Drunkard's Walk Forums

Seconds Count CYOA v1.14

Nose deep in the internets, you barely notice a shivery feeling like a cool breeze or a piece of sheer fabric brushing over you aside from an idle and quickly forgotten thought to adjust the thermostat, but the way your connection drops just seconds later is far more annoying. No amount of cursing or switching the modem off and back on restores service though, and something annoyingly loud is happening outside to piss you off even more...

...until abruptly, it's INSIDE, as a dark haired teen girl crashes through the wall and literally falls into your lap amid a cloud of plaster dust and chunks of debris. It's not as fun as it might sound, since she's wearing a few bits of armor over a colorful costume and lands with bruising force. Fortunately nothing seems broken, but after shaking off the daze of the impact she stares up at you with a shocked expression.

"Wha... what are you doing here? The ward should have excluded everyone without powers!" she shouts. Before you have time to come up with a reaction to this, she wriggles out of your lap to sit on the floor and fumbles a ring off of each hand, then hurriedly passes them to you. They're simple bands of stainless steel decorated with black enamel highlighting the symbols of Mars and Venus, or possibly male and female. "Quick, put these on and kiss one to activate them, you won't last a minute without an active power and transforming your body!"



Which ring will you use?

* Mars: The power of the rings hits you like an electric shock, but your reaction is drowned out by the surging feeling of strength that follows. Looking down at yourself, you find you now have the body of a young man just entering his physical prime. Your clothes have also changed into a snugly fitting body suit similar to what the girl is wearing under her (rather scant) armor.

* Venus: The power of the rings wraps around you like stepping into a hot bath, but your reaction is drowned out by the surging feeling of strength that follows. Looking down at yourself, you find you now have the body of a young woman just entering her physical prime. Your clothes have also changed into a snugly fitting body suit similar to what the girl is wearing under her (rather scant) armor.

* Dither and ask questions: The shadowy, glowing-eyed wolf-thing that leaps through the hole in the wall kills you with a single swipe of its paw. BAD END.


Hearing a growl from the new hole in your wall, you look up to see the shadowy outline of a huge wolf, its eyes burning with hateful red fire.

What power has awakened within you?

* Chi: Before you even realize what you're doing you're on your feet, while the girl scrambles out of the way on the floor with a squawk. With a nimble grace you'd never have imagined possessing before, you sway out of the path of its swipes and bite, before lashing out with a single punch that smashes its head and leaves only scattering patches of dark energy behind as it disintegrates. Your basic ability is Energized Body - Improved health, resilience, speed, and strength.

* Magic: A pale, glowing sphere of energy about the size of a grapefruit rises out of your chest, and you have the strangest sensation of seeing your own face as even as you look down at it. Both viewpoints whip back to the wolf-thing as it growls again and crouches, then the ball zips forward and flattens into a disc just in time to intercept its pounce and shove it back into the hole. The disc folds umbrella-style into a cone and then a blade as the thing jumps back up to its feet, and launches forward in a slash that splits the monster in half. Only scattering patches of dark energy are left behind as it disintegrates. Your basic ability is Familiar - A glowing orb you can see from, which can become a shield or a blade.

* Psychic: Your mind is amazingly clear for being in such a shocking situation, with a huge demonic wolf-thing growling at you through a hole in your wall. And yet, even with a perfected body, what can you do against a monster like that? "Stay there," you think urgently at it. "Don't attack, don't attack, don't attack, just sit there and leave us alone..." Unexpectedly, its eyes dim and it sinks back onto its haunches like a docile house pet. The girl who landed on you climbs to her feet and gives you an impressed nod before holding out one palm and blasting it with a glowing bullet. You almost feel like you could do something of the sort yourself, as the monster disintegrates into wisps of dark energy. Your basic ability is Telepathy - Communication, mind reading, and the ability to give commands.


"Wow, nice work for a total rookie," she says. "I'm Cerulean, but there's no time for proper introductions right now; there's a lot more of those Shadow Wolves and their master is still outside." Touching a hand to her temple, she continues in a distracted voice that seems to echo in your head somehow, "Verte, Carmine, you've mastered your tokens, right? Hurry over to me while Jetta and Citrine hold him for a minute, I need you to help finish setting up a newbie whose dormant power left 'em inside the ward."

Turning her full attention back to you, Cerulean asks, "While they're on the way, where do you see yourself in a fight?"

* Assault: Getting in their face and attacking until one of you falls. Carmine gives you her arrowhead pendant to wear when she arrives.

* Defense: Intercepting and disrupting their attacks until you wear them down. Cerulean gives you her shield pendant to wear when her friends arrive.

* Support: Helping your allies and attacking indirectly or at range. Verte gives you her teardrop pendant to wear when she arrives.



Feeling a bit silly, you nonetheless wear the pendant you were given while the three young women hold hands in a circle around you, glowing auras forming around them and mixing together before flowing into you through the pendant charm that you're holding to your forehead. As it does, your mind fills with skills and techniques for how you can use the power that's now thrumming through your body. It's a confusing rush that'll take some time and a lot of practice to properly master, but you're confident that you could do the basics right now.

Considering that there are apparently still several more monsters and their boss running around, that's probably a good thing, though you're not at all eager to risk facing more of them alone. It seems you'll need to stick with these strange girls, at least for a little longer.

Your archetype is now:

Chi powers:
Assault: Warrior - Massive speed and strength, flight, close-in energy attacks
Defense: Guardian - Massive health and resilience, flash step w/afterimages, presence/emotion sense
Support: Alchemist - Create potions and medicines, exorcism, command lightning

Magic powers:
Assault: Elementalist - Walk the path of explosions with me! (fire/air/water/etc. control)
Defense: Witch - Directly heal, buff/debuff, counterspells, knockdown and stun-bolt attacks
Support: Sorcerer - Area effects to trap or hinder enemies, summons, HoTs & DoTs

Psychic powers:
Assault: Biokinetic - Rapid healing and shapeshifting, not so rapid used on others
Defense: Telekinetic - Invisible extra hands, mind bullets, shields, and levitation
Support: Clairvoyant - Precog, remote viewing, dowsing/finding, and teleportation (including offensive uses)

"Whew, that was more difficult than I expected. Anyway, while you'll need the rings and pendant for now to access the gender-change and archtype abilities, once you put in the practice to master them the items will no longer be necessary, and you'll be able to use weaker forms of all the abilities for your power source. You can even train the rest up too, if you put the time in. The basic ability and peak performance body are permanent, though!" Cerulean explains, with a perhaps inappropriate amount of cheer for someone telling you that your entire life has been changed and your body transformed to the point people will barely recognize you, if at all.

"Okay, we'll split into pairs from here. Rookie, you're with -

* Carmine."
Class: Warrior
Personality: Energetic and a bit hot headed, Carmine acts like a tomboy most of the time but has a softer side in private. She's a surprisingly good cook.
Likes: Cute things, trashy romance novels, action movies
Dislikes: Rap music, smokers, bland food

* Citrine."
Class: Witch
Personality: Spoiled and a little bossy, but cares deeply for her friends. Comes from a rich family. Organized and good at maths.
Likes: Sweets, fashion, classic rock and roll
Dislikes: Pushy guys, paparazzi, being alone

* Jetta."
Class: Sorcerer
Personality: A very reliable person, Jetta will always keep a promise and never tell someone else's secret. Gets embarrassed by public shows of affection.
Likes: Video games, hentai, fantasy and sci-fi novels
Dislikes: too-girly things, citrus fruits, pets that shed hair

* Verte."
Class: Alchemist
Personality: Shy and quiet, but often listens to heavy metal with her headphones. An excellent shot with pistols and rifles. Can utterly shred on an electric guitar.
Likes: Science, gardening, target shooting
Dislikes: Being photographed, earbuds, meaningless conversation

* me." (Cerulean)
Class: Telekinetic
Personality: Friendly and outgoing, has a way of taking charge without being obnoxious. Can only make the simplest foods without disaster.
Likes: Sewing and cosplay, small dogs, cooking shows
Dislikes: Liars, coffee, morning people


The enemy is a powerful Sorcerer whose favorite trick seems to be animated shadow monsters, of which the wolves are a minor example trading combat strength for sheer numbers and tracking ability. How you fight him is up to you, though your partner and the other girls will do their best as well.

The addition of your new powers seems to be decisive. Where the girls were only holding their ground before the group now rolls up the Shadow Wolves easily before taking down their master. Your partner does have to get you out of a pinch a couple times, but as your first super-powered battle you think that's a decent performance, and you have a chance to return the favor by the time it's all over.

"You did well out there, Rookie," Cerulean compliments you. "These guys have been appearing a lot lately, so we could really use your help if you're willing to join our team."

Your partner from the battle gives you a sideways look and adds, "I know I'm in favor of making it a more... lasting arrangement."

What will you do now? Who is the big bad? What do they want? How will you stop them?

(As an option, any or all of them could be using the gender-swap power of the rings to have a female superheroing form for secret identity purposes, if you'd rather have a bro than a dudette for your companion/fighting partner. The mini-bios are just suggestions and may certainly be modified to fit the story you want to tell.)

Q: "What if I want to be a tech-type like Iron Man?"
A: Clairvoyant is probably the best pick there, as the Psychic group has the best mental boosts to actually figure out the comic book supertech with, the active powers are useful for finding information or rare materials and getting them, and technological blasters or whatever would give you additional combat options beyond telefrags and forced splinching, which are both rather nasty for a heroic character to use. Super-invention is not explicitly included in any of the options, but all of them can be applied in ways to make it viable. Sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from technology!

Q: “Shouldn't Biokinetic and Telekinetic be the other way around?”
A: Nearly all of the archetypes can be developed to fit any of the combat roles, with a bit of creative interpretation. I left them vague for that very reason, as I really hate strict character class systems. That's also why you can train up the other two archetypes' abilities for your power source after gaining access to them by mastering your original set. Note: "Mastering" in this case means "able to use them without the token," not "you have nothing more to learn." You can give the token away to a new rookie at this point without losing anything.