The Freedom Stone

The woman in black sauntered across the old workshop, and sat down on top of a closed crate. She crossed her legs demurely, which caused her long black dress to ripple slightly, and smiled at Jalmar. “Well, we should not do business anonymously at least.” Jalmar turned slightly so he was facing the bright-red haired woman. “I’m leader of these thieves, people call me,” she was cut off abruptly by Jalmar, who rushed across the smithy and slammed his hands against the wall to both sides of the woman’s head. The impact shook the entire building, and knocked a few of the older support beams in the ceiling loose.

“I don’t care who you are or what you do.” Jalmar spoke flatly, but with some hostility showing through in his tone. “Do you know where I can find a fire-born terrestrial who looks something like me?” He stared his fellow Solar exalt in the eyes, unwaveringly. Her eyes narrowed, and she began to sit up. Jalmar grabbed her by the sides of her head, and rammed the back of her skull into the wall. This dazed her for a moment, and her minions began to ready their weapons. He didn’t repeat his first promise of killing her if she refused; he wasn’t the type to repeat himself. One of the support beams in the roof fell, and clattered against the stone floor. Immediately after, a small part of the roof collapsed, and some light rain began to fall through the gap.

“Go to hell!” the woman shouted, and both she and her minions sprang into action. The woman dove straight upward, out of Jalmar’s grasp, and kicked her right foot out as it passed his face. She caught Jalmar in the forehead, but only succeeded in hurting her toes. Jalmar snarled, and grabbed her right ankle before she could pull her leg back. He hauled her downward to the floor, then spun while holding her by the lower leg still. Her face slammed against the smithy wall as she was spun, and Jalmar swung her into the nearest four of her subordinates. They flew back, into more of her minions, and formed a large pile as they collapsed together. Jalmar then smashed the solar woman back down to the floor, and knelt next to her. He landed one punch against her midsection, which blasted the breath from her lungs, and then picked her up by the front of her black dress. The rest of her followers fled in terror rather than stand up to Jalmar.

“Now tell me!” Jalmar bellowed in her face.

She coughed, then regained her breath. “Alright!” she managed to choke out, “All I know is that an Imperial army is coming here soon.” The woman stopped to draw another breath. “They’ll be camping south of here, looking for an anathema who killed someone important down in Chiaroscuro.”

“That was me,” Jalmar mentioned, “but that doesn’t answer my question. Is there someone with them who looks like me?”

With some effort, she shook her head, “I don’t think so, but I’m not sure.” Desperately she thought of a way to placate the titan that so thoroughly defeated her. “But I could help you look. We are kin, like you said.” Finally she had caught her breath properly. “After all, you obviously want revenge, and I can understand that. I started into the criminal life to track down the man who raped me when I was twelve, and kill him. So I understand how that need for vengeance feels.” Jalmar dropped her suddenly, and stared at her with wide eyes. She sat up, and rubbed the back of her head. Jalmar stared at where she had been lying, even though no one was there any longer.

He was motionless for almost a full minute, then said to the woman, “I’m sorry.” This confused the woman quite a bit, but he didn’t explain. Instead, Jalmar stood and walked outside into the light rain falling on Nexus. He looked up into the storm clouds, and rain ran down his face. Then he roared, long and loud enough to be heard across the city. Anya arrived as he bellowed into the twilight storm. He eventually stopped and said to Anya, “There is a woman inside, help her up and take her back to the inn.” This was not spoken as a request, and Anya knew better than to delve too deeply into Jalmar’s psyche. So she quickly went into the slowly collapsing smithy, and helped the woman in black out. Jalmar stood in the rain for a long time, and contemplated his vengeful goals.

His convictions were even stronger now.

Oh. Man. This is going to be one helluva smackdown when that DB commander gets there.

Buddha wrote:

Oh. Man. This is going to be one helluva smackdown when that DB commander gets there.

Hell yeah!

Awww, I wanted to see the solar woman kick Jalmar's ass, he deserves a little smackdown from time to time.

Lord Leafar wrote:

Awww, I wanted to see the solar woman kick Jalmar's ass, he deserves a little smackdown from time to time.

Honestly, she didn't see it coming.
She probably fancies herself as pretty good at fighting, and was caught off guard when Jalmar just unloaded on her.
She's more the stealth/larceny type of night anyway.

Nizkateth wrote:

Honestly, she didn't see it coming.
She probably fancies herself as pretty good at fighting, and was caught off guard when Jalmar just unloaded on her.
She's more the stealth/larceny type of night anyway.

She is a night, its weird for a thief to lack the "Dont surprise me" charm from the awareness tree, besides, most of the dodge charms work for unnoticed attacks, she should have seen that coming. Cant wait to see a dawn caste unload righteous asskicking on Jalmar.

Lord Leafar wrote:

She is a night, its weird for a thief to lack the "Dont surprise me" charm from the awareness tree, besides, most of the dodge charms work for unnoticed attacks, she should have seen that coming. Cant wait to see a dawn caste unload righteous asskicking on Jalmar.

Not long and a rather irate blooded father will be coming after him. As we've seen, the air blooded is no pushover.
And she may have the charms to aid in surprise awareness, but it wouldn't matter since she actually attacked first... he was just intimidating her (and usng the environment for a better stunt). ^_^

Jalmar: "I don't care about anyone! I'll kill you for not jumping when I saw jump!"

Night: "I'm a rape victim."

Jalmar: "Ohshit! I'msosorryareyouokayIfeellikesuchanass,canIgetyousomethingtodrink?"

Ha-ha. Jalmar. Crazy.
I'd hate to see what happens if it turns out his Dad only did that because he was raped as a kid.

"Major goal in life, conflicting with morals. Jalmar confused. Jalmar nap. ZzZz."

Legendary Mumbler wrote:

J
I'd hate to see what happens if it turns out his Dad only did that because he was raped as a kid.

"Major goal in life, conflicting with morals. Jalmar confused. Jalmar nap. ZzZz."

"Nice try, but my head was built with paradox-absorbing crumple zones!"

Acutally, it isnt like that biologically.

If your molested as a child, before the eight of age it dramatically impacts your personality as can be expected thus making you an easy victim later in life, with the freeze response, low self esteem ectera.

but stuff differs and all that.

so Jamlar Grandpa was probably just abusive and the kid learned it, and Jalmar is abusive on a WIDE GLOBAL SCALE of VENGANCE...

which is far more entertaining.

HAHAHAHAHA!!! So, what's her name?

So, does Jalmar have that one Merit that grants extra points to a certain Virtue under certain conditions? I know I saw it in the Player's Guide, and with Jalmar's boosted Compassion towards rape victims, it just seems to fit.

Nizkateth wrote:

Buddha wrote:

Oh. Man. This is going to be one helluva smackdown when that DB commander gets there.

Hell yeah!

Jalmar SMASH!

Jalmar is absolutely insane, but oh so awesome because of it.

Bladestorm wrote:

So, does Jalmar have that one Merit that grants extra points to a certain Virtue under certain conditions? I know I saw it in the Player's Guide, and with Jalmar's boosted Compassion towards rape victims, it just seems to fit.

Yes he does. He has virtue speciality (rape victims +1) which is applied to his 2 compassion to make a 3 in that kind of curcumstance.
He also has vice (compassion -4) for rapists... so even if his dad turned out to have somehow been raped at some point it wouldn't matter. 2 compassion +1 for speciality -4 for vice is still low enough that he can strangle his dad with his fire-blooded entrails.