morning hours. The work was going nowhere and it wasn’t high priority at all. She could have waited until the morning to handle it. But nah, it was just the sense of having her entire night murdered at work, only to be fed the agony of knowing she’d have to do another workday just because it was time for her to be on the clock again. Four consecutive shifts! Well, she never actually did that fourth one.

I made her heart stop, but only after she had undergone that horrendous triple shift of work even though she really didn’t need to. I also had made her listen to a 24-hour health lecture podcast, and I knew she hates those. I actually think by the end of it all, she wanted to die. And I was like “hmm, yeah, ok!”

Ciao.
ASTRALNOX

Rali crumpled the note into a paper ball, really getting the shivers from it.

After reading that, it got her mind thinking what Astralnox would write about if they had killed her. And it was a very stressful thought…

Doom Tracker:
5/40

Due to Borsei’s death, the Friend in Need Pharmacy has been permanently shut down.