Skip the story, I want to play cards. -4 minutes.
Jack slides 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 looking through a window in what they normally used as a break room. His large floppy ear turns and picks itself up as much as it could to hear Jack come in. He turns to him and frowns. “Looks like the parkilu got loose.” Jack knew what a parkilu was, 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. As he looks through the window into engineering he’s met with a scene of wrecked panels, cracked displays and even a couple of downed figures he recognizes as part of his team. It sort of all clicked together months of background thoughts engaging like a final missing gear to a large machine. How had he not known thats why they wanted a new CDF and new infrastructure to the power system? It did explain how LM13 was able to fund everything, but who were they selling the parkilu to? Jack looks over at Voxel who’s large floppy ears seem to be down and a bit forward. “Yah, didn’t know did ya. Auh, well. Suppose we’re even, I wasn’t keeping it from you on purpose. Just figured you knew.” Jack was a bit absent in his own body while Voxel gestures for the rifle. A moment later he sets down the tool bag and hands over the rifle, really at the time he grabbed it he didn’t think they’d need it. As Voxel accepts the rifle he smiles grimly. “I expect the higher ups will be pissed, but we can’t let them destroy engineering either. Take the whole lime with it.” Jack nods his agreement and as a reflex grabs his magical wand. “Good idea, if you disrupt the CDF they’ll have nothing to suck on. Maybe we can coax them back to their pen rooms.” That seemed optimistic at best, especially considering they’d already injured or killed part of their team. Which raises the next question, where was security?
Jack and Voxel ready themselves, Jack proceeds to open the door next to the window they’d been looking through. To his horror a parkilu was waiting just on the other side of it and leaps on Jack before either of them could react, somehow they just couldn’t see it from the window and this one wasn’t with the other. The three leg creature topples Jack backwards and stomps its feet on him before trying to sprint the way they’d come. Voxel was too worried to shoot at it while on Jack but after it leaves there’s a distinct crack, crack, crack sound followed by a ringing in Jack’s ears.
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 6 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 6 or higher. The strategy to this is, perhaps you have an ace in your hand and the rest of your cards are lower than 6. You could discard that ace valued at 15 or discard two cards for this example we’ll say two 3s. 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 six damage and discarded two cards valued at 3. 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 6 or higher, lets continue to the next page where Jack will play magic(♢) against the parkilu. This is a hint that might sway your choice of what to discard, if you’re confused by this or hesitant just ignore this paragraph and discard 6 or higher without worry, you’re still learning.
Abide Asteria 