beta
Forum Replies Created
-
The group confirmed that the nephew was part of the group that was still alive — like all of the awakened he was suffering from a few days in a near total mana void, but was basically OK. He’d been saved by taking his turn use meta-human asensing next to the sensor boxes in the mana void room, trying to see if there was a jump of mana from the high mana room into the mana void room despite their isolation.
Escorting the researchers out took some organization, as the runners had to be ready for smaller spirits manifesting in the second-highest mana room, plus only about four people could fit through the mana locks at a time. But they sorted themselves out to first clear that room and then stand guard while the researchers worked their way through. After that it was a matter of time to get through all of the mana locks along the way, and then escort them back through the tunnels.
There had been a short argument before they returned to matrix contact on whether the researchers should call security. When Kynos explained that they would flat-out not take this job if security was going to be rushing in and messing things up, the researchers finally folded and agreed to give the team a couple of hours before informing anyone.
Leaving with the researchers certainly made the whole thing easier, a stroll in the tunnels as it were. Forty minutes after striking the deal, the elevator reached the surface. As the researchers huddled in a corner of the loading area, the team gathered in another one, awaiting Al and Becky and the anti-magic dust.
After about ten minutes they showed up, Becky toting the box like it was a lunch box instead of a large and fairly heavy box of metamagical death. The elf who had arranged the deal on the part of the researchers came over and confirmed that they had accessed their funds, offering a substantial amount now, the rest to be transferred once the team was back to the surface or it was time for the researchers to call security. He added “If you are going to be opening the box for any reason, like rigging it up to be more of a weapon, I suggest doing it in the mana-void room. The shortage of mana will make it much less volatile, so less will get consumed and you won’t be working through a haze of anti-magic.”
Al offered as to how he could rig a directional explosion in the box, if the dust wasn’t trying to eat him. Or he could provide the explosive to someone less magically afflicted to do the rigging.
Aside from any other last minute grabbing of gear from the vehicles, this left little else to do but head back to earn a large chunk of nuyen, and to possibly stop a horror from beyond the known metaplanes from running rampant the hundred thousands residents of Sudbury.
-
I’ve pretty much built up a strong aversion to this game, making it very hard to try and move it forward. Basically I came into the game with the wrong approach, having a list of things I thought would be cool to try and bring about. So I tried to force things that were not happening organically, and ignored opportunities to actually jump on what the players were doing and making it cooler instead. Once I finally figured it out I’ve had a very hard time getting back to this game because it became uncomfortable to think about. Which is incredibly stupid sounding, but welcome to my brain on lockdown depression, I guess (over the same time period that I’ve been ignoring this game I was also ignoring that I needed to switch off the snow tires from the car. Finally took care of that today too, so maybe I’m starting to do better?)
Anyway, I don’t want to jet leave it totally hanging, this close to the end. I’m going to narrate a bit to move things along, and then we can decide if we want a final big battle scene or just finish things off with some narration.
Sorry that I’ve let the game go into a coma for so long.
-
Most of the scientists start moving at Batshit’s command, although some of them don’t seem able to see in the very dim light and are slowly groping their way towards her voice.
However one elf stays seated on the ground, talking rather than walking. “Beatrice, with Professor Arlington dead, I think you’d be signing authority for the sensor group. I’m signing authority for the Fields group. Between us we can sign off on the emergency fund. I think I’d rather use that power to deal with the situation rather than run like rabbits being chased by a hunter drone — and to about as much effect.“
He does turn his head enough to better address Batshit and Kynos “There is a truly massive spirit of some sort in the next room, something that was apparently able to enter our world when the magic field got high enough. Two of our number, with the most magical field experience, entered the chamber to attempt to deal with it, and they seemed to have simply collapsed, likely under a mental onslaught. Fortunately so far the thing has not been willing to enter this strong null zone, which is key data. However I’m confident that once the fields collapse, the doors would not contain it for long, and an exceptionally strong and apparently malevolent spirit would soon be roaming the city, and the world.“
“The resonant magical fields will not be stable for much longer, between the disturbances of the entering spirits, your opening of doors, and the general dislike of the world for such things. Maintenance has to be done from the rooms with the highest fields, which also seem to be currently deadly to be in.“
“However the thing’s reluctance to enter the mana void suggests a strategy. Inco security should be ready to deliver another shipment of the anti-magical powder that we use help create the mana-voids in alternate rooms. If you could secure it, my team could likely rapidly collapse the fields enough to encourage the spirit to come our way, while rapid deployment of the powder may weaken it enough that well-armed fold such as yourselves could finish it off. Sufficiently accurate deployment of the powder might on its own drive the thing off, but I imagine that deploying powder accurately could be difficult. Personally I cannot think of any better use of the emergency fund, at the moment, than to hire you.“
Spoiler: -
My apologies for the silence. Somewhere between the depression of a new ‘stay-at-home’ order and the unsettling gloriousness of an early April that has felt like early June, I completely blanked about Shadowrun. My years-long habit of checking in on new posts during the day and carving out some time in the evening to respond just … took a vacation or something? I don’t know, I just know that somehow I forgot about all of this for well over a week, and and rather desperately behind with responses. The response won’t be tonight, but it should be on Monday.
Sorry for the delay.
-
Sorry, I’d forgotten about EM’s post from before I got distracted drawing the map. Basically I just wasn’t paying proper attention.
-
Batshit opened the second door in the mana-lock, and was confronted by 9 faces peering at her. In the nearly non-existent light it was hard to read expressions, but some called out “Where did you come from?” while another sobbed “We’re rescued!” But a sardonic male voice rode over them “The mana resonance is already starting to collapse, but I doubt that will do much to stop the monster in resonator room. We might be able to escape for a few minutes, maybe even make it up to the surface, but whatever that is, I don’t think we escape it that easily.“
Perhaps addressing Batshit he carries on “I do hope that you are informed rescuers, who came equipped for the job.” A woman calls out “Jerry, if I could see you right now I’d kick you in the nuts. Thank you nice rescuers, please get us the frag out of here quickly and we can talk about how to stop that thing once we are out. Maybe we can call the army or something.“
-
Sorry, I should have indicated that. The team is currently in the right hand +8 room (the one that has the note of ‘spirits’). The figures are in the ‘-12’ room.
From maps they have seen, the middle area is apparently just rock.
-
Ok, more than a day. Hopefully the attached sketch helps make sense of the place a bit. The numbers are the background count (mana surplus or void). Pretend that the rooms are the same size, and all symmetric.
-
Good idea. Let me try to sketch something of the layout, which I can post somewhere. Hopefully tomorrow. And I’ll summarize then, referencing the sketch.
-
The site was down then came back up, but when I got myself together to post it was down again, and I admit I just didn’t check for a few more days after that.
At this point I think I’m just going to try and wrap this up as quickly as can be done, since all momentum has been lost. There are still a few decisions for the team to make, however.
-
The team clears out the spirits, then as quiet falls they hear a banging from the far door. They see a face at the window, but rather than opening the door he seems to be yelling something. The door does a thorough job of muffling sound, but Batshit finally makes out “They keep coming!” and so reacts in time to nail the next Mantis-Bat as it materializes. After that the team keeps careful watch as they decide what to do next, pouring more ammo into one of the toad-like creatures. It becomes obvious that they can kill the spirits as they appear, but their ammo won’t last long when spirits are replaced a few times a minute.
-
While Kynos works on making sure that the toads are truly down — they seem to take more killing than you’d expect — two scuttlers dash into the vestibule, not on the scent of fear
Spoiler: -
Of course, there wasn’t far for Lilly to go. A couple of tight circles and then she dashed into the small chamber, brushing past Batshit on the way. Her hands scrabbled for the wheel to open the door and let her flee farther, but with the door into the larger room open, this door was locked in place, and even her cybernetic strength didn’t serve to move the wheel, at least at first …
Spoiler:Meanwhile, Kynos’ calm shooting dropped another of the spirits, and Batshit felt herself becoming fully charged.
-
OK, I guess I just IC changed the Mantic-Bats fear from touch to ranged. It just seemed cooler and made more sense to me. They are rolling 11 dice.
fear on Batshit: 11d6t5 3
fear on Kynos: 11d6t5 1
fear on Lilly: 11d6t5 6
Fear is resisted by logic+willpower. It is a spirit attack, a fear attack, and a sound attack, so appropriate modifiers all apply.
ETA: sorry for the roll on Lilly!
-
The surviving Mantis-Bats swooped in a tight spiral around each other, then flew back out, one at each runner. As they came they broadcast a mixture of infrasound, ultrasound, and discordant magic, all adding up to a feeling of terror.
Spoiler: -
The spirits seem to ignore the suppresive fire, until the first mantis-bat flies starts pulsing multiple colors at faster-than-strobe-light speed while crashing into the ceiling, a wall, and finally the floor. It proceeds to leak streamers of stinking light across the floor as it thrashes around, not all of its pieces appearing to be connected at all times.
After that the others start swooping and skittering and hopping away from the bolts of blight. There is no real cover in the room, but they do their best to get under, over, or to the sides of where she is pointing her weapon.
To further improve the dryad’s mood, she feels mana rush into the chamber, rising up to near-inebriating levels.
-
I’m good with either narrating or buying hits. I’ll post something in the IC but avoid any rolling 😀
-
OK, I finally read Obi’s notes and noticed the ‘join group’ button, so I can post here again 🙂
================================
Batshit up next in terms of actions.
And while the strategic issue of dealing with enough foes to wear you down sounded interesting, I’m realizing that it is a ridiculous amount of dice rolling which is even more annoying online than in person. After this pass wraps up I’m going to steal the grunt groups rules from SR6 (which honestly probably makes it easier on the player-characters). Or else come up with some way to wrap up the fight without having to knock out another 10 or so spirits.
-
The mantis-bat zapped by Lilly veered off, bouncing off a wall.
A couple of the toads shoot out their tongues.
One aims for Kynos, who has slipped away from all his foes so far
bind (LOS): 10d6t5 2
The other shoots at Lilly
Bind (LOS) vs Lilly: 10d6t5 3
Spoiler: -
Init:
Kynos 34 Major to shoot, minor to move out into the larger room
mantis-bats: 25 (attacked and missed)
Crawlers: 24 (attacked and missed)
Lilly: 23
Toads: 22
Batshit: 10
The opposition:
Toads:
Body 13, agility 4, reaction 6, strength 8
Will 5, logic 6, intuition 6, charisma 7
Magic 6
armor: 14 (no immunity to normal weapons)
relevant powers: concealment, binding (self, touch, and LOS), engulf
Scuttlers
Body 7, agility 5, reaction 8, strength 11
Will 5, logic 6, intuition 8, charisma 4
Magic 5
armor: Per Force 5 spirit
relevant powers: concealment, confusion, movement, natural weaponry (DV12 AP-4, reach 1),
Mantis-Bats
Body 6, agility 7, reaction 8, strength 5
Will 6, logic 5, intuition 6, charisma 5
Magic 5
armor: per force 5 spirit
relevant powers: fear (touch), natural weaponry (DV10 AP-4, reach 1), senses: ultrasound
notes: movement is flying