Jack stumbles on his way. A floor plate not properly bolted down, a wet spot on a corner and just generally being slower than he’d like. It seemed luck wasn’t on his side. He comes to a stop and quickly opens the door to Voxel’s apartment. He rushes inside and over to Voxel’s bed. While searching under the bed he finds several tool boxes but only one that could be consider ‘the largest’. If you called a rifle a tool that is. Jack didn’t have time to think about it or hesitate every moment he spent here was one he wasn’t helping. Rather than question why Voxel would want his rifle Jack shoulders it and grabs the biggest tool bag. Sure it was a little awkward to run with weight on his one side but is able to make his way to engineering.
Arriving there he finds Voxel laying on his back. He was groaning in pain and it was pretty obvious he had a broken arm. The half dog was in shock from his pain and Jack starts to get the feeling that maybe something else was broken besides his arm. Looking further into engineering just past the sealed door and observation window was more of the engineering team, also down and he finally starts to pick out some very strange 3 legged creatures. Jack is pretty sure these are parkilu, a medium sized three leg creature with a neck of eye balls and a long tongue, who generally loved licking electricity. Usually green or brown, but more exotic colors were possible.
Jack’s ears ring with the sudden realization where he was and what he was seeing. It wasn’t something loud that’d caused it, just the lose of himself standing there holding everything. Coming to his senses he drops everything but the wand tucked neatly into his belt and kneels at Voxel’s side. By no means was Jack a medic or doctor but overwhelming concern he felt for his friend blinded him. Voxel’s eyes move over and he notices Jack for the first time, trying to speak Voxel can only cough instead.
As Jack kneels over Voxel and attempts to assess what his friend needs he’s struck hard in the back causing him to flop over the half dog, Jack grunts in alarm and pain as he’s struck in the back a few times rapidly!
Taking Damage
Taking damage is fairly common in any type of adventure game. Unlike most games even something as simple as taking damage requires strategy, thought and adds a tension to the scene unlike any other game. At least that’s the goal.
The parkilu does a total of 10 damage to Jack, right now you should have 5 cards in your hand. To resolve the damage done to your character you’ll need to discard a card or set of cards valued at 10 or higher. The strategy to this is, perhaps you have an ace in your hand and the rest of your cards are lower than 10. You could discard that ace valued at 15 or discard two cards for this example we’ll say two 5s. Remember that suits are also important for technique chains, in some cases you may want to discard more cards to keep an important suit or a high card for your action next turn.
Something else important to remember about discarding damage is, since your hand is also your health pool you’ll be unable to refill your hand completely until healed or rested. A good example is, if you discard one card your new “current hand size” is 4. Meaning at the end of your turn you’ll only refresh your hand up to 4. This limits your character’s ability to retaliate and function at full capacity. If you discard two cards this will make your new “current hand size” 3 and you’ll need to be healed for “two cards worth”, this is true even if you only took ten damage and discarded two cards valued at 5. If your current hand size reaches zero your character is unconscious.
This is a great time to mention that you can always play the last card out of your hand and remain conscious unless otherwise stated by an effect. You only are unconscious if you discard your last card as damage.
Its important to remember how damage works and how much strategy can go into something so simple. We aren’t just tracking numbers on a paper but actively making you to think and be creative to find new solutions. Feel free to review this section and as always, reach out if you have questions.
After you’ve discarded card(s) valued at 10 or higher, lets continue to the next page where Jack will play magic(♢) against the parkilu.
Abide Asteria 