You walk into an abandoned market, the owner gave it up for a life of crime, you see rotten fruits and expired foods, before you are brought to a door, the sign says "STAFF LOUNGE". "Alright, you'll be staying here." A rebel says, now you know his name is Tredec, and he's a half orc. The other three are called Skumlis, Yednen, and Plentew, who are all human. Tredec seems to be their leader. "You'll be going to a town named Everfrost, our technology says the waves of the messages are coming from that town. It's no surprise they did, they've always been jealous of Akihi. Try your best to fit in as a citizen, after each day, you'll tell us what you learned on a walkie talkie which we'll get you soon, and hopefully you'll find the source of this chaos and end it." Tredec smiles then in a soft whisper says, "Then my family will get back together again." He looks at a locket with him, a woman, and two boys, he then quickly puts it away in his pocket. Plentew suggests, "well, it's getting late, why don't you all get to know each other?" You walk into the lounge and see a door to your right, 5 chairs and a couch, fresh food, a bulletin board with various towns on it, a radio, headphones, and a screen showing light green waves. The technology is very advanced. "We have to leave to get some supplies you'll need," Yednen says. They then leave to go to a nearby store, which is surprisingly still open. 

At this time, you will introduce your characters.

An old Dwarf with sliver hair and a long beard walks in. He is wearing the vestments of a Forge Father of Moradin but at closer glance you can see its coving a set of fine made dwarfen plate. 

Seeing Tredec look at the locket made his eyes grow very tired and distant for a moment before he snaps back to the moment. Turning to the other.

G'day everyone. I'm Father Boomi Battleborn of clan Ironborn, Forge Father of Moradin. Or at least I was... guess I'm a rebel now. Nice to meet you.

Spark enters the room, looking a little out of place in his shabby clothing. His hands feature small dried paint smudges. He has two rings, both on middle fingers. On his left hand is a silver ring with a blue inexpensive looking circular crystal - a simple arcane focus. On the right hand is a silver ring with a small pinkish gemstone, set in an oval shape and looks more expensive and dazzling. If one had the chance to peer into that pink crystal, one would see tiny swirls multicoloured light and shifting clouds of chaos. The gems seem very odd compared to the rest of his attire. 

"Hi!" He says, somewhat cheerfully but also hesitantly, "Call me Spark. I, uh," he looks Boomi, "have no clan or titles. I'm just Spark. It is a pleasure to meet you. I don't know if I will be of any help." 

He shrugged, sat down, grabbed some bread and began munching slowly. 

It's a simple enough mission, he thought to himself. Shouldn't need too much magic, and it'll help bring peace and order to Akihi. I don't want to have to go homeless again.

Claypole walks through the abandoned market, shaking his head at the spoiled fruit and vegetables. It truly was bad in the town, this market should have been making enough money to easily sustain it's owner with enough left to pay a decent wage to the employees.

As he enters the staff lounge, he takes a deep breath in, the stench of rotting food had at least dissipated a bit.

The moment Tredec mentions technology, his demeanour changes, his interest is truly peaked. He totally ignores the food and walks over to where the radio, headphones and screen are located.

"Yes, yes, get to know each other", he says absently, waving to their hosts even as his back is turned. He picks up the headphones and turns them over in his hands, before putting them down and reaching for the radio.

It is at this point he realises that the other people brought in were speaking.

He sighs and turns around. His ears show him to be an elf and he has rather unkempt blonde hair that sticks out in points. The sort that it was not possible to tell if it was styled that way or, more likely, just the result of running his hands through whilst greasy. He wears a long brown coat reinforced with metal that has a number of tools on it.

"Father Boomborn, Sparce", he says in greeting to the pair, clearly not having listened too well.

"The names Ankridge, Claypole Ankridge. Most call me Clank though", he adds as he retrieves what looks like a screwdriver from his belt.

(OOC: Has Clank seen this kind of technology before? Is the world all this technological level, or a standard fantasy world with these as anomalies?)

"Nice meeting you, Maypole." Spark responds with a forced smile. 

((OOC: in the recruitment thread it was revealed this is a modern-world style setting, at the "VHS tapes" level - kinda like the 80s. At least in terms of technology.))

(OOC: If that is the case, I might want to adjust some character options. @dm can you advise please? Also, will there be a campaign for us to add characters, and maybe an OOC private chat to keep this thread clean?)

Boomi shakes his head a little.

"Kids these days too wrapped up in this new magic. Boomi is fine unless you wish to address me as Father Boomi but there is no need. Are you one of them new fancy techno wizards I've heard of? No tinkers or was it engineer. You kids make up too many words which mean the same."

Quote from VolcanoLair >>

(OOC: If that is the case, I might want to adjust some character options. @dm can you advise please? Also, will there be a campaign for us to add characters, and maybe an OOC private chat to keep this thread clean?)

I am perfectly fine with you adjusting your character. PM me if you have any questions.

Clank doesn't seem to notice Spark getting his name wrong in return. 

"Just Clank will do, sounds like we are being deployed together after all", he says to Spark as he spots the food. He walks over and wipes a hand on his coat, which is actually dirtier than his hand was, and takes an apple.

"Fancy?", he says repeating Boomi as he takes a bite of the apple, crunching it before swallowing. "Never been called fancy before", he says as he scratches the side of his face, leaving a little mark there.

"I'm with the engineers, but like the sound of Techno Wizard", he says with a chuckle.

"How about you pair? What brings you here? You must have some skills, right?".

Me boy was killed in a mugging. I'm here to get my revenge... but simply killing the man who killed my boy was not enough I want to bring back the city I love for the people of my flock. As for skills I am favored by Moradin and can swing a hammer well enough in my prime tho I admit I'm a bit Long in the beard so ne strength not what it use ta be. 

What brings an engineer to be a freedom fighter?

Clank is pretty startled at the casual way Boomi dropped in the history of his son being murdered into conversation, and is a little lost for words for a moment. He looks to Spark and shuffles his feet a bit before replying.

"I..er...well, that is to say...I'm sorry to hear about your boy. For a parent to outlive their...well it's awful", he says, nervously scratching his temple with the point of his screwdriver, the apple in his other hand forgotten.

"My reasons are less dramatic. I'm just fed up with all the vandalism. I've lived here for a long time, my handiwork can be seen pretty much everywhere across town. Having to fix it or see it defaced gets my hackles up", he says, then frowns. "Like I said, not as dramatic as your tale. Boomi you said, right?"

"Anyway, I was requested for a job, and not through the Engineers. They tried to hide the true intentions of the work, but I could tell something was going on. Turned out to be this lot, so I volunteered", he adds motioning at the door that Tredec, Skumlis, Yednen, and Plentew left through.

"And you Sparce? No, that doesn't sound right now I say it again. Spark? Terrible with names, sorry".

"Ba me hearts harden to it now just a foot note in a long life but it drives me fury."

Boomi it's down and gets a 50 yard stare on his face before shaking it off. He looks at spark ready to hear his tale.

Spark listens to the other two details their reasons. Boomi's frankness about his son's death was a little off-putting to him. Even so, he understood loss even if in a different way. He chose not to press on that.

"I..." He falters, unsure how to phrase things. "I can do magic." He raises a hand and makes small firework like sparks of various colours dance around it for a few seconds. "My magic is... Unstable. Small things are fine but bigger stuff can... Sometimes... Cause odd things to happen. But, the small stuff is still helpful. Small effects, mend things, make light, carry small things, and such. As for why I'm here... I...." He trails off thinking how to explain without opening a can of worms. A small lie perhaps? "I didn't want to run away from this - I wanted to make it better. Make it a nice place to live again."

He shrugged and finished the piece of bread. 

"Unstable magic hey, interesting", Clank says thoughtfully looking Spark up and down.

"No spell book, so I guess your magic isn't learned. Does your magic come from an external source, do you think? Is there some being or thing that communicates to you? Or does it come from within I wonder? Has it always been the case?".

"And what sort of odd things are we talking about? Dangerous things, or just unusual?", he asks Spark, rattling off question after question, obviously intrigued.

Old Dwarf Boomi sits down on the coach and starts to nod off.

"I was born with a connection to magic" Spark explained, sitting back. "I don't exactly know how or why. When I was young I was suddenly able to do small magical things. It progressed eventually. Some things I just know how to do and others I learned. But, I don't read books or commune with nature or anything. I can just, sorta, do stuff. It seems like I have connection to chaos and luck - like fey magic, kinda. When I do bigger things there is a chance that it surges and causes unpredictable effects. I have accidentally summoned creatures from other planes of existence, teleported short distances, and one time I turned my skin blue. Some times it helps, most of the time it's just weird and on rare occasions it's... unpleasant." He stressed the word unpleasant - it was clear he was downplaying it. "I don't hear voices or have any connections to other beings, as far as I know. I did have a mentor who helped me. She told me I was fey-touched. As in, touched by the Feywild. But the she wasn't sure the extent of what that meant."

He shrugged again, grinning a little at seeing Boomi nod off. He wondered if he should play some sort of prank? He decided against it. 

"You mentioned you were an engineer, or something?" He asked Clank. "What kind of things do you make or work on? He mentioned techno-wizard. Does that mean you fuse mechanical things with magic?"

"That is fascinating", Clank says listening to Spark speak of his past and the evolution of his magical abilities.

"Yes, I am an engineer. Some call us techno-wizards and others artificers", he explains. "We manipulate technology to produce what you might call magical effects".

"Here", he says and wanders over to the table and grabs two plates. "You said you were able to mend things, right? Well so can I, but in a very different way I'd wager".

He takes the first plate, and strikes it against the table, causing it to break in half with a bit of a cracking sound. He does the same with the other, not realising Boomi was dozing off.

"Now, shall we both mend a plate and see the difference in our approaches?".

With that he places both plates on the table, one close to Spark and the other in front of himself. "I'll go first".

He pushes the two portions together, and using his screwdriver and the activation word "Repairos", activates dozens of tiny automatons that appear as if from nowhere scuttling onto the plate. It takes a minute, but after they are done the plate looks as good as new.

"Your turn"

Spark watched in amazement as the tiny... Creatures?... As they appeared and fixed the broken plate. When they disappeared the plate was good as new. Indeed, the effect was the same but it was such a difference from his own magic. 

He looked to the other broken plate. He held his hand out and focused. With a voice that seemed to suddenly echo he whispers "Trwsio!" [tru-she-oh] as a soft white glow covers his hand and plate with soft shifting colours of various shades moving over the broken pieces and merging them together. Over the course of a minute the plate is mended bit by bit and by the end it is fully restored - good as new. 

"Not quite as curious as yours," he says, "but the result is the same. Very fascinating."

Ok ok I'm up. By Moradin's beard you kids make a racket. He looks at the broken and mended plate. Effective but I prefer the old ways of hammer and anvil. Ah the sound of the rhythm of hammer and anvil is magical like a prayer. I'd show you but I'd need me Forge.... Well you lot will be an interesting. 

Boomi pulls out a flask of dwarfish ale and takes a swig.

Want a little holy water while we wait.

"Good luck using a hammer and anvil with a plate, best leave them to Spark and I", Clank teases Boomi with a good natured chuckle, after watching Spark perform his magic to flawlessly fix the plate.

"But you are right, it is going to be interesting. I wonder if anyone else will be joining us", he muses as he takes a look at the holy water being offered by Boomi.

"Oh go on then", he says looking around for a mug.