Timemaster

Kings and Killers: A Classical Fantasy Adventure (Chapter 1)

Ashevelen "Ashe" Ben'Ghazad

Name: Ashevelen "Ashe" Ben'Ghazad

Age: 26

Height: 1.8

Weight: 58kg

Class: Luck Mage/Warrior

Race:Demonfolk

Weapons & Equipment: (details but fairly brief) Short sleeved leather armour that covers her body but leaves the skin below the elbow uncovered, a longsword , a small dagger, a hood & mask which covers her head/face fully, a pair of D12 dice, playing cards and a necklace in the form of the letter “L”.

Skills and Abilities: Martial skills - Ashe is an adept sword fighter having been trained as a mercenary by her adoptive parents. She is also known to be good at throwing small knives and is an expert at sleight of hand tricks.
Passive Ability: Lucky gambler: Ashe has a passive ability that increases her chances of throwing high dice/playing good cards in luck games. While it doesn’t influence her skills when using the dice to cast magic, it helps to keep her finances up.

She perhaps uses one of the weirder and unpredictable sides of magic which is why she doesn’t rely on it most of the time. If Ashe concentrates for a period of time and rolls her dice she can be imbued with different effects or resistances. What effects/resistances depends on the dice roll, if it’s a high roll it can be a very good effect/resistance while a low roll will damper her abilities and can occasionally even injure her.

If she chooses to fully concentrate on a certain effect and the roll is high enough, she will get said effect with little to no cost to her. Spells that would take weeks to prepare could be done in minutes but it all depends on her luck. For example, if a “Detect Traps” spell is required, she can think of the spell and what it’s supposed to do and then roll the dice. A high roll will ensure that the spell is cast, a neutral roll will have no effect while a low roll can work the other way around and hide the traps in the close area or trigger them all.

She can only use her dice to cast spells twice a day.

Bio: Once upon a time there was a small baby left to die at the entrance of a brothel on the Isles of Bishop & Knight. Luck happened to her as the madam of the brothel was pregnant when she found Ashe crying for food or warmth. Unfortunately, the babe was born stillborn, leaving the madam to fully focus on Ashe as her baby.

Her childhood was spent learning the non-sexual ways of the brothel, serving food, talking with clients, occasionally stealing a coin or two from them and learning the different games at which the clients would lose their money on. Ashe had everything she could ask for as a kid, food, shelter and with the help of the madame, she learned how to read and write in the hopes that one day she would take over.
When she was 14 years old, Ashe started training with the bouncers and thugs that protected the brothel in the use of short swords, clubs and knives. It didn’t stop until, finally, her luck ran out.

At the age of 17, the madam was stabbed to death as she didn’t want to sell the brothel to a new criminal leader in the area and the brothel was under new management since then. Ashe, of course, planned his death and ways to do it but seeing as the leader had influence and power, not to say a lot of guards…her plans had to be put to a stop. She fled the port she grew in as soon the leader discovered her identity and put a price on her head in order to stop any future attempts on his life.

Ashe fled to the mysterious Bishop islands where the sane would go mad and the insane rule knowing well that no one would expect her to be somewhere so close to home. Her plan was clear: flee to the Bishop Isles, learn magic and kill the criminal leader from afar. While the logic was sound, Ashe didn’t plan for her lack of money or knowledge of where she could find someone to teach her magic.

Months turned to years as she used her pickpocketing skills and occasional luck to get enough money to survive. Her search was never over, going from tavern to tavern and trying to persuade the different mystics to teach her. Eventually, she heard a rumour of a group of extraordinary mystics which could do anything they wanted. Of course, she knew this is who she should seek.

Another year passed in her search for these mystics and then she found them. A group of travelling gamblers, hookers and thieves. She explained who she was looking for and was met with confusion. They didn’t know what she was talking about but invited her to share food with them while she explained better what she needed. Ashe was confused and thought that once more the rumour was just that, a rumour…until one of the group pulled a dice and rolled a high number and soon food appeared as if by magic.

Realisation dawned on her face as she understood what type of magic, if one can call it like that, these people were employing. Luck magic. After beating one of them at a card game, they agreed on teaching her their skills.

By the age of 24, Ashe was finally confident in her skills with the dice and she was ready to return home. Fate didn’t have it that way. A twist of bad luck, had herself and the group attacked by bandits and kidnapped by bandits.

She was kept in a cage, blindfolded for the better part of next month as the bandits took turns on her. With no knowledge of her location or if anyone else survived the attack, it was certain that her life would eventually end as a slave.

Eventually, the bandits were killed by someone and she was freed. While the whole ordeal was hard on her, it taught her something very important. She was still a weak fighter and luck isn’t always on her side. Determined to gather more power in order to return home and take what should’ve been hers, she sold her services as a guard to various caravans or when there was no work, gambled.

Kings and Killers seeking (0) new players! (CYOA)

@Cyrania@Spiffy I'm glad you like her! Hopefully I'll get lucky with the rolls 😅

Would that mean that Ashe is accepted?

Also, one question. How do we aquire skills? Say I'd want Ashe at one point to have the ability to influence the dice throw in a positive way if it goes bad or maybe to roll for other people's luck.

For example X tries to shoot an arrow at a long distance, normally it would be very hard for hit something at said distance but she rolls a high dice making it possible for the arrow to strike.

Kings and Killers seeking (0) new players! (CYOA)

@Spiffy Looking forward to it! Would that mean something is still wrong with my sheet?

Also, thank you! I wanted her to have a backstory which leaves room for different plots that might or might not happen. Also, by not saying by whom she was saved, it could be any of the other characters or simply a random NPC.

Kings and Killers seeking (0) new players! (CYOA)

@Spiffy I've reworked Ashe into something more fun and unpredictable.

My Hider

Name: Ashevelen "Ashe" Ben'Ghazad

Age: 26

Height: 1.8

Weight: 58kg

Class: Luck Mage/Warrior

Race:Demonfolk

Weapons & Equipment: (details but fairly brief) Short sleeved leather armour that covers her body but leaves the skin below the elbow uncovered, a longsword , a small dagger, a hood & mask which covers her head/face fully, a pair of D12 dice, playing cards and a necklace in the form of the letter “L”.

Skills and Abilities: Martial skills - Ashe is an adept sword fighter having been trained as a mercenary by her adoptive parents. She is also known to be good at throwing small knives and is an expert at sleight of hand tricks.
Passive Ability: Lucky gambler: Ashe has a passive ability that increases her chances of throwing high dice/playing good cards in luck games. While it doesn’t influence her skills when using the dice to cast magic, it helps to keep her finances up.

She perhaps uses one of the weirder and unpredictable sides of magic which is why she doesn’t rely on it most of the time. If Ashe concentrates for a period of time and rolls her dice she can be imbued with different effects or resistances. What effects/resistances depends on the dice roll, if it’s a high roll it can be a very good effect/resistance while a low roll will damper her abilities and can occasionally even injure her.

If she chooses to fully concentrate on a certain effect and the roll is high enough, she will get said effect with little to no cost to her. Spells that would take weeks to prepare could be done in minutes but it all depends on her luck. For example, if a “Detect Traps” spell is required, she can think of the spell and what it’s supposed to do and then roll the dice. A high roll will ensure that the spell is cast, a neutral roll will have no effect while a low roll can work the other way around and hide the traps in the close area or trigger them all.

She can only use her dice to cast spells twice a day.

Bio: Once upon a time there was a small baby left to die at the entrance of a brothel on the Isles of Bishop & Knight. Luck happened to her as the madam of the brothel was pregnant when she found Ashe crying for food or warmth. Unfortunately, the babe was born stillborn, leaving the madam to fully focus on Ashe as her baby.

Her childhood was spent learning the non-sexual ways of the brothel, serving food, talking with clients, occasionally stealing a coin or two from them and learning the different games at which the clients would lose their money on. Ashe had everything she could ask for as a kid, food, shelter and with the help of the madame, she learned how to read and write in the hopes that one day she would take over.
When she was 14 years old, Ashe started training with the bouncers and thugs that protected the brothel in the use of short swords, clubs and knives. It didn’t stop until, finally, her luck ran out.

At the age of 17, the madam was stabbed to death as she didn’t want to sell the brothel to a new criminal leader in the area and the brothel was under new management since then. Ashe, of course, planned his death and ways to do it but seeing as the leader had influence and power, not to say a lot of guards…her plans had to be put to a stop. She fled the port she grew in as soon the leader discovered her identity and put a price on her head in order to stop any future attempts on his life.

Ashe fled to the mysterious Bishop islands where the sane would go mad and the insane rule knowing well that no one would expect her to be somewhere so close to home. Her plan was clear: flee to the Bishop Isles, learn magic and kill the criminal leader from afar. While the logic was sound, Ashe didn’t plan for her lack of money or knowledge of where she could find someone to teach her magic.

Months turned to years as she used her pickpocketing skills and occasional luck to get enough money to survive. Her search was never over, going from tavern to tavern and trying to persuade the different mystics to teach her. Eventually, she heard a rumour of a group of extraordinary mystics which could do anything they wanted. Of course, she knew this is who she should seek.

Another year passed in her search for these mystics and then she found them. A group of travelling gamblers, hookers and thieves. She explained who she was looking for and was met with confusion. They didn’t know what she was talking about but invited her to share food with them while she explained better what she needed. Ashe was confused and thought that once more the rumour was just that, a rumour…until one of the group pulled a dice and rolled a high number and soon food appeared as if by magic.

Realisation dawned on her face as she understood what type of magic, if one can call it like that, these people were employing. Luck magic. After beating one of them at a card game, they agreed on teaching her their skills.

By the age of 24, Ashe was finally confident in her skills with the dice and she was ready to return home. Fate didn’t have it that way. A twist of bad luck, had herself and the group attacked by bandits and kidnapped by bandits.

She was kept in a cage, blindfolded for the better part of next month as the bandits took turns on her. With no knowledge of her location or if anyone else survived the attack, it was certain that her life would eventually end as a slave.

Eventually, the bandits were killed by someone and she was freed. While the whole ordeal was hard on her, it taught her something very important. She was still a weak fighter and luck isn’t always on her side. Determined to gather more power in order to return home and take what should’ve been hers, she sold her services as a guard to various caravans or when there was no work, gambled.

Rune-Warrior will be kept as a second character if this one dies.

The rolls of the dice I'll leave up to you the GMs if you want that, if not, I can use the roll system here on RPG and share it with yourselves. Same for the effect if the roll is bad/very high unless otherwise specified in the post. While it's not a type of magic she would constantly use (twice a day limit), she does have it and can use it if things are bad.

@Dog Also, hi Dog! Nice to meet you here too!

Kings and Killers seeking (0) new players! (CYOA)

@Spiffy I'll write up the history in a bit/tomorrow but just putting up the sheet, to be on the safe side.

Let me know if the magic is ok or should I tone it down, please!

Ashe

Name: Ashevelen "Ashe" Ben'Ghazad

Age: 26

Height: 1.8

Weight: 58kg

Class: Rune-Warrior

Race:Demonfolk

Weapons & Equipment: (details but fairly brief) Short sleeved leather armour that covers her body but leaves the skin below the elbow uncovered, Long-sword engraved with a sharpening rune which is meant to keep the sword sharp at all times, a small dagger, a hood & mask which covers her head/face fully. A satchel containing special chalk used for drawing runes.

Skills and Abilities: Martial skills - Ashe is an adept sword fighter having been trained as a mercenary by her adoptive parents. Her true skill lies in drawing up runes with special chalk. While most runes she can use will take weeks to prepare in advance, she always has tattooed on her arms different runes which require repainting after each use (with one exception).
1. Push - a minor rune which releases a small forcefield of 1 metre around Ashe for a few seconds.
2. Minor Heal - a small rule which can heal minor injuries provided that they haven't been made for longer than an hour.
3. Light - a permanent rune which requires little to no concentration to activate, this rune will illuminate Ashe's surroundings.
4. Shield - The strongest rune which Ashe has tattooed on herself is an upgraded version of the Push rune. It enhances the durability of Ashe's skin on the left arm where it is placed and enables it to be used as a shield. It only last for half an hour but more than enough for a fight to end.

She has also learned 2 different runes which have to be placed on the ground/wall and take hours to prepare as the drawing of the runes has to be perfect:

1. Sentry. A spell which detects in a radius of 10 metres anyone who isn't designated as a friend during the drawing period of the rune. After it detects a threat, the rune loses power and has to be drawn again.
2. Silence. A double-edged sword type of rune which effectively disables magic in an area of 2 metres around it for 15 minutes. In order for the rune to work, Ashe has to stop all her current runes from being active (meaning that she'd have to repaint them).

Bio: (must be AT LEAST one paragraph long, please use the small amount of lore that I have provided in the lands and intro to help shape your background and backstory)

Prophetiae Adventum: D&d inspired world, Fantasy Adventure

@FrogRFlowR I'm still interested :)

I have missed the bit at the top of the check with "no DnD knowledge required", sorry about that!

Prophetiae Adventum: D&d inspired world, Fantasy Adventure

Hi!

This looks quite interesting, is there an issue if I don't know DnD that well?

GATEWAYS: THE NEXT GENERATION [NEW PLAYERS WELCOME!]

The Chosen Gateway

_{Collab between @Sigma and @Timemaster}

Soon after High Hierarch William’s last comm was sent to Resilience announcing their departure through the Gate, the God-Queen and the other members of the Fist were seated in the altar of the great cathedral. Things were not peaceful.

“--and that Repozdo shouldn’t have been sent! I bow humbly to your wisdom, your holiness, may your light always shine upon us but that one should have never been sent over to communicate with potential heathens!” said Pontius, the second of the Fist and the most zealous of them.

Repozdo. The Chosen word for the Rejected. It was a slur word that appeared soon after the appearance of the Rejected and their usage as slaves. It meant that they were less than human, less than Chosen. It meant they were rejected by life itself. The word became less and less used as the generations passed and the Rejected were given a world of their own but there are still those who use it.

“Calm yourself Pontius. You’re forgetting yourself. William has been blessed by the Goddess as much as we did. He earned his place here. “ a calm voice said from the end of the room, lurking in a darkened area of the altar. Catherine, the fourth of the Fist. The spymaster of the Church.

“I shall do no such thing, Catherine! That repozdo will never be able to express the light of the Goddess to heathens. I should’ve been chosen f–”

“SILENCE! Pontius, if you say repozdo one more time in my presence I will personally remove all your enhancements and see you sent on a diplomatic mission on RADX-002. Forever. As Catherine said, I chose him because I know that he won’t start a war with someone just because they haven’t heard of me. You know why they haven’t heard of me? Because we live in different parts of the galaxy!

They will be brought into the fold and they will accept the peace I offer them, if there are even others out there in the first place. Is that clear?” Ashevelen’s voice rang out in the altar, the room’s acoustics helping her initial shout to sound way louder than it should’ve been.

The others at the altar were left stunned. To hear the Goddess shout was something that usually didn’t happen. It was a rare thing and ended with someone getting punished for all their sins, usually.

Pontius quickly went on his knees, head on the ground and arms forward.

“Oh’ Great Goddess! May your light shine upon us until the end of times! Please forgive me! I only seek your perfection in everything!” his strong, gruff voice turned into something akin to a mouse’s squeak.

“Pontius, stand–”

Ashevelen was interrupted by an emergency communication from the flagship of the Golden Armada, the Seraph.
“My Goddess, incoming emergency communication from the Seraph. Should I put it through?” said Catherine.

“Yes, put it on screen. Let’s see what is happening.”

The altar table quickly lit up to show the admiral of the Golden Armada aboard the Sepaph.

“I don’t care about your regulations. The God-Queen HAS to se–” his head turned and noticed the assembly of the Fist and Ashevelen looking at him.

“Apologies my Goddess. I’ve been waiting for 20 minutes already and you need to see this.”

The image of the admiral changes to one of the Gateway and two unidentified spaceships. As the ships spark back to life, their weapon systems activate and one of the ships bombards the other one.

Ashevelen looked with interest at the two ships, the members of the Fist whispering between themselves.

“Orders my Goddess? If they continue fighting there are chances that the debris will hit a populated part of the Galdar forest.”

Looking at Pontius, Ashevelen smiled. “See Pontius? The heathens come to us.”

“Admiral. How long until the full might of the Golden Armada can be deployed?”

“Seeing that we’ve started for some time already, I’d say 20 minutes. We’ve got 4 Carriers, 400 Infiltrator-Class ships and one Battlecruiser ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.”

“Good. That should be enough to calm those two down until the others arrive. Permission to approach. Lock weapon systems on anything that looks important on both ships. If they engage, disable their ships and send the Chosen in. Show them our might.

Relay the following message to both ships in all the languages we can, hopefully they’ll understand us.” Ashevelen took a deep breath and continued.

“Unidentified ships. My name is Ashevelen. The leader of the Chosen. You have entered Chosen airspace. I consider my worlds sacred and wish no harm to befell them. If you wish not to be destroyed, power down your weapon system and prepare to be boarded. Your captains will be brought onto my flagship and then we'll talk. In this time…neither the captains nor your crews will be harmed.

You’ve got 10 minutes to comply before we open fire.”

The battle raged as the two opposing flagships lobbed each other whatever they had online, fighter and shuttle craft duking it out in between the two giants. Aboard the Cerberus, Admiral Julius Sevran stared intently at the holo-image of the [i]Tempest[i/], as they made a slow advance, his eyes darting all round, looking for any weak points. “Continue to focus all batteries on the starboard side, they had taken the most punishment there.”

“Aye aye, Admiral.” One of the gunnery officers complied, relaying his commands to the guns. The ship trembled as it fired many shots at the Tempest. “Shields down to 50%!”

Julius couldn’t help but smirk, not only will he possible bring the notorious Tempest, but possible may have found a new world ripe for conquest, this report would please the High Ascendants to no end, first things first though….”Let us end this dance of death!”

“Admiral! We got incoming ships!”

“Are they ours? The enemy?”

“Neither. These signatures are…completely new.”

---

Meanwhile on the Tempest. The same group was just detected by the command crew. “We’re getting an incoming message from the unknowns….they’re warning us and the jannies to stand down.”

“Well I’ll be damned.” XO Bashir let loose. “I think we just found another colony…” With this revelation, the whole situation has just changed. Not only was the anomaly that sucked in the two flagships, was very much the Gateway of legend, but the gateway tossed them in one of the fabled lost colonies of man. “Sir?”

“….Stand down. We didn’t come here to start a war with another power. Pretty sure we made a damn poor impression on the locals.”
Within moments of the Chosen’s Ultimatum, both warships had miraculously powered down their weapons, both ships weakening the other, and were clearly outgunned by this third party.

The Seraph and its cohorts approached the two alien spaceships, watching the battle between them. Weapons were being primed and the Clerics were getting loaded into their Infiltrator-Class ships, ready to launch at a minute’s notice.

But then, it stopped.

“Admiral, the two ships powered down. The Goddess was right. Praised be her name!”

All over the bridge the “Praised be her name” could be heard. Each person either muttering it or shouting out loud.

“Of course it did, One. The Goddess’s knowledge doesn’t have bounds. She knows everything there is.

Send word to the capital, get the Goddess’s room ready, prepare the conference room and send a few Infiltrators to get the captains of those ships. Keep the weapons primed on them. If they try something, disable their ships and if that fails, remove them from our sacred space.”

“Aye! Aye!”

A small shuttle flew from Resilience, inside, the God-Queen, Julian, the third of the Fist and master of war and their entourage and made their way into the docking port of the Seraph.

The arrival of the God-Queen on the Seraph made the commotion caused by the two alien ships feel like nothing. For most of the Chosen, the Goddess is represented via works of art or videos of her in a pre-Chosen state. To see her walking by them, chatting with them or simply nodding was an honor few could boast about. Later on, the crew will tell stories about the Goddess to their children and mention it as the highest point in their lives.

While Ashevelen was getting ready for the meeting, two shuttles were sent to alien spaceships. Each of them was filled with the biggest templars the Seraph had, a show of force meant to keep things civil between the two warring parties and if not, to dispatch them with ease.

As the captains of the ship would arrive, they would see more templars with weapons trained on them at all times and then they’d be escorted to the conference room where Ashevelen and Julian waited. The walls of the ship would be painted with images of Ashevelen in different poses or places of Old Earth.

The Goddess would be dressed in her usual white lab coat and be seated at the table in the conference room while Julian, a 3.2 meter tall person, dressed in full body armor would wait behind her.

Both Admirals felt a sense of unease from the designs of the ships interior, funny enough, for completely different, if similar reasons. Jiaal felt a dreading sense of dé·jà vu from his surroundings, felt like he was aboard a Janissary ship, what if these people were just like the Yulzan? The Republic can’t afford to fight a two front war if these “Chosen'' decide we were a ripe target.

Julius however, was more uneased by such heresies before him. Throughout all of his childhood, he has been taught and raised on the fact that the Yulzan are perfect beings, gods made in the flesh that by universal mandate, had selected his world as the starting point of a great empire. As such, in his mind, there can be no other being that is of equal worth because there is none that can match the Yulzan. Both Admirals finally reached their destination and took their seats.

Ashevelen looked at both admirals. One human, small in comparison to the Chosen but average for a normal human. He was dressed in what she could assume to be military clothes with minor signs of attrition. Whoever these people were, they were fighting for a while.

The other person was more interesting. Clearly not human, not even an enhanced one. Alien. First alien lifeforms she met. Already calculations, presumptions and the sorts were running in her head about what she could learn from their DNA. What made them evolve like that? If stripped of the obvious cybernetic enhancements, would they still be alive?

Looking both in their eyes and gently nodding, everyone from the room but Julian and Ashevelen left. Leaving only the two admirals alone.

“Greetings fellow human and I don’t know what your species is called but I hope you’ll be able to answer that. As said in the message, my name is Ashevelen. I lead the people called the Chosen and if you ask them, I’m their Goddess for I have given them life where there wasn’t one. Irrelevant of my holiness, these people live peaceful lives. Peace which you’ve disturbed when you’ve decided to fight each other above our skies. Peace which I strive to keep at all times.

This–”pointing towards Julian who all but dwarfed her in size”- is my personal bodyguard and master of all things related to violence. His name is Julian. I hope that you’re going to be civil while we talk, if not, he is…as you can see, more than equipped to deal with any issues. I understand that you’re enemies out there but while you’re guests on my flagship, you are not!

Now, tell me who and what you are. Tell me why you’re fighting. Tell me everything. Or don’t. I promised your safety and that of your crew and I keep my promises. “ Her tone was calm during the conversation but towards the end, she implied subtly what might happen if these people don’t answer her questions. They’ve been promised safety, their ships as well but not the oxygen on said ships or anything else for that matter.

The two admirals were in awe of this “Goddess”, her height for sure was beyond average, making her quite intimidating, the subtle threats don’t help in that case. The admirals remained tight-lipped, both glaring at one another, the fires of animosity sparking in the air. It was a rare sight for military leaders of both the Free Republic and the Ascendancy to be this close, sitting in the same room, virtually nothing keeping one of them from simply pulling a gun, popping a few rounds in the other, the only barrier was this Julian man, so for now, both men would do the impossible, and remain…cordial for the time being.

Jiaal turning to Ashevelen first. “Admiral Jiaal Farus of the Free Republic Navy. “He stated. “And to answer your question, my people are called Dathu.”

“Admiral Julius Sevran of the Janissary Fleet Command, servant of the Ascendancy.” Julius stated as well, both men breaking eye contact for the time being. “The short of it, Admiral Farus and the rest of his ramble refuse to submit to my most divine lords, the Yulzan, who graced us in their divinity decades ago.”

“Bull. Shit.” Jiaal candidly stated. “They’re nothing but conniving bastards that took my homeworld, and destroyed my family! They’re nothing but sickly, dying old men that fooled us all!”

Julius stood, his face looking red. “Don’t you dare speak such blasphemy!”

Jiaal was quick to stand up, facing off with his counterpart. “Blasphemy? Don’t make me laugh! You wanna hear it, I’ll give it to you!” Both men were on the verge of thrashing each other.

Ascendancy, divine, Yulzan, Free Navy. A lot of new information to process. It seemed to Ashevelen that it was an invasion scenario. One decided to invade the other one due to…divine reasons and now they’re in for a mortal war. Divine reasons. Another race deceived by false Gods, probably no different than her. Would the Chosen be like these Yulzan if Ashevelen directed in that way? Probably. Either way, the sheer hatred between these two people was palpable.

“Quit it both of you. I said it before and I’ll say it again. There will be no violence here. You're talking about blasphemy, Julius? If I ask any of my people, the mere fact that you haven’t bowed to me or asked for a blessing…you’d be accused of blasphemy and then killed. '' she made a small break and then turned towards Jiaal.

“Free Republic Navy. Are there humans in your nations? Others that are not like him?"

As the exchange between the two admirals became more heated and she was ignored, Ashevelen raised a finger in the air.
Almost immediately, Julian, who remained silent the whole time let out something akin to a growl. His body was long modified to release the “fear” pheromones that some herbivores use in order to deter carnivores from attacking them. Almost immediately, the room was filled by the invisible pheromones. In humans, it would work instantly, making their brains think they’re in mortal danger. For the other species, it was unknown what it would do but it was worth a try.

Julius was overcome with that sense of fall, barely getting a word out, his throat clenching up as his body turned against him, his fight or flight instincts kicking in as he collapsed onto the ground, stuck in a fetal position. “High Ascendants protect me…” He mumbled out.
Jiaal however, seemed unaffected by the pheromones, although he could clearly “smell” it in the air, and it had a foul odour to it. Despite sharing some similarities to humans, the Dathu were still quite alien on a genetic level.

Nonetheless, Jiaal looked In a mix of horror and pity, seeing his counterpart reduced to this. “Not that I mind.…but, the hell did you do to him?”

Ashevelen watched the two and their reactions to the pheromones, taking in account everything she could at once. The Janissary went down almost immediately but Jiaal seemed impervious to it. Corrections had to be made to the formula. Improvements, schematics, queries and the sorts ran through Ashevelen’s mind.

She put her finger down and Julian's stature changed. His body no longer releasing the pheromones. A fan went on and the air in the room started to clean up.

"Fear pheromones. In most creatures it triggers the fight-or-flight instincts. It seems that your species is immune to it but humans aren't. If you're ok with it, I'd love to draw some blood from you later on but only if you wish so. I won't force you.
You might've noticed from my bodyguard here, I have improved our DNA with different mutations. You could say, I have mastered the human DNA."

As Julius would stand up, Ashevelen would turn to him then to Jiaal. "I hope you two can be civil from now on.
Now, answer my questions. Are there others of my species out there? I'm assuming your people-"pointing to Julius"-are all humans? Do any of them come from Earth?"

Jiaal cringed at the thought of needles, blood, and all that medical stuff. “Uhh, no thank you.” He said with a weak smile. “Not a fan of needles.”

Julius stood up, fixing up his uniform. “Yes.” He snarled, not one to easily forgive such transgressions, unfortunately, Julius was in no position to assert his own authority, perhaps in due time….”My family can be traced back to the original colonists, humanity lives.”
“Mutant Bitch” Julius thought to himself, at least his own mind was safe.

“Aha! Now that’s a good answer. Why haven’t you said so? Things would’ve been so much easier. So, we’ve got humans fighting aliens. One invaded the other one, tsk tsk tsk. If I were to let you both go, do I have guarantees that your war will not reach my people? We are more than capable of defending ourselves and your only way into the system is via the Gateway. Strategically, you understand what that means. “ she took a break, leaving both to process her words and then looking at Julius again, a gentle smile appeared on her face. One might even call it beautiful as all Chosen were designed to be the very best human aesthetics allow, this would be even more so for the Goddess.

“I wanted to add something. Truly sorry about how your body reacted, Julius. My people have lived with that for years before I managed to protect them. I will offer you a gift, a way to say sorry.”
Ashevelen then pressed a few more buttons on the table and a few minutes later, a Templar came in with a small tray with a vial on top, placed it on the table in front of Julius and left without a word.

“That is a minor enhancement developed by us. You can either take it yourself or give it to your people to study it then use it. It will give your body all the antibodies a human needs. Think of it as a cure-all. As long as it was a toxin or disease from Earth, it will cure it.”

Enhancements like this were trivial to produce and not even worth considering secret at this point.
Despite the brief moment of turmoil, the smile and the soothing voice and tone, he couldn’t help but crack a smile…these were conflicting feelings to say the least… the less time spent here the better. Once the vial was brought forward to the Admiral, this presented a possible advantage, something the eggs heads at the Ministry of Advancements would love to get a hold of. Julius had softened up, putting on a more pleasant expression.

“I thank you for this gift…” Julius said as he grabbed the vial and placed it safely under his coat.
Jiaal mentally kept record that vial…something for Spec Ops teams to “borrow” from the Ascendancy at a later date, for now, he turned to face Ashevelen “Although I can’t make promises on policy, this war is only between the Free Republic and the Ascendancy and no one else.”
Nodding to Julius, Ashevelen turned her attention to Jiaal.

"Can you say the same? Will your people seek war with mine? Whatever fights you've got will stay in your system?

If any of you have questions about my people, please ask away. If not, I will ask my Templars to lead you back to your ships but not before providing you with some supplies. Food? Alcohol? Maybe some jewellery? Anything that your crews lack at the moment...Ask and you shall receive. "

The offer itself didn't mean much to the Chosen, as they had more than enough but for two nations at war it could mean a lot and it will also show that the Chosen are benevolent and rich.

Jiaal nodded. “Although I can’t make much promises, this war has nothing to do with you, so I can hopefully say you have nothing to fear.”
"I am not afraid, Jiaal. We are more than capable of defending ourselves. I just wish to spare my people the atrocities of war if it isn't necessary.

Anyways, I've decided to allow both of your people to send diplomats at a later date in order to promote trade between our nations. The only rule is to not forget that while you're in our system, your war stops. Otherwise, you'll see what happens when I don't promise your safety. " With a clap, a few Templars in full armor entered the room.

"These men will take you to your ships, alongside with some of our local cuisine that isn't poisonous to you. You're free to leave and thank you for your time."

The decades of war between the free peoples of the Americana System and the Yulzan Ascendancy has harbored deep hatred and hard feelings for all, there were few times where both sides would agree on something. However, in this case, leaving the war behind when traversing other worlds may help in healing old wounds, where both sides are forced to tolerate one another in the name of galactic peace. Both men looked to one another, still feeling a sense of awkwardness, as hours before, they were enemies. “Very well, in the name of galactic cooperation, the war will not leave our borders.”

Corporate Space! (Sci-Fi)

@TJByrum Just had an idea, sorry if I'm overstepping on your ideas etc, but regarding the skills/missions.

Why if instead of looking up at our character's skills and then making sure we've got oportunities to use them, every mission you take all the skills of our characters, split them up in groups (say 2/3), assign a number to them and use a number generator/dice roll. That way, there will be missions where 1 character is more useless than another but then the next mission comes and suddenly that character is super useful. That way, some missions will be easy due to the RNG Gods being nice while others will be harder for our crew.

Corporate Space! (Sci-Fi)

I'll throw my hat in here as well, sounds interesting.

Same question as Clocku'.