Highball

Highball Nepermuk is the first person you (Joey Donuts) encountered in this story. She is an enterprising, 22 year old goblin who left her den because she disliked the constraints and pressures of goblin society and left to make it on her own steam.

While she describes herself as an all purpose goblin for hire, her skill set seems largely focused on stealth, spying and murder. Generally involving multiple blades.

She was initially hired by Alan Chesapeake to work as a scout, chiefly to find weak or solitary creatures that could be easily subdued by Chesapeake's thugs and then later rendered into incredibly illegal but very valuable potions.

Upon scouting Joey Donuts and then seeing him get kidnapped by Chesapeake's thugs, Highball betrayed Chesapeake and tried to fight back against him and his thugs, whereupon she was subdued herself and thrown in the same cell as Joey Donuts.

It was here that the adventure began.

Personality
Highball, like many goblins, is outwardly very agreeable and positive even though she seems untrustworthy to many. Quick to give nick names, smile and even flirt. She is slow to trust, openly mentioning to Joey that she has stolen items from everyone on board except him, just in case they betray her, she will still have gotten something from them.

Conversely, she has demonstrated incredible upfrontness with Joey himself. She has gone out of her way to tell him the truth, put herself at risk and do things she is not comfortable with for his sake or at least for the sake of making money and doing good business.

She does not seem to stay down for long.

As is common with goblins, Highball dislikes using utensils to eat, and favours finger food and finds the idea of holding hands with anyone to be a supreme demonstration of intimacy and trust. One that she is not comfortable with.

When not engaged in an activity, she keeps her hands busy by drumming her fingers, clicking, spinning one of her blades or by making the 'money' gesture with her thumb and forefinger.

She is meant to have smooth, relatively low voice.

Role
Highball's role in the quest thread is chiefly as your business partner, as the name of the game suggests, her view points and the actions you allow (or order) her to do throughout each episode can alter the quest. She thinks of herself as your number one, your consultant, your go-to gob. She seems to like it when you, or others call her your girlfriend. So for many players, she is also a romantic pursuit.

'''As a combatant, Highball can be counted on to do reliably punishing ranged and close attacks with the variety of blades she carries. She has both combat and non combat abilities that cost action points (or AP). Highball has 12 action points per day to be used. These can be recharged by making her happy or when she sleeps.'''

Combat Abilities
Blade Hail - 2 points

Highball jumps forward and scatters iron and bamboo skewers at all the enemies currently on screen. They all take 55 damage.

Red Scare - 2 points

Highball charges and enemy, slashing their inner thigh and making them bleed heavily. Her initial attack deals 70 damage to a single opponent. The attacked opponent cannot move next turn as they are too occupied with trying to stem the bleeding. Anyone dumb enough to not miss a turn, will lose a further 85 health unless they are healed by a team mate. Only works on enemies with the appropriate physiology. Ignores armour.

Guillotine - 4 points

Highball reaches into her back holster and grabs a large iron cleaver and hurls it at a single target, doing a punishing 210 damage. If the enemy half its health or less then this attack will kill them. This excludes boss characters. Ignores armour

Size Up - free

Highball isn't any kind of scholar but she can tell how much fight someone has in them and she can sometimes even spot their weaknesses. This power will allow highball to tell you how much health and armour each current opponent has. She will occasionally also call out what they have a weakness to.

 Cutpurse - 2 points'''

Highball dashes at a single opponent and hacks into them with her machete. She does 75 damage and grabs a little gold from them while she's at it. This technique allows you to grab more money from opponents than you would simply by looting them. It's payday, baby.

Knife Salad - 4 points

Highball reaches cross her arms over, grabbing small knives out other holsters and holding them between each of her fingers before rushing at a single opponent and ripping into them like a crazed wolverine. This attack does 85 damage, plus however much damage Joey Donuts has taken this battle times 15. Ignores armour.

Non Combat Abilities
Spook - 1 point

Highball can be sent to explore, scout ahead for enemies, provide intel on a location. This is broad, and doesn't allow for things like well hidden traps or secrets. Each expenditure of this power allows Highball to explore one location on a town map or one square ahead of a dungeon map.

Boost - 3-7 points

You may know (or at least heavily suspect) that an someone in the same room or town or ship as you has an item on their person that you need (or just really want). With boost, you can sic Highball onto them and she will surreptitiously take it from them. This doesn't include clothing. The danger with this skill is the point cost is variable. Boosting one of many trinkets from the town drunk is going to be much easier than boosting the keys to the jail from an alert, meticulous warden.

Ghost - 3 points

Wanna know what someone is up to? Highball can follow them. She can find out their routines, find out where they live, listen to their conversations, that sort of thing. She will not be spotted. I mean, it's kind of her thing. Did you notice her when she followed you? Nope. That's how you were nearly soup. Ah, don' t think about it.

Lockpick -2 points

Another use for all those skewers she carries. If it's a door, a chest, a suit case or a safe - Highball should be able to get into it. The point cost is always the same, but some locks take longer than others. You can spend more points to take less time - but where do you gotta be?

Mechanics
Highball is intended to be at the players side for most interactions but has her own room to retire to, and often does things without mentioning them first, such as make purchases or start talking to other characters. If asked to, she will climb things and scout around where others can not. She will apparently do most (if not anything) that is asked of her but her disposition towards the player character does also effect her effectiveness.

When she talks, outside of image files her text appears in the quest thread coloured green.

Trivia
Despite her name, highball seems to prefer stronger cocktails served in a martini glass, particularly those that contain sweet red vermouth, which she appears to enjoy drinking straight.

Highball is apparently quite strong

Like most goblins, she is aware that most terrestrial species find purring endearing, so she does it when pleased or trying to please someone.

She appears to be bisexual but is no more than flirtatious with most people and seems to be trying to build some form of lasting relationship.