Monster Wrangler

"Despite the DANGER the Chasma posed to local travelers, I had HEARD that they could be domesticated," Carl Heinrich commented. "You've been GREAT at handling wild Monsters from what I've seen. But you named yours... JEFF??"

Carl Heinrich and Killbot Rex were there to cheer on the winners, despite their loss to Calico and Orlok - or, perhaps, because of it! Certainly the tournament had provided the boy engineer a lot of useful data on the surprising effectiveness of Psychic combat. It would trigger weeks of tactical ana...

"Good morning, Ari," Carl Heinrich said.

"I've just completed the most TERRIFIC upgrade for Killbot Rex," he said excitedly. "It should increase his top running speed by 33 PERCENT!"

"OKAY?!" Carl Heinrich asked incredulously. "I have just successfully performed a MASSIVE UPGRADE on KILLBOT REX! I have IMPROVED upon the ancient MAJUUL TECHNOLOGY that powers ALL Constructs! We are more than 'OKAY' .... we are ... TRIUMPHANT!" The boy engineer jumped up and down flailing his arms ...

"I shall," Carl Heinrich promised. "It'll have the BEST box there ever was."

Carl Heinrich and his war wolf made their way silently through the tall grasses, following the broken grass left in the wake of the heavy-footed Jinglot. On his back he bore a cardboard box that had been converted into a monster carrier for his new slime-fish pet. The boy engineer held a vaguely gun...

Carl Heinrich's eyes went wide with wonder as the shy creature came to him and seemed to make friends with him - or, perhaps, with his shoe. But he could work with that! The boy wrangler fetched the box that the slime fish had been using and arranged some slime rocks inside it to make a sort-of carr...

“Okay, let me just arrange the rocks where it can reach them,” Carl Heinrich said. The boy wrangler quickly arranged the rocks he had gathered around the creature’s burrow. Unfortunately, one of the slime-covered rocks slipped from his hands and fell to the ground with a clatter, nearly blocking the...

"I ... haven't done this with a living Monster before," Carl Heinrich admitted. "I've only worked with Constructs. I mean, I know how it works in THEORY...."

"But yes, some help would be appreciated," he said sheepishly. "How should we start?"

Carl Heinrich placed a couple of tantalizing (?) slimy rocks near the opening of the burrow, then stepped back to rejoin Ari. "I think you're right," he said. "If I recall correctly, neither fish nor frogs have maternal behavior, so I doubt it has any other of its kind to look after it. Yet, it seem...

So Carl Heinrich spent 2 days and made an engineering roll to Overhaul Killbot Rex.

1. Can I now consider him to be a Sturdy war wolf? (Or is there anything else I need to do?)
2. I got 4 Raises on the Overhaul roll. Can I use these extra Raises to somehow further improve Killbot Rex?

The chromium armor plate in the back of Killbot Rex's head had been opened up to give access to the interior of the war wolf's metallic cranium. Carl Heinrich slotted the last few circuit boards into the expansion slots, then used a can of compressed air to clean stray dust out of the electronics be...

The next day, Carl Heinrich returned to the beach and gathered a few of the most slimy-looking rocks that he could find, before approaching the burrow of the mysterious slime-fish that he and Ari had managed to feed earlier.

"It definitely likes it," Carl Heinrich whispered. "Maybe we can come back tomorrow to feed it again so it doesn't have to go out foraging as much."

“It likes it,” Carl Heinrich said softly as the creature fed. He tried to turn the rock slightly to give the animal more slime to lick.

“Do you want to give it a try, Ari?” he suggested.

"Training is good," he nodded. "I bet he'll be REALLY good at hypnosis before long. I've heard that wild Saturnadi use hypnosis for feeding, even."

Carl Heinrich smiled shakily as the creature licked at the slime-covered rock, staying silent and holding the rock as still has he can, in order to avoid startling it.

"Probably some self tests and calibration first," Carl Heinrich judged. "A field test would come later, once we're certain the upgrade has succeeded."

"What do you do for your Monster upgrades?" he asked curiously. "Umm, that is ... Monster evolutions? Monster progression? What's the right word?"

"It seems really scared," Carl Heinrich said in a low voice. "I... I guess I could try."

Taking the rock, the boy wrangler tried to approach very slowly, crouching low to seem less imposing. He held the slime-covered rock extended towards the creature.