.....They were on opposite sides of the Law, the Bounty Hunter and the Thief.
She hunted criminals for justice and of course a hefty paycheck and she just wanted to have fun.
In a world where anything can happen the unimagined happened, they became friends or Frenemies as circumstance and intrigue threw their fates together.
Ride along as this unlikely duo (insert name) and Teia run for their lives and the secret of the "CRYSTAL HEART"
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Sorry can't resist a good plug
The story setup is pretty basic, Bounty Hunter catches Master Thief as much by luck as by skill. Then along come outside forces that want to take the Bounty Hunter's prize so they can wring from her pretty little neck the location of an important object called the Crystal Heart.
The adversaries include a lesser Princess seeking the heart for her own power. Other bounty hunters and the law.
Your Character is framed by the Princess as Teia's accomplice and has to (an this is the fuzzy part) now go with Teia to retrieve the Heart and return it to the rightful (also fuzzy) owner to clear her name.
The World is a combination of Steampunk/Wild West/Sword & Sorcery/Intrigue
There are Wizards and Sorceress
Gun fighters
Strange Technology
Zeppelins, Aircraft, Land Trains an Mecha
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The Magic users are rare on this world as are magical items
But there are Beastmen, Elves. Half Elves and Oni
Skyships cross the blue driven by the secrets of Steam tech
Beastmen are like Furries, Kitsune and Nekojin (Note Kitsune have a chance of Magic but not like they do in legends but we'll need to talk first)
Beastmen are seen by human city dwellers in a similar manner as were Native Americans and treated as second class.
They live as long as humans and are almost as numerous
Beastmen depending on their Anima have special physical talents that none of the other races can match
Elves are the Race with the strongest connection to magic and rarely seen in the cities of man. An elf who doesn't live among their own kind is clanless and any connection to magic they might have is weak compared to others of their kind
It is their long lives and connection to magic that makes the other races envious of them.
Half Elves are outcast in almost all places except the villages and cities of the Beastmen and while they live longer than humans they only live perhaps 300 years compared to 3,000 for their full blood cousins.
Not gifted with magic on the level of elves these half caste as they are sometimes called are the bridge between Steam tech and the arcane known for creating fantastic devices neither parent race could ever concive of
Oni are creatures who can shape shift and are connected most often with evil and are the sworn enemies of the Elves. Their magic is connected to blood and soul and therefore the more powerful the magic the darker it's requirements.
They can sustain their lives to the lengths of the Elves but this requires that they drain life from humans, beastmen or elves.
A strange side note is that good Oni can use the life force of plants and animals to perform great acts of healing that are beyond even the skill of the Elves
Half Oni are unable to shape shift but are for reasons unknown able to heal the injuries of the other races without sacrificing the life force of plants animals or people..
It is for this reason that Half Oni are respected in all cities except perhaps the closed city of the Elves
Humans, of all the races humans are the most numerous and the only ones that seem able to create Steam tech.
Short lived they are more driven as a race to do, to seen to conquer. Humans are the only race that can cross breed with those of the other races
Rogues Are anyone who steals or depends of stealth to accomplish their tasks. This includes Thieves, Con Artists, Assassins and Spies
Rogues receive a bonus in stealth, lock picking and evasion with the subclass assassins and spies replacing assassination for lock picking and con artists replacing evasion with persuasion
Fighters are anyone who depends on weapons to accomplish their tasks. This Includes Guardsmen, Mercenaries, Gun fighters and Guymelf pilots.
Fighters receive bonuses on three fighting abilities with Gun fighters having to have a projectile weapon and a Guymelf pilot Guymelf,
Engineers are anyone who repairs, builds or operates steam tech except for Guymelf and they receive bonuses for all build, repair or operate skills
Hunt animals or people and are skilled in Tracking, Trapping and Stealth they also gain a ranged weapon bonus but only one type
Are the Healers of the injured and sick and gain bonuses in all such skills as well as the innate ability to lay on hands and heal minor wounds
Acrobatics ......this is a bonus to the skill acrobatics
Advanced Martial Arts ......this gift gives a bonus to any hand to hand skills
Advanced Firearms ......this gift gives a bonus to all firearms and confers the ability to use all firearms
Advanced Melee weapons ......this gift gives a bonus to melee combat such as swords, shields. blunt weapons and spears
Alertness ......the ability to spot traps, ambush, hidden doors and concealed weapons
Ambidextrous......this gift enables two weapon use without the need to buy twin weapons skill in each type
Animal Affinity ......this gift gives the ability to ride, handle and train animals even taming most wild animals
Combat Reflexes ......this gift gives the ability to attack multiple targets at once or react to surprise attacks without penalty
Deceptive ......this gift give a bonus to con, disguise, bluff and trick skills
Frightful Presence ......this gift can unnerve and frighten foes causing them to loose bonuses of skill
Gear head ......this gift gives a bonus on all engineering skills
Hard Target .....this gift makes the user difficult to hit
Quick Draw ......This gift means the user is without par when drawing a firearm, swords, knife or other small weapon
Run ...this gift means anyone trying to catch you needs a mount or vehicle to catch you
Stealthy ......this gift makes many believe you can become invisible
Tracker .....this gift means you could track a foe over concrete if the trail is fresh
Acrobatics......Awareness....Bluff....Climb....Decipher ....Demolitions....Diplomacy....Disguise....Escape artist...Fast draw....Forgery....Gamble....Gun fighter ....Handle animal....Hide....Intimidate....Investigate....Knife throwing ....Lock picking .... Navigate.....Perform ....Persuasion ....Pilot ....Repair ....Research ....Ride ....Search ....Sense motive ....Slight of hand ....Stealth ....Others to be added as needed
(Below is Teia's intro an a short CS)
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Teia walked across one of the ropes hung with the Royal banners attached to the tower which was her destination. It was a new moon tonight and purrfect for what she was up to.
She made the tower in the same amount of time that it would have taken her to walk across the courtyard 80 feet below.
Clad in a night suit she would have appeared to be an assassin come to make a kill but Teia wasn't that sort, she preferred taking things over lives.
Reaching up she carefully caught the edge of the open but barred window and looked inside.
There it was dimly lighting the room, a dragon's Crystal Heart just begging a thief with skill to liberate it.
Removing a small screw jack from a bag she wore on her chest she pads the bars with small sticky patches of leather to prevent metal on metal sounds.
A dozen or so turns later and she backs off the jack a stows it back in her bag and hangs the bag outside the window .
The rest is child's play as she squeezes between the bars and into the room.
Sniffing the air she detects the strange scents of magic so she positions herself before making her grab. She takes several small wires and loops them around the crystal then attaches the wires through leather eye lets on her tail tip's band
All secure she grins as she clears her flight path visually.
Rocking back and forth like a sprinter before the gun Teia preps. Then with an explosive burst of speed runs towards the bared window and dives through the gap she made with her jack
Behind her as her tail feels the weight of the crystal go taunt and move free of it's display is an explosion of fire.
She hurtles out of the window and lands all fours on the banner rope which bucks a bit threatening to throw her off. Once she's steady she stands an turns snatching the crystal and her bag into which she stuffs the beautiful sparkly.
She smells singed hair but isn't burned as she throws the bag straps over her shoulders while the alarm is raised.
Men burst into the room she's just vacated as guards pour out onto the walls
Lights suddenly bathe the courtyard and she's spotted on the rope.
Men rush towards the stanchion that secures her rope to the outer wall effectively blocking her escape as she once more on all four runs halfway across then stops with a giggle. There is the flash of a crescent blade buckled to the tip of her tail which splits the rope in half.
Teia let's out a "Yahoo!" As she swings down then towards the outer wall and through another window to roll across a hall coming to a stop against the wall inside.
Giggling she sprints down the hall as the astonished guards outside try to respond.
Two guards men in an odd room over the old gate are surprised as she enters and throws exploding pepper bombs at their feet which fill the room with choking smoke. As the two men not prepared with something covering their mouths gag on the smoke Teia kicks open a hatch on what was once called a kill hole and used to dump scalding oil on any trying to break the gates. The 20 foot drop would cause most to hesitate but for a Nekojin is just a little jump as she hugs the bag close and falls outside the walls.
She lands and heads for the nearby storm drain she has prepared for her escape expecting to dodge a hail of gunfire that never comes.
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5 days later
Teia boards her train as the final whistle sounds giggling, dancing an singing.
She didn't intend to but two old friends working the Sugar daddy con had seen her in town and invited her to their place for a quick tickle an nip.
The three old friends giggled and exchanged stories of the cons they once pulled as a trio and had a grand time.
That is till Teia detected something wasn't quite right.
They'd laced the nip with something trying to capture her for the reward money but Teia had gotten the drop on them instead an left the two swinging by the ankles from the rafters of their own room.
"There was a bold mousy that went danncin neath the harvest moon" she sings as she makes her way to her compartment.
Once inside she locks the door and passes out
Name Teia of Blackthorn
Age. 19-22
Race. Nekojin
Profession. Rouge (Thief and Con
Artist)
Gift Luck
Skills Stealth, Gymnastics, Lock picking, Gun fighter, Persuasion, Knife throwing and Escape artist
Teia isn't a renowned Nekojin Gun fighter but she is known among rogues as the Gun Queen because among her peers she's without equal
Flamboyant and filled with a zest for life she is almost never seen without a smile on her face, even when she's killing.
No cold blooded killer or she'd have become a member of the Darkmoon assassins guild where she's from she will not hesitate to fire once her weapon is drawn.
Her father is head of the Darkmoon Savar of Blackthorn and her elder siblings all members as well.
She is the only daughter of her father's third wife Tesis of the City of Reeds and followed in her mother's profession.
Her tail unlike many Nekojin isn't merely a signal and balancing tool but is known to be prehensile
