Day Two of the ARBBL Pick'n'Mix 2014

DAY TWO

I think a fourth side stepper would have been a better choice, as I didn't use sprint at all.

Game One – vs Cantaloupe’s Chaos

Gate 8-5

We last faced each other for some Wood Elf vs Wood Elf violence at last summer’s Cake, and I think he was after some revenge.

The game started well for the skinks: Hemlock failed to catch the hand off, but another skink grabbed it, allowing the krox to kill a chaos warrior. A both down blitz on my ball carrier left the ball fairly safe, but even with a reroll the skinks couldn’t pick it up and the minotaur killed the krox! The ball passed between the teams, whilst 2 skinks dodged to death and the chaos team killed Hemlock, the sprinting skink and one of the side stepping skinks: with an earlier crowd surf and some knock outs, this left 3 skinks on pitch. One held the ball tightly as the beast swarmed in and killed him. The ball bounced free, but the remaining skinks couldn’t pick it up and another was swiftly knocked out.

Once the beastmen finally managed to get the ball, the final remaining skink ran up to the ball carrier and, with a ½ die block, joined most of his friends in the dead & injured box. With a short pass and hand off, the chaos were able to score at the end of the first half.

Fortunately, all the knock outs came back (hurray for babes!), meaning the skinks could line up with 5 players – one with side step. Who was killed by the minotaur immediately. The first turn saw another skink dead, one knocked out, one stunned and one bravely staying on his feet. In a bit of a panic, the surviving skink blitzed the minotaur for a push. The minotaur blitzed back to stun the brave skink, whilst the previously stunned skink was fouled to death.

There followed several turns of various members of the chaos team (including the minotaur) fouling the remaining skink for stuns – until turn 7, where a beastman finally managed to kill him. The chaos team scored in the hopes the knocked out skink would return to be killed… This gave me two turns to score, and a pitch invasion decimated his team (the minotaur, 3 chaos warriors and a beastman down). Unfortunately, a failed pick up using the reroll took away that brief hope, but the chaos team also sadly failed their goal, knocking out rather than killing the skink on their blitz.

Final score: TD 0-2; CAS 1-10

 

I know they look like Slaan, but they are skinks; honest!

Game Two – vs BlocknRoll’s Chaos Pact

Gate 8-5

The game started with pouring rain, but the first kick off calmed this down to nice weather. For the fifth game, I’d won both fame and the kick off and again chose to go first. The krox stunned the ogre and a skink managed to knock out a marauder on a both down – but failed to pick up the ball first. Bomber Dribblesnot then fumbled his bomb – but was ok. The krox then hit the troll over whilst skinks got the ball to Hemlock, who ran up the pitch with skinks running up as distractions (with some uncanny dodging to make up for previous games). His big guys stood up and the skaven blitzed Hemlock – hurray for side step! However, Hemlock can’t dodge. The Pact team got as close around the ball as they could, with tentacles to make it as difficult as possible for me to get it – but his skaven also can’t dodge and his third reroll was used to end turn 3. A bit of lucky dodging let the skinks score.

The next drive started with relief on his side – sure hands meant he was able to pick the ball up. Short lived relief, though, with a both down block ending the turn. A quick blitz left the ball in the hands of a supporting skink. A three dice block stripped the ball loose, where the skaven managed to catch it. A stun from the chainsaw resulted in him being sent off, with some relief from the skinks! In response, the krox killed the minotaur – and the troll killed a side stepping skink. The Krox failed to knock the ball loose, but the next turn the ogre boneheaded when he was meant to blitz, meaning the skaven had to dodge and as established both yesterday and previously in this game, skaven can’t dodge. So the skinks grabbed the ball and scored.

This gave him a chance to achieve a one turn touchdown, but even with a reroll from the kick off table the goblin failed to pay enough attention to accept the hand off.

The second half started with a continuation of bad luck for BlocknRoll: the troll blocked with a skull and 2 both downs. He passed the loner roll to get a pow. The ogre fumbled the throw team mate, but the goblin landed safely. The turn ended with a marauder double skulling a skink. Hemlock raced in to stab and KO the goblin – a marauder caught the bouncing ball, so the skinks swarmed in to put as many tackle zones around him as they could – but forgot he could just hand off to the dark elf, which he promptly did. A quick blitz on the dark elf went from a push/skull to double skull on the reroll so the dark elf could blitz away. The krox knocked out the troll, but the skinks used a reroll to go from a skull to a skull on their second attempt to hit the dark elf. Blitzing away, the dark elf needed a reroll to keep from falling but managed to score.

So my turn 4 started with a skink dying on a GFI to hand off the ball, even with the free reroll we’d both just won. The dark elf also failed a GFI with reroll so the krox killed the ogre… and a failed dodge resulted in a knocked out skink. The skaven just about managed to get the ball so was swarmed with skinks whilst Hemlock attempted to stab the dark elf. The Pact then failed their GFI for a blitz; the skinks pushed the ball around ineffectively whilst the krox killed a marauder. More pushing on his turn and a failed dodge on mine ended the game.

Final Score: TD 2-1; CAS 3-1

This was more down to his bad luck than my skill, although for both of us rerolls were basically useless.

Game Three – vs Australopithecus’s Ogres

Gate 3-8 meant I lost fame for the first time – and he had two lots! Another new opponent for me, as well.

Another game starting in the pouring rain. Again, I was going first but this time a blitz meant the weather was staying bad – the blitz was not very successful. Hemlock tried stabbing a snotling with no joy. The ball was quickly recovered, but again a skink failed a dodge in an effort to offer protection. An ogre, needing a reroll on the GFI, successfully blitzed the ball carrier to knock the ball loose, but couldn’t pick it up. Hemlock managed to kill a snotling whilst another skink failed a GFI in an attempt to add tackle zones to the ball. An ogre then blitzed with a reroll: 5 out of 6 dice came up skulls, but the sixth was the pow he needed – but his snotlings still couldn’t pick up the ball.

The krox – feeling very outnumbered – killed an ogre whilst a group of plucky skinks pushed another onto the ball, and as it bounced free one caught it. The ball carrier was pushed around whilst Hemlock was knocked down – a snotling then got himself sent off for fouling without breaking armour. The skinks were unable to break a route through the ogres defence, and the ball carrier failed a dodge to drop the ball in the open. Even with a reroll, the ogre nearest the ball was unable to pick it up so the skinks grabbed it and ran. Just in time, too; the ogre chased them down but failed the GFI needed to hit them. The krox killed another ogre and the skinks ran the ball in to score on turn 6.

A high kick let a snotling catch the ball. An ogre stood by another snotling in a good position for a throw teammate attempt. The only problem was the skink in his tackle zone. Not to worry: another ogre was on hand to take him out… but decided to bonehead instead. Another ogre was called up to be the star and blitz the skink away… and he also boneheaded to the premature snickers of the skink: the snotling accepted the handoff and the ogre threw him down the pitch, ignoring the skink’s attempts to stop him. The throw was wild, however, and the snotling too afraid to land so close to skinks and knocked himself out. The skinks were too excited by this turn of events to pick up the ball – although one had the foresight to run down the pitch in case they achieved it. Fortunately, the ogres also couldn’t grab the ball, although they did put a tackle zone on the running skink – so the skinks knocked over an ogre and pushed off the one giving the tackle zone only to once again fail the pick up (pouring bloody rain). In vengeance, an ogre finally managed to kill a skink before a both down ended the half.

The second half started a little more successfully for the ogres: a bit worried by Hemlock’s ability to (fairly easily) take out snotlings, they blitzed to knock him down, then sent in some snotlings to kick him to stunned. The snotling in charge of picking up the ball was too busy watching this and the ball scattered loose. The skinks raced down the pitch to get as close as they could until one eventually failed a dodge. This clearly intimidated the snotlings by the ball, as they still couldn’t pick it up. Hemlock stabbed the snotling nearest him as the skinks near the ball in the backfield carefully lined themselves up by the ball – with a side stepper in the end zone and the vague hope a failed pick up would bounce the ball into his hands for a score… the failed pick up achieved, a skink earlier in the chain clearly hadn’t been listening and caught the ball. The ogres, too far away to achieve much, killed a skink still by them. Brave little snotling attempted to hit the ball carrier for a push, and the skinks scored.

In the next kick off, the ball flew wild assisting the throw teammate attempt. Again, the ogre behaved well but the snotling messed up his landing and was carted off the pitch to the dead and injured box. The skinks grabbed the ball but failed to hand it off, leaving it precariously near the side line where an ogre similarly couldn’t get it – but the skinks tried again and ran down the pitch with it, only for the ball carrier to be stunned by a punch from an ogre. Annoyed, Hemlock stabbed the ogre player who’d managed to grab the ball (putting them in the KO box), but the other skinks couldn’t make the most of this. A snotling grabbed the ball… but knocked itself out on a dodge. The skinks grabbed it, but again couldn’t hand it off successfully. The ogres seemed in a state of confusion by the point, giving the skinks just enough time to grab the ball and score to end the game.

Final score: TD 3-0; CAS 4-2

It was the pouring rain that won me the game.

So: final scores!

Pleased to note that of the 5 Exiles in attendance, 4 were in the top 10 and that I placed higher than both the people who beat me (Canteloup and Lunchmoney). I’m also very amused that of Canteloup’s 14 total casualties, 10 were against my little skinks! (By my reckoning, I caused 2 more and took 2 less casualties than is showing in the record, so wonder if I gave a score sheet the wrong way round; I also think I conceded one fewer touchdowns, so maybe my notes are just wrong…. If someone I played can see an error in one of the scores I’ve given above – most likely BlocknRoll or Australopithecus, as I didn’t write down the final score at the time – please let me know).

 

Exiles on Tour!

Day One of the ARBBL Pick'n'Mix 2014

The ARBBL Pick’n’Mix is one of my favourite tournaments. Now in its second year, one of the things I really like about this tournament is the range of teams you see here that maybe you won’t see so often elsewhere: you get to take two teams, one for each day. If you’re familiar with Blood Bowl, you’ll know that the different teams are ranked by how well they do – from Tier One (teams like Wood Elves and Amazons that tend to do very well) down to Tier Four (the ‘stunty’ teams, like Ogres and Goblins that tend to do very badly). For this tournament, the tier value of the two teams needs to add up to at least 5. Last year, I took Amazons and Ogres (and perversely did much better with the Ogres than the Amazons). It was a lot of fun, but this time I decided to pick from Tiers Two and Three.

For Tier Two, I was torn between Chaos Pact (which I’d taken to Crumb a couple of years ago and quite enjoyed) or Humans (which I’ve never taken). I went with Pact because Humans just feel boring to me. Tier Three was a lot easier: Stunty-legal Lizards! Regular Lizards have never particularly appealed to me, but the stunty variant (skinks and kroxigor only; no saurus) sounded fun.

DAY ONE – The Pact-thetic Worms

'Multiple Block' should read 'Mighty Blow' - my team sheets were a bit damaged so I drew up a new one with typing error.

Game One – vs Dribbli’s Orcs

Gate: 8-7 so fame to me thanks to my fan factor.

The Worms won the kick off and elected to received, but were surprised by a blitz from the orcs. Fortunately the Worms had accidentally set up to protect against this and the orcs couldn’t make much headway, with the ball at the very back of the pitch, where Lewdgrip quickly got hold of it. The big guys on the front line pushed over the troll on the orcs’ team, but didn’t do much damage.

Some pushy-shovey from both sides later, Lewdgrip threw the ball to the skaven… who was shortly knocked down by a goblin on the orcs’ team. The minotaur put their other goblin in the crowd, and the Worm’s goblin knocked over an orc to give the skaven a chance to grab the ball and run to safety, with a touchdown to follow on turn 4.

As the teams lined up again, the sun burst forth from the clouds. The orcs were clearly in a party mood, playing pass-the-parcel with the minotaur, who eventually fell on the third attempt. The troll went over on the first hit. Their goblin then failed to pick up the ball. The next turn left both big guys on the floor, but with the Worm’s goblin by the ball. It wasn’t enough – the ball was collected and thrown to the goblin stood behind his troll. The minotaur wasn’t having any of this, and knocked the troll down to stand intimidatingly over the little gobbo. The ball eventually fell loose, but the dark elf proved that elves can’t dodge to end the half 1-0 rather than 2-0.

The second half started with the Worms blitzing the orcs – someone got under the ball but couldn’t catch it, so the orcs were able to get hold of it and take the minotaur down again: angry, the minotaur then hit the black orc who knocked him over, only to end up stunning himself with the black orc falling uninjured. The orcs then managed to get the ball safely into a cage, whilst shoving Lewdgrip off the pitch. The Worms responded by getting as many tackle zones onto the ball carrier as they could – which the orcs seemed unconcerned by, as they ran to relative safety at the side of the pitch.

First blood finally went to the ogre killing a black orc. Their retaliation was swift and brutal, with two marauders (including the one with mighty blow) heading off to the ‘dead and injured’ box. Desperate measures were called for, and a 1 die block knocked the ball loose, but the Worms lived up to the pactthetic name and failed to catch it. A bit more awkwardness later, the Worms’ goblin killed an orc goblin in an attempt to reach the ball – he managed to pick it up the following turn, but had nowhere to go and was soon knocked over by the opposing troll.

In the final moments of play, the dark elf failed its second dodge required to score again. Saving grace was the black orc skulling itself to death against the ogre and I’ve now realised I missed my final turn of the game (or absolutely nothing happened so I forgot to make a single note).

Final score: TD 1-0; CAS 3-2

Game Two – vs Ivan’s Ogres

Gate 11-7 so again fame was mine!

My second game and my second new opponent. I’ve made some really good friends playing Blood Bowl and it’s always a real pleasure to see them again, but it’s always nice to play someone new.

The Worms again won the toss and elected to receive. The ball bounced off the pitch so the mino demanded it be handed to him – and who’s going to argue with a minotaur? The troll went stupid but the ogre made up for him, knocking down an opposing ogre (it’s a bit intimidating to be outnumbered on the big guy front). The guarding marauder attempted to dodge out to support the minotaur, but even with a re-roll failed his dodge, and the minotaur was knocked down next turn. Fortunately, another marauder had reached him and managed to snatch the ball before it fell into the ogres’ hands: two stood looming over him. The troll attempted to come to his aid, but ended up falling over as a both down against an ogre.

The marauder inevitably fell next turn, with the ball bouncing loose. The troll and minotaur soon followed, then the goblin got knocked out. Lewdgrip realised his team needed him and recovered the ball. The ogres knocked out the dark elf and, in a moment of panic, Lewdgrip threw the ball inaccurately. The ogres quickly killed the blocking marauder and recovered the ball to throw it to safety. The minotaur, confused by this turn of events, refused to blitz  and the skaven, having taken lessons from the dark elf, failed to dodge. In return, the ogres knocked out Lewdgrip and gathered the ball. This reminded the minotaur what he was meant to do and he achieved a blitz to put a tackle zone on the ball carrier. The skaven still couldn’t dodge.

Knocking out the tackle marauder, the ogres then ran the ball along but failed the go for it needed to blitz. A lot more pushy-shovey later and he’s in range to score when a cheeky block knocked the ball loose. It wasn’t quite enough, though, and he scooped the ball back up and ran, earning the spot prize as he failed the go for it over the white line and killed a snotling to end the half. Phew!

The kicking was clearly a little wild this match, with the ball again sailing off the pitch to be given to the ogre with frenzy. Two of his ogres bone-headed, which meant the team couldn’t make good use of their first turn. The Worms were similarly ineffective, and it really is time the dark elf stopped taking the training sessions on how to dodge, as another marauder failed to do so and left a nice space for the ogres to move through. To make it easier, he knocked over the minotaur and ogre, then left the ball carrier leering at Lewdgrip. He managed to push the ogre back on a ½ die block, so the ogre proceeded to kill the dark elf, whilst snotlings kicked the minotaur in the head until it was stunned. Snotlings are a pain.

Fortunately for the Worms, in the confusion the ball carrier ran at the skaven and ended up with both falling over – the skaven leapt up and grabbed the ball, running as far as he could in the hopes he’d be safe. An ogre killed the goblin on his way to try and stop the rat but the rat had finally remembered how to dodge and kept running. Another moment of fortune favoured the Worms – in their excitement at knocking over the minotaur, the ogres forgot to send snotlings after the rat. The big guys on the Worms’ team picked themselves up just in time to see the rat score his touchdown.

This left two turns of fairly ineffective violence, with a dead snotling being all to show for it.

Final score: TD 1-0; CAS 1-3

Hard fought – we both made silly mistakes but the blitz from the ball carrying frenzy ogre was the one which won me the game.

With a friesian minotaur, a stand-in dark elf (as the usual one for this team broke her arm that she stands on) and a chaos warrior called Fluffy as Lewdgrip.

Game Three – vs Lunchmoney’s Khemri

Gate 9-6, so I was 3 for 3 on fame!

Referring to what I said about playing new people: Lunchmoney is better known on this blog as Husbit, so it doesn’t always work out that well. Having said that, I’ve never taken Pact against him, nor played against his Khemri, so it’s not as if it’s our usual ‘Wood Elf vs Undead’ (where the statistics show each NAF match has thus far ended 4-1 to me – any other line-up, he wins. So maybe I should always take Wood Elves to tournaments where I may face him…).

Again, the Worms won the toss and elected to receive. Possibly shocked at the fact we were playing, the crowd rioted, costing us the first turn of the game. Going into the second turn, then, Lewdgrip quickly grabbed the ball whilst the troll no zoned and the minotaur decided not to blitz – this was right after the realisation that he had 4 strength 5 guys without nega-traits on the front line and that I’d set up really badly considering this. Teach me to pay attention when he’s explaining his team…

My team was inevitable pushed around, and a both down result took my guard assist out of the game. Still, things seemed to be looking up in turn two, with the minotaur agreeing to blitz, and a successful pass and the skaven running to where he seemed safe – at least, Lunchmoney claimed he was out of reach and I stupidly didn’t check. A knocked down ogre and a GFI later, and the ball is loose. Fortunately, the dark elf managed to grab it but had to run on alone, as the ogre wouldn’t stand and the troll no zoned in sympathy. Turns out, Khemri are really good at dodging and managed to knock out the elf.

This did at least spur the Worms on: unsupervised, the troll finally moved and the skaven managed to reach the ball, even if he couldn’t quite get it to stay in his paws. The Khemri stunned him and picked it up themselves, only to fail a GFI with re-roll the next turn. The minotaur agreed to blitz, so I thought things were looking up – especially when the goblin managed to stand next to the ball and Lewdgrip passed the loner roll. Shame he couldn’t pass the second attempt on the dodge roll, though. This meant Sekhemet could happily kill the goblin and grab the ball – the minotaur charged ineffectively to his side, where he was knocked down and with two successful GFI’s the Khemri ended the half with a score on the board.

The second half started with the Khemri knocking all 3 big guys onto their back. The ogre refused to stand – the troll happily stood, but then wasted a re-roll on his block to skull himself back to the floor. The Khemri then also lost a re-roll for a second both down result against a marauder. The ogre agreed to stand but the troll, embarrassed, refused, whilst the minotaur attempted a blitz and failed the loner roll that would have protected him from the skull/both down result that followed… a failed dodge in turn 3 and another failed big guy block in turn 4 gives you a pretty good idea of the luck I was having. At least the skeleton who kicked the minotaur to a stun was sent off.

Turn 5 saw the Khemri ball carrier reach the end zone and wait. Fortunately, all the big guys stood up – but a marauder knocked himself out trying to dodge towards the ball. So the Khemri knocked the minotaur over and the Worms failed another dodge roll. The troll then fell and was stunned on the foul – and the Worms failed another dodge to allow him to score on turn 8.

Generously, he set up to allow me to get some casualties in the final turn, but as I needed a non-existent re-roll to get the second I could only really claim one (and that only cos he felt bad for how my game had gone).

Final Score: TD 0-1; CAS 3-1

I’d very much like to play this game again but without failing most skill rolls, so I could actually give Lunchmoney a challenge and an enjoyable game.

Jvala - Pathfinder Interlude Character

This is the character I’m actually playing in the Pathfinder interlude. I went with a spell-less ranger by accident – it’s a third-party created class that I spotted in Herolab, and having already put together a regular ranger in the form of Telina I thought I’d have a play. Then forgot that’s what I’d done until I sent it off to the GM and received his comment that it was an interesting choice. With a druid in the party, it shouldn’t matter that I don’t have any spells.

The name ‘Jvala’ means flame in Hindi: I knew I wanted her name to translate as flame, so sat on Google Translate until I found a word that sounded good. For her real name, I knew she needed an ordinary surname and had it in my head that her brother’s name was ‘Marcus’ so looked into Latin roots to come up with Julia Faber, which is Latin for Smith – I wanted Smith as much for the association with fire as for the ordinariness of the name and I put it into Latin to suggest it’s an old family that’s maybe had better days.

Julia ‘Jvala’ Faber – Chaotic Neutral Ifrit Spell-less Ranger (level 10)

Abilities: Str18, Dex18, Con18, Int15, Wis13, Cha15

Ifrit: Darkvision (60ft); Burning Hands once per day; Fire in the Blood – fast healing 2 for one round whenever hit with fire damage (up to twice level in HP per day); Fire Resistance 5

Languages: Common, Dwarven, Elven, Ignan

Ranger: Favoured Enemy – Incorporeal Creatures (+2), Undead (+4), Magical Beast (+4)

Favoured Terrain – Underground (+4), Plains (+2)

Hunter’s Bond – Flash and Cinder (see below)

Combat Style – Two-Weapon Fighting: Double Slice; (Improved) Two-Weapon Fighting

Ranger Talents – Additional Animal Companion; Skirmishing Attack (add stealth attack damage when attacking after moving at least 10ft); Improved Stealth Attack (extra d6 stealth attack damage)

Skill ranks: Acrobatics 10; Climb 5; Handle Animal 10; Heal 8; Intimidate 5; Knowledge dungeoneering 8, geography 5, nature 5; Perception 10; Survival 10; Swim 4

Feats: Blind Fight; Dodge; Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Katana); Mobility; Two-Weapon Defense

Traits: Crowd Dodger (+2 bonus to acrobatics to move through threatened squares); Starchild (always know north; +4 bonus to survival to avoid getting lost); Unflappable Arrogance (+5DC to be intimidated; if would be intimidated for more than one round, only intimidated for one round)

Drawback: Pride (if threatened, challenged or accused, -2 penalty to diplomacy/sense motive against that individual until they apologise)

Weapons: Main-hand +1 Impact Keen Katana; Off-hand +1 Keen Ghost Touch Wakizashi

Armour: +1 Darkleaf Restful Hide Armour (restful means the armour can be slept in and 2 hours sleep gives the benefit of 8hrs, although this can only be used once per day and additional sleep confers no extra benefits)

Magic Gear: Handy Haversack; Belt of Tumbling; Wand of Cure Light Wounds

Mundane Gear: Usual adventuring stuff (the ‘SAK’, or Standard Adventurer’s Kit, as we’ve always called it); Cold Weather Outfit; Guide to Flora/Fauna (neat bit of kit found in Herolab: a book that gives a +2 bonus to survival); Healer’s Kit; Surgeon’s Kit; Vet’s Kit; 3 x Moonrod (she may have darkvision but her animal companions don’t); Silk Rope; 5 x Tindertwigs (for when she’s used burning hands for something other than lighting the campfire)

Appearance/Personality: Tall and proud with a slender but muscular frame, at first glance Jvala’s hair seems coal black and her skin a dark burnt umber. Closer inspection reveals a flicker of lava red through her hair and a mottled appearance to her skin. As she becomes excited or angry or upset or otherwise emotional, this enhances until her hair seems to be made of flames, and fire seems to flicker across just beneath her skin. Two short, sharp horns protrude from her forehead, as black or flame as her hair. When not in her armour, she tends to wear lots of reds, yellows and oranges, particularly in flowing fabrics.

She is fierce and not very good at dealing with people, preferring to spend her time alone, or rather with her animals. If you can get past this touchy surface, she becomes a loyal ally.

She tries to be good, but it’s not really in her nature and her temper will let her down. She trusts her goddess, Desna, will appreciate her efforts.

Her anger usually burns out as suddenly and as fast as it arises, but if she does hold a grudge it is for very serious reasons and she will not be able to forgive or let go easily.

When the Pathfinder Guild don’t have work for her, she tends to follow rumours to explore abandoned ruins and graveyards, looking for discarded items that may be useful to her or others.

Image by Abi Ward

Cinder – True Neutral Wolf

Abilities: Str26, Dex16, Con19, Int2, Wis12, Cha6

Skill ranks: Acrobatics 3, Intimidate 3, Perception 2, Stealth 1

Feats:  Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Natural Armour, Mobility, Toughness

Tricks: Attack (any target), Break Out, Deliver, Down, Fetch, Flank, Heel, Hunt, Menace

Appearance: A large, dark grey wolf with amber eyes.

Flash – True Neutral Leopard

Abilities: Str20, Dex22, Con16, Int2, Wis12, Cha6

Skill ranks: Acrobatics 4, Perception 3, Stealth 2

Feats:  Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Endurance, Mobility, Spring Attack

Tricks: Attack (any target), Down, Exclusive, Flank, Guard, Heel, Hunt, Sneak, Track

Appearance: A sleek, muscular leopard

Background:

Jvala was born to human parents in Absalom. Her family was very poor: of the large group of siblings, only she and her elder brother Marcus survived childhood. She was the last to be born; the damage she did to her mother during birth was not enough to kill her, but the woman never fully recovered.

Although Absalom is a melting pot, Jvala (or Julia as she was then known) never saw another ifrit. The other children picked on her – particularly when they realised her short temper guaranteed a good reaction and made her an easy target. Meanwhile, the adults distrusted her and by extension her parents, meaning she often felt isolated and had little support from her family – her siblings usually choosing to join in the bullying rather than marking themselves as targets.

This was fine – miserable for her, but not dangerous – until the day she learnt to throw fire from her hands, badly burning several of the worst of her tormentors. The difficulties her parents faced in dealing with their neighbours rapidly increased and they took some of their frustrations out on her until finally she ran away.

She stowed away on a boat to get away from the city of Absalom. Hideously seasick, she somehow managed to stay hidden for the whole journey. Staggering out the other side, she was amazed by the space: no crowded houses, no hustle and bustle of people everywhere. For the first time, she felt she could breathe.

More than a little unsure (but not prepared to show it), she tagged along with a caravan heading east. With no skills, she had no real way of earning her keep with them so started to learn to find food for herself. Stealing from people in the caravan, though, proved a bad course of action and she was cast out.

She was very afraid that first night, but the stolen blanket and the small fire she managed to keep burning kept her warm even if she didn’t get much sleep. The next day, she started walking again – the fear steadily turning to anger deep inside so that by lunchtime, she seemed almost a flaming beacon. Her feet hurt and her stomach ached where she hadn’t been able to eat properly – not an unusual feeling, but certainly no assistance. A small stream tasted brackish when she went to quench her thirst and she was about ready to scream when she saw the three men walking towards her. Naïve relief flooded over her and her hair returned to its calm, black state.

“Please, can you spare some food?” It embarrassed her how easy it was to play up her vulnerability.

The first turned his smile to a smirk, and she realised she may be the same height as two, but all three were much bigger than she. An uncertain flicker of fear ran through her hair and over her skin. “Sure, sweetheart. We’ve got plenty over here.”

She took a couple of steps closer – she was hungry and they didn’t look violent, but she was remembering cautionary tales her mother had imparted, and something about the speaker’s stance reminded her of her bullies. The tallest, smirk stretched to his eyes beneath his flopping brown fringe, held out an open bag towards her, shaking it slightly as though she were a frightened animal. This action was enough to make her realise the danger she was in; there was a hunter’s look in the eyes of the two men flanking him. She started to back off, looking around.

“Nowhere to run, little one”

“We know these grounds better than you”

“Why so scared? We’ll look after you” They walked towards her, circling round until one caught her arm. She looked down at the calloused and weatherworn hand, up to the leering face with its mud brown eyes, yellowed and broken teeth and scarred nose and screamed.

She wrenched herself free and started to run, but – well-fed and tougher – they caught her quickly. She threw flames at them, and they backed off giving her a chance to start running again, but the fire hadn’t done enough to do more than make them angrier and when they realised that’s all she had they renewed their chase with a fury. They wrestled her to the ground as she screamed and spat, barely hearing what they were saying to her as they tried to pin her there.

A shout preceded a gale force wind that blew them off her – they turned to look at whoever had become involved, but a crackling arc of lightning had them running into the woods. Julius and Elise Stardancer gently cradled her, gave her water and checked she was not hurt.

The two clerics of Desnae were sadly childless. This angry, haughty teen seemed to them to be a gift from Desna to make up for that, and they did their best to raise her. First and foremost, they taught her how to survive in the wilderness – what to look for and what to avoid. Elise had been born into a troupe of acrobats, so taught Jvala some of the tricks she’d learnt. Julius, meanwhile, spotted her love of animals and encouraged her in befriending and taming them – a one-eyed crow they called Jack was rescued and stayed with them until dying of old age. They taught her to fight, to defend herself and those who couldn’t defend themselves.

It was Elise who gave Julia the name Jvala. To begin with, the ifrit was too worked up to speak and the name had been the stage name of one of Elise’s troupe – a name meaning ‘flame’. It stuck and now Jvala doesn’t think of herself as anything else.

Eventually, her adoptive parents convinced her to return to Absalom to make peace with her family and an uneasy truce rose with them. She was not prepared to return to the city permanently, but over the years she gradually grew closer to her surviving brother and his family, making a point to visit them whenever she was in town and trying to make sure she did so at least once a year. She was shocked by how much faster her brother was aging than she, but when their parents died she barely mourned them. The deaths of Elise and Julius some years later she took much harder.

Having found the freedom of the wilderness, she was unable to return to city life, so she followed the footsteps of her adoptive parents in studying ancient ruins, as often taking any goods that interested her or that she felt would sell – the previous owners no longer needed them, she reasoned, so someone may as well get use from them. In this way, she obtained her current weapons, armour and magic items.

She preferred to travel alone after the deaths of Elise and Julius, the first people she met who did not judge her. She’d learnt enough from them that she no longer feared the thugs and bandits who would before have seen her as easy pickings. Her prouder stance and evident strength meant she was rarely challenged.

One day, she came across a pregnant wolf with its leg nearly broken by the trap it was caught in. Furious that anyone would treat an animal this way, she carefully and slowly made her way towards it, offering it some of her food to try and demonstrate she was on its side. The creature was weak, fatigued by the wound and hunger, and ate gratefully. She then carefully freed it from the trap, fearing it would run free as soon as it had the chance and before she could fix the leg. It didn’t, so she set to work with a patience she could rarely find when dealing with people.

She continued to hunt for the wolf after its litter had been born, acting as its pack as it continued to recover. When eventually it moved on, the cub with the darkest coat stayed. She named him Cinder.

Cinder grew into a large wolf; strong and powerful, but always gentle and affectionate with Jvala and those he saw as her allies. The two made a good team, and she became recognised in those towns she most often frequented as she walked in with the wolf padding at her side. Amongst the friends she barely has are various merchants dotted around the Inner Sea: she tends to frequent the same people as often as she can because these are the ones she has learnt she can trust – and because, despite her preference for isolation, it is nice to be recognised and greeted in a friendly manner.

It was from one such merchant that she learnt of a market further along that he thought she would be interested in, dealing in unusual items of the sort she occasionally brought through. It was a travelling caravan of a market, so wouldn’t be around long. She went to check it out and was initially very impressed by the displays, just as her friend had thought; her hair flickering a dark red of interest. Further in, though, she found a tiny, mewling leopard cub, clearly far too young to have been taken from its mother. She asked and was told the mother had been shot and now the cub was for sale. Aghast, her hair and skin started to flicker and she demanded the cub be handed to her. The merchant laughed, saying she could have the cub if she could afford the price. Cinder marched round and growled whilst Jvala again demanded the cub. Again the merchant laughed; as she drew her sword, he became angry and went to call the guards.

Jvala is a little confused about the exact sequence of events that followed, but the upshot was that she ran with Cinder by her side and the tiny cub clutched to her chest whilst the merchant’s stall flamed and the neighbouring stalls started to catch alight. She’s not certain how she managed to dodge the guards, so assumes Desna was on her side as she ran.

Once safely away, she set to work raising the cub, naming it Flash.

The three work together in her primary line of work (tomb raiding, dungeon crawling, whatever you want to call it). When visiting family in Absalom, she caught the attention of the Pathfinder Guild and was invited to join, which she accepted.

She has worked with the party before and is a little unsure of ‘Sam’, who is secretive and impulsive, and of Zabeel, whose reserve or shyness means she knows little about him. With their shared love of wilderness and wildlife, she feels very close to the druid Tanna Freespirit.

Aberrant - in Vienna

The Nova Initiative team has returned to the Hub and been debriefed. Benedict had a quick chat with Adam and Chrissie about his new baby boy, Alistair. Jen (his wife, who has so far gone undermentioned but is a lovely NPC who does most of the actually running of Benedict’s international company, St John Enterprises) was recovering well, and their kitten (Mittens) seem to be happy with the new arrival. He had some concerns with the child’s relationship with quantum – like nothing seen before.

He had a new task for Adam and Chrissie, to investigate Project Utopia’s branch in Vienna. They would be supported by Stef and Mark in this, whilst Robert and Jean had another task and Rachel was put on standby to assist either team. Benedict was a little vague about what was being sought, except that there was another facility elsewhere that he had concerns over, where they seemed to be keeping ‘dangerous’ novae.

The Hub – the Nova Initiative’s secret base under London – has expanded into other cities. These smaller mini-hubs have become known as Spokes.

Adam has flown out to LA with Sam to start filming on the comics he’s been writing; Chrissie (sorry, Dr Christina Walker, PhD), meanwhile, has been invited to give a key note speech at a conference in Vienna (under her nova name of Lisa Moore), discussing the role of baselines and novae in a quantum world. We’ll rejoin the action as Chrissie arrives above the swimming pool by which Adam and Sam are lounging in the garden of their LA property.

Spotting Adam, I carefully tucked my body and dropped into the pool to drench the patio – Adam (speed freak!) managed to catch most of the drips as they flew through the air so Sam stayed dry. Working on my control of fire, I heated myself to dry off. It was effective, although I think I may have freaked Sam out a little – I don’t think she knew I could do that. It’s not entirely common knowledge yet.

Anyway, I was excited to invite them to my speech in Vienna – Sam declined very politely, wanting to stay here and build her acting career. Adam was keen to attend, seeing it as a good opportunity to start our next mission. He also very kindly went through the speech with me a few times to make sure it would make sense to the non-novas in the audience. And also to make sure I didn’t get side-tracked in irrelevant details. And for the moral support.

We raced to Vienna (of course!) – I flew and arrived just before he did on foot. He’s getting really good at jumping. We were both struck by the beauty of the city.

It was thrilling, to give the speech. Benedict came up after – as Sir Benedict St John, CEO of St John Enterprises, rather than as my boss – to congratulate me. Our friendship is not widely known, in part to protect him from being outed as a nova. There were many other interesting people and I soon got distracted whilst Adam, Benedict, Stef and Mark went off to the Vienna Spoke of the Hub.

They discussed the best way to sneak into Project Utopia, whose ostentatious building was more or less opposite the far subtler entrance to the Spoke, and decided the best plan would be to sneak through via the caterers or similar staff. Adam also decided to see if he could find anything out from one of the taxi drivers from Utopia’s preferred company.

Meanwhile, I got chatting with Antaeus, the biologist Steven Bulmer who’d opened up to being a nova the ngiht we met him all that time ago in America – the night we saved the life of Chelsea Clinton. I knew he’d started working with Utopia – kind of hard not to know, with the exploits of Team Tomorrow plastered all over the news – so asked him about their facilities, as if I were interested in joining. The Nova Initiative is known and recognised, but we’re a lot quieter so I wasn’t particularly surprised he didn’t seem to know I had an affiliation. When he asked, I muttered about the fellowship Cambridge had recently offered me. After some discussion, he offered me a tour of his lab after his speech the next day. This seemed a really good opportunity, so I accepted.

Adam had managed to book a cab using the same company as Project Utopia and turned his impressive charisma onto the driver, who opened up with as much juicy gossip as he could provide. One bit stuck out to Adam: that Antaeus was often driven to what was assumed to be a lab in a warehouse that looked almost abandoned. Adam got the address and decided to check it out whilst I kept Antaeus occupied. We decided to keep ‘radio silence’ in case anyone was eavesdropping on our psychic link.

If I didn’t have access to the Hub, Project Utopia’s facilities would be spectacular. Antaeus couldn’t show me much beyond his own lab space but was pleased that they left him alone to get on with his studies into terraforming. He had plans to renew the Sahara and I had to keep reminding myself I was there with purpose because it was so fascinating. We went for lunch (so much food available!) and were joined by Cesta Pax. No blink of recognition from him over the incident in Tbilisi, although he did remember me from that evening in America when I met him and Anatayas. I’m getting used to being recognised as Lisa rather than Chrissie, but don’t know if it will ever feel natural.

Whilst we ate, Pax received a message that something was going down. In a blink of inspiration I offered assistance, thinking it would give the rest of the team more time. A quick message to Adam – “Sorry, not going to be able to meet you for lunch, heading out to Kiev with Team Tomorrow” (nice and subtle in case it was intercepted. Not sure when I became this paranoid) – and I flew out, still in my suit whilst the others sported Team Tomorrow colours.

It is weird not to have constant chatter with Adam. I am fairly used to it when dormed down, now, but in full-superhero mode it is weird to stay quiet.

We flew to Kiev. I kept pace with Team Tomorrow but was careful not to show how easy it was to do so. The full extent of my abilities aren’t widely known; it’s known I can fly, that I’m very strong and tough, and since releasing that paper that got me invited to Vienna my intelligence is recognised, but so far that’s it.

As we drew nearer Kiev, I spotted a glowing blast that took out a building – I didn’t see where it came from, but it felt clear there was already at least one nova in the area. We sped in, Antaeus splitting off with part of Team Tomorrow, another group heading another direction whilst Pax and I took a third route. 5 tanks and several foot soldiers were terrorising some locals. As we landed, the tank barrels twisted to point at us. The largest tank fired first, a large shell that exploded in my shoulder and seriously hurt. Another smaller tank fired towards me; nearly as painful but my body began knitting the damage immediately. The other three fired at Pax: he took two shells but caught the third with telekinesis and threw it back down the barrel from whence it had come. The tank ballooned slightly as it exploded inside (and part of me remembered the way Pax had looked at us in Tbilisi as he took Mina Trang and told us at least he hadn’t killed anyone). I ran forward to lift the largest tank onto its side, where it couldn’t do any more damage. Two of the remaining small tanks fired at me, but again it was nothing the quantum flowing through my body couldn’t handle and I grabbed the barrel of one and swung it, baseball-style, into the side of the other. This was not something I’d done before and again my strength surprised me: both tanks were more or less vaporised.

At this point, I got a small mental nudge from Benedict, asking where I was and what I was doing. I explained – keeping an eye on Team Tomorrow and smashing tanks. Within seconds, Adam wanted more information on the tanks so I flashed him the image. He seemed impressed.

Pax, meanwhile, took out the final tank and turned his attention to the first group of foot soldiers. I didn’t see exactly what he did, but the wall of energy would have knocked me off my feet if I weren’t already flying. I turned to the remaining soldiers and summoned tiny balls of fire to fly at each gun. As the guns contorted in the heat, the ammunition therein expanded and fired off, unfortunately killing all the soldiers but fortunately no civilians.

We made sure the locals were ok, guiding them towards safety, before we turned to where the team without Antaeus were in difficulty, facing down a nova. By this point, my smart suit had been fairly well trashed by the shells but there wasn’t much I could do about it here.

We found the team dancing around a nova I barely had a chance to look at before he lashed out. I threw a fire cage around him, thinking to keep him in place so we could talk him down, but like the Fireman (supposedly the first to erupt, although Adam, Benedict and I know better) he could absorb the flames and drew strength from them. Whilst the others flew around him, trying to do some damage, I body slammed him at full speed and he was thrown against a building – he looked badly hurt but immediately I could see him starting to recover so raced in again to punch him, and again. He threw a bolt of energy at me that didn’t seem to do much, but I must have been lucky because he threw the same at a member of Team Tomorrow who more or less disintegrated.

A crater had formed and was developing craters of its own as we group of novas fought.

Eventually, the mystery nova fired off that blast once more but throwing as much into it as he had. I could feel my body starting to melt as the power thrashed through me and unthinking I screamed for Adam. Pax alone of the Team Tomorrow representatives survived: around 1.5% of the entire known nova population on the planet wiped out in a second. Smashed into a new crevice in our crater, it was with scorched eyes I saw Pax, looking seriously hurt himself, through a powerful beam into the other nova, ripping his flesh away until only clean bones survived.

I tried to stand. The pain was so great I couldn’t even concentrate enough to let Adam know what was happening – could barely hear anything over the roar of agony. Pax grabbed me and flew me back to his base in Vienna. I was pretty delirious, so when en route I spotted a powerful collecting of quantum within the city that he couldn’t see, I assumed it was part of the pain. I couldn’t even explain to him I wanted to go to the Spoke, to have my doctors work on me. By the time we reached the medibay, I was delirious enough I started screaming for Jean, and no one knew who he was or could help me.

I came to in a forest several hours later, and Adam filled me in on what I’d missed.

When Adam and Mark first went to the warehouse, they found it filled with verdant grass that sounded a lot like what I’d seen in Antaeus’s lab. Moving further in, they’d found a strange tube filled with liquid and possibly some form of life. Adam had attempted to use his ‘sight-beyond-sight’ ESP stuff to throw his senses within to taste the liquid: he was thrown out by a fierce personality so they decided the best plan was to fetch Benedict (this was when he buzzed me to see what I was up to).

The three of them returned to the warehouse, where Benedict was very interested in the tube: he went silent, staring at it with arms folded across his chest. After a while, Adam noticed a crack in the glass, which he tried pointing out to Benedict, but Benedict didn’t respond. Something powerful was going on that neither Mark nor Adam understood.

It was at this point I screamed. Adam, apparently, tried speaking to me but I didn’t respond: I think the pain must have utterly severed our link for the time being. Adam attempted to speak to Benedict telepathically, and was thrown across the room.

He ran to Kiev to find me. It wasn’t hard to track down our progress within the city and he quickly found the crater with the many scorch marks that were all that remained of much of Team Tomorrow, and the neatly cleaned pile of bones at the centre. He checked them carefully and with relief soon realised they were the wrong size to be mine, and probably male anyway. No other clues revealed themselves to him, so he ran back to report to Mark. This time, attempts to speak to Benedict were met with white noise rather than punishment.

Mark followed Adam as he stormed towards Project Utopia; his only hope being that they would know what had happened. The receptionist was less than helpful, advising he needed an appointment. He was fuming and smashed the desk, so Mark very calmly gave the lady a card to send the bill for the desk to and led Adam outside. “Trust me” he said, and led Adam back in… where no one seemed to notice them. By following other people as they opened doors, they made their way up to the floors used by Team Tomorrow and, eventually, into a common room of sorts – furnished with comfy sofas and chairs and filled with all the food you could eat.

A nova sat in one seat, staring into space. After a moment or two, she readjusted as though drawing her attention back to her surroundings and spoke to Adam. She quickly revealed herself as psychic, introducing herself as Pratima and asking Adam’s name, only to call him Adam as soon as she’d asked and his name floated to the surface of his mind. She knew what had happened to me and that I was now in surgery and suggested he wait there. She didn’t seem to notice Mark and Adam realised he couldn’t see our teammate either – but when he sat down he felt Mark’s weight on the sofa beside him.

It didn’t take long for them to feel bored and that frustration born of being unable to help a friend. Adam then spotted a crack appearing in the window, much like the crack he’d seen in the tube. With Mark’s invisible help, he moved the sofa they’d been sat on to protect them if the window shattered, and they went back to waiting.

The room seemed to be getting hotter: Adam couldn’t feel it because of the way the quantum energies protect us from things like that, but the water in the water cooler was bubbling. He went to have a drink and found it to be cool to the touch – then spotted some cans and remembered what Benedict had said about Project Utopia apparently putting something in the water that made novas infertile so put the water down and picked up a lemonade. He could hear it fizzing as though it had been shaken vigorously, but he opened it anyway, relying on his speed and dexterity to catch the spray. Mark was impressed.

He rang a bell and a butler, Bertrand, appeared. Adam asked him about the water cooler – he tried turning it off but it still bubbled. The TV was also not working: this scared Adam, because he was worried the sensitive equipment being used to operate on me was also being affected. Overhearing Bertrand on the phone, he learnt that glass throughout the building was cracking, that none of the TVs were working and that water everywhere was bubbling. The medical equipment seemed to be ok for now.

Mark and Adam headed for the training room. Here, the swimming pool also seemed to be at a steady boil. Their equipment wasn’t quite up to the standard of our own, but was impressive enough. Needing a distraction and feeling a little petulant (this is Team Tomorrow’s base, after all), Adam took out his pens and quickly sketched across the wall the scene of me smashing one tank with another I'd sent to him earlier. It was at this point Pax entered – he was impressed with the drawing and commented it had been cool, before reassuring Adam as best he could that I would be ok.

They chatted a bit about the way the water and glass was behaving – Adam wanted to know how far this spread, but Pax stated that they were unable to communicate with any other base at the moment, so Adam offered to act as messenger and run. Pax gratefully took him up on the offer, giving him a note to take to their centre in Paris and a card to flash at the receptionist downstairs when he returned. The Paris office didn’t offer any response, but as an afterthought Adam bought a bottle of water to see if he could gauge how widespread the problem was. About 10 miles from the Vienna base, the water began to bubble violently.

My operation was just finishing when Benedict appeared in Adam’s head with three orders: one, that he would now have to look after the Nova Initiative; two, that Benedict had forgotten to give to Jenny something in his desk and Adam was to ensure Jenny got it; and three, he was to get as many people as far out of Vienna as possible NOW. Stef, he was told, was already safe.

Adam relayed this to Mark and, with Pax’s help, they set about evacuating the local area. Mark summoned a portal to a nearby forest and they led through as many people as the portal would take – including wheeling me through with the doctors and equipment. The portal closed behind them and in the distance they watched Vienna explode in quantum energy; right down to the mantle, as lava spewed forth.