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Maddy doesn't see anything stirring in the city. It's quiet as a tomb.
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Oct 25, 2014 07:43
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Mali Sasithorn FP: 4 Mali bends down and picks up a small pebble off the ground. "I'm with Mad Dog on this one. Waiting sucks. More time to wait is more time for poo poo to go wrong, y'know? But, I'm used to jobs where you've just gotta be in n' out, no bullshit." She winds up and throws it off the cliff, and into the darkness. "Besides, we're probably good until we make the approach to that temple anyway."
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Oct 25, 2014 08:30
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Cain "I'm not 100% on a tactical advance here, but I'll move up with you if you're all in agreeance." He readies the carbine, slinging the grenade launcher across his back. [Looks like we might have a change of plans here. Forward team seems set on an advance. Party's starting early, I guess.]
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Oct 25, 2014 16:25
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Mali Sasithorn FP: 4 Mali waves her hand. "Oh, no! I'm just complainin'! Ya don't have to listen to me. If I wanted to go ahead, I'd be down there by now." She smiles awkwardly. "Ya know? Just chillin'. I'm not talkin' tactical poo poo, just saying it sucks, ya know?" [Yo, nevermind that.] Takanago fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Oct 25, 2014 |
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Oct 25, 2014 16:44
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Cain He nods an affirmation. "Roger that, it does suck. But waiting wins wars." He pauses, before an afterthought crosses his mind. "And to think, I could be at home with a nice hot dinner by now, and one for the rest of the team to boot. One of you do me a favor, don't let us get back to base without reminding me to make some chow."
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Oct 25, 2014 16:58
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Once the team regroups, you make your way down into the city itself. It's quiet. Nothing stirs in any of the buildings you pass. There's a sense of stillness, and age. Few structures are intact, but someone has repaired the streets, replacing crystal where it was damaged or washed away. This close, you can see it is in fact salt. All of the lines lead to the forbidding temple at the center. A cyclopean structure of massive, regular stone, stairs lead up the nearest face of pentagonal, ziggurat like structure, ending at massive stone doors. Upon them is carved a stylized figure, a horned humanoid in a heavy feather cloak, with four arms. In one hand it holds a sword, in another rod. The third a purse of coins, and the fourth a chain that leads to the collars of cowering figures beneath it. Shirona knows this as one of the ancient Denizens of Leng, the fearsome raiders with black-hulled ships that could cross skies and the barriers between worlds. To those not from the Dreamlands, it brings to mind a local myth - the yeti. Portable lighting towers have been set up here. The doors themselves are slightly ajar. With nothing outside, you prepare as well as you can, then enter the room, ready for a fight, Cain and Mad Dog sweeping the corners, Maddy unseen, Shirona with bared blade and Li Wu with the most dangerous weapon of all, a jailbroken grimoire. When sounds of battle do not follow, Hyun-Ae sticks her head in. All of you find a room with a shape and size that does not match the exterior. You find yourselves in an alabaster dome, air cold and dry enough to bite at your sinuses, with an odd peppery smell. The floor is the same black stone as the exterior, covered in a huge, intricate ritual circle in salt crystal. The interior of the dome is covered in gold runes - Li Wu recognizes it as a primitive form of Enochian. Effectively, what you're looking at is a very old, very inefficient programming language for controlling demons. At the very center is a complicated bronze sculpture - no, device, of gears and rods. At the center of which is a sacrificial altar. Scattered haphazardly around is modern gear, fibreoptic cable and wireless repeaters and other things taped down, the chaotic purposefulness behind an arena concert or temporary military camp. The largest concentration is around the device. It looks like they've connected in a high-end terminal and control system for an industrial d-drive. The design is very familiar to anyone who looked through Ashton's notes, particularly the ones relating to the Mark III. This whole structure is like an ancient, analog d-drive - powering some kind of gate. On the other side of which is probably the enemies you've been expecting to encounter. Only a matter of time before enough connections are made so they know their counterparts on this side hosed up...
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Oct 26, 2014 05:47
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Cain "Well, hell and damnation. Magically-minded folks, any way we can sabotage or circumvent this piece of hardware? Or do you want me to result to more...classical methods?"
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Oct 26, 2014 17:49
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Hyun-Ae FP: 2 [ -2 Yeah RIP Fingers ] Hyun-Ae lets out a long whistle, hands planted firmly in her pockets. "Looks like oldschool ain't dead, man. This is some vintage stuff." She moseys on over towards the alter. "I wonder what this kinda thing'd go for on the bl - er, the market. What do ya'll academics make of it? Oh, and we should probably do something about those communications." Arcanotech Appraisal: 4dF+3 0 lol
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Oct 28, 2014 18:14
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Hyun-Ae knows the answer to her question is "enough for even her to retire on." And that selling it would violate at least a dozen laws right off the top of her head. She'd need to do intense market research and talk to some experts to get a detailed accounting.
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Oct 28, 2014 19:49
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Cain "I can cut their comms easily enough. We got a plan for any countermeasures they may have?"
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Nov 2, 2014 06:23
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Princess Shirona of Celephaïs FP: 2 Shirona listens, though most of her attention is on the device itself. Then towards the gate. "The cult must be the ones responsible for sealing the way to Leng in the Dreamlands." She says to herself. "But if this is the same device they used to cross dimensions and infiltrate the Ashton laboratory..." There's nothing else to it. She won't let those knaves defile the Dreamlands any longer. "If we cut their communications, all the more they will realize something is wrong. We need to find and kill those cultists while we have the surprise. We need to stop them from summoning the Adept." She tells the others, gesturing at the device. "How do you turn this gate on?" Mitama fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Nov 2, 2014 |
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Nov 2, 2014 19:20
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Hyun-Ae FP: 2 [ -2 Yeah RIP Fingers ] Hyun-Ae taps her chin as she schemes. "I dunno, man. I just work here. Try mashing like you mean it?"
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Nov 3, 2014 06:42
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Madeline Maddy's eerie tager-voice echoes out from somewhere near the ceiling. "Are we sure we want to turn this thing on at all? Maybe we could ... I dunno, collapse the gate as they come through, or something?" Silence, then Maddy speaks again, seemingly from just behind the altar. "God, I wish I'd paid more attention in physics. Or history. I probably sound like an idiot. Oops, I'm still talking out loud, aren't I?"
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Nov 4, 2014 13:18
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Hyun-Ae FP: 2 [ -2 Yeah RIP Fingers ] "Yup." The executive snickers. "For what it's worth, that ain't a bad idea."
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Nov 4, 2014 13:29
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Princess Shirona of Celephaïs FP: 2 "We still need to use this gate, Madeline. You saw how the plateau looked like from the side of the Dreamlands, with the strange barrier cast around it. I want to believe this is what they use to cross to Leng from the Dreamlands. If we break the gate... well, for all we know, they are in the processing of summoning their elder god." Shirona looks more than antsy. She starts to mess around with some switches on the control system, with no idea what they do. "Potential threat to reality aside, it is my job to stop it. Again, how do I turn this on..."
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Nov 4, 2014 13:34
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Li Wu FP: 4 Li Wu has been silent, quiet as a character whose player has been to PAX and then done. She gets into these moods sometimes, when missions get weird. She's just been walking along with the group, quietly taking everything in and cross-referencing it with her notes. Now, she speaks. "Hey, let me see." Li gently eases Shirona's arm away from the controls and takes a look. Mythos to work out how to operate this! +2 if it's Archaeology: <Krysmbot> Ettin, -++/+3 = 4, invoking Collector Of Ancient Secrets for 6!
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Nov 6, 2014 12:41
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A closer examination confirms it for Li Wu. This is definitely at least part of the inspiration for Ashton's breakthrough. In some ways, it makes Ashton seem even more of a genius, though. The similarities are clear, but even the skilled sorceress isn't sure how Ashton was able to convert the principals at work here from a large scale gate into a reliable source of arcane energy. It was as if looking at a windmill led to someone figuring out how to build an airplane. Regardless, she can definitely operate it, at least to open a gate to the plateau on the Dreamland side. From the notes she's looking at, the plan requires linking a gate on each side, which would create a pocket dimension. In this case the process is even more complicated because they have to tap into the place the Adepts fled, so they have to do it when the stars are right. Looking at the charts in question, she gets two critical pieces of information on the process. First, the device on the Dreamland side isn't working. That must be why they wanted the information from Ashton's notes and the safe deposit box. Best guess, with what they actually got hold of they can brute force a one-time-use solution if they couple it with a major sacrifice. Which probably explains why reinforcements aren't pouring through now. They have to go the long way around. The other important piece of information is that the Xanthics are being duped by the people they're working with. The stars aren't right, and won't be for at least another decade if the target is the Adept's supposed redoubt. Whoever is pulling the strings is aiming at a different pocket dimension, containing who knows what.
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Nov 8, 2014 23:42
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Hyun-Ae FP: 2 [ -2 Yeah RIP Fingers ] Mad Dog trots up to the console, looking back at Hyun-Ae. "Mash?" She asks, pointing to the myriad buttons. "Mash?" "No, hold up. I was being facetious." The mercenary squints at her employer. "Soooo - " "No." Hekmatyar's gaze turns to Li Wu. "Hey Wu, whattaya make of it?"
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Nov 11, 2014 00:41
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Li Wu FP: 4 "What the hell..." "Well, it's kind of crazy, but I can open a gate to the plateau, I think. From the Dreamland side. But that side's not working, I think? That would explain a lot. With a major sacrifice they could have done it from here one time..." "Oh, and this isn't gonna do what the Xanthics think it is. They're aiming to point this gate somewhere else." "So, what do you want to do? Don't say mash."
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Nov 21, 2014 12:41
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Cain "Well, in the event we can't take the fight to them, we should figure out a way to screw their transport up beyond use, or direct them straight into an ambush if we can redirect them. Granted, I'm nowhere near the kind of mind that does this sort of thing, but I do know a fair bit about how to handle hostile troop movement."
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Nov 21, 2014 20:10
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Hyun-Ae FP: 2 [ -2 Yeah RIP Fingers ] "Ma - ?" Hyun-Ae smacks her mercenary across the head before she can finish her answer. "Yeah, just shut it down. I don't feel like accidentally doing their work for them."
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Nov 21, 2014 20:21
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Cain "Well, let's get it done. I should be able to repurpose some of these grenades into det charges, plant 'em in areas where they'll do the most structural damage. Shirona, Li Wu, have you got any arcane methods of dealing with this?"
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Nov 23, 2014 02:57
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I think there's a bit of confusion about the stakes here, so I will clarify it all OOC. A very long time ago - maybe eight or nine thousand years on Earth, less(?) in the Dreamlands since time is strange there, the Denizens of Leng raided across dimensions. In doing so they established safe harbors on many worlds. This place is one of them. All of these places were linked by these gate mechanisms. Some time ago, Kuranes (Shirona's father) crushed the Denizens and burned their black ships and threw down the main temple on the Dreamlands plateau, destroying the gate there in the process. Much later on Earth, the leaders of the Xanthic Storm used this mechanism to escape to another Leng, one very far away from this dimension. How exactly they managed this is unclear. They might have controlled another gate on yet another Leng, or because they were a bunch of powerful sorcerers with a big pool of potential sacrifices, they might have used some other means. Very recently, some unknown party with apparent connections to the Disciples of the Cold Ones found out about this place and about the hidden redoubt of the Xanthic leaders. They used this knowledge to dupe Xanthic holdouts into leading them here. They also managed to capture the plateau on the Dreamland side, apparently in alliance with yet another group. The Denizens are involved somehow, as evidenced by the skull you found, but since there was a peaceful remnant population on Dreamlands Leng, they might just be victims. The Xanthics think the goal is to reach the redoubt. In truth the hidden group is trying to reach Somewhere Else and release Something Else. As for reinforcements, with you in control of the gate here the opposition can't get to the plateau directly. They have to send reinforcements the long way around, on Earth. This means you have some time, but probably only hours, given the resources apparently available to them. Pretty clearly the security on this side was based on remaining hidden. The upshot to all this is as follows. If you smash the gate mechanism here, that screws over the plan. The stars are right NOW and without this gate the opposition will miss their window and it will be a long time before they can try again. If you smash the gate here the opposition retains control of Dreamlands Leng, and you miss out on the opportunity to get more information about the other parties involved. Of course, this kind of plot stuff will come up later. If you instead activate the gate and go through, you'll have an opportunity to confront the opposition and get more information about them and whoever they're working with. But there's risk in entering the enemy stronghold, obviously. Up to you guys what you want to pursue.
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Nov 23, 2014 03:27
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Madeline Madeline briefly flickers into view, brow furrowed in thought. "Guys? I ... I'm not sure smashing this gate is the right move. Violet's going bonkers, like I'm trying to walk away from one of her favorite hunting toys or something. If we just smash the gate, I think we're going to be left in the dark about what's really going on here - and I'm starting to worry that might be even more dangerous than what we've already found." Maddy takes a deep breath and squares her slim shoulders. "I'm volunteering to recon the other side of the gate. I've got the best shot of any of us at getting in and getting out unnoticed. If ... if I can't make it back, you can blow the gate behind me."
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Nov 25, 2014 19:53
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Cain "Hell with that," he says. "Stealthy or not, you're not going in alone. There's too much risk, especially if you're captured."
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Nov 25, 2014 23:04
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Princess Shirona of Celephaïs FP: 2 Shirona pinches the bridge of her nose. "I already said I am going in. There is no consensus about this. If you wish to follow, Madeline, by all means. But we are wasting time." She moves towards the gate. "Li Wu, start this machine."
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Nov 26, 2014 00:32
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Hyun-Ae FP: 2 [ -2 Yeah RIP Fingers ] "Ya'll all just go together, I'll watch your backs on this side," Hyun-Ae interjects. "Boom. It is decided, yo."
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Nov 26, 2014 06:17
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Mali Sasithorn FP: 4 "Yeah," Mali lazily interjects, while stretching, "There ain't no way that I'm not going through the Mysterious Alien Portal. You kidding me?" If y'all are worried about getting back out of there, I've got your back. I'm an expert on getting out of dangerous situations." She puts her hands on her hips and grins. "Getaway drivin' and escapin' in general is serious business, y'know?"
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Nov 26, 2014 06:24
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The opposition has brought in equipment so they don't need a major sacrifice each time they open the gate, but even with that plus what you and your mercs have brought you only have enough to open it twice from this side. Li Wu can rig a simple contagion spell to send a ping when you're ready to come back. Someone will need to stay behind to operate it - and to keep whatever reinforcements are coming from regaining control. It takes just under an hour for the equipment and the rest of Hyun-Ae's hirelings to get into position - time for the rest of you to prepare for your raid. Before you jump through the gate, you can make one roll to create an advantage to carry through. As soon as you are on the other side, there will be a multi-stage challenge to overcome! Atlatl unfortunately needs to depart due to other commitments. There'll be a spot open for you if you get the time later! You'll be missed.
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Nov 26, 2014 16:59
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Madeline There's a lot of work to be done before the team goes into the gate - most of it very technical and laced with polysyllabic jargon that makes Maddy's head hurt and tends to put Violet to sleep. So, instead of getting in the way, Maddy finds a quiet corner and begins working her way through the visualization exercises that the lab geeks worked out for her - it's supposed to help bring her brain patterns synchronize with Violet's, improving sensory integration and heightening overall awareness and acuity. That's what the geeks said, anyway. In practice, it usually just leaves Maddy really hungry for rare steak and binge-watching slasher movies. Probably worth a shot anyways. Using Notice to create a Hyper-Aware advantage. Edit:Creating advantage with Notice: 4dF+4 3 Emerald Rogue fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Dec 3, 2014 |
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Dec 3, 2014 16:42
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Princess Shirona of Celephaïs FP: 2 Shirona stands in front of the gate, bemused. Looks it will take much longer to fight the one who threaten her home. She lets Li Wu and the others do their own thing. Meanwhile, she sits down in a cross-legged position, sheared sword on her lap, and begins a series of meditative breaths. She needs to come against her foes at best, a perfect state of mind and body. Will to create advantage Perfect Mind and Body: TurninTrix, -++/+4 = 5
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Dec 4, 2014 08:27
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Cain As the others begin their own exercises, Cain sits down, his heavy frame finally at a point of rest. He begins checking his weapons, field-stripping, reloading, and cleaning them. It wouldn't do to go into a mission and risk equipment failure. Especially with the high possibility of combat on the other side. Rolling Combat to create the advantage Locked and Loaded! Combat: 4dF+5 6
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Dec 4, 2014 21:42
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Mali Sasithorn FP: 4 After wandering around the ruins for a few minutes, Mali goes and lounges in a quiet corner. She sets her ominous skull on a ledge next to her, like a pet or a decoration, and then just relaxes while messing around with her AR computer interface device. In the next hour or so, before it's time to move on, she skims through her own personal archive of occult ebooks and notes -- a quick little Occult 101 review before she steps neck deep into it. Rolling Mythos to create an advantage by reading through my Occult Cliffnotes <Takanago> !r fudge+1 <Krysmbot> Takanago, /+/-+1 = 1
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Dec 5, 2014 00:17
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Sorry for delay, final weeks of the semester so I've gotten super busy. I will be posting this evening though so last call for any advantages. EDIT: Have to back this up until tomorrow. Apologies. Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Dec 10, 2014 |
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Dec 9, 2014 14:22
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Li Wu finally gets the gate ready to operate, and everyone gets into position as Hyun-Ae activates it. The runes one the walls begin to twist and change as the ritual takes hold, and the crystal circle begins to glow with blue light. The bronze device at the center moves, slowly at first but with increasing speed, until it becomes a blur, and then suddenly there's a black orb hanging where it was. It expands until it's big enough for four to walk through abreast. Then it seems to twist into itself in a way that hurts to see, leaving behind a gateway hanging in the middle of the room, leading elsewhere. As you leap through, you find yourselves in a room that mirrors the one you left - same proportions, but with a white floor and black dome, gold circle and crystal runes. The place is in chaos as you enter, with about a dozen technicians and mages running in every direction, while about a half-dozen infantry drones and horned figures carrying black sickle-swords rush towards you. The exit door here has been replaced with a large metal ones that are beginning to close as you appear. Next to them is a raised platform with several consoles and terminals, where a technician is busily entering commands. The one next to him watches, then yanks a chip out and literally snaps it in half in her hands. They must be trying to destroy any records before you can get to them! Behind them, another horned figure, this one clad in impressive crimson and black robes with a rather ridiculous hat and bearing an obsidian staff, struggles with the keypad on a secondary door, desparetly trying to get away. Anyone who can get away with an outfit that silly has to be important. Finally, through the rushing figures you spot a glowing pillar with a black and white sphere orbiting it, bearing the Hakurei logo. Looks like one of the new defensive wards they just came out with. If you don't want magic bullets going everywhere, you need to turn it off. Or, even better, get to the controls and get it to shoot at the bad guys. The gate snaps shut behind you as an alarm starts going off. You don't have much time before things start to get even hairier. Hey, it's another multiphase challenge! You have 3 rounds to get through the obstacles marked CORE. If you fail, bad poo poo will happen to you. You also have some BONUS objectives! The bonus objectives have shorter time frames to accomplish, the round they have to be completed by is surrounded by the same markers as the objective. So the (BONUS) is unavailable after the round marked (O) - in this case the first - and the {BONUS} is unavailable after the round marked {O} - in this case the second. Challenge Phase 1 CORE: Eliminate the guards in the gate room [+7] CORE: Deactivate or take control of the Hakurei Industries Madukkarai Defense Pillar [+6] CORE: Secure an exit from the gate room [+4] [Special: Increases by +1 each round] (BONUS: Stop the technicians from destroying the rest of the data [+5]) {BONUS: Capture the Denizen in robes [+8]} Passes: (O){O}OO
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Dec 10, 2014 19:43
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Cain FP: 1 "Guards. Retreating HVTs. Defense platforms. Now this is my kinda party." He grins a predatory grin, carbine snapping up to a firing position as he closes in on the technicians, firing controlled bursts at them. After all, dead men can't destroy chips or files or any other viable intel. Gonna go for Stop the Technicians from Destroying the Data using Combat, with one tag of Locked and Loaded. Combat: 4dF+7 7 That should handle that nicely (if a bit messily).
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Dec 11, 2014 07:42
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Madeline Chaos erupts as the team charges through the gate, and Maddy is ... where is Maddy? She's not charging into the sword-toting guards or tearing apart the drones. She's nowhere to be seen amid the technicians falling to Cain's gunfire, and she certainly isn't hanging around the warding pillar. The horned man with the silly hat is the first to learn the answer, as a razored tentacle snakes down from above him, delicately pressing the "Cancel" button on the keypad he's been fumbling with. The Denizen looks up into a whirl of broken light and an alien maw filled with very, very sharp teeth. "Boo." Maddy is going to target the horned man in the funny hat for capture. If I read the rules right, my Apex Predator benefit gives me absolute stealth - which should let me sneak across the room and Capture the Denizen in robes with an automatic success.
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Dec 16, 2014 13:58
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Mali Sasithorn FP: 4 "Aw hell no." There's no loving way you're going to trap Mali Sasithorn and her crew. If there is one thing she's good at, it's getting out of a tight spot. "I loving got the door! You guys take care of the guys and poo poo!" Mali leaps over the bit of cover near the gate and just charges through the chaos of the room. Jumping over, under, and around pieces of cover, she sprints through the battlefield towards a security panel on the far side of the room. Upon noticing the computer interface to be locked down with the alert, Mali takes the direct route towards the controls and smashes the machine open with her skull. Then pulling the panel straight off the wall, she starts sorting through the mess of wires and circuits underneath. While the intricacies of this particular system, and the occasional way-too-close burst of gunfire make it difficult, when you get down to it every security system operates under the same basic fundamentals. Busting a lock is just a matter of time, really. It just depends on whether or not you've got enough. Securing an exit with Burglary: <Takanago> !r fudge+5 <Krysmbot> Takanago, +-//+5 = 5
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Dec 17, 2014 04:15
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Princess Shirona of Celephaïs FP: 2 If any of the sickle-swordsmen even gets close to the Ashton team, they don't get a chance to strike. In a blink of an eye, several guard find their torsos suddenly disconnected from their legs. They disintegrate almost immediately afterwards. Shirona shifts back into normal perception, flicking off tainted blood from her blade. It's a good show, though only really works with element of surprise. But it gets the done enough, as the rest of the guards now turn towards her. She takes another deep breath, focusing her inner will into her acts. Her mind will dictate the reality of this fight. The shinigami deflects an incoming sickle-blade, then cleaves through the guard wielding it with her katana. She carries that momentum to another guard to overpower them. And she keeps going. Combat to destroy the guards: Trix, -+//+4 = 4. Invoking my new advantage twice to make it an 8!
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Dec 17, 2014 06:01
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 02:37 |
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Finally done with holiday family commitments. Will be posting again to this thread tomorrow to give Li Wu a chance to go and then we'll try to get this moving at a good pace again.
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Jan 5, 2015 16:53
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