Here's Jon Garrett's submission. Seraphina is a Crossblooded Sorcerer with the Elemental and Orc Bloodlines thanks to being a Ash-Hag Changeling with an Orc dad. Her anger management issues mean she has the Primal Bloodrager as her Demi-Class.
Her fantasy trope would be Playing with Fire, as her fire magic is exceptionally powerful and she uses the Flumefire Rage and Mad Magic feats to enhance it with her Bloodrage. Burning with Anger is definitely also a thing, especially at level six when I intend to grab the Fire Totem and Greater Fire Totem rage powers, allowing her to literally billow in smoke and fire.
Seraphina nodded, moving forwards and raising her hand to heal the man. Something felt...wrong, but she was compelled to help him even if she wasn't sure it was currently a smart idea.
"If you need help it shouldn't be a problem, we can probably help if you're hurt," Seraphina called out, trying to tone some of the threat down. It looked like whoever was out there was hurt and confused.
Sighing a little, Seraphina pulled off the gloves that came with her gown to reveal more of her tattoos, allowing the fire ink to flow out over the dance floor. "If you need it much brighter you'd better keep your eyes looking over the dance floor and not look where it's coming from, but hopefully this will do," she said in bemusement.
"Depends on the devil, I suppose," Seraphina murmured, considering what she'd been told of her own origins. "But there's no need to dance right now. If the way's clear we can just scoot on by."
"Helping one more person leave shouldn't be a hassle," Seraphina suggested, not mentioning the obvious second part - if this guy really was a prince of any kind, then having a favor owed would be good. If he wasn't it would be a good look - rescuing people was never bad press.
Seraphina looked over to the boss, seeing if she wanted to be associated with what was happening even by proxy. The whole 'threatening a prince' thing wasn't the most diplomatic thing they could have done, after all.
Seraphina almost didn't hear it either, and would have wondered why Jean-Guy was talking to the door, but managed to hear what the person on the other side said. "There's someone back there," she explained to the others so there ally looks less crazy.
"Do you want healing?" Seraphina asked as she eyed Jean's slightly battered form. "Does anyone else, for that matter? That thing had some impressive jaws." Remembering that avoiding the elevator had seemed wise simply due to power loss, she added, "Did anyone else try to use the elevators?"
Seraphina jumped slightly at the sound of the shot, but kept dancing in a more defensive fashion to make up, a little, for her missing armour and shield.
Argh, sorry, I keep seeing Round 2, gone, and thinking I don't need to post.
Wincing from the damage, and glancing at Tom for a moment, Seraphina nodded her thanks and added her own healing to his to get herself back to full health.
What the hell was with that dog? Seraphina began her usual dance, boosting the two more dangerous members of the party and Kal. Tattoos glowed and the light of flowed as Seraphina moved, leaving those damned shoes on the ground behind her. Without her armour and shield she was far too squishy to fight, but at least she could enhance the others.
OK, been a while since we did this - everyone being buffed gains +1 to hit, +3 damage, and +1 against Charm and Fear. You also gain access to Momentum, listed in my status bar - we share a pool but feel free to use them as you need.
Seraphina gasped in shock when Tom opened fire on the Goblin. That seemed a lot more than had been needed. "Could we have just taken him up on his offer if you wanted something, or left?"
"He's not bait, is he?" Seraphina said, looking around and well aware her eyes were terrible by most standards. "I think we should head out." Still, her heart did go out to the little creature. She'd like to help him. But she needed to keep the boss safe, and this seemed like a potential setup.
Well, that didn't sound promising. Despite being able to see well in the dark she wasn't as observant as some of the others. Still, she glanced around even as she moved closer to Lady Ainsworth.
Seraphina shrugged, since she had no way of establishing what it did, and considered what she was wearing. The dress wasn't heavy on pockets, so she'd just have to hold it.
"The stairs were clear on my way up, and another group just headed down, so it's likely we'll see them in trouble if someone's planning to ambush people on the stairs if we head down them soon."
Seraphina wasn't great at identifying stuff. Still, since they seemed about to leave, she raised the wand. "Would this be worth buying before we left?"
Seraphina sighs, pleased that she had finally found the others. "Sorry. Got a little distracted chatting with Lady Ebrietas and making other friends. Does anyone have any idea what's going on? Someone told me the Nameless Ghoul is on the prowl around the hotel, for some reason, but no one has too many details." She glanced at the shop as she padded towards her employer.
Well...crap. She couldn't think of a reason why a violent killed would be hunting her, but she could imagine several of the others wouldn't be so lucky - including her employer. Then again, if he was a simple but successful serial killer, she might match whatever it was that made him kill, so it was possible but unlikely that she was a target.
"Thank you!" she calls after the other group as they flee. The fact they were also fleeing was a little worrying, but maybe she could run away if she saw him.
She continued to hunt for the others, heading once more to where they'd been last seen, and then the elevators and stairs - it seemed as likely as not that they would regroup near exits, after all, and not running down stairs would be easier.
Seraphina paused, momentarily non-pulsed by the strange group and the interesting people within it. She was deeply uncertain why anyone would be mounted so high up in a building, but maybe he had some issues with walking that weren't clear. A lot of people could walk and stand a bit, and were often too proud to admit otherwise. Or maybe he was simply eccentric.
"Oh, thank you for the offer, but I'm afraid I'm heading up. I'm supposed to meet with my colleagues upstairs, and make sure everyone's alright. I got a little distracted with another task and seem to have misplaced just about everyone," she added with a small laugh. "But do you know what's going on? I haven't met anyone who knows what this is all about."
Long Health Care Rant, Very Liberal, Fee Free to ignore:
I'll be honest, I strongly disagree that the American version is the better system. You guys spend significantly more (as in a higher percentage of you GDP) on a limited healthcare system. Healthcare costs me about $300 a month, roughly. To be clear, that's me, my four children, and my wife. Last year, my daughter snapped her arm - turned it into a real banana shape. It cost me nothing extra to get her to the hospital, see within an hour, x-rayed, have the bone set and the cast done.
In fact, it cost a lot more in parental guilt ice cream.
In addition, it cost nothing for 6 months of follow ups, replacement casts, additional x-rays and the like.
The same was true when she had eczema when she was young. About 70% of her body was covered in bad rashes, and because she was so little she would often get bad infections that meant whole areas were literally green. We got truly vast amounts of anti-inflammatory creams, anti-biotics (which nearly killed me, because I accidently got some on my fingers once, whoops) and specialist help.
My brother died a few years ago. He spent a lot of time in end of life hostels, towards the end of his life, because the cancer he had gnawed through his gut and into his spine. He was completely dependant on his wife, by the end of his life, and she needed time to do other things. She was able to do so because he could spend time in a hostel, cared for and fed for free. His vast number of medications and pain killers (he was on the choose your own narctoics plan by the end, where he could just hit a button for more morphine) and he even got free cars, free modifications to his him and a lot of other stuff. Because he couldn't work, he wasn't paying that $300 a month for the last several years of his life, but he'd paid it for his entire life before that.
...my mother died last year. Again, cancer. She'd lost my step-father the year before, and because she had MS and Diabetes and a bunch of other problems, and she moved into a hospice for several months. Again, all for that $300 a month (or rather, prior payments - my mother was old enough to be exempt from that tax).
To add to that, there was no paperwork, no fees, no calls trying to get it sorted, no concern that my cover might not work, no worries that my provider might find a loophole to avoid paying. At the time of the eczema, for example, I was jobless and physically unable to work. There was never any worry that I would somehow end up with a bill, and that was a big help during a very stressful period.
I think, really, that's the biggest thing for me. Whether you are the poorest person possible with millions in debt, or a millionaire, you can go into an NHS hospital and not have to worry about anything but getting better. No concern that you'll get a bill you simply can't pay, or your insurance won't cover the life long medication you now need. You get sick, you get treated, you get well.
I won't say it's perfect - our Government has been badly underfunding the system to try and justify that transition to a more American system for the last decade, and it's cost people. My brother is one of them - a screw up on his forms meant he was treated as end of life on his admission to hospital three years before he died, because his lung collapsed, and by the time the mistake was found he'd missed too many treatment to continue chemo and radiotherapy.
But it's a much better system than deciding if I want to eat or buy my kids medication. Which, given the treatment would have cost around $5000 a year plus anti-biotics and are unlikely to be covered by many insurers, and I was out of work at the time, would have been a very real choice.
Of course, this is all just my personal experience. But there was a strong reason my wife, who is American, was quite adamant that we were staying in the UK once we were married and got our degrees. There's a reason the US has a lower life expectancy, and a for profit healthcare system is a big part of that, I think. And as mentioned, you guys pay a lot more for the privilege. I think it's something insane like 17% of your GDP gets spent on healthcare, including private and public stuff, and we only pay about 9.2% in total, and with the exception of dentistry we get everything included. From a cast to cancer, we're covered.
Anyway, on a less political note, sorry to hear you're leaving the game Alister. Have fun and hope to see you again soon.
That's actually a major political point here right now. There have been attempts to move us to a more American system, and it's pretty much the only thing the nation as a whole agrees on: we do not want that. It's causing our current Government some problems, because they really wanna do it and start making more money, but it's pretty much political suicide to try it. Brexit was divisive, but there are very few Brits who wanna start paying more for a worse healthcare system (and no one is stupid to believe that the taxes we currently pay to fund the system would go down, even if we had to pay an American style one) so the Government is having to try and be really, really sneaky.
But don't worry Tom, lots is going terribly here as well, so you're not missing out on much. We just aren't as likely to literally burst into flames as you guys are, or be underwater, or have a tornado land on us, or have the very Earth shudder in our presence.
Well, this wasn't fun. How did you explain to someone that a person they knew had been burned to death by demon worshippers? And a demon worshipper in a position of power. She was very unsure she wanted to mention that little detail, because starting a minor war right now might be a bad idea.
"It was...demon worshippers. They used him and some others as a sacrifice." Hopefully that would be enough for now.
Glancing at the note, Seraphina rather wished that she could fake not knowing writing for a moment, and wondered if there was any way out of this conversation. Instead, she nodded. "I'm sorry. We found his remains."
Slipping the shoes off - there was no way in any hells she was going to climb 30 floors in the things - Seraphina grinned and took the other woman's hand with her free one. "Hope you're feeling fit." She began to head up the stairs.
"Floor thirty was were I was told," Seraphina explained, "I was just hoping you might know more. If they're still up there then I'd best get going," she added, eyeing the way up sadly. Still, it was better than a lift which might go breaking down.
Seraphina smiled ruefully. "Thank you, but I think I'll need to save it. Right now, though, I'm just trying to find my collegues. Do you have any idea what's going on? I heard the guard got called while I was busy with her ladyship."
Thoroughly dismissed for now, Seraphina nodded and headed for the 30th floor via the lobby. She wasn't sure if the lifts were down or if it was a bad idea to use them if they weren't, since the power here was so iffy apparently, but she could probably make it up the stairs if things looked dicey.
Seraphina looked up - and up - in mild awe at the size of the other woman. She really didn't need the shoes. But it was the information that was the most useful. "So that's what I am? I guess...that probably explains how I ended up at the orphanage, right?" Seraphina knew she was different when the fire ink didn't sicken her like others, but she'd never been sure what, exactly, was different. A touch of infernal blood made sense.
"Thank you for seeing me, M'Lady," Seraphina said with a delicate curtsy. "And thank you for the information. May the God's blessings go with your house," she paused for a moment, considering, "And the Lady's blessings with yourself." Which given her size certainly seemed to be true.
Looking vaguely confused, Seraphina said, "Thank you considering my request, M'lady. But, I, uh, don't really have any stature." She looked down at herself. Was the dress really that impressive? After a moment, something clicked in the back of her memory. It had been hinted at, at least. "Weyland mentioned you might know something about me. Would you be kind enough to share, if so? As far as I know I'm an orphan who grew up with nuns."
Seraphina looked confused for a moment. "A job? Oh, I'm sorry M'Lady, I wasn't very clear. I already have a job. I was just doing a favour for someone, and satisfying my own curiosity. Thank you for considering me, even if it was simply because you're already well-staffed."
Looking over her shoulder, she added, "As much as I'd love to find out more about those shoes, though I can't imagine I can afford them, would you be interested in meeting with Reginald Alton? It would mean a lot to him and his family."
Seraphina returned and curtsied an apology. "Sorry for the wait, m'lady. It appears there is a mild emergency, so please forgive my bluntness. The truth is I was asked to come here to request an audience for a friend. Your guards were better at keeping him out. I also wanted to meet you myself, though. And to see if I could get in." Seraphina laughed ruefully. "I nearly broke my ankle doing it, though. I don't know how people walk in these things."
It was a gamble, but Seraphina hoped her total honesty would pay off better than spinning a yawn. She guessed it was a lot rarer for people to be completely forthright with the woman than it was to try and manipulate her.
"Sure, I can pass along a message," Seraphina said with a nod, and avoiding the whole deal that the kid had apparently been able to read her like a large print book. She was really more cut out for healing and supporting than she was for espionage. It was all the fault of the damned shoes.
