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1) I want to apologize for having closed down my SR tabs ‘for a day or two’ most of two weeks ago, and so having taken a rather long unannounced break. It was only after I disconnected from a bunch of things that I realized how burned out I’d become, and I just couldn’t will myself to re-engage with everything for a while.
2) That said, I’m feeling loads more myself, able to sit down and focus on one thing for a while. So I’m good to carry on with this — or if the stop-start-stop has killed things for people we could do an accelerated wrap up.
3) Belatedly sending my hopes that the various holidays in the last month have treated you all well, and that everyone has benefited from a bit of a break.@Electric_Muppet I’ll wrap my head around where things were this weekend and re-post where we are on init, and also post key stats/abilities for the various thingies so that you all can roll their defense/soak tests as appropriate.
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Sorry for the silence the past few days. I should know by now that when my son gets to exam time, some sort of drama will ensue. Not quite up to being creative yet tonight but will try to reply over the weekend.
@electric_muppet Next turn the background will be +8 (as in, there is so much mana that the limit on anything magical increases by 8).
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Up next will be Lilly, then toads, then Batshit.
There are four of each of the crawlers and the mantis-bats, and three toads (one of which is badly injured)
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Kynos stepped into the chamber, and without a window in his way his optics could pull out more detail of the room. It looked like there were a few meta-human bodies spread out on the floor, with a toad sitting near each of them. In addition while there were several scuttling forms on the floor at least as long as the meta-human bodies, and several more forms whipping quickly through the air, similar to the creature that had been in the mana-lock.
Scuttlers and mantis-bats all charged in toward Kynos, getting into each way so that only the first couple of each were able to reach him.
fly-by attack: 12d6t5 4 DV 6 AP-1
fly-by-attack: 12d6t5 5 DV 6 AP-1
melee attack (ram): 10d6t5 5 DV 5
melee attack (ram): 10d6t5 5 DV 5
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Corrected Init (I’d forgotten something)
Kynos 34 Major to shoot, minor to move out into the larger room
mantis-bats: 25 (moves and attacks per the IC)
Crawlers: 24 (moves and attack per the IC)
Lilly: 23
Batshit: ??
Toads: 22
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It is really the bullseye triple-tap that makes the AP crazy. Anyway, that is fine, I’d been a bit worried about overwhelming you all with spirits, but then said ‘nah, they all have some crazy abilities, throw the kitchen sink at them and let them really cut loose’
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@jack_spade I’m reading that right that he has AP of -16? What is he firing? (I’m not doubting the math, I just want to take notes!)
I’m guessing that Lilly will be faster than the toad. I’m not sure if Batshit is even trying to use adept powers currently, or turning them off until the mana in the chamber goes up (which should happen by the end of this first turn, now that the second door is open)
Init:
Kynos 34
Lilly: ??
Batshit: ??
Toads: init: 14+2d6 22 22 to 24
Crawlers and mantis-bats: init: 20+2d6 31 31
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The shape reacted to the door opening and started to move, but not fast enough to beat bullets
Spoiler:Spoiler:The thing seems to roll like a wallowing ship, but doesn’t completely collapse.
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A quick check that we aligned. The small chambers seem to be designed as ‘mana locks’, and like an air lock only one door can be opened at a time– unless of course you break the mechanism somehow.
So to open the second door and all start fighting , without messing with the mechanism, means getting everyone into the small chamber (aka ‘mana lock’) and shutting the first door.
The small chambers are about 2mx2m, (although slightly wedge shaped; each larger room has been angled compared to the previous)
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What little light they were producing was largely blocked by Kynos’ own frame, and there was no light in the next room, but he thought he could make out some darker lumps in the room. He was still trying to resolve shapes when something smacked wetly against the window, then peeled off with a sucking sound. Kynos was able to backtrack the motion to one of the large lumps of greater darkness, and could vaguely make out a roughly frog-like shape, about the size of a small cow.
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My understanding is that current motion detectors use ultrasound (same general principle as doppler radar, in that waves bouncing off an object moving towards or away from the emitter/detector have their frequency shifted, just an entirely different form of wave and frequency). Works well in not-too-big enclosed spaces.
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In the small chamber, Kynos could hear a low, exhausted sounding, wailing coming from the next room. The lights were, but in the small amount of light they’d brought this far he could see that the porthole window in the door looked clear. Thermographic vision was not picking anything up through the haze of the window, but light (or radar) might provide more information.
As Kynos checked out the room, Batshit felt a faint tremor for the worse in the ambient mana, and noticed a trickle of thin smoke coming from just above the door between the room and the small chamber. On closer inspection, there was a panel unobtrusively set above the door, with a small nozzle from the smoke seemed to be coming.
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[Spoiler]Dodge vs Lilly: 12d6t5 3[/spoiler]
The thing was moving quickly and evasively, but not particularly effectively when it came to Lilly’s shot, and the bulky round caught one spiked appendage.
The result was a piercing shriek, then the thing fell to the floor, moving suddenly more slowly — how much from the blight and how much from the plunging mana levels as the small chamber equalized with the larger rooms low mana it would be hard to say.
It could be more clearly seen now, vaguely Griffin-oid, if Griffins had webbed wings, mantis forelegs, clumps of short tentacles where their eyes should be, and flanks covered in eyes of all sizes and shapes.
[Spoiler]it is now at -5 from the mana levels, plus the effect of the blight. You can probably just narrate finishing it off if you’d like [/spoiler]
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@electric_muppet sorry I missed this question. Yes, the room you are in currently has a BCG of 6 (six points to the negative). The rooms have been alternating high and low mana levels, getting stronger as you progress (previous room was +4, giving anything magic based a +4 limit). Pattern has been -1, +2, -3, +4, -6.
Kynos’ shot missed. Thing 1 attacking on its init. To anyone other than Kynos all that can be seen so far is two spiked limbs (sort of like a mantis’s forelegs), so it would require a called shot or dodging in front of Kynos.
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Spoiler:Spoiler:
Kynos lined up perfectly for something clinging to the wall above the door, but the thing threw itself out into the air and got itself out of the way of the burst of bullets. The move should have cost it the leverage to strike hard, but the spiked arms? legs? forelimbs? didn’t waiver in their line towards the big man.
Spoiler: -
The door pulled open, and something struck down from above the door, swinging a pair of spikes towards Kynos — but the mercenary was faster still.
Spoiler: -
Just to make sure everyone is on the same page:
– the team is in a room about 4 meters square. Not much in it, other than as described in the IC.
– the background count is -6 (i.e. a BG of 6, but defined by the lack of mana, nobody gets a bonus or can be acclimatized)
– I’d forgotten to mention that the little chambers between rooms seem to adopt the background level of whichever room they are opened to. If the alternating (and growing) positive and negative mana patter continutes, the upcoming chamber is likely currently at a high positive background (excess mana), but when you open the door the mana will presumably quickly drop to match the room that the characters are in.
Kynos is opening the door, where are the other two? And while we are at questions like that, please roll init.
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I realized that the next several rooms were not at all interesting enough to play through in PBP, so I zipped through the next several rooms until Lilly and Batshit see something that they need to react to.
The one thing to fill in is what they do about the loss of matrix connection — once there is a couple of those doors shut, they pretty much lose their matrix connection back. On the other hand, they haven’t seen anyone so far, so inviting Kynos to come closer may not be crazy?
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As Lilly, Batshit, and Kynos’ drone continued their exploration, they quickly established a few things:
The power seemed to be out everywhere beyond the first room. This had also knocked out almost all matrix devices, so their ability to communicate back to Kynos was soon challenged.
The lab complex seemed to be formed of modest sized rooms in an arc. Some quick measurements and calculations suggested that the rooms nearly touched at their inner corners. Further out, as the wedge separating them widened, were the small chambers with the nautical style doors that allowed passage from one room to the next. The doors were apparently built with a mechanical interlock such that only one door of each small chamber could be open at a time.
There was a clear pattern in the mana levels of the rooms. The large room at the start had normal man, but the next chamber, with the hospital bed, had been a little low (-1).
The next room had a higher mana level (+2), and was empty except for a few desks and chairs.
The third had a stronger absence of mana (-3), and had some shelves with gas masks, air bottles, and glow sticks.
The fourth had enough extra mana to make Batshit feel a bit giddy (+4); possibly it was the mana level that was letting some plants in that room glow faintly.
Predictably by this point the fifth room was also low in mana, the worst yet (-5). Notably at the inner corner towards the next room, there was some sort of apparatus in the form of a large steel tank with some electronics bolted on around the outside. It certainly looked more like ‘lab experiment’ and less like ‘finished product’. There were also a couple of hand pump carts and a stack of a few empty pallets.
When they looked at the window into the small chamber leading out of the room, however, their view was blocked by a smear of something dark on the other side of the window. Possibly blood, but it was hard to be certain.
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TThe room was remarkably empty for being part of a secretive underground lab facility. Also somewhat dark, as there were no lights on in the room. Still, Lilly could see well enough in low light.
There was a blood pressure cuff and IV stand by the bed. A sign instructing unauthorized personal not to open the freezer was taped to the freezer lid. There was one camera mounted in the center of the ceiling, but presumably it was one of the ones that the drone had reported as inactive.
The other door was different than the one Lilly had entered through, looking a bit like a ship door– steel with a small round window, and a wheel for opening and closing it. Closer inspection revealed a label of “Cross Marine Technologies Inc.” So perhaps they had in fact used a ship’s door for the job.
The window in the far door reveals a small chamber, with a matching door on the far side of it. Beyond the window in the second door it is too dark to make anything out, even with lowlight.