Toptomcat

I think our duel has run its course. Shinken has got plenty of data for debugging, and Nightrival's learned a trick or two. I've got Barnum to agree to run things on the warehouse side come December, so let's hold off until then and then start a separate thread.

I think our duel has run its course. Shinken has got plenty of data for debugging, and Nightrival's learned a trick or two. I've got Barnum to agree to run things on the warehouse side come December, so let's hold off until then and then start a separate thread.

I think our duel has run its course. Shinken has got plenty of data for debugging, and Nightrival's learned a trick or two. I've got Barnum to agree to run things on the warehouse side come December, so let's hold off until then and then start a separate thread.

Ouch- another crit! You might want to look into getting a rank or two of Improved Critical yourself when this is all over. It's even more valuable for those who trade off Damage for Attack, like yourself. Luckily for you, Benjiro was making an Accurate Attack for 2, as well as an All-Out Attack for 5. Accounting for the Accurate Attack, loss of Strike, and fatigue, you're only looking at a damage bonus of +8. Dangerous but doable...

Ouch- another crit! You might want to look into getting a rank or two of Improved Critical yourself when this is all over. It's even more valuable for those who trade off Damage for Attack, like yourself. Luckily for you, Benjiro was making an Accurate Attack for 2, as well as an All-Out Attack for 5. Accounting for the Accurate Attack, loss of Strike, and fatigue, you're only looking at a damage bonus of +8. Dangerous but doable...

Ouch- another crit! You might want to look into getting a rank or two of Improved Critical yourself when this is all over. It's even more valuable for those who trade off Damage for Attack, like yourself. Luckily for you, Benjiro was making an Accurate Attack for 2, as well as an All-Out Attack for 5. Accounting for the Accurate Attack, loss of Strike, and fatigue, you're only looking at a damage bonus of +8. Dangerous but doable...

The armor holds, this time- barely- but the kick still creates some space for Nightrival, sending Shinken stumbling back a step or two. He comes back like a tiger, kiai coming fast and hard as he charges Nightrival with a flurry of aggressive slashes from both swords. Expecting an offense that relies on one hand over the other, the black-clad martial artist is taken by surprise with a completely ambidextrous assault, and he takes hit after hit from Shinken's furious strikes. ---- Shinken decides to take his time; he's found the criminals' bolt-hole, and the warehouse won't be getting up and running away. The first thing he does is reactivate his mass spectrometer, searching the air for any traces of Zoom wafting from the warehouse; then, he leaps as quietly as possible onto the roof. When Nightrival follows, he leans in close and lowers his voice to a whisper. "Let's hit 'em from two sides and scare the bejeesus out of 'em. I'll go in through a window on this side: you take the other side. We'll go through whoever's in there and meet in the middle. Sound like a plan?"

The armor holds, this time- barely- but the kick still creates some space for Nightrival, sending Shinken stumbling back a step or two. He comes back like a tiger, kiai coming fast and hard as he charges Nightrival with a flurry of aggressive slashes from both swords. Expecting an offense that relies on one hand over the other, the black-clad martial artist is taken by surprise with a completely ambidextrous assault, and he takes hit after hit from Shinken's furious strikes. ---- Shinken decides to take his time; he's found the criminals' bolt-hole, and the warehouse won't be getting up and running away. The first thing he does is reactivate his mass spectrometer, searching the air for any traces of Zoom wafting from the warehouse; then, he leaps as quietly as possible onto the roof. When Nightrival follows, he leans in close and lowers his voice to a whisper. "Let's hit 'em from two sides and scare the bejeesus out of 'em. I'll go in through a window on this side: you take the other side. We'll go through whoever's in there and meet in the middle. Sound like a plan?"

The armor holds, this time- barely- but the kick still creates some space for Nightrival, sending Shinken stumbling back a step or two. He comes back like a tiger, kiai coming fast and hard as he charges Nightrival with a flurry of aggressive slashes from both swords. Expecting an offense that relies on one hand over the other, the black-clad martial artist is taken by surprise with a completely ambidextrous assault, and he takes hit after hit from Shinken's furious strikes. ---- Shinken decides to take his time; he's found the criminals' bolt-hole, and the warehouse won't be getting up and running away. The first thing he does is reactivate his mass spectrometer, searching the air for any traces of Zoom wafting from the warehouse; then, he leaps as quietly as possible onto the roof. When Nightrival follows, he leans in close and lowers his voice to a whisper. "Let's hit 'em from two sides and scare the bejeesus out of 'em. I'll go in through a window on this side: you take the other side. We'll go through whoever's in there and meet in the middle. Sound like a plan?"

Someone so needs to play the poor schlub you did this to. I also note that you haven't specified villian or hero.

Someone so needs to play the poor schlub you did this to. I also note that you haven't specified villian or hero.

Someone so needs to play the poor schlub you did this to. I also note that you haven't specified villian or hero.

Monkeys make EVERYTHING better!

Monkeys make EVERYTHING better!

Monkeys make EVERYTHING better!

Now that we seem to have firmly decided on a method of advancement, judging by Barnum's post in the Game Rules thread, is there any firm date for the first doling out of Power Points? Some characters have been running for a month already.

Now that we seem to have firmly decided on a method of advancement, judging by Barnum's post in the Game Rules thread, is there any firm date for the first doling out of Power Points? Some characters have been running for a month already.

Now that we seem to have firmly decided on a method of advancement, judging by Barnum's post in the Game Rules thread, is there any firm date for the first doling out of Power Points? Some characters have been running for a month already.

Benjiro takes a look at the newcomer. Interesting. Her clothes don't look exclusive enough to have gotten past the greeter here in Snob Central- which means either she's really *someone* or she's got a great deal of chutzpah. Possibly both. And she's talking about her aunt as if she's dropping a big name. Spoiled celebrity, or something more interesting?

Benjiro takes a look at the newcomer. Interesting. Her clothes don't look exclusive enough to have gotten past the greeter here in Snob Central- which means either she's really *someone* or she's got a great deal of chutzpah. Possibly both. And she's talking about her aunt as if she's dropping a big name. Spoiled celebrity, or something more interesting?

Benjiro takes a look at the newcomer. Interesting. Her clothes don't look exclusive enough to have gotten past the greeter here in Snob Central- which means either she's really *someone* or she's got a great deal of chutzpah. Possibly both. And she's talking about her aunt as if she's dropping a big name. Spoiled celebrity, or something more interesting?

Glad to see we're putting on a good show. The software faults are taking such a big role for two reasons: 1. I figure that any computer program that can emulate a style of martial arts when 'jacked in' is going to be a big 'ol hairy monster, especially given that it's the first of its kind and being written and mantained by one person. My first post puts it at ten million lines of code, about the size of Windows NT 3.5. 2. Again, the in-story purpose of this scrap for Shinken is so he can work out the kinks in his coding. Malfunctions make sense. I think the first purchases I make with earned Power Points will be to get rid of that Unreliable Flaw, reflecting the debugging done here. And maybe Improved Aim, to reflect improved proficiency with that aim-and-Power Attack iaijutsu manuver I pulled in the first round.

Glad to see we're putting on a good show. The software faults are taking such a big role for two reasons: 1. I figure that any computer program that can emulate a style of martial arts when 'jacked in' is going to be a big 'ol hairy monster, especially given that it's the first of its kind and being written and mantained by one person. My first post puts it at ten million lines of code, about the size of Windows NT 3.5. 2. Again, the in-story purpose of this scrap for Shinken is so he can work out the kinks in his coding. Malfunctions make sense. I think the first purchases I make with earned Power Points will be to get rid of that Unreliable Flaw, reflecting the debugging done here. And maybe Improved Aim, to reflect improved proficiency with that aim-and-Power Attack iaijutsu manuver I pulled in the first round.

Glad to see we're putting on a good show. The software faults are taking such a big role for two reasons: 1. I figure that any computer program that can emulate a style of martial arts when 'jacked in' is going to be a big 'ol hairy monster, especially given that it's the first of its kind and being written and mantained by one person. My first post puts it at ten million lines of code, about the size of Windows NT 3.5. 2. Again, the in-story purpose of this scrap for Shinken is so he can work out the kinks in his coding. Malfunctions make sense. I think the first purchases I make with earned Power Points will be to get rid of that Unreliable Flaw, reflecting the debugging done here. And maybe Improved Aim, to reflect improved proficiency with that aim-and-Power Attack iaijutsu manuver I pulled in the first round.

The roundhouse would've been a solid hit to the temple of anyone unarmored, but glances right off the carefully-angled plates of Shinken's helmet. Shinken catches the foot between shoulder and neck, pushing forward to force Nightrival off- balance for a moment: then, he bolts, running away from his opponent at top speed...straight towards the group of watching ninja! Going down into a roll at nearly top speed, he comes up with a pair of the bokken they'd been using in the earlier sparring. As the shinobi scatter, he turns back to Nightrival and adopts a Niten stance- one sword pointed straight up, another at his opponent's face. "Come on, then!" ---- "They won't talk, but they can still tell us something. I talked about us trying to track this stuff right in front of them for a reason; if there's anyone who's got them scared into silence, there's a good chance they'll go to them to tell about the pair of capes that's just shown up to ruin everything. If we can follow them without them managing to realize it, we might move a bit higher up on the food chain and get some real answers without needing to rely on the dodgy method of tracing the chemicals. Don't you Americans watch your own spy movies? Best entertainment in the world, I tell you." With a grin that goes unseen, Shinken leaps up onto the rooftop and begins stealthily following the two dealers.