She's human, she can't have magic, right?

Ask her if she can maneuver by herself.

Break her shackles and collar. Tell her that they already moved everyone else, that the only prisoners left are just you and her right now, and that escape is the priority. Ask her name and give yours.

You need to make this girl realize that she needs to shut her hole. Ask her what happened, etc.

Yes, ask her for the most abridged possible story of why she's here and possibly why you're here. Be calm but stern to imply the need for brevity.

After that tell her to keep quite and behind you if her freedom is important to her.

ether all the others were sold or the men here 'forgot' to sell her. she is currently desperate and will probably cling to you, at least hasn't been broken though.

>>213196
You're going to have to respond now since she's aware of your presence. Normally I'd recommend making her stay put until you've finished your business but the situation calls for a different approach. Leaving her in the cell will work against you if someone comes by to patrol, what with the lock being broken.

As far as what to do with the girl, well, verify that she's competent enough to move and move silently. Explain your intentions--you're going after someone, the saving people thing is secondary (unless that's also your perogative). If she's too much of a risk then put her to sleep. Having to look after her as well is too much of a risk given the circumstances and leaving her conscious of your presence but left locked up could mean her broadcasting your recent freedom.

If you have to keep her in the cell, can you repair the lock? Better that than burning mana to power through conflict you could avoid otherwise due to extra baggage.

>>213196
If you haven't got any personal objections to the concept, I guess you might as well help her. :V

Is she going to be an asset or a liability? Oh who am I kidding? Nobody here puts their own survival ahead of the survival of others. Whatever. If you decide to rescue her tell her to shut the fuck up and stay hidden.

If she were anywhere near as powerful as you she would have broken out by now. So she's a weakness. You are going to have to babysit her to make sure she doesn't die. Just like the followers in Fallout 3. Damnit Jericho if you die again I swear to god I'm not reloading the game to get you back. All you do is slow me down, attract the enemy's attention, and die constantly. We don't need a Jericho on our team.

>>213196
Rust her chains off and tell her to stay quiet and stay behind you. If she isn't prompt about following your orders put her to sleep and move on.

Zeekar & Kamon 2010/07/30(Fri)23:20 No. 214122 ID: bc1727
File 128055723431.jpg - (57.63KB , 522x262 , 1-15-2.jpg )

>>213216
>>213197
>>213200
>>213228
>>213233
>>213236
>>213259
>>213267
>>213286
>>213290

It seems as though a million thoughts echo through my mind, but not one tells me what I could possibly say. My heart sinks; I do what I always do in situations like these.

I move to her side and free her from her shackles without a single word. I keep alert for sounds of any guards that might have gotten suspicious - I hear nothing.

“You’re not human...” she says, her voice lowering. Her head drops. “They didn’t get away... Did they?...” her face turns towards me, but her eyes focus on nothing. I see now why they didn’t bother to secure her as well as they did me.

“Stay quiet and stay close to me. Can you do this?” I say quickly, clearly and without emotion.

“Oh, s-sorry,” she responds meekly. Tears stream freely down her face. My heart sinks further. “I can do that.”

Gods, I broke her. Why am I so terrible at this?!

Sensing a lingering, but mostly faded sleep spell on her, I quickly go to work canceling it.

“Your strength should have returned. Move,” I say.

She slowly stands, but braces herself against the wall. Some relief comes to her face - I’m glad to see it.

“Thank you - whatever you did, I feel a little better. I’m just...so weak. I bet they didn’t feed you either, did they?” she asks quietly. I simply shake my head no - forgetting for a moment that she’s blind. “No,” I reply.

I’m hungry too, but she must have been here much longer than me...

>Ask for her (abridged) story.

No...now isn’t the time. I’m really not good with words anyway...it’s best I stay quiet and professional...

Zeekar & Kamon 2010/07/30(Fri)23:22 No. 214123 ID: bc1727
File 128055734745.jpg - (175.04KB , 980x581 , 1-16.jpg )

While I move towards the door she calls out to me. When I stop, she cuts herself off and freezes, as if suddenly unsure of herself.

“Wait, I - ...What is your name? I’m Cris,” she eventually asks, finally departing from her wall.

“...Wedgie. Enough questions - Stay in this spot until I call for you,” I respond. I pass through the door. I still hear nothing.

Cris follows awkwardly with her hands out until she finds the doorframe where I was standing. I wait until she does to move further.

“Wedg- really...?” she says under her breath. Although she looks utterly confused by my answer, she abides by my request for silence.

Hm, that could be a problem. What could I get to make this easier for her? I doubt there’s a cane lying around...Oh well. Wait...of course!

I turn and approach her. She doesn’t seem to react.

“Do you want to see? It wouldn’t be permanent,” I ask her, point blank.

She seems unfazed by the question. “I don’t understand. What do you mean?”

“I’m blindfolded, but I can still see without my eyes - I’m scrying my surroundings. I can do the same for you, but the spell won’t last forever. Do you want to see? ” I repeat. She stares ahead blankly; I can’t read her expression.

“Do it, please,” she says, without hesitation. I imbue her with mana and enchant it with sight.

I hope she can control it. Even for someone without the talent, it shouldn’t be that hard...

Zeekar & Kamon 2010/07/30(Fri)23:25 No. 214125 ID: bc1727
File 128055753860.jpg - (272.91KB , 1032x594 , 1-17.jpg )

I can’t immediately tell if it worked or not, but she parts ways with the door frame. Her head turns rapidly from side to side and her arms drop to her sides. She turns to face her cell. I can hear her breathing become more rapid. She swings around and faces me. I can see her mouth words, but she isn’t saying anything. She steps up and puts her hands to my face abruptly, but gently - as if by instinct. I don’t react. She examines my face with her hands, then she caresses my cheek.

“I’m...sorry. All I’ve ever had...All I ever knew of a person’s face was touch...” she pauses. “You’re so beautiful...Is-is this what I’ve been missing?”

...

I feel her try to lift my blindfold. “Why on earth are you wearing this? Let me see your eyes!” she says, excitement returning to her voice. I grab her wrist. She gasps.

“Enough. Let’s go,” I say. She looks down; embarrassed but still smiling.

“Right...I’ll be waiting.”

I finally leave her at the door frame and proceed with my plan, but now I’m distracted. I seriously wonder if that was a good idea. But that’s not all I’m distracted by...

...Beautiful?

yes, you are beautiful, but too many humans are blinded by hatred to see that. ironically a blind girl could see you more clearly then they.

and it was a good enough idea. as long as she stays quiet and follows your directions she should be no trouble.

now let's go knock out/ maim some more guards.

>>214125
Call me foolish, but I'd want to check B2 for anything interesting before moving past the guards. Also discover what the small room at the end of the cell hallway is. It should only take a short while to go glance over there, you can rust through the door hinges or something with mana to get through without a problem and little power loss.

After that, beeline for the security office, take out everyone in your way as fast as you can hit them so that no one is behind you. Then retrieve prisoner girl and take the lift up.

>>214125
Yeah yeah kindness and shit is what she mostly cares about. Also, she probably likes your exotic figure if you want to go in a literal sense.

Obligatory you have a great ass comment is probably going to happen. Choose whatever belief you want. Inner self, the exoticism, or the ass. Still keep moving forward, maybe go into B2 since to see if we can find some clothes of some sort, at least for the girl. She's probably more embarrassed or bothered by her nudity than you are. It looks like a storage room and there aren't any people in there.

You're pretty beautiful, from everything we've seen. Kindly remind her that as wonderful as sight is, you still need to get out of here now.

Attack the guard house, through the unlocked door. Hopefully you can open more doors from there without having to waste even more magic.

>>214135
Yeah.. a normally blind person embarrassed by nudity and with an opinion on body shape. Makes total sense.

Anyway, leave the girl there until you can secure the closest room and then bunny-hop with her from place to place when all is clear. May as well not leave her completely behind.

Kiss her, you fool.


No I'm kidding, remember to find some extra clothes for her though

Clothes can wait. Escape is the first priority.

You two are an interesting pair... One who chooses to be robbed of sight, and one who longs for it.

Ordinarily I'd say the slave-handling room would be less dangerous but if they can see us blanking the cameras we should head through security and disable it before an alert can be raised. Taking the lift might also be a huge liability here.

>>214144
That is completely normal for a normally blind person. They still want to look good and are embarrassed by nudity, being blind doesn't change that.
Clothes are not a priority, you would need to go out of your way or strip someone to get them. And she thinks you're beautiful, I'm sure she would want you to go without clothes.
Now that you have someone to protect slowing you down it will probably be best to take out that security office through the unlocked door. Sleep seems like a good way to disable them, especially if you can do it from a distance. If possible, unlock the doors you intend to go through and lock every other door from the security room. When you're ready to take the lift go pick up your new buddy and mute then break a window leading outside, telling her to wait against the wall for you to come for her so no one spots her from a window. You can pick her up when you grab the target and bail out of the window, imbuing your limbs with mana.

Mneme!CRITTerXzI 2010/07/31(Sat)15:11 No. 214315 ID: c4c313
File 128061428334.jpg - (76.79KB , 807x581 , directApproach.jpg )

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say check out B2 before going on. You should have a few minutes before anyone notices your guard is missing, and it looks like there's a bunch of stuff down there. Maybe clothesbetter armor!

After that, first right and take out those two humans. If you wake up the third guy he should still be in his pajamas, so easy to just sleep. One of them should have a key to the door that leads to the lift. If you can operate the lift (maybe the girl can) then get yourself up to ground floor. Immediately go out the window to the left, and scale the wall, busting in the window on the second floor, where only an unlocked door stands between you and your target.

Don't think to hard on her calling you beautiful. She's probably been blind most of her life (if not all), and to a blind person any color is beautiful. I imagine to her you've given her quite the gift by allowing her to see for a while.

While I think scaling a wall is more risky than we should be doing, no matter what the longer term plan is the first goal is to take out the security station. They'll know something is up and raise an alert if blacked out a camera, so you should make it a priority to move to the security room quickly and incapacitate the guards there.

I can't tell from the scry which is the security room. The unlocked one on the right looks like a break room, but there are things that look like monitors. The one up the stairs behind the locked door looks like a security, and there are two people watching what looks like a console, but that might be a television.

Fix Zeekar & Kamon 2010/08/03(Tue)17:47 No. 215317 ID: bc1727
File 128088286368.png - (537.32KB , 1410x621 , 1-20.png )

>>214126
>>214135
>>214140
>>214144
>>214160
>>214164
>>214409

My mind races - I move down the hall to the corner, but my thoughts continue to buzz. I take a deep breath and try to calm myself.

…Okay, focus. Focus.

>Check B2

Didn’t I already decide to move forward? I’ll never get anywhere if I don’t make a plan and stick with it.

>Security room
>Slave Handling room
>Lift

I’d really like to take the lift if possible - better cover, but once I really start disabling every camera I come across, those security guards will start getting suspicious. For the lift to make any sense, I need to avoid the security room without fooling with the cameras.

>>214315

Hmm, it’s really tempting to just get straight to Mattani’s office like that but for all I know there’s a busy street right outside - Scaling the building would definitely make a scene. I could just say “fuck it” and area sleep the whole building. That’d burn through all this mana I managed to get my hands on, though…

Wait - that gives me an idea I think will solve all my problems at once. I'll have to thank that human for his crystal's power later. Hehe.

I carve a rune to blink myself invisible to natural sight. When the rune fades, I proceed unhindered down the hall to the slave transfer station. Luckily, keeping on task seems to put my mind at ease somewhat. I begin to hear unintelligible yelling as I reach the room. The sound seems as though it has to pass through several walls to get to me. As I peer through the glass of the sliding-door, I notice only one of the humans that were present before. He fills out paperwork; a pair of headphones drowning out the distant ruckus as he works.

Lucky me - there must be a distraction back there. Whatever I’m going to do, now’s the time.

>>215307

I hope that distraction isn't your new friend.

Put him to sleep, make it look like he nodded off.

Make sure the human isn't seen by the cameras.

Could you modify the camera feeds so that they repeat the same footage of... nothing happening? Then you could just leave the cameras on, and nobody would ever know that something was wrong.

Are you familiar with the blood choke? It doesn't cost any mana.

Best quest.

Zeekar & Kamon 2010/08/06(Fri)19:51 No. 216002 ID: bc1727
File 128114950079.png - (242.54KB , 1022x458 , 1-21.png )

>>215321

Done.

His body slumps over - My hand is waiting to catch his forehead. I gently lower him to his desk in hopes that it seems like he passed out from exhaustion. Hopefully no one was looking closely. Patting him down uncovers a set of keys, some gum, what seems to be a few scraps of note paper and a pen; I recall with disappointment that there was a card reader by the lift.

Damn, he was useless. Now what?

The persistent yelling escalates between the two men in the back room - the men’s restroom if I remember correctly. I begin to feel as though I did this man a favor, putting him to sleep.

>>215340

I probably could if I had access to the security feed, but I already decided to avoid the security checkpoint.

>>215318

I suddenly get a bad, albeit unlikely feeling that Cris could somehow be in trouble. With some difficulty, I try to push my worries to the back of my mind for the time being - I have work to do.

Can you scry her really fast, make sure your fears are unjustified?

Will you be able to make Cris invisible as well when you need to get through here with her?

You're going to have to check out the bathroom with the two guards. Bathroom's unlikely to have cameras so you don't have to be as careful, you could sleep one while you blood choke the other to save a bit of mana. Drop him once he goes limp and you won't kill him.

If neither of them has a card for the lift we might be in a bit of trouble, but if they do we can go grab Cris, make her invisible, and bring her to the female bathroom to hide and wait while we clear the next portion.

>>216002
Hm. Scry a little to see what they're yelling about.

>>216008
We might be able to magically carry our voice to the appropriate place for her to hear it, without needed to backtrack personally. If a ventriloquist can throw their voice across the room, we can throw ours down a couple corridors, around some beds, and through a couple doors. Because we're awesome.

Cutscene Zeekar & Kamon 2010/08/08(Sun)22:44 No. 216516 ID: bc1727
File 128133265864.png - (369.33KB , 768x1024 , 1-22.png )

>>216007

The feeling of dread grows in the back of my mind, but I try to focus.

>>216008
>If neither of them has a card for the lift…

There’s only one way to find out.

While maneuvering around a desk to reach the restroom door, one of my chains collide with it causing a loud rattle - It doesn’t slow me down, but the once rowdy conversation abruptly lowers to a hush - not a good sign.

Oops.

Not particularly concerned by the threat of two confused humans, I enter anyway. I pass into a small hub, complete with flowery paintings lining the walls prior to the bathrooms proper. As the argument seems to escalate again, I shake my head with a sigh; they are perhaps not as perceptive as I had given them credit for. With a deep breath, I prepare to enter.

I flash my consciousness in and out of the bathroom to get a basic idea of the enemy layout and shove my way through the door. The two males cry out in cowardly unison as the door swings open. Their unexpected outcry even gives me pause; a deathly silence falls upon the men’s restroom.

“W-who the…Who’s there? C-can’t you tell we’re busy in here!? Use the other lavatory!” the angry man brusquely orders towards the door. I recognize his voice as belonging to the primary agitator of whatever argument was previously being held here. The other human speaks up as well, obviously taking the chance to lighten the prior mood with a nervous chuckle, “It…it’s gotta be the guys messing with u-”

“Shut up! Don’t you hear that?!” the first one interrupts with a dismissive raise of his hand.

I approach my now fearful quarry, but my chains loudly object to my stealthy approach.

The angry man’s face goes pale and he presses himself against the tiles of the back wall…I slow my pace and ominously advance.

“Fuck! What - what the Hells is…You hear that too, don’t you!? Tell me you hear that!” the angry man wails pathetically. “I hear it! I hear it…” the other man yelps with exasperation, seemingly more afraid of his superior than of my ghastly approach. That seems to change as I draw ever nearer - their whimpers become more shamelessly panicked as I go. When I am within reach, I stop. I hear their breathing halt in comical unison.

I snatch the angry man from the protection of his wall and pull him into a stranglehold. He appears to be dragged towards the exit by an invisible force, straining out what cries for help he can all the while. The other man stays frozen, mouth agape. By the time I am midway through the room, the human can no longer hold back his flight response and the darts for the door, almost flying into a stall in the process. I trip him with the thick of my tail and order him in no uncertain terms, “Don’t. Move.”

He remains trembling on the unsanitary floor, hands covering his head. I drag the angry man from the bathroom, laying him against a wall of the hub when he loses consciousness. I then return to finish the job - His cohort hasn’t moved a muscle since he fell. I grab him by the collar of his shirt and hoist him off the ground. His eyes go wide with terror and he squirms helplessly against my grip. Needing him to answer my questions, I drop my guise; I am now visible again.

“Y-you’re not!” he gasps. “I-I’m sorry! Please don’t hurt me! I just escaped a city with my family - The…We had nothing! This was the only job I could find and it paid enough to get us back on our feet! I know I should have turned it down anyway; I hate the idea of human trafficking! If you let me go I swear I won’t work here anymore…I was just about to get fired anyway! Whatever you are, please don’t kill me!” he blubbers all in one breath.

“Enough!” I raise my voice for a moment. He goes silent. “Where is the key to the lift?” I ask steadily.

“I-it…My s-supervisor has it! I mean, he’s in charge of it - if he doesn’t have it on him it’s in his desk, I swear! It’s a red card!” he says. That is all I needed to know. I blink him to sleep and shove him into a stall. As I return to his supervisor, I breathe a single sigh of a relief that I don’t have to listen to any more of that. Unfortunately, however…

Egh, it’s not on him.

I restore my invisible state and return to the slave transfer room. I deduce that the supervisor’s desk is probably the one with the computer terminal - overlooking that, one of the drawers finally yield a red card-key.

This must be it. Let’s give it a try…

I swipe the card through a reader on the door to the lift hallway. The light turns green for a several seconds and goes red again when I choose not to open the door. I let a pleased smile slip.

One step closer to getting the hells out of this place.

Cutscene 2 Zeekar & Kamon 2010/08/08(Sun)22:48 No. 216518 ID: bc1727
File 128133293678.png - (153.09KB , 969x712 , 1-23.png )

I return to the room where I left Cris…Oh. My heart sinks for a moment, but I try to keep calm.

Please be okay. She couldn’t have gotten far and even if she was captured, they wouldn’t hurt her, right? Nothing to worry about.

I search deeper down the hall, lowering my invisibility having re-entered the hallway with the disabled camera. The hall dips down into a stairwell, which thankfully is also a dead-end. Cris is there.

“I told you not to move,” I say.

“Sorry...you disappeared and I wasn’t sure what was going on. When you didn’t come back I started to explore a little. I’ll stay still next time, okay? Hey, what do you think is behind here?” she responds. I sigh.

It’s a good thing I took that camera out of commission…

I notice the door is locked with another card reader. Since I’m here, I swipe my card to satisfy the relentless bombardment of curiosity that I had prior resolved to resist. The reader’s light turns green and I go in. We descend into the lower basement level to a large, dark storage room.

Zeekar & Kamon 2010/08/08(Sun)22:49 No. 216519 ID: bc1727
File 128133297729.png - (347.03KB , 847x568 , 1-24.png )

“What in the world are those things?” Cris asks in amazement. “Cages. Probably what they brought us in with,” I respond, scanning the room for anything remotely useful - nope. Cris quickly loses her sense of wonder and frowns.

“How could those people do this to us? We were…” she pauses. Her fists clench tightly. “The world would be better off if this place just burned to the ground…” she says, her voice edging off and becoming tense.

Should I say something? …No, I’ll just make it worse if I do.

“Let’s go. There’s nothing useful in here,” I say while turning to leave.

“Yeah…” she responds and follows me out. “If I see nothing else, I want it to be the face of the monster responsible for all this,” she says, flatly - but then her expression softens. The door closes behind us with a mechanical whirr. “Thanks to you, I’ve already been able to see the face of an angel,” she smiles weakly. I cringe. My thoughts abuzz, I contemplate a response but can’t form the words.

I’m not an angel to anyone…I don’t deserve those words at all.

I clench my teeth and focus on moving on. I restore my invisibility and draw a rune on Cris as well. She gasps as she fades from visibility. A slight discrepancy in my plan occurs to me…

“Take my hand. If we come across anyone, I’ll take care of them, just do as I say and you’ll be fine,” I say. Fortunately I can still sense her presence through the rune I placed on her and I reach for her hand. “Don’t move. I’m coming to you.”

I take her by the hand and steadily lead her to the lift. In a few moments, we’re inside unhindered. The doors close.

“What will this do?” Cris asks. “I’ll take us up a floor. From there we’ll have to go up the hard way to reach Mattani,” I respond. The lift begins to move.

“How do you know all this…?” she says. “I scryed the building before I left my cell,” I answer again.

“I didn’t even have the slightest idea that magic could do so much,” she says as the lift slows. “Not many do,” I retort.

“You’re amazing.”

The doors open with a ping. I step out with Cris and the lift closes behind us. I can’t help but feel relieved to finally see daylight.

Well, this is it. This’ll probably be my last move before getting some answers out of that human upstairs.

What would be the best way for me to get there with Cris? I can’t forget that I need to use up the rest of this mana too. If I don’t use it soon, it’ll all go to waste - I don’t get the chance to do this often, so I might as well go flashy!

Well, there's that dude behind that locked door in the room in front of the stairs. Let's put him to sleep as well... the flashy bit comes when we get upstairs. That guy in the checkpoint? Just disintegrate the door in front of him before putting him to sleep too. Then we can cut the next door in half... scry inside the main dude's office before paralyzing him.

We can use Mute in areas where we are to keep them from hearing any noise.

Mneme!CRITTerXzI 2010/08/09(Mon)00:11 No. 216525 ID: c4c313
File 128133791914.jpg - (75.47KB , 807x581 , flashy.jpg )

phh, you want flashy? Blow a hole open in the ceiling here, and rise up through the falling debris like an avenging angel. Or demon, whichever you prefer.

Goat boy. c:

Hey... take the angel comment as a compliment. Angels are supposed to be things that cause fear at the very sight of them. Even when bringing good news, they have to tell people to calm the fuck down. Well, they'd probably use better language than me, but there ya go. Those cutesy flying babies aren't what they're supposed to be like.

Lawyer Dog 2010/08/09(Mon)01:10 No. 216530 ID: 70d9eb
File 128134141860.jpg - (88.33KB , 807x581 , map.jpg )

Security is probably keeping an eye on the main entrance, I would leave that guard alone. He probably will stay on that entrance even if you're detected.

With security so close to those windows and almost right below our target we should probably take the stairs, and then go into the unlocked room. Put up a mute spell enveloping the windows on the side of the building with the target, and then break through the window in the unlocked room. Set Cris down on the ground and edge over to the target's room and break in while sleeping him and grabbing him with mana strengthened hands. You'll want to bail out of the window with him and Cris and get to somewhere safer to interrogate him.

Or if you want to be flashy you could blast a hole through the wall to his room instead of going through the unlocked room's window.

>>216530
Flashy is good, but in this case you should go subtle, at least until you get there. Follow this, though yeah, exploding wall could be good so long as you scry his location again to make sure the debris won't kill him.

...Is that another blind person near the restroom?

Create an armored suit made of crystallized mana, then outfit it with all manner of Mana-fueled weaponry. Mana-Repulsors in the palms, shoulder-mounted Mana Wave Cannons, Magick-Seeking Mana Missiles, maybe even a Mana Whip.

>>216771
Oh, and if non-violence is your thing, uhh...I guess the mana boolets could cause a taser effect or something. Nothing lethal, just give them such a shock.

>>216771

Woah woah woah he got all this mana from about a crystal the size of a quarter. How's that translate to a full body of armor and weaponry made of the stuff? That'd be enough mana to like, level the city from blinking. Make your armor out of something a little more subtle and classy than crystallized mana.

How about solid diamond.

Other options: Timestop, teleportation, and walking through walls. Or levitation.

Flashy might not be responsible when we have a character very dependent on us in tow. Keep playing it safe.

First put the two in the surveillance room to sleep. They seem to be close to the door on this side and it'll give us a lot more freedom to move around.

Next check outside. If it's somewhere Cris can hide and be safe make her wait there while you go back in through the 2F window and jump Mattani from behind.
If the outside is unsafe just go up the stairs and take her with you. There's one more person up there but it looks like it might just be a secretary.

If you are looking for flashy, how about a localized earthquake after you leave. Taking away the place they ran this slavery ring from would be a super smart move.

Oh wait, I've got it. You can just bust through the ceiling and come up through the floor.