[IC]TotMG:DC Dead Cells: Prison Depths

[StormLord]

Traveling through the portal dropped the party in a less than pleasant place, a tiny cell practically standing on the bones of the previous resident.  Through the cell bars you can see that the cell is at the base of some kind of pit or tower with six cells in total on the ground floor.  The stone walls are still quite sturdy at roughly a foot and a half thick, but the metal bars of the cell you're in didn't fair as well and have nearly collapsed to corrosion.

The roof of each cell is arched along with the bar door, above you there is another set of six cells off set from the set below.  A simple wood catwalk rings the floor level of the cells above, though the actual cells have stonework floors.  The "tower" continues up this way two more floors before reaching a ceiling at the fifth more open floor.

In the center of the room, which is a circle about twelve feet across, there is a small pool of water, the crumbled remains of a wooden ladder, and a half-rotten wooden bucket hanging from a thick chain attached all the way up top.

 

You can hear the sound of combat from above, though with the notable lack of screams of death and agony.

[Powder Miner]

"-AAAAAAH!" Satomi tumbled through the portal, "eep"ed a little as she turned out to be on a skeleton, but after rolling off of it and standing up she rapidly began to calm down. "Well, now... that was a stupid decision, was it not?" she muttered to herself, and looked around. Some sort of prison cell, but that was okay, she could break out of that sort of thing just fine, especially with the bars being such a disaster of corrosion -- it would be trivially easy to break and unseat at least a few of the bars, and if that didn't work she could just disassemble the housing. The overall architecture of the prison was... interesting. It seemed like escape would be a precarious proposition were this place still operational (and by the looks of it it did not seem to be, such a shame to see buildings fall out of maintenance), but it had to have been a lot of effort to make somewhere very difficult to actually run -- especially because in the event of some sort of escape, Satomi would expect heavy casualties for all involved.

 

With her architectural analysis out of the way, Satomi began to devote her thought processes to more immediate concerns and reactions to her situation. The sounds of combat from above drove Satomi to begin to inspect her weapons, making sure her crossbows were in good condition (or, well, at least as good a condition as the trash crossbow could get), make sure her armor and underarmor's coverage left no gaps, and she popped her katana ever so slightly out of its sheathe to prepare to quick-draw it. Whatever was fighting up there didn't scream... but that only made her more wary. She turned and waved, hoping that she could be seen as she'd seen glimpses of the interior of this place, and then she elected to wait to see if she was followed.

[DragonRage]

"Well, this place is spooky as all get out," Vitor materializes his spear just in case, and gives the bars an experimental kick, "Looks like the decay might make it harder to move around than the actual design.  How are we gonna get out if the stairs have rotted?  And I don't trust that chain to hold our weight.  I suppose we could try to build new stairs, but that's not gonna be fast or quiet."

[StormLord]

Vitor finds that the jail bars are surprisingly(or unsurprisingly) easy to kick out, and with a clattering of metal on stone he and Satomi could now walk around the room more freely.

[DragonRage]

Vitor takes a look around the room.  Assuming nothing looks threatening, he'll try to use his psychometry to read the past of the area where the stairs used to be.  He might be able to get useful information from that.  If the foundations are still sound, he might even be able to, with Satomi's help, construct new stairs.

 

Spoiler

Psychometric Insight (level 2, magecraft):  Vitor reads the history of an object he touches, learning one interesting/useful fact about its past, and 1 piece of trivia about it.  Every use gives a different fact, but once the most useful and interesting facts are extracted, less useful ones, such as the year it spent sitting in a storehouse or buried underground, might come to light.

 

[Powder Miner]

Satomi softly clicked her tongue in disapproval as Vitor kind of just casually kicked the bars out of the cell -- but then she got to contemplating Vitor's question. "Well, it just so happens that I am uniquely suited to this whole scenario -- this may be boasting, but if there is to be anyone to find out what is structurally sufficient and what is not, it is going to be me, as I am an Engineer of the Kaiu family of the Crab Clan. I believe that my plan is to inspect the catwalk and see if there is a largely viable path up there, and if there is I can work to bridge the gaps to allow us up."

 

Satomi paused, in abrupt consideration.

 

"...although, I do have my grappling hook, which I may be able to use that grappling hook to trivialize getting up there altogether, frankly. Allow me to give it a try -- and watch how I use this, because the easiest and most reliable way of doing this has you use it as well." Satomi pulled from a gear-laden sash around her kimono a jointed, heavy, metal gauntlet-ish device that she fit over her arm and flexed speculatively. She showed Vitor the lever on the underside of the device. "If you don't end up being able to fit in the gauntlet, that is fine; you will just have to hold it in both hands and get the lever. If something else happens... I will figure it out."

 

Satomi attempts to use the following item to hook into stone and get up to the fifth level:

 

Spoiler

 

Powered Grapple: A complicated series of gears, belts, switches, a spring, rope, and a Magic Element Engine, all put together with the intent of making a device to shoot out a grappling hook on a rope and draw it back in, all contained within a metal, jointed chassis that fits over the top side of Satomi’s arm. Once crude both in function and appearance, Satomi has put time into it so it looks sleek and functions smoothly... well, mostly smoothly.

Once a turn, the user can draw themselves to a larger or equal target, or draw a smaller target to them. 10% chance to jam and need to be fixed as an action.

 

 

[StormLord]

Vitor's psychometry paints a grim picture as he plumbs the history of this place.  Touching the rubble he quickly realizes it wasn't ever stairs, simply a wooden ladder raised or lowed into this or many other pits as it was needed.  The bucket held the job of transporting food or water the few times a week the guards decided to tend to the prisoners.  The stone fool is perhaps the darkest, an image of a sickly man who's ragged breathing was ended by several swift boot kicks to the jar and chest.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[9] Satomi's grappling hook flies up to the top level and lodges itself in a crack in the stone ceiling, then wenches her upward.  It wasn't a pleasant feeling, the sudden acceleration that felt like it might tear her arm out of socket, but it worked well enough and soon she could get back to solid footing several floors above.

 

Satomi finds herself in a wide corridor, there are two more cell pits in front of her and one behind.  A heavy wooden door is pushed open slightly by large amounts of rubble behind her.  Forward she sees the splintered remains of a hulking humanoid skeleton with a tattered black robe leaned against the right corner.  Next to the remains there is another wooden door partially splintered with a large boot print in the center and just now drifting to rest slightly open.  Beyond that she can make out another corridor running parallel to the one she stands in.  She hears a loud mechanical THUD followed by several disturbing bird-like screeches and the scraping of metal-on-stone....and a small explosion some time later.  Whatever it is is moving away from her and Vitor, and tearing through anything on it's way to wherever it's headed.

[Powder Miner]

After wincing and rubbing her shoulder a bit since nobody was up here to see her, Satomi looked the area over -- it seemed that she had multiple choices of destination to go down for now... but considering that she was currently quite separated from the other person in here, she figured that it wasn't the best idea to try to delve one of these hallways alone, especially because it sounded like there were very strange creatures fighting up here. Though she was Crab, Satomi was no Hida, that was certain. So she put herself to the task of getting her current partner up to this floor. Now, to be sure, her grappling device presented a rope that she could potentially use to get him up, trying to just yank him up seemed like a recipe to get her arm indeed thrown out, and then to get thrown to the ground several floors below.

 

So instead Satomi took her wakizashi to the booted-open door, and carved out pieces of several of the more solid areas of wood, before interlocking them together into a small but hopefully solid ring that was intended to hold the grappling device tightly. Then she took stone or metal from the rubble and used it to drive this wooden ring into the wall, providing a fixed point she could place her end of the grappling device in -- and then, if she successfully created this, she shot the hook of her grappling gauntlet down to the floor Vitor was on, before placing the device itself in the fixed point, thereby creating a rope secured on two ends between the floors.

[StormLord]

This functions will little complication, certainly nothing Satomi couldn't deal with in short order.  Before long Vitor is on the same floor as she.

 

 

A pale blue glassy portal not unlike the one Satomi and Vitor just passed through opens in the corner of the room, on the other side sees a modern setting with a visible asphalt road and concrete building in the background.  At least until a figure falls through the the portal closes behind them.

[Endlessblaze]

The figure grunts and mumbles with clear irritation at not landing on his feet while being yanked out of the universe for the second time today, before standing up, dusting himself off, and looking around.

He eventually notices the others and waves
"Hey can someone fill me in? I just got done being backup for a hostage situation and promptly got transported here"

[DragonRage]

Vitor starts climbing.  "There's a prison cell, and some fighting happened.  That's about all we know.  We're going up, because it's better than staying here."

 

[StormLord]

As Vitor pulls himself out of the pit the group hears a muffled thud from behind them and look to see several small rocks roll down the pile of rubble in the collapsed doorway.  Another thud, this time a bit louder, and more rubble shifts.  Something is pounding on the other side, trying to break through.

[Powder Miner]

Satomi decided to provide a little more detail to the newcomer. "Hmm -- it doesn't sound like this happening is something totally new and inexplicable to you, so I assume you must be part of another multidimensional group against those invading creatures... you seem to have come in in the middle of a little bit of exploration. This is not a full deployment against the Trespassers, but rather just exploring through a portal in the middle of something else... we have not really found all that much here, to tell the truth. We know that it is an old and decrepit prison, so decrepit that traversing it is actually difficult, and there are likely-undead monstrosities and probably also oni battling it out elsewhere here." The WHUMP against the rubble sounding out. "Ah, and speaking of... it sounds like it may be time to prepare for combat!"

 

Satomi moved her hands to one of the ranged weapons hanging at her back, but abruptly decided otherwise, pulling out a large, spiky oval shield and her katana, which she currently wielded in one hand. "Now might be the time to play with this thing a little more..."

[DragonRage]

"I wonder..."  Vitor equips Phantasmal Blueprint - Astro Viewer, and activates its infrared filter.  He then turns it on the rubble, hoping to get an idea of what's coming with a look at its heat signature.

[StormLord]

[51]
By judgement of the heat signatures, Vitor determines there are two large figures similar to their bony friend in the corner.  One has a sword and is pounding through the rubble, the other hand broken manacles on its wrists.  Behind them towards the ceiling there are a number of resting creatures that resemble bats, but are...off somehow.

 

With another thundering strike a large piece of rubble pops out and a glowing red eye peers through the crack.

[DragonRage]

"Animated skeletons and freaky bats incoming!" Vitor shouts, projecting Gae Bolg and pointing the spear at the rubble, "Get ready!"  He attempts to stick the digger with his spear through the hole.  Gae Bolg does 6d6 + 4 piercing damage on a hit.

[Powder Miner]

"Alright! Monstrosities of the undead, we battle!" With what was perhaps an overly enthusiastic battlecry, Satomi pulled out one of her crossbows with her free hand, steadied it on top of the shield held in her other, took a moment to squint intensely, and then she let loose a hail of bolts in the direction of the hole with the eye peeking out of it, emptying the precision-machined crossbow in a furious opening barrage that may or may not have actually struck her opponent. But whether or not she succeeded, she was fully devoting herself to this battle, throwing into it with the feverish zeal of someone whose entire society has revolved around fights with these sorts of beings, war and death and battle and defense at all costs, with even the slightest quarter neither expected nor given -- not without becoming truly sick and traitorous, anyhow.

 

Satomi fires the Perfection Crossbow at the monster behind the rubble, dealing 6d6+DEX (7) damage!

 

Spoiler

Perfection Crossbow: A mechanical, spring-powered repeating crossbow that is capable of renocking itself after every shot without having to pull a lever -- at the expense of being ridiculously hard to initially load. It is also incredibly lightweight, but that makes it fragile and exacerbates the reloading issues. This item does not take up a slot, skills which target gear for destruction automatically succeed against this item.

Level 1: Deal 2d6+Dex Damage. The user may instead deal 6d6+Dex Damage, but must spend 3 turns reloading afterwards.

 

Time Sandwich Samurai Armor (Level 3): These rectangular plates of samurai armor (on Satomi's thighs, shoulders, and chest) have been modified, with usage of the metal resulting from the bay explosion making the armor extremely difficult to pierce without sustained effort -- damage only sticks on one of the phases of the timeshifting metal. 

Level 1: +3 RES when equipped.

Level 2: +4 further RES when equipped.

Level 3: +2 more RES when equipped.

--Agony-Resistance Outfit: A set of stockings, sleeves, gloves, hood, and an inner robe made of two layers of fabric, a wire mesh, and purification powder. The stockings go to the thigh, are a bit tight, and the silk pattern around where the wire mesh ends at the top create an almost lace-like appearance. They also have straps running down the sides. The sleeves (with the same kind of straps) and gloves are fairly mundane, though the gloves have a fancy pattern on the palm and fingers intended to retain grip. As for the nagajuban, as it is under the kimono, it isn't usually visible, but Satomi's idea of placing belts above and below her chest and just above her hips has the unintended effect of tightening the inner robe enough to even emphasize her figure with a kimono on.

Level 1: Grants the wearer 2 Res and immunity to some environmental effects, doesn't require an action slot if worn with another set of armor.

 

(This all is a total of 11 RES.)

 

Slaughtaur Shield: A large, shiny, oval shield with spikes along its outer edge and a large skull in the center.

Level 2: The first time the user takes damage in the round they reactively raise the shield, reducing any further incoming damage by 50% until their next action or the end of the round.  Only activates automatically once per round.  Training again with this item with at least 10 Int may unlock another effect.

 

Daisho (Katana): A set of two swords (a katana and a shorter wakizashi) carried by absolutely any Samurai at all times, the Daisho is a mark of the Samurai's noble class and honor. 2d6+STR damage, when upgrading the weapon Satomi can choose a different effect for each sword (Katana and Wakizashi) for each level, but must choose only one of these swords to wield in combat at the beginning of each encounter. The Katana deals 2d6+STR damage, whereas the Wakizashi gives a bonus of +3 to structural actions.

Level 2: The Katana now deals 2d6+STR damage, whereas the Wakizashi now gives a bonus of +3 to structural actions.

 

Iaijutsu Strike: Satomi performs a strike from the Rokugani art of Iaijutsu, drawing and striking with her sword in one lightning-fast movement. This does the damage of the weapon she is using, but First Strike. If she is using a weapon that merely enhances damage, this deals 2d6+STR.

 

Fend Off: The Kaiu aren't meant to be the ones doing the gruntwork of holding the wall, but sometimes they have to defend it anyway. Satomi harasses her opponent and generally makes attacking difficult for them, lowering their primary attack stat by her DEX for a round. 2 turn cooldown.

 

[StormLord]

Spoiler

 

 

With the final swipes from the battered and scared blade the figure sends stone flying into the room, peppering the party with light stone shrapnel.  The first skeletal figure wears a tattered black cowl and the shredded remains of a cloak, while the figure behind wears bits and pieces of old red armor on its shoulders and torso paired with a wide, flat, razor-rimmed black hat and shattered, sharpened manacles.


[9]
Satomi raises her crossbow and fires a series of bolts, most of them hit with some meaning of the word, leaving deep gouges in the bone as they fly through or clatter to the ground.  She deals 13 damage, it seems the Slasher resisted her Piercing attack.

Vitor jabs at the Slasher, knocking loose a whole rib bone with his strike of 12 damage, the Slasher doesn't really seem phased by his Piercing attack either.

The Slasher spends its turn recovering from its attack!

The Spinner lets out a low hollow groan and puts its arms out, with a jingling whip of chains it starts spinning and becomes a blurry tornado of chains and bones.

The "bats" on the ceiling of the hallway behind the skeletons shift and stir slightly.

Init:

Spoiler

8 Slasher

7 Satomi

6 Vitor

3 Spinner

0 Kamikaze(x3)

Status:

Spoiler

Vitor: 30/30, Healthy

Satomi: 24/24, Healthy

 

Slasher: Lightly wounded,
Spinner: Healthy, Spinning
Kamikaze(x3): Napping,

 

Notes:

Spoiler

Quote from Main Doc:
"The Malaise will infect characters that take damage or mess with dead bodies amoung other things.  Get ten points of Malaise and you take a wound."

 

Hints:
Avoid getting caught in the Slasher's three-hit combo attack.

Making too many loud noises might wake up the sleeping Kamikaze bats, need I tell you what they do?

 

[Powder Miner]

Satomi's face pulled into a grimace as her volley of bolts merely grazed the skeletal structure of her foe with very little discernible effect; that was a trump card pretty much wasted, and she really wasn't terribly confident that her katana would do much better against the creature's bones -- she also didn't relish the thought of throwing herself face-first into the spinning one; it was a whirl of weaponry that would make even one of those Dragon Bushi proud. Still, she certainly wasn't going to stand around and do nothing, and she put her shield up as she advanced in the direction of the skeleton that she'd had such trouble with, moving with stance of Fire as she at least made the attempt to slash at the skeleton. Now would be the time to see if she even could effectively harm the thing with her sword. (She barely resisted letting out a kiai, looking up at the sleeping creature.)

 

Satomi uses her Katana on the Slasher, dealing 2d6+STR (3) damage to the Slasher!

[DragonRage]

Vitor notes that Gae Bolg didn't do a whole lot to the skeleton, and drops the enchanted spear.  He reaches over his head with his hard-light projector, and pulls down DIO's Stone Mask as he draws his Photon Pistol with his free hand.  Then, he fires a ball of energy at the Slasher with it, dealing 4d6 + 2 damage!

Spoiler

HP: 30

Action Slots:  7

 

Stats: 

Essence:  1

Constitution:  5

Dexterity:  6

Intelligence:  6

Resistance:  1

Strength:  4

Synergy:  4

 

Perks:

Magitek Projection:  Vitor is an architech, capable of using Vishkar hard-light technology to create solid objects from seemingly nothing.  However, he is also a magus, whose magical crest allows the use of psychometry, the ability to read an object’s history by touch.  As such, once per plot he can read an item once used by a renowned historical figure to obtain a special equipment called a Phantasmal Blueprint.  Vitor can only equip one Phantasmal Blueprint at a time.  Each blueprint provides Vitor with a weapon or other type of equipment, which doesn’t take up an extra slot.  Blueprints can be upgraded as though they were actions.  Vitor begins the game with a single Phantasmal Blueprint in his possession.  Vitor cannot create more than one item from a Phantasmal Blueprint at a time, but he can allow others to use an item generated in this way.

 

Emulated Phantasm:  As long as Vitor has a Phantasmal Blueprint equipped, he gains access to a special trump associated with the Phantasmal Blueprint’s equipment.  This special trump is upgraded when the supporting blueprint is, and doesn’t need an action slot.  Vitor cannot use Emulated Phantasms if doing so would cause him to suffer mana burn.  Even if another person uses an item created from a Phantasmal Blueprint, they cannot use its Emulated Phantasm, as Vitor’s special magecraft is needed to awaken the item’s full power.

 

Light Construction:  By synthesizing building materials from hard light, and reinforcing provided materials with magecraft, Vitor reduces the time requirements of all crafting and construction projects he participates in by 50%.

 

Mana Burn (flaw):  Vitor is not from a powerful or ancient family of magi, and his magical crest was thought of as useful but weak before he combined it with Vishkar technology.  Thus, if he tries to use more than one magical action in a round, he’ll suffer mana burn for 20% of his MHP as his overtaxed magical circuits protest his choices.  If Vitor uses an Emulated Phantasm, any use of magecraft for the next three rounds will always inflict mana burn.  Actions that are magecraft will be tagged as such in their description.

 

Actions:

Field Medicine (level 2, trick):  Vitor has knowledge of basic first aid as part of his combat training.  He can use this training to heal target ally for 1d6 + int HP.

 

Phantasmal Swap (level 2, free action):  Vitor, as a free action, swaps which Phantasmal Blueprint he has equipped, and manifests the associated equipment.  If that equipment or blueprint would ordinarily take time to activate, it becomes active instantly instead.  Usable once per round.

 

Photon Pistol (Level 4):  Vitor fires a ball of energy from his photon pistol at target enemy.  Deals 4d6 + intelligence damage.  The damage dice are doubled if he spent an action to charge it up before firing.  -4 damage for 1 encounter due to poorly performed maintenance.

 

Instant Construction (Level 4, magecraft):  Vitor can construct simple structures without moving parts from hard light.  Two cubic meters of material can be produced per round (doubled by the perk Light Construction).  Hard-light constructs created in this way have 20 HP and 5 resistance.

 

Phantasmal Blueprint - DIO's Stone Mask (level 5, perk-backed): This mask was used by the vampire DIO to transcend humanity. While worn, this projected artifact makes Vitor's body act more like a vampire's. Exposure to sunlight drops him to 0 HP instantly, and being completely exposed to sunlight results in a wound.  A direct line of sight to the sun is needed to trigger these detrimental effects. Additionally, DIO's hubris negates others' healing and buff effects used on the wearer. However, while worn he can't gain wounds in other ways (he's still rendered helpless at 0 HP).  At the beginning of each of Vitor's turns, if he lost more than 50% of his MHP during the past round, he automatically heals himself 2d6 + synergy HP.  This effect has a 5 round cooldown.

 

Emulated Phantasm - Essence Drain (level 5, perk-backed, magecraft): By touching an open wound on a helpless and/or recently deceased sapient with blood, Vitor can exsanguinate them in a single round, absorbing their blood and life force. Once per 3 plots, this effect can be used to heal him of a wound.  Twice per plot, Vitor can steal an action from someone he exsanguinates.  The stolen action cannot be perk-backed, and is stolen at level 1.  Tied to DIO's Stone Mask.

 

Psychometric Insight (level 2, magecraft):  Vitor reads the history of an object he touches, learning one interesting/useful fact about its past, and 1 piece of trivia about it.  Every use gives a different fact, but once the most useful and interesting facts are extracted, less useful ones, such as the year it spent sitting in a storehouse or buried underground, might come to light.

 

[StormLord]

The Slasher beings its sword down on Vitor dealing 12 damage and prepares an uppercut to follow.
 

Satomi's blade arcs across the Slasher's exposed ribcage severing at least four bones with another 11 damage.

 

Vitor's pistol shot burns into the Slasher's chest for 16 damage, yet it remains unphased!

 

The Spinner drifts like a top and comes careening into Satomi.  The chains lash against her armor and find a near critical weakness, dealing 3 damage 6 times(18 total).  The Spinner slowly comes to a stop near a wall, it wavers looking dizzy.

 

The Kamikaze snore.

 

Init:

Spoiler

8 Slasher

7 Satomi

6 Vitor

3 Spinner

0 Kamikaze(x3)

 

Status:

Spoiler

Vitor: 18/30, 1 Malaise,

Satomi: 12/24, 1 Malaise,

 

Slasher: Badly wounded,
Spinner: Healthy, Stunned, Dizzy,
Kamikaze(x3): Napping,

 

[DragonRage]

Vitor is rather dismayed by the devastating power displayed by these strange automatons, but pushes through the pain and blasts the Slasher again for another 4d6 + 2 damage.  Or if it's already down by then, he blasts the Spinner instead.

Spoiler

 

HP: 30

Action Slots:  7

 

Stats: 

Essence:  1

Constitution:  5

Dexterity:  6

Intelligence:  6

Resistance:  1

Strength:  4

Synergy:  4

 

Perks:

Magitek Projection:  Vitor is an architech, capable of using Vishkar hard-light technology to create solid objects from seemingly nothing.  However, he is also a magus, whose magical crest allows the use of psychometry, the ability to read an object’s history by touch.  As such, once per plot he can read an item once used by a renowned historical figure to obtain a special equipment called a Phantasmal Blueprint.  Vitor can only equip one Phantasmal Blueprint at a time.  Each blueprint provides Vitor with a weapon or other type of equipment, which doesn’t take up an extra slot.  Blueprints can be upgraded as though they were actions.  Vitor begins the game with a single Phantasmal Blueprint in his possession.  Vitor cannot create more than one item from a Phantasmal Blueprint at a time, but he can allow others to use an item generated in this way.

 

Emulated Phantasm:  As long as Vitor has a Phantasmal Blueprint equipped, he gains access to a special trump associated with the Phantasmal Blueprint’s equipment.  This special trump is upgraded when the supporting blueprint is, and doesn’t need an action slot.  Vitor cannot use Emulated Phantasms if doing so would cause him to suffer mana burn.  Even if another person uses an item created from a Phantasmal Blueprint, they cannot use its Emulated Phantasm, as Vitor’s special magecraft is needed to awaken the item’s full power.

 

Light Construction:  By synthesizing building materials from hard light, and reinforcing provided materials with magecraft, Vitor reduces the time requirements of all crafting and construction projects he participates in by 50%.

 

Mana Burn (flaw):  Vitor is not from a powerful or ancient family of magi, and his magical crest was thought of as useful but weak before he combined it with Vishkar technology.  Thus, if he tries to use more than one magical action in a round, he’ll suffer mana burn for 20% of his MHP as his overtaxed magical circuits protest his choices.  If Vitor uses an Emulated Phantasm, any use of magecraft for the next three rounds will always inflict mana burn.  Actions that are magecraft will be tagged as such in their description.

 

Actions:

Field Medicine (level 2, trick):  Vitor has knowledge of basic first aid as part of his combat training.  He can use this training to heal target ally for 1d6 + int HP.

 

Phantasmal Swap (level 2, free action):  Vitor, as a free action, swaps which Phantasmal Blueprint he has equipped, and manifests the associated equipment.  If that equipment or blueprint would ordinarily take time to activate, it becomes active instantly instead.  Usable once per round.

 

Photon Pistol (Level 4):  Vitor fires a ball of energy from his photon pistol at target enemy.  Deals 4d6 + intelligence damage.  The damage dice are doubled if he spent an action to charge it up before firing.  -4 damage for 1 encounter due to poorly performed maintenance.

 

Instant Construction (Level 4, magecraft):  Vitor can construct simple structures without moving parts from hard light.  Two cubic meters of material can be produced per round (doubled by the perk Light Construction).  Hard-light constructs created in this way have 20 HP and 5 resistance.

 

Phantasmal Blueprint - DIO's Stone Mask (level 5, perk-backed): This mask was used by the vampire DIO to transcend humanity. While worn, this projected artifact makes Vitor's body act more like a vampire's. Exposure to sunlight drops him to 0 HP instantly, and being completely exposed to sunlight results in a wound.  A direct line of sight to the sun is needed to trigger these detrimental effects. Additionally, DIO's hubris negates others' healing and buff effects used on the wearer. However, while worn he can't gain wounds in other ways (he's still rendered helpless at 0 HP).  At the beginning of each of Vitor's turns, if he lost more than 50% of his MHP during the past round, he automatically heals himself 2d6 + synergy HP.  This effect has a 5 round cooldown.

 

Emulated Phantasm - Essence Drain (level 5, perk-backed, magecraft): By touching an open wound on a helpless and/or recently deceased sapient with blood, Vitor can exsanguinate them in a single round, absorbing their blood and life force. Once per 3 plots, this effect can be used to heal him of a wound.  Twice per plot, Vitor can steal an action from someone he exsanguinates.  The stolen action cannot be perk-backed, and is stolen at level 1.  Tied to DIO's Stone Mask.

 

Psychometric Insight (level 2, magecraft):  Vitor reads the history of an object he touches, learning one interesting/useful fact about its past, and 1 piece of trivia about it.  Every use gives a different fact, but once the most useful and interesting facts are extracted, less useful ones, such as the year it spent sitting in a storehouse or buried underground, might come to light.

 

 

[Powder Miner]

Satomi found herself lashed by a wave of chains, and each one seemed to slam into her calves, her hips, her forearms, places that weren't covered by her armor -- no matter how tough it was, it wouldn't help her then. But the saving grace was the shield she was packing -- she raised it, and it was only after whipping around after an initial impact that drained strength from the chains that she was repeatedly hit after that. Still she was hurt... but that had never stopped her before and it wouldn't stop her now. Holding the shield to the side with her upper arm and straps, she sheathed her sword and fell into a stance of Void... and then she whipped it out in a single lightning movement at the large, wounded skeleton!

Satomi busts out an Iaijutsu Strike on the Slasher, doing 2d6+3 damage with first strike!

 

Spoiler

Perfection Crossbow: A mechanical, spring-powered repeating crossbow that is capable of renocking itself after every shot without having to pull a lever -- at the expense of being ridiculously hard to initially load. It is also incredibly lightweight, but that makes it fragile and exacerbates the reloading issues. This item does not take up a slot, skills which target gear for destruction automatically succeed against this item.

Level 1: Deal 2d6+Dex Damage. The user may instead deal 6d6+Dex Damage, but must spend 3 turns reloading afterwards.

 

Time Sandwich Samurai Armor (Level 3): These rectangular plates of samurai armor (on Satomi's thighs, shoulders, and chest) have been modified, with usage of the metal resulting from the bay explosion making the armor extremely difficult to pierce without sustained effort -- damage only sticks on one of the phases of the timeshifting metal. 

Level 1: +3 RES when equipped.

Level 2: +4 further RES when equipped.

Level 3: +2 more RES when equipped.

--Agony-Resistance Outfit: A set of stockings, sleeves, gloves, hood, and an inner robe made of two layers of fabric, a wire mesh, and purification powder. The stockings go to the thigh, are a bit tight, and the silk pattern around where the wire mesh ends at the top create an almost lace-like appearance. They also have straps running down the sides. The sleeves (with the same kind of straps) and gloves are fairly mundane, though the gloves have a fancy pattern on the palm and fingers intended to retain grip. As for the nagajuban, as it is under the kimono, it isn't usually visible, but Satomi's idea of placing belts above and below her chest and just above her hips has the unintended effect of tightening the inner robe enough to even emphasize her figure with a kimono on.

Level 1: Grants the wearer 2 Res and immunity to some environmental effects, doesn't require an action slot if worn with another set of armor.

 

(This all is a total of 11 RES.)

 

Slaughtaur Shield: A large, shiny, oval shield with spikes along its outer edge and a large skull in the center.

Level 2: The first time the user takes damage in the round they reactively raise the shield, reducing any further incoming damage by 50% until their next action or the end of the round.  Only activates automatically once per round.  Training again with this item with at least 10 Int may unlock another effect.

 

Daisho (Katana): A set of two swords (a katana and a shorter wakizashi) carried by absolutely any Samurai at all times, the Daisho is a mark of the Samurai's noble class and honor. 2d6+STR damage, when upgrading the weapon Satomi can choose a different effect for each sword (Katana and Wakizashi) for each level, but must choose only one of these swords to wield in combat at the beginning of each encounter. The Katana deals 2d6+STR damage, whereas the Wakizashi gives a bonus of +3 to structural actions.

Level 2: The Katana now deals 2d6+STR damage, whereas the Wakizashi now gives a bonus of +3 to structural actions.

 

Iaijutsu Strike: Satomi performs a strike from the Rokugani art of Iaijutsu, drawing and striking with her sword in one lightning-fast movement. This does the damage of the weapon she is using, but First Strike. If she is using a weapon that merely enhances damage, this deals 2d6+STR.

 

Fend Off: The Kaiu aren't meant to be the ones doing the gruntwork of holding the wall, but sometimes they have to defend it anyway. Satomi harasses her opponent and generally makes attacking difficult for them, lowering their primary attack stat by her DEX for a round. 2 turn cooldown.

 

[StormLord]

Satomi's strike lands for 9 damage, severing the spine of the Slasher and causing it to go tumbling towards the ground.

The Slasher fails to attack Vitor again, due to being too busying being dead.

Vitor's shot hits the Spinner in the back of the head for 22 damage.

Between the two of them, Satomi and Vitor manage to wipe out the Spinner before it can seriously harm anyone else.

 

Victory!

 

Spoiler

Satomi and Vitor each gain +1 Merit.

 

You find a rolled up scroll on the Spinner's.  The seems to be some kind of blueprint for a trap.

 

Crusher Blueprint: Detailed instructions on how to construct a small which "crushes" things around it using complex mechanisms....and possibly magic.

 

[Powder Miner]

Satomi let out a long breath as the battle ended -- bleeding and smashed up, she was not in a fantastic position at all, and she had no medical ability, but she would not ever give herself the chance to slow down and stop -- she had a Duty to perform, and all that she did when traveling these many different realms was done in the service of strengthening them and strengthening herself in order to better strengthen the other worlds in turn. It was a simple fact that risk and injury was a part of that, but as a samurai, and especially as a samurai of the Crab Clan, the Courage to push on anyhow was something of the utmost importance. Their duty did not allow cowardice, after all. She hadn't let injury stop her before... and she wasn't going to now.

 

Buuuuut first, there was something she was going to have to take care of. "It is awfully difficult to hit these skeletons solidly with bolts and arrows -- hold on for a moment, I am going to work on a solution to fix that, at least for myself, though I can also make an attempt at doing the same for you." Satomi proceeded to get to surprisingly careful work: she knew exactly what she wanted to do, but she had to both avoid impurity and screwing up her task, so this would take care. The first thing that Satomi did was to carefully cut lengths of chain off of the Spinner's body, being incredibly fastidiously careful to avoid touching its dead flesh, something she actually seemed to be incredibly afraid of, her hand jerking back violently whenever she accidentally got closer to the dead flesh that intended. Then, with that done, she began carefully looping a couple of links of chains around each of the arrows that she was carrying, attempting to avoid imbalancing them, and then she equally carefully hammered them into the arrows with the hilt of her wakizashi until the chains were embedded within the arrowheads, increasing their contact area significantly and making them heavier, if much less quick and aerodynamic and piercing. Then, she did the same for a container of the bolts for her Perfection Crossbow.

 

Satomi attempts to harvest chain links from the Spinner's corpse without touching the Spinner's body itself, and attempts to craft the following item:

Pounded-Chain Ammunition: Arrows or bolts that have had their arrowheads surrounded in carefully-balanced and carefully-hammered chains -- this has the result of obviously removing the ammunition's ability to pierce flesh in the same way, and it makes it heavier and slower, but it increases the surface area of the new "head" of the arrow and ensures that it transfers that force into what it hits directly and bluntly, instead of relying on a wedge to cut the target apart. When attached to a piercing-damage bow or crossbow (not taking a slot on its own), Pounded-Chain ammunition changes the weapon's damage type from piercing to blunt damage.