Agents Temporalis

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Cyren nodded silently as she read over the quest text and hummed to herself as she listened to what the leader thought was the best course of action. She liked this age historically speaking and was glad this was the first quest that they chose. She wandered about the city, while keeping her voice chat active.

She spoke with a few NPCs asking routine questions an investigator might ask. She considered these things carefully and then asked over the voice chat. "Anyone else find anything good. I don't think these NPCs I asked know much. Murders happen and murders are bad. A few seemed suspiciously evasive, but people get nervous about murder so I wouldn't read too much into that."
 
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< @Quiet One >

The escort looked over at Madilynn and cocked her head, looking the marksman over and smirking a little. "Hm, quite a looker aren't you?" she asked a bit, posing and winking. "At least I hope you're hear for business, now that the damned murderer's stopped hitting on people like me. In the bad way, of course." she said, imparting important bits of information without realizing it - probably.

< + @Esper >

"Not quite, but I think.. anything heard anything else about the murders changed in MO?" Salvis' voice came over the chat, as he rubbed his head. "Keep on looking, I think all these bits and pieces will add up to something.. I hope." he then looked over and saw what might've been an investigation, running over to it and leaving the rest of his team to investigate their own bits...
 
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Stopped? Madilynn didn't get long to process that before she heard Salvis over the chat. She turned away from the prostitute and replied on the chat, "Guys, I have something. A hooker NPC says that the murderer changed victims. He's not killing prostitutes anymore. Give me a few minutes with her."

Turning back to the NPC Madilynn smiles and slings her gun over her shoulder, striking a sexy pose right back. Talk in character. "Afraid I don't swing towards girls, not that you aren't a pretty thing. If you're safe to walk the streets again, mind telling me who needs to lock up their doors? I'm with a group looking to get rid of the bloody prick."
 
Amalia's avatar moved smoothly around the city. Diplomacy was getting her nowhere, but then a thought came across her mind. She wasn't a diplomat of any sort, more like a thug, an enforcer for the big boss. She grinned as she began to skulk around the back alleys like the rogue she was and it didn't take her long to find someone who looked like they had their ear listening in on all the parts of the criminal underground. She grinned as she approached the man. She swung a chain watch around as she circled him, sizing him up. "A suitable place for rats to live, hmm? That is to say back alleys."

Like clockwork the man took the bait and immediately began looking annoyed at her. "And mistresses that make a living on their backs, not unlike yourself." The programming of the game amused her. She admired the back talk and decided to keep on with the roleplay. He drew a blade and was flagged as hostile. A story interaction perhaps? She brought her arms to bear, which appeared as knuckles in this era. It was a classic touch.

"Now that isn't any way to court a proper lady. Good thing I am not proper. Neither will your jaw be after I am done with it. Pray it's just your jaw", she taunted before moving in with lightning speed. The blade glanced her armor, registering as a miss in the game. Now on the inside of his defenses she thrust a quick knee into his gut, followed by a downward striking elbow. The man was on the ground now. She stomped his hand, forcing it to contort in discomfort. She followed this with a promised blow to the jaw as she pressed her heeled boot further into the man's wounded hand as she positioned herself in an advantageous way just in case he decided to get any fancy ideas. She kept him on his stomach as she conducted her interrogation in what she considered an efficient manner. "Now you're going to tell me what you know about this mass murderer and his assistant that is cleaning up after his messes or we can see what else can be made to match your jaw."
 
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< @Quiet One >

At Madilynn's words, the escort sighed and looked into her eyes, smirking a little. "A shame, you're such a pretty thing. Anyway.. I suppose I could answer some questions. Not my usual work.." she winked. "I'll tell you what you want in exchange for a tip of my own. Money, that is." she nods, and then looks down in thought.

"It's cops now, from what I've heard. Some other major people have vanished, but cops mostly. Still doesn't help with business. Makes the bigwigs scared and a little more uptight." she sighed and shrugged.

< @Esper >

"Guh.." the punk groaned after the swift beating that he got from Cyren. As a non-battle NPC he hadn't been much of any kind of challenge. "Damn you... fine." he snarled. "I don't know about no damned assistant, but the murder's been the cops now. Think it'd be a good thing for us, but cause of him there's a second gang in town now. Makes pickings harder when the boss has to worry about some other bastard muscling in on his turf."

"I dunno if they'ze in cahoots but you gotta admit it's rather coincidental, huh?" he then looked up at her. "I told ya what I know, so could ya get off me?'
 
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"Probably Jack the Ripper," Cassandra utters as they all get ready for the mission. "You know how MMOs love their motifs. I'll go look in alleyways, you know, the place where you'd find a serial killer."

Shortly after splitting, Cassandra was distracted by the automatons surrounding the area. The special storymode bonus came with some things - such as being drawn to shiny things.

"This place is pretty shiny, but I need to focus on the task at hand... to the alleyways I go!"

And so Cassandra snuck towards the alleyways.

"I don't even know if it's OK to do this at my level."
 
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< @Crow >

As Cassandra did a dungeon crawl through the alleys, she would see quite a few pieces of graffiti. "Beware the snow" "The White-out killer is watching you" And other similar things. It would be clear that the killer seemed to have something to do with snow - what wasn't exactly clear.

Eventually she came across a tattered tent with what seemed to be a begger sitting outside. His clothes were ragged, as was his grey beard and hair. His skin was winkled in many places - everything suggesting that he was old. And, as white eyes fell on the daughter-of-dragon, possibly blind.

"Have you come to bother old Herbert?" he asked with a crooked smile. "Or perhaps you come because you wish to know something? No one ever comes to see Herbert unless it's one of those two things."
 
Madilynn smiled and tossed her some coins. "Giving me the info before the money. If I understand your line of work, that's poor form. You must actually want to help me."

The NPC streetwalker grinned and placed a hand on her hips. "Thick pocketbook or tin badge, I'm still losing customers. Last incident was East, down that way. Think they've cornered off the area, so I doubt you can miss it. Take care of this, will ya, cutie?"

Madilynn nodded and headed down the way the prostitute program pointed. Cutie. She was cute. Back in the real world only Travis ever said he was cute. As she headed towards the direction of the last murder she looked at the windows. Her reflection made her smile even more. With her short cut hair and that little bowler hat on her head, a button nose, rosy lips and bright eyes - she was cuter than she'd ever been in the real world.

Eventually she did find the closed off area, and saw Sarvis already there, looking things over with the cops roping things off. When she arrived she bumped against the knight in a friendly way, nodding at the scene.

"There's a bit more...blood than I thought there'd be," she confessed. They really weren't half-assing this game. "So what'd you find out?"
 
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< @Crow >

As Cassandra did a dungeon crawl through the alleys, she would see quite a few pieces of graffiti. "Beware the snow" "The White-out killer is watching you" And other similar things. It would be clear that the killer seemed to have something to do with snow - what wasn't exactly clear.

Eventually she came across a tattered tent with what seemed to be a begger sitting outside. His clothes were ragged, as was his grey beard and hair. His skin was winkled in many places - everything suggesting that he was old. And, as white eyes fell on the daughter-of-dragon, possibly blind.

"Have you come to bother old Herbert?" he asked with a crooked smile. "Or perhaps you come because you wish to know something? No one ever comes to see Herbert unless it's one of those two things."
Click to expand...

"Herbert, huh?' Cassandra asks. "I guess ask about. I want to know about... a serial killer here. Some call him..."

Cassandra remembers the briefly seen graffiti.

"... the snow... the White-out Killer."

Cassandra put her hood on, and her hands were in a battle stance. She had a strong hunch that he had been found.
 
< @Quiet One >

Salvis looked over at the other avatar and nodded a bit. "They really aren't cutting back on things. Anyway, I did find a few things out but I think it best that we all get together to talk it over.." he sighed and saw a small bit of whipped cream on Madilynn's cheek. He grinned and kissed it off before turning on the chat.

< @Crow >

"Hehehe. You and everyone else in this city. But don't worry, old Herbert knows. And old Herbert knows he'll find you when the time is right and the sky goes white." the old man laughed a bit and then crawled into the tent. "I'm tired now. If you want to fight go somewhere else."

After that, a transmission came over the chat...

< @Crow @Esper @Quiet One >

"Alright, we've found out a few things by now I'm sure. At least, I have. Once you finish up what you're doing, home in on me and Coby's beacon. We'll compare what we've found out." Salvis told his team, pulling Madilynn slightly away from the scene so that the four of them could speak without interrupting the investigating NPCs
 
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Madilynn smiled and blushed at the kiss, and was more than happy to turn away from the crime scene. She knew they were just NPCs, but she was invested now. This was her character's time, her people. This evil AI had to be destroyed. While Sarvis opened up a chat for everyone to regroup, she took out her sniper rifle and pointed it at the crime scene. Without the barrel added on it wasn't an effective weapon, but she wasn't using it to shoot. It had a high-powered zooming scope, so she used it to get a good look at the scene without activating the NPC interaction programming.

The body offered some clues - a scar shaped like a snowflake (instead of shaped like a crescent moon like the Ripper), some cuts with surgical precision were blue, apparently from frostbite - but the inside of where the victim had been killed offered more. There were snowy footprints, and Madilynn compared them to the shoes of the victim. The killer's feet were bigger.

"There's quite a few clues here," Madilynn said. "The killer's got big feet, meaning we're likely dealing with someone about your size." She turned to Sarvis. "And there's blue around the cuts. I think we're after an ice-themed villain."
 
"The hints are so obvious that I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be someone else," Cassandra shrugs, before getting back on communications.

"I'll be right there."

And so Cassandra reports back to rendezvous point.

"Well, I guess he didn't say 'tell anyone and you'll be cursed' so I'll say it...

... all I heard was 'When the time is right and the Sky goes White', that is when he will find us. So... why would the sky be white?"

Cassandra looks up into the sky.

"That would generally mean... it'd be morning, or if the clouds are gathered... or... the light at the end of one's life?"
 
She shoved off the man's chest who she mounted with an amused grin and offered him a hand up. "Nothing personal you know. Just needed some information", she said in a casual tone. She dragged the man back to his feet and made him an offer. "I would like to make a deal then with your boss. He can have his pickings. I want to stop a murderer with...murder? I find his sort distasteful, murder without purpose. Just let me talk to him and we can see about ridding you of these rivals stealing from your pockets."

She casually walked along with the man as she sent a silent message to the rest of her team. "I am exploring the criminal underworld. You follow the legal route while I try and probe for intelligence in the shadows where I play best."

She smiled at the man. "Serena Steel by the way. If we're going to have a business type relations we ought to be on friendly terms. You're not bad with a dagger you know, but have you considered expanding your repitoire to more than that? It'll be fun." The conversation continued on in a friendly manner until they reached a seedy looking tavern. Her persona was comfortable among these sorts. She didn't play by rules that she didn't make if she could help it. That and remaining flexible about what rules were in play at the moment made her a bit of a wild card.
 
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< @Quiet One @Crow + @Esper >

"Woah, Cassandra, slow down! Wait till we're all here.." Salvis began, though was quickly quieted when Serena called over the chat. He sighed and rubbed his head, thinking before responding. "Alright. be careful and if you get into a fight, we'll come over. And be sure to transmit any hints you find out, we'll do the same." he said, leaving the chat open so that they could all share information as he spoke with Madilynn and Cassandra.

"Anyway, what did you say? He'll find us when the time is right? Sky goes white?" he sighed and shook his head a bit. "His kills always do seem to coincide with heavier snow, from what one of the officers told me. Each kill's been reported after a sudden white-out.. and as for what you said, Madilynn... Well, it makes sense I guess if he's ice-themed. But he never seems to leave clues beyond what he seems to want us them, or us, to see."

"Did you guys find anything else out?"

< @Esper >

The man groaned at her words and ginigerly took her hand, standing up and stepping a bit away to make sure that he left her enough berth as they walked. "I guess I have no choice, huh? As long as you don't say you beat me without issue.. that would a problem for me." he sighed and kept on walking.

"Call me Shiv. And I'm not sure I need more than a dagger. I make sure people who owe us money pay, and the name and dagger send shivers down them's spine." he shrugged as they reached the tavern. He reached over and grabbed Serena's arm. "He's not gonna see you unguarded." he said, leading her into the Tavern. As he did, everyone inside looked over and stared.

"She's need to see the boss. Offers service." Shiv said to the bartender as they walked to the bar. He nodded and then walked to the back room.

a minute passed and then a large man with a skeletal clockwork arm came out, staring at her with a monocle-replaced eye on his left side, his right still intact. And it was most likely that those weren't his only scars. "So, I hear you got some offer for me?" he asked, staring at her. "Tell me whatcha got before I have you thrown out, no sense in many risks these days."
 
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< @Quiet One @Crow >

However, before they could come up with any more clues or a plan to do so, fate decided they were about to get a much more obvious answer - to at least one of their questions. The snow suddenly began to get thicker, and faster, so much so that in a few seconds they weren't able to see the nose in front of them. And then just as suddenly as it began, it stopped. With an inch more snow on the ground, and-

"Well that's.. not good." Salvis said, shakily pointing over to the crime scene. The trio of officers that had been investigating were now laying either face down or on their backs - dead. On their chest or back was carved a crude snowflake, blood spilt around each corpse. "I don't think whomever did that is the murderer.. too imprecise?" the armor-laden male asked to no one in particular. "I guess.. we should go check it out."

They had experienced something like this before, In the beta. Their arrival having irked the temporals who were weaving their plan and thus breaking them out of their old habits. And this is what they seemed to be doing now. Carefully Salvis drew his sword and stepped over closer to the scene.

Though before he could actually investigate, he rose his shield to block a strike from a 3D shadow that appeared before him, four more suddenly growing from the ground in a circle around him, and whoever had followed close to him. They were a weak Temporal, shades. These ones in particular seemed to be holding shadowy shortswords, but nevertheless they were dangerous. "Alright guys, first fight in the real game. Remember your role - I'll try to keep as much attention on me. Selena, if you're chasing a lead keep on it.. unless this goes south, I think we can handle it." Salvis said over chat, at which point he banged on his shield and roared, using his first skill to make sure all attention was focused on him.

Salvis - 100%HP | Shield Drum: -3
Madilynn - 100%HP
Cassandra - 100% HP

Shades 1,2,3,4
100%HP
100%HP
100%HP
100%HP

Make up to 3 strikes against the same number of enemies
 
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Madilynn jumped as these shadows suddenly jumped out through the whiteout. She didn't have time to question how shadow assassins connected to an ice-themed serial killer OR time-traveling aliens. She just flipped her forearms up, and her gauntlets popped up and wrapped around her arms and fists. Her melee weapons were still weak now, but if these Shades could be hurt by their weapons, then she just had to get distant enough to use her rifle.

She jumped at the one nearest to her, swinging her fists in three shots across its face - right hook, left hook, right again. She then turned on her jetpack and jumped over them, missing the roof, but landing far enough away to take out her rifle and fit the barrel in place.

"Guys, hold off those shadows for a bit longer!" She called to them. "Cavalry's coming!"
 
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Amalia's avatar smiled, admiring the boss's steam arm. "Yes an offer. Your fine employee Shiv here has informed me you're having issues with a gang caused by an enemy of mine. I just want information and I can make this problem of yours perhaps less or gone." She motioned to the bartender for a virtual drink and began to sip at it. You get your pockets as you like and I get to collect on my bounty for this wanted murderer. Although I do also suspect he has someone helping him and I figured you'd have ears in places I simply do not."


"Alright. be careful and if you get into a fight, we'll come over. And be sure to transmit any hints you find out, we'll do the same", she heard over the voice chat channel that the party had opened up. She liked his concern and willingness to deal with her personality and to return that trust with something worthwhile.
 
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< @Esper >

Amalia would see the alert that the rest of her party was in combat, but with Salvis not saying anything it would probably be safe to assume that she didn't need to run off and help them. Which was a good thing, because as both his organic and mono-eye narrowed a little, he waved his hand and Shiv quickly released her arm. He grabbed a bottle of drink from the bar itself and took a swig, before speaking.

"Can't tell you much. Whoever's been doin the murder's now the leader of that other gang. They've the west side of Noldon in their pocket now. We've kept the east but this is my town, see? No room for some wannabe." he growled a little. "Just can't risk an all-out gangwar or i'd've attacked by now. You figure out where they're based, we can help ye. But I get the boss. Gotta eran my keep too, 'fter all."

< @Quiet One >

Whatever magic conjured shades also made them completely solid, so they were often used as distraction or cannon fodder in the war against the Aurans. Salvis grinned over at Madilynn as she got into some fisticuffs with one of the shades. Left hook, right hook, left. All three connected and sent the shade sprawling back, knocked onto the ground. Unfortunately her attacks garnered some agro, and just as she launched back into the sky, one of the shadowy swords cut into her chest. Very light as a parting shot, but a hit all the same.

"You know how I love your calvary Madds. The report of that rifle - oh! - music to my ears." Salvis said over chat as he found himself surrounded by thee of the shades, the one that had been attacked by Madilynn having disappeared. "Come get me!" he smirked, taking one hit to the armor to his side. That didn't even phase the tank, who simply bashed his shield forwards into one of the Shades and then stabbed his blade forwards, getting a critical. Then he slammed it again to the side, stepping forwards and turning so a wall was to his back, and also giving Madilynn open sight on all three.

Salvis - 100%HP | Shield Drum: -2
Madilynn - 98%HP

Shades 1,2,3,4
100%HP
50%HP
100%HP
37%HP
 
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Madilynn grimaced at the damage, the dive-gear sending an unpleasant bzzt across her RL chest. It was the physical equivalent of the wrong answer buzzer on game shows. She rubbed across her synched-up chest, before aggressively pointing her gun at the shades. Based on where they were now... the one standing in front of a back alley entrance was the one that scratched her. She looked down her scope and could see its health reading: 100%.

But then, about five yards in front of her was the shade she'd slugged repeatedly. She wanted to use her Aimed Shot, which she figured would almost guarantee a kill on the first level, but if she did she wouldn't be able to shoot the other shade that had spotted her. She growled and shot the damaged shade first, then made another shot hitting the one at full health. If she was lucky, maybe 50% would be taken out by the blow.
 
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