The Adorable Archfae - vol. 01

The crook's eyes grow to comically large sizes as he sees you land before him and he struggles in vain again his constraints. When you make your pun, he abruptly stops and his eyebrow raises at the unexpected quip. He then nods his head indicating that he will cooperate with your questions.

As the magic language of the fey is uttered, the vines around his mouth fade backward. He wastes no time telling you everything you want to know.

"Look, this wasn't my idea, ok. You gotta believe me. This guy just inherited some really valuable stock certificates or something. My dumb friends thought it would be a good idea to break in while he was out and steal the things. I somehow got talked into being lookout. Oh man, I can't believe I am so stupid. There's five of them inside and one in the van waiting on everyone. So... are you going to let me go?"

---

Dice pool limit: 5

Threat Rating
Mooks: Inexperienced Thieves: 5

Optional Threat Rating
Interrogate the lookout Success
Enter the building with stealth and remain undetected: 3

She tilts her head as if she's thinking. 'Yeeah, no' She speaks to wrap the vines back around his mouth. 'Can't have you warning your mates now can we?'

She looks into the building. She couldn;t fly inside, and despite corwfall being a dump, it was an industrial dump so she doubted plants had managed to grow inside teh building. Yet. She begins to enter before realising something, and quickly popping into the air to spy the van. On the ground there were thankfully more weeds, maybe even a poor lone patch of grass with a tree someone had planted in an effort to cut through the dreary grey.

Again she focused, imagining vines and weeds wrapping around and clogging up the vans wheels and axels. Now if she messed this up, at least she would have more time before they could make their get away, and hopefully the driver wouldn;t realise this till he tried to leave.

With that done she enters the building, wishing she had someway to muffle her steps. Perhaps when she got more used to her powers.

"Oh come on--" his voice is cut off as vines wrap around him once more.

Inside the van, the driver taps his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of that new Panic Unlimited song that seems to be on the radio every ten minutes. He doesn't notice vines breaking up through the tarmac and entwining themselves around the axles and through the spokes of the tires of the van. He is in for a rude awakening when he tries to use the gas pedal.

You carefully creep down the stairway and turn the corner into the hallway of the top floor of the apartment building. There is another lookout standing out front of a door about 25 feet ahead. He is a large man in jeans and a white tank top who holds an aluminum baseball bat in his hands. Not the greatest weapon for a cramped hallway but you certainly don't want to find out just how much momentum he can swing it with in this limited space.

The guard turns his head and the two of you lock eyes. He jumps backward, startled at the sudden appearance of someone in the hallway. His eyes grow wider when he takes in your appearance. At this point in your career it is unlikely he knows your name or what you can do; but the getup gives a pretty unmistakable impression that he is looking at a superhero.

He bangs his bat on the door he was guarding, no longer worrying about alerting neighbors to their presence, and shouts "We got trouble! Get what you can and let's go!" You can hear footsteps scrambling inside the apartment as the man with the bat yells a battle cry and sprints down the hallway toward you.

---

Dice pool limit: 5
Archfae HP --- 3

Threat Rating
Mooks: Inexperienced Thieves: 5

Even as the guard starts to yell arcane words flow out of Archfae and winds begins to pick up in the corridor, mostly circling around her, at speeds that would knock those advancing away. She hoped at least.

'Hey now, I was hoping for this to stay private.' She speaks as he starts to charge, focusing on the winds around her, imagining some going forwards to knock him over, and hopefully out. 'Though now I think about it, you're really not my type.' She instinctively sticks out her hand to guide the large gust. If she was lucky maybe some of the others would get caught as the ytried to escape.

Just as your hand raises a neighboring door swings open and smacks you right in the face. You fall to the floor and the swirling winds calm.

"Would you kids shut--" An annoyed neighbor looks up and down the hall from the man armed with the baseball bat to the super hero he just accidentally laid out on the floor. "I didn't see nothing." He shuts the door.

Mr. Baseball Bat renews his charge and lifts the bat up over his head. You manage to recover and quickly recite the ancient language allowing a gust to wind to lift the man off his feet only to drop him back down to the ground in front of the apartment they were robbing.

His friends start to leave the apartment with makeshift weapons in hand. Unplugged table lamp, kitchen knife, bowling ball. Anything they could find with sort notice. They help their friend to his feet and everyone turns to face you. They seem to have forgotten they could simply run downstairs and are focused on fighting their way past you to get to the roof. Not the brightest bunch of thieves.

---

Dice pool limit: 5
Archfae HP --- 2

Threat Rating
Mooks: Inexperienced Thieves: 4

'Fuck this.' She growls as she stands up holding her nose. 'Oi asshole, at least call the police before you hide She yells at the door before facing down the rest of the thieves. Plan b was twice as much dynamite as plan a. She thrusts both hands forward, willing the winds to rush down the corridor, turning it into a makeshift wind tunnel. She didn't need to defend if no one was left standing.

For a moment all of the thieves stop in shock. They look at one another with pure confusion plastered over their faces. One even mouths to their friends 'Did that super just say fuck?'

The winds pick up rapidly and they snap back into fighting mode. The walls and door shake with the force of the winds as the group struggles to stay on their feet. This only causes you to push them even harder. A smile spreads across your face as the group starts losing their footing and tumbles down the hallway.

It is starting to look like you've won the battle when something pops into your head. 'There's five of them inside.' That's what the lookout said. You do a quick tally of the bodies sprawled out in the hallway and only see 4 heads.

"Bwhaaaaaaaaa!!!!" The last member of the group of thieves come sprinting up from behind and wacks you across the skull with a frying pan; sending you falling to the floor once again. This really could be going better. At least no one is watching.

You hear some giggling and see that one of the neighbor's doors has opened. There is a kid, probably 10 years old, pointing and laughing at your struggles against the thieves.

---

Dice pool limit: 5
Archfae HP --- 1

Threat Rating
Mooks: Inexperienced Thieves: 2

See. This was why she hadn't wanted to be a superhero in the first place. Archfae grits her teeth. She needed to look cool, not be laughed at.

She grits her teeth, focusing as the wind gathers again, lifting her up from the floor and righting her, with some extra spins and flourish. The kick aimed at the guy as she spins was also definitely intentional, and in no way as accident as she tries to control the magic.

Learning her lesson from last time, some winds stay around her as she attempts a pose.

You are a little surprised when your foot makes contact with Frying Pan's face. He drops his weapon in surprise but latches onto your leg which completely sends you off balance. This combined with the winds swirling around the hallway sends the both of you flying around uncontrollably. You bounce off the walls and ceiling several times before crashing back down to the ground.

The little kid is literally on the floor rolling around in laughter at this point. Through tears they shout for the brother to get out here and see this.

The other thieves have mostly decided to abandon their friend who is now lying unconscious on the ground next to you. They finally realize that the smart thing to do is to make a break for it. They take off down the stairs heading to the van that they do not know has been sabotaged. The huge guy with the baseball decides to stay. His face is dead serious as he hurries down the hallway to try and get a hit in before you regain your footing.

---

Dice pool limit: 5
Archfae: 1 HP, -3 Ego

Threat Rating
Mooks: Inexperienced Thieves: 1

'Oi kid, haven't your parents told you about calling the bloody authorities?' This was one thing wrong with the city, people either laughing at something or ignoring it as it didn't concern them. The guy was going to get robbed and others only cared it was good entertainment, doing nothing if it didn't concern them.

She growls as she stands, under her mask her face clearly done with all this messing around. As the guy runs towards her she uses no magic, no tricks and just aims a punch to stop him in his tracks, her other arm up to guard her face

The man runs down the hallway with the bat raised above his head, ready to swing. Having only used magic up until now, he never sees your fist coming. You strike him square in the nose and he falls flat to the ground like a freshly cut tree. Unfortunately, with your other arm protecting your face you never notice the heavy metal bat that falls out of his grip and lands right on your toes. It isn't as painful as the earlier blows, but it still stings like nobody's business and you end up hoping around on one foot while holding your hurt toes as the kid and her brother stand by laughing.

It seems like someone did take your advice during this whole ordeal and you hear cop car sirens approaching outside. Venturing outside you find smoke pouring from under the hood of the getaway van as the driver must have tried to floor it until the engine gave out. The vines held true and the vehicle did not move an inch. When the cops arrive, everyone piles out of the van and tries to run but they don't make it very far before being tazed and brought to the ground to be handcuffed.

---

Archfae: 0 HP

Threat Rating
Mooks: Inexperienced Thieves

She tries not to curse in front of the kids as the bat hits her foot. This really wasn't as glorified as Magpie had made it up to be. Also with the kids watching she couldn't nip into the place being robbed and check what he had in the fridge. It was only fair she got a reward after all right?

She huffs and picks the guy up by the collar and starts to drag him out. Once in sight of the cops she drops him and points. 'There's also this one, and one tied up on the roof.'

This should probably be the point where she poses and announces who she is, that she's new on the scene etc, but everything hurts and she just wants to go to the couch she was offered. The second the cops start to react to her message she takes to the air to fly to a convenient ally to change back, and go to the kid's place.

You hear the cop's frustrated shouts as you fly away from the scene. You stopped the bad guys and that is what matters. Surely the cops can do their job and put the clues together to piece together exactly what happened. Baring that, you have no doubts that the little snot nosed brat will fill them in with far too many details.

As you fly into the air your gaze drifts to some of the apartments with lights on in Brian and Brie's building. By pure convenience, Brie happens to be standing at her window, with a chocolate bar in hand, as you fly by. Her jaw drops and she forgets all about the chocolate bar as you drift further upward in a blur. Her shocked expression is mildly amusing.

After a few minutes you are able to get changed back to normal and find yourself on their stoop. You buzz the intercom for their apartment and a minute passes before you hear Brian's annoyed tone. "What do you want?" None of the annoyance leaves his voice when he realizes it is you. "What the hell happened to you? I came back down and you were no where to be found. I can't rely on anyone..." At this point, he does not buzz you up.

'Yeah yeah, everyone is a piece of shit, you can't trust anyone but yourself. I get it. I know that, which is why I came back, so you know I'm not like that' Damn, those hits to the head had made her sappy. Look, stuff happened, I had to go do my second good Samaritan act of the day. Someone was being chased and I'm too nice for my own good. I didn't exactly have time to explain.

There is a pause but after a minute you hear the familiar buzz and the front door unlocks. You feel a rush of air, like a very strong breeze that comes completely out of no where and spin around to look for the source but there is nothing in the street behind you. You can't help but feel like someone is watching you, and after everything the has happened in the last few hours you are kind of starting to expect that. Unable to spot any source that could be causing this feeling, you enter the building and let the door shut behind you.

Brian is waiting in the hall when you get off the elevator and lets you in. Their apartment is small and a little messy, but is pretty much what you'd expect from a high school kid being the de facto head of household. The living room and kitchenette sort of blend into one another. There is a closed door which you assume is the bathroom and it looks like two bedrooms. Inside one of the rooms you can see Brie sitting on her bed with a box of crayons drawing on some loose leaf paper. There is another bed on the other side of the room which holds whom you presume to be their mother.

She is hooked up to an oxygen tank and is very pale and frail. It isn't immediately clear what disease she has, but she doesn't look all that aware of her surroundings.

Brian takes a seat on the couch. "So what are you, some kind of homeless superhero?" He jokes. "You don't really expect me to buy this whole chase story do you? You hedged your bets and when nothing better came along, decided to come back here, is what I think. I was hoping you would at least bring something to eat with you..."

She was tired, but at the same time she understood Brian's lack of trust all to well. 'You got me, I'm actually a fairie who had to go and do superhero business' She speaks with a sarcastic tone as she puts her hands up. Sometimes the best way to lie was to come clean. There was no-way he'd believe her anyway.

'look I know how it sounds, but there was a chase. I helped you guys, why can't I help others. It was those guys again. Then I had to get the guy home, and police were around another building. I think someone tried to rob you neighbour or something, so I had to take the long route.' As she speaks she realise she should have nicked the thieves wallets. Damn.

'I'll get you food tomorrow.. unless there's someone is the building you know has spare and is likely to be out?'

"This place is the last thing I got going for me. I think I will stick to the old sage advice of 'don’t shit where you eat.’" Brian responds. You hear Brie in the other room let out a long ‘awwwwww’ at hearing Brian say a bad word. Brian gets up off the couch and stomps over to her room. "It’s bedtime Brie." He shuts off the light and closes the door as Brie complains.

"Doesn’t surprise me that my neighbors were getting robbed. Not like anyone around here has much to take, but if someone does they usually end up losing it. Did you say you ran into the same guys again? The ones from the alley before?" Brian looks to Brie’s closed door and motions for you to follow him into the hallway. He leave the door open a crack so he’ll hear Brie if she needs anything or tries to leave her room.

"I was going to tell you about my friend Todd that joined up with them. His parents won’t talk to me and none of our friends have heard from him. Todd came by here a few days ago. Rang my buzzer at like three in the morning and asked if I could come down to talk. I invited him up but he didn’t want to. Said he couldn't talk for long.

"So I went down. He looked... rough. Was wearing this baggy hoodie that was pulled up to cover most of his face. Had this nasty black eye and some cuts he was trying to hide. He wouldn’t tell me where he got them or what had been going on. Just warned me to stay away from Micah and that he wasn't everything he's cracked up to be.

"I tried pressing him for more information and to get him to come inside. I mean I’m in a tough spot right now, but he clearly had it worse. He wouldn’t let me talk and eventually ran off mid-sentence. The whole time we were talking he was looking over his shoulders like he was expecting to be caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"I wish you really were a superhero. It’d be nice to have someone fighting to help people like us out for once." He sighs and runs his hand through his hair. "You’re not planning on meeting with that creep are you?"

'Nah, I'd make a pretty crap hero. I've survived this long running, not fighting. I'd get my ass handed to me.' The lie flows seamlessly from her mouth, followed by a strange pang of guilt. I heard buzz of a hero who bothered to help your neighbours though, so maybe there's a bit of hope. She liked the kid but she wasn't sure he wouldn't try and take the circlet for himself in this dog eat dog world.

'That, that doesn't surprise me. They're up to something but there just, too many pieces for me to figure out right now. Maybe meeting them is the only way to work it out. Plus I can get you and Brie a doggy bag.

Look this gonna sound strange but, they let me take the person they were chasing. I took him back home and I even got a cheque out of it. Though I've stashed it. Another quick lie. The sort of money on the cheque would tempt most people. 'Tomorrow I was considering cashing it, I'll even give you a bit to make up for today, but there's just one problem. The lady who wrote it, she addressed the one I 'saved'. Michah. '

Brian tries to act cool but it is hard when you keep mentioning giving up some of your hard earned food and money to help him out. You can practically see his mouth watering at the prospect. Mentioning that Micah was the one being chased brings him back to reality a bit.

"You think it's the same guy? The one that runs this ‘clean up the city brigade’ or whatever they call themselves who are kidnapping people? He was being chased... by his own men?" He stops to think about everything you have said. You can see the gears turning in his head, but just like you, he cannot seem to piece it together. There just aren't enough puzzle pieces to get the full picture.

"What was he like? The way they talk about him, I would expect nothing less than second coming of Christ levels of charisma."

'... Well he was certainly... Unique. He was..barking. No I' m not pulling yours. It was strange. But I overheard something suggesting it was temporary. Maybe they're experimenting on people or something and he got caught in it? '

She sighs finally collapsing next to him of the coach and stretching out, tryingnot to wince as she disturbed the bruises from her introducing to being a hero earlier.

'Or it all a big ploy to get me to trust them. They claimed they were rescuing him.. But if I want answers I need to go to dinner. It should be fine though.. You walked away right?'