As the moon reaches its zenith over the meadow, it loses some of it's redness and casts a pinkish glow over the scene. Polkatain moves stealthily but quickly across the open ground. His chameleon scales serve him well, and no alarms are raised as he approaches. He is able to reach all of the way to the rusting hull of the ship where he crouches in a shadow. He hears feet scuffling through the hull, and to his keen ears, they sound like a gong being rung even though the footsteps are actually light. He smells several scents mixing together: blood both fresh and old, decay, rust, bats, wolves, acrid chemicals, and lastly he can smell the faint odor of a dragon somewhere near. He cannot place the dragon's species. He finds a gaping hole on the far side of the hull and spots a few robot horses powered down inside. The only other entrances large enough for a human to fit through are on top of the deck at the top of the boat, but there seem to be several holes there.

Meanwhile, Ethan takes a peak over the ridge and gets his first look at the boat. It's not from his time but slightly before. It's a World War II era cruiser from the United States Navy.

Polk takes note of the horses counting them. He also sees if they are gaurded in anyway.

Five robots, no guards

Ethan’s eyebrows rose as he took in the sight of the WWII era cruiser. “That ship was a museum piece even during my century. There is no way it survived the hard way three centuries after that, not with everything that has happened.”

He marveled again at the nature of the Rifts and how they not only seemed to be able to form bridges between different points in space but also time. “Wait a minute, a WWII era cruiser that looks almost entirely intact. No signs of mega-damage weaponry having been used on it, hell the paint still looks good. Could that thing have been transported here from say the Bermuda Triangle? I’ve always thought that was just an old myth, a tall tale from before we developed things like satellites but what if all those missing ships and planes didn’t just crash into the sea. What if they ended up here, in this time? Does that mean there could be others like me around?”

Ethan felt a small stirring of hope that he might not be alone. True he had friends and now a wife but if someone else from his time was here, especially if they, like him, were NEMA, it would be someone else to share his experiences with that would truly understand what he had gone through.

Polk makes his way closer to the entrance hole and listens if it seems clear he might go gecko and check out more moving slow and chameleoning always seeking out this other dragon.

Behind the ridge Nyx waited for both the hatchling and their medic to complete their recon. He was calm, with his older-style revolvers checked out and ready for a quick draw as necessary - but as always his impatience chaffed at him

Kalista took Ethan's hand. "Please share your thoughts, lover."

Doc, much like his brother, stood ready, his many handguns within easy reach. He stared blankly, his fingers twitching, "What you wanna bet I kill that orc vampire brother?"

“You’ll have some stiff competition”, drawled Nyx quietly, “Kind or foe that those two cyberknights will be throwing themselves in front of...”
This message was last edited by the player at 08:54, Sun 07 Jan 2018.

Ethan felt his wife take his gloved hand in hers. The simple touch snapped his thoughts back to the here and now. He turned away from the cruiser and looked at her, her angelic face reminding him of their love for each other. “I’m thinking I might not be the only one here from my time,” he told her, then turned back to observe the ship. He couldn’t see Polk, which he supposed was a good thing. If he couldn’t see the dragon, then hopefully the vampires or whatever else was in the ship, also couldn’t see him.

“Your time, Ethan?”, asked the elf softly
This message was last edited by the player at 15:58, Mon 08 Jan 2018.

Doc nodded, "They'll be right up front, no doubt, we gotta keep an eye on Polk though, can't let him go gettin' killed." he then waited for Ethan's reply.

Kalista nodded, "You think this structure is also from your time period?"

Polkitain fully in gecko form crawls along keeping hidden even as he uses his chameleon ability. He only wants to scout so he can let his friends know what to expect though he is curious as to this dragon or other prisoners.

Ethan turned his head to look at his wife and then shook it. "No, believe it or not that ship is older than I am by about a century and a half," he says to her. "But just look at it, hardly any signs of rust or other damage. There is no way that thing got here the old fashioned way. It got me to thinking about just how many more things from the past are here."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:53, Wed 10 Jan 2018.

Kalista nodded. "So it's some kind of boat?"

Ethan, not taking his eyes off the ship, nods his head. “A warship actually, from the Second World War,” he tells Kalista. “That’s not a bad thing since from what I recall from history class, they didn’t use mega-damage materials back then, even for military applications. They hadn’t been invented yet. So if we need to cut ourselves a way in quickly, our weapons should slice through that hull like a vibro-blade through butter.”

Polkatain makes for a particularly large gecko, but he's not so large as to be obvious. His chameleon scales serve him particularly well as he crawls into the ship's hull. He is able to move past the robots easily and without incident. He continues through a hallway until he reaches a staircase leading farther downward into the lowest reaches of the hull. An obvious trip wire is stretched across the stairs, at least obvious to Polkatain's eyes. He can hear movement down below in the perfect darkness there. His attention is drawn to a sideroom on the starboard side by a noise in there. Peeking from behind a door, he spots a human-looking creature hunched over a work table. The worker is tinkering with some electronics but doing so without the aid of any artificial light. Some long and greasy hair obscures its features. To the port side, a different side room behind the robots leads to a horrific scene. The room's floor is covered with blood, both old and new. Some bodies of feathery things unrecognizable are scattered all about. A vampire in a smock is appears to be carefully carving a piece of raw flesh which has been stretched over the wall with a small blade. The vampire's back is turned to Polkatain. Polk can hear one set of footsteps pass overhead. The small gecko cannot proceed any farther in any direction without taking a minor risk of exposing itself. A Prowl Roll would be needed.

Meanwhile on the ridge, the Lumberjacks spot an approaching creature from the open plain to the west. The creature is a coyote with wet blood dripping from its jaws. It trots casually toward the boat.

Polk was particularly curious at the vampire seemingly butchering that didn't fit his knowledge of vampires.

Then something clicked they were feeding something perhaps they had an alliance.

He wanted to go on and learn more but he had learned a lot. These were different vampires. Smarter, they used traps, tinkered with electronics and used technology.

He focused his will.

08:15, Today: Polkitain rolled 98 using 1d100.  Teleport attempt.
He winced getting a headache and so tried to return to the group turning back into a grackle before getting to the horses and flying back to the group.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:17, Wed 10 Jan 2018.

Doc pointed at the coyote, "Anybody got money on that being a real coyote?" he chuckled. "Polk needs to get his rear end back here, pronto... he's been gone a while."

 “Just how many shape changing creatures are there?” Ethan asked. “Unless you are saying that is a robot?”

Kalista held her husband's hand against her breast, the back of it against her heart in a show of caring not trying to encourage his lust. "Dear husband, you have much to learn. There are many creatures that take many forms. It is just the way things are now."

"But most can still be shot, one way or another", offered the gunslinger with a sad smile as he watched the fierce creature pad towards the steel-hulled anachronism

<b>Polkatain emerges from the wreck majestically. He spreads his wings and flaps upward to turn and fly over the hulk. The coyote is particilarly impressed. It pauses in its tracks directly facing Polkatain. The canine leaps into the air and shouts a high pitched coyote howl as it attacks.

Range from the ridge to Polkatain is just about 700 to 800 yards (or meters).

Polk looks around when he hears the howl.

Im just a grackle could he see through my clever disguise ? Hmmm I guess so. Oh man and I don't have my ax.

Tries to teleport again.
08:16, Today: Polkitain rolled 69 using 1d100.  Teleport Attempt vs 28.

How the heck did mom and dad do that ? Failing to teleport he prepares himself for combat.

 Arulas takes a knee and braces his DMR against his shoulder. He sights down the rifle and tests the wind lets fly two shots of 5.56 mm Silver.

Off to make the attack and damage rolls.

At the coyote's sudden move, Nyx cursed lengthily in elvish. Working efficiently, he mentally summoned his charged 40-82 to his hand, chambered a silver round and took careful aim before loosing a large calibre silver slug at the beast

20:52, Today: Nyx rolled 17 using 1d20+6.  Aimed Shot.
20:53, Today: Nyx rolled 18 using 5d6.  Damage. => Double to 36 MDC if it hits
This message was last edited by the player at 10:46, Mon 22 Jan 2018.

Doc turned his robot horse to face the direction of Polk and the coyote, "Got no silver for my rifle, got plenty in the revolvers though, I'm goin' to save the dragon. Cover me brother." Doc will move towards Polk, pistols drawn and ready to fire as soon as he's in range.

Kalista saw their dragon companion falling out of the sky straight for the shapshifter. "It's a skinwalker! WE have to do something, it can kill Polkitain. Come on!" She kicked her horse, urging it to go full speed.

Whatever words Ethan may have said to Kalista are lost, forgotten before he ever had a chance to give them voice with the sudden flurry of activity follows Polkitain leaving the stranded cruiser. Two of his companions immediately begin firing on the not coyote while his wife and another mount their horses and go charging down the hill.

Ethan had no idea what a ‘skinwalker’ was but he assumed it was something especially dangerous and evil based on the reactions of the rest of the Lumberjacks. His wife’s shout of how it could kill Polk, who was a dragon, was enough to mark it as deadly in the extreme. The skinwalker was within range of his Golden Age era laser rifle but since Doc felt the need to comment that he had no silver rounds for his rifle, he doubted he would be doing more than marking his position by discharging it at the coyote.

That left his silver knife and his own powers to aid his friends with against this newest threat. He didn’t fancy trying to ride one of their mules into combat, the pack animals were to important to risk like that and probably wouldn’t get him there in much time to do anything anyways. Fortunately he was a fairly fast runner, by unenhanced human standards, and never got tired. His rift mutated body could sprint full out effectively indefinitely. He proceeded to do just that, running down the hill, quickly accelerating to and maintaining his top speed despite being in full armor and carrying all of his medical gear.

The coyote makes a lunge towards Polkatain-the-grackle. Polk may still attempt to dodge. Polk may also roll initiative which will be a factor later in the round.

The snipers are at some distance targeting an opponent who is literally neck to neck with an ally. Silver bullets won't harm Polk, but hitting the coyote instead of Polk will require a modified 20 or greater on a Strike roll. I will need initiative and strike rolls from these two.

The cyberknights are charging down a field which is open except for a few small scrub brushes. Ethan is hot on their heels -- and surprisingly he is keeping pace with the metal ponies. (SPD attribute of 35 is astonishingly spry.) I will need initiative rolls from these three.

10:26, Today: Polkitain rolled 8 using 1d20+4.  Initiative.
10:27, Today: Polkitain rolled 16 using 1d20+2.  Dodge Roll.



Sorry guys, sorry, oh I made a mess of things.

Polk tried to dodge the Jaws of the strange coyote that had launched itself at him was this the goat sucker Doc had warned him of ? It's teeth looked a bit sharp for that.

Ethan charged down the hill, running around or leaping over the occasional bush sprinkled across the otherwise open terrain.

 Today: Ethan rolled 2 using 1d20.  Initiative.

That dodge was successful, details tonight (maybe)

19:42, Today: Nyx rolled 19 using 1d20+6.  Attack - Sniper.
19:41, Today: Nyx rolled 19 using 1d20+1.  Initiative

Doc drew his revolvers and fired at the skinwalker.

22:25, Today: Doc rolled 15 using 5d6.  dmg.

22:25, Today: Doc rolled 13 using 1d20+3.  shoot.

22:25, Today: Doc rolled 6 using 1d20+3.  shoot.

In reply to Doc (msg # 36):

13:02, Today: Sir Arulas rolled 20 using 5d6.  Damage #2.
13:02, Today: Sir Arulas rolled 13 using 5d6.  Damage #1.
13:00, Today: Sir Arulas rolled 25 using 1d20+10.  Attack #2 with 2 aims.
13:00, Today: Sir Arulas rolled 19 using 1d20+10.  Attack #1 with 2 aims.

The monster-coyote leaps through the air with savage jaws opened wide -- and misses. With a sudden burst of wing power, Polkatain the bird bursts upward and out of the coyote's reach.

Before the coyote even reaches the ground, the brothers open fire on the airborne canine-shaped target. Nix fires a silver round which strikes the beast dead center. Doc fires a shot from one of his handguns but it misses. Perhaps because he is working with a shorter range weapon, his shot goes wide and instead pelts Polkatain in the back. The bullet inflicts no damage, but it does knock the grackle off his flight path. This friendly fire, ironically, pushes Polkatain further away from the monster and danger. Arulas fires next, his first shot hitting the coyote also. How much damage does Nix' gun do, anyway?

Kalista covers the rough ground with a battle-hungry look in her eyes. Their heavy glittermound underneath her pounds the hard packed earth. A breath behind them, Ethan makes a heroic charge to keep pace. Is she Kalista summoning her psi-blade or drawing some different weapon? Both will reach within melee range next soon.

The coyote hits the ground hard and rolls out of site behind the hull of the ship. Seen only to Polkatain, the canine immediately experiences a weird transformation similar to his own metamorphosis but somehow more unsettling. The monster bounds back into the air not as a coyote anymore but as a bat. It continues its chase of Polkatain into the air.

The commotion will no doubt bring more enemies out of the ship, but the Lumberjacks might still have a scant few seconds to set themselves up as they like tactically.

That is all anyone is really able to do this combat round. The next post will be Round 2.

10:45, Today: Nyx rolled 14 using 5d6.  Damage. => Silver so Double to 28

With the rest of the Lumberjacks charging into combat and his target concealed behind a ridge after the first shot, Nyx took a moment to swing atop his robotic stallion - though he remained on the ridge, scanning the vessel's more obvious exits for signs of motion with the scope ready to take another shot

Assuming the ship is within sniping range; if not he will canter forward until he is within a few hundred feet. Actions for the next Round will be providing cover for the rest of the team, taking out threats as they appear or suppressing their movement

Kalista will activate her Str bonus tattoo while getting into Melee range.

She will pop her psisword, but she will wait until the last possible moment.

Polk looking down. OH ! it is a chupacabra ! Is that what I look like when I change ? Ewwwww.

Polk feels the impact of the bullet and his talons move to grip where he was hit and grab the bullet as well. "Thanks." he says to whoever shot him he couldn't tell at the moment.

His eyes flickered to the bullet hoping it was silver.

He dives at the bat and drives his talons at the bats heart if he thinks he hits he leaves the bullet.


Activating demon punch -6 ISP
Will punch with talons aimed claw ?

06:43, Today: Polkitain rolled 18 using 1d20+3.  Punch for heart.
06:43, Today: Polkitain rolled 20 using 6d6.  Demon Punch Damage.

Yes, Sixth Sense does apply to these init rolls this time.

Ethan continued his sprint down the hill, hot on the heels of his wife’s Glittermount. He was pleased when Polk managed to come away from the brief contact with the coyote no worse for it. He was even happier when it fell from the sky, presumably to crash behind the ship.

That joy was short lived however as just a moment later, a large bat flew up from behind the ship. He supposed it could have been the ‘skinchanger’ or one of the vampires. At the moment it didn’t make a lot of difference to him from a practical standpoint as he was still far away to help his draconic friend. “Nothing for it but to keep going,” he thought as his legs and arms continued to piston their way through the night air.

OOC How far away will the ship be from Ethan at the beginning of the next round?

The lumberjacks had a few seconds to position themselves while the vampire posse reacted. Kalista and Ethan are ad close to the ship's hull as they want to get. The ridge is within sniping range of the ship provided that the sniper is using a long gun or a pistol with an effective range of 1000 feet.

As the bat climbs upward in pursuit of Polk-bird, Nix is able to get off the next shot. The only target available is the bat. (roll strike, roll damage please & double it)

Polkatain drops downward, and the two fliers meet in the air where they begin to grapple like feuding falcons. Parrying will not be practical in this fight, and any rolls with impact will push that combatant away and forfeit his next attack. The bat slashes at the bird with tiny but surprisingly strong claws. (7 mega-damage) Polkatain answers with a blow from his birdy talon which seems to tear through the bat's chest. When the bird talon pulls away, the silver it had been clutching is gone.

On the ground, old doors creak as they swing open and monsters emerge. Two figures in dirty dusters and wide brimmed hats emerge on the deck. They both carry energy rifles. One of the two looks human and maybe female with a long gun in one hand and a pick axe in the other. The second figure stands tall with tusks gleaming in the moonlight: Severance the Orc.

At dirt level, two more shadowy figures emerge from the horse entrance near the stern of the boat. They attempt to move with stealth, but their effects are fruitless against the Lumberjacks who are waiting for someone to emerge. One carries a pair of knives and wears a blood-soaked smock. The second stands at Dwarf height, wears overalls, and carries a hammer.

At the ship's bow, steel suddenly rends and shatters. A towering and hairy beast emerges from that new hole. A Vampire-Troll with massive claws and super-human muscles steps into the moonlight. He's half-naked and unarmed.

Smiling as his target was flushed by their hatchling-bait, Nyx squeezed the trigger on his Winchester a few feet ahead of where the bat was, aiming for where it would be as his delicate elven gaze took in the rustling grass and hence the wind

16:30, Today: Nyx rolled 19 using 1d20+6.  Attack - Sniper.
16:31, Today: Nyx rolled 22 using 5d6.  Damage.=> 44 MDC or HP

Distant from the ship and not distracted by the roil and flurry of melee, he called out the foemen on their shared radio channel as they emerged
This message was last edited by the player at 16:49, Wed 24 Jan 2018.

Polk tries to see if the bat has stopped moving.

(OOC just a clarification question, is the river nearby ? ))

No the river was two days ride back to the east.

Polkitain Winces a bit as the bat strikes and tries flying with the bat towards his allies. Sensing a larger size would be better he allowed himself to become an eagle he had seen eagles and hawks before.


-7 MDC

Doc shook his head from atop his robot horse, a vampire troll... well, this was going to be fun after all. Doc tips his hat to Severance and begins to move away from the troll, circling wide, "Severance, one of these bullets has your name on it, son." not knowing if the vampire orc could hear him or not. Once in range of the raging beast, Doc would open fire with his revolvers, letting silver fly, aiming at the creatures heart.

We are still in Round 2.

Nyx's aim is true despite darkness and distance. The large bat jerks as its is struck from behind by another silver bullet. The bat's wings fold, and it drops like a rock. The bat smacks into the hard ground face first beneath Polkatain.

Here are our modified initiative rolls:
vamp muscle (the troll) 20
NIX 19
KALISTA 19
DOC 17
vamp bat 17
Severance 16
ARULAS 9
POLK 8
vamp stitches 5
vamp tinkerer 5
ETHAN 2
vamp scout 2

Nix just took his action, so we are counting down from Kalista at 19.

Kalista remains astride her glittermount. The height advantage makes her about eye level to the bruiser who just clawed out the hull, and she looks majestic. She closes the distance to the monster and steadies herself with a classic parry-and-reposte combination. The monster at the same time focuses on her and strides her way.

Doc doesn't wait for those combatants to begin trading blows. He begins pumping silver rounds from his revolvers into the monster. I'm using Doc's earlier rolls. One of those rounds bites deep into the monster's chest.

Severance from the deck of the ship, raises his antique JA-11 Assassin's Energy Rifle. He takes his time, sizing up the Lumberjacks who are still on the ridge across the battlefield from himself.

Arulas doesn't wait and initiates the exchange of firepower. I'm using Arulas' earlier roll that he didn't get to use. The rifle cracks, and a silver projectile rockets through the air towards the orc. The bullet strikes Severance dead center and breaks apart there. The orc's armored coat repels the standard damage attack.

The two vampires at the stern of the boat circle back behind Kalista's charging mount. With knives drawn and fangs gleaming, they jog (almost skip) into the fray. Approaching Ethan first, the medic feels a familiar pressure building inside his brain. Ethan then recognizes the crude marks on the long knife that the shorter vampire carries. It's another one of those false rune weapons again! Ethan is being targeted with a psychic attack and will need to roll a Save vs Psionics.

As the battle is joined on all sides, the crouching vampire to Severance's side flips a pick axe around in one hand. With the other hand, she levels a long gun at the ridge. She sights up Nyx in her scope. The Psi-slinger is out of range of her psychic attacks, but he is still well within range of her Wilk's Laser Rifle.

That only leaves Ethan who has not yet taken an action this melee round.

Ethan had managed to almost keep pace with Kalista as she rode her steed into battle. He came up just behind her as the remarkably tall bruiser of a monster came out of the ship and headed right for her. He was about to use his ability to create force fields to help when he felt the sickening pressure assail his mind. He turned and saw the two vampires coming for him. The shorter one held a knife that looked all too familiar to him. Having faced this before, he knew what to do. He focused his will, shutting out all psychic interference as if he had erected one of his force fields.

From underneath his helmet, he watches as the two vampires skip...skip in his direction, so confident are they. He flicks his fingers in their direction and encapsulates them in a dome of nearly invisible force.

OOC
Today: Ethan rolled 20 using 1d20.  Save Vs Psionics, need 9...Success! Seriously is there a bonus for critical success for a save? ^_^

Ethan spends 200 MDC and places the two vampires under glass. Let them work their way out of that while we deal with the rest. 
This message was last edited by the player at 03:01, Thu 01 Feb 2018.

There is no bonus in official rules, but I will do this for you. The Possession Entity will stop attempting to pick Ethan's brain and move to a different target.

The nerd vampires get trapped. Thus, the fourth melee round begins.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:26, Wed 31 Jan 2018.

The tower of supernatural muscle scowls with its already twisted and deformed face. It lunges at Kalista and her glittermount. It misses horribly. The blood-crazed monster must   not belooking where it is going and trips.

With the first leech taken care of, Nyx shifted his attention to Severance and his companion. He smiled grimly as the later took him into her sights, trusting his own facility with energy to neutralise her as a threat, whilst he neutralised her permanently!

Assuming the sniper is still in sight and a threat, he continues to plug away at her; otherwise his targets of choice would be Severance then the troll

Attacks for Combat Round 3 - 6 Attacks, each Aimed Shot taking 2

11:25, Today: Nyx rolled 22 using 1d20+6.  Attack - Sniper.
11:27, Today: Nyx rolled 19 using 5d6.  Damage. => Double to 38 HP

11:25, Today: Nyx rolled 25 using 1d20+6.  Attack - Sniper.
11:27, Today: Nyx rolled 15 using 5d6.  Damage. => Double to 30 HP

11:24, Today: Nyx rolled 18 using 1d20+6.  Attack - Sniper.
11:27, Today: Nyx rolled 14 using 5d6.  Damage. => Double to 28 HP

Attacks for Combat Round 4 - 6 Attacks, each Aimed Shot taking 2

11:29, Today: Nyx rolled 26 using 1d20+6.  Attack - Sniper.
11:29, Today: Nyx rolled 12 using 5d6.  Damage. => Double to 24 HP

11:29, Today: Nyx rolled 9 using 1d20+6.  Attack - Sniper.
11:29, Today: Nyx rolled 24 using 5d6.  Damage - Probable Miss. => Double to 48 HP

11:29, Today: Nyx rolled 21 using 1d20+6.  Attack - Sniper.
11:30, Today: Nyx rolled 13 using 5d6.  Damage - Critical. => Doubled Twice to 52 HP

Is Nix still using his Winchester with silver rounds? He saw Severance brush off a bullet from Arulas. He knows that at least Severance is wearing an armored longcoat. The vampiress next to Severance is wearing a longcoat also which might or might not be mega-damage. I'll give you a chance to respond before I resolve these attacks.

OOC: Yes, he is. It is one of his "charged" weapons so it's regular MDC if it's hitting armour and doubled HP if it's hitting a vampire

Nyx's rifle shouts like thunder and tears into the female vampire. The slug peels off her outer clothing and shatters the plates of an old suit of Huntsman armor underneath. The armor is in threads, and the vampire flinches.

Kalista and Doc are up next. After that, Severance gets a turn. Arulas, Polk, and Ethan still get turns this combat round.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:41, Sun 04 Feb 2018.

(Question did the bat stop moving and did it turn back into a person ?)

The bat did stop moving. It did not transform again.

Hey sorry no time right now. Apologies.

  "Damned armor wearing leafblighter! If I could run down there this would be over by now. Oh well sniper shots were not my strong suit, but I will give it the old Cyberknight try. he says as he sights down the rifle.

Using three actions to aim then firing one shot doing this twice. One action in reserve to dodge.

In reply to Kalista (msg # 62):

No worries, I will just roll for you for now.

If the situation were any less deadly, Ethan would have found it impossible not to laugh when the giant monster tripped and stumbled right in front of Kalista. Since it was a life or death situation however, instead of laughing, Ethan brought up his laser rifle from the low ready and snapped off a shot at the thing. “Maybe this is something actually vulnerable to regular old lasers,” he thought as squeezed the trigger, releasing a single shot.

Today: Ethan rolled 17 MD using 4d6.  Laser Rifle Damage.
22:08, Today: Ethan rolled 23 using 1d20+4.  Aimed Shot, Laser Rifle.

OOC - Two actions for a single aimed shot on the giant that tripped. Saving other two for dodging.

Polkitain grabbed the bat.

Looking around he whimpered a bit slightly. He wanted to help Doc or Nyx. Then he saw Lady Kalista. No no no, she hadn't even lain her egg yet.

He flew up into the sky then assumed his true form and dove down to slam into the monstrous beast Kalista was fighting. He wouldn't let the mother to be fight alone.

Demon punch should still be active.

Polkitain remains on the creatures back his full weight upon it. As he hisses, "Leave her alone." There was something primal in his nature ass if he was more dragon then the friendly creature all his friends knew.


08:06, Today: Polkitain rolled 13 using 1d20+3.  Dive attack target heart.
08:10, Today: Polkitain rolled 21 using 6d6.  Dive claw damage.

08:11, Today: Polkitain rolled 10 using 1d20+3.  Claw for heart.
08:11, Today: Polkitain rolled 21 using 6d6.  Claw Damage.

All other actions will be to defend Kalista.

This message was lightly edited by the GM at 10:32, Wed 07 Feb 2018.

I rolled a natural 1 for Kalista's strike. Well, it turns out that Kalista cannot miss from melee range even on a 1. 1 +6 from PP +1 from HandtoHand +2 from WP Sword = 10. Her target cannot really parry a psi-sword with a claw, and he's too wild to dodge. Damage is 6D6 +6 from Horsemanship:Cyberknight, so 27.

Dame Kalista charges the trollish vampire on glitterback. She drops the reins to summon her psi-sword and psi-shield to life just as she reaches her opponent. With a mighty slash, she cleaves right through the monster's chest, severing many ribs.

I think that I confused Melee Rounds with Rounds of Initiative at some point. Let's just proceed around the sequence and not count melee actions this time, okay? Doc is up next, then Severance.

Doc raises his paired revolvers from a flanking position. His rounds hit the monster like wrecking balls. The concentrated attacks wore down the creature in record time. The huge vampire collapses slumped against the ship's hull.

Seeing the monster fall, Doc quickly reloads his revolvers, smiling at Severance, then nodding to his friends, "My kill," he grins. Then moves to get closer to the boat before more lead flies.

Severance finally takes his shot. Just as the trigger is squeezed, Nyx senses danger from two immediate threats in a coordinated attack. First, his brain feels the intrusion of a Biomanipulation attack. Save vs Psi Attack, please. Alternately, Nyx may opt to activate his Mind Block and need no save. If he does turn on Mind Block, he will lose access to this psychic abilities for his next attack. The antique JA-11 assassin's weapon in the vampire's clawed fingers cuts through the dark air with a high intensity laser beam targetting Nyx. The aim is true. Nyx may attempt to dodge but at a -10 penalty to beat a roll of 14, 6th sense bonus does apply. That's only if he beat the Save vs Psi roll. If he fails to dodge or opts not to try, his armor eats 18 points of M.D.

Arulas lines up his next shot.

Polkatain snatches the body of the large bat off the ground and carries it with him across the battlefield as he glides towards Kalista's position.

The two vampires caught in the force field look about in confusion. The shorter one thumps at the field with his hammer but inflicts no significant damage. Ethan can feel his force field remaining intact.

On the subject of Ethan, the medic has his shot lined up to strike the troll's center of mass. Just before he pulls the trigger, the troll collapses from its injuries inflicted by Kalista and Doc. Ethan searches for another target. He sees the two vampire shooters on the deck of the boat, but he doesn't have a good angle on either of them.

The female bloodsucker at Severance's side is the last to take action...
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 17:44, Sun 11 Feb 2018.

The cowgirl shoots at Arulas. His armor feels the sting of Wilk's laser rifle, or does it? Arulas attempts to roll out of the way. Even the combination of the cyberknight's sixth sense and his astonishing spryness cannot outmatch the precision of this laser weapon. Taking inventory of his injury, he sees that the shot was only a glancing hit. 4 points of mega-damage to his armor's helmet.

Back at the top of the initiative, Nyx fires off a second shot at the scout. The remnants of her armor peel away, and her hat flies off her head. She doesn't seem to be taking any actions to avoid further attacks as she lines up her own next shot.

Reviewing the tactical situation...

After the muscle collapses (the troll-turned-vampire creature), Kalista glances around the battlefield about her. She sees that the muscle and the bat-coyote-thing are both down but not staked. Doc is nearby on the back of own robot horse, dropping more silver rounds into his revolvers. Behind her, Ethan is crouching, gun in his hands. Two more figures are trapped inside one of Ethan's force field domes. One of those figures is holding a hammer with the same etchings that mark it as another darn false rune weapon. All of these vampires close enough for her to see (including the muscle) have the same distinctive fang pattern, two on the jumper jaw and two on the lower jaw. Above her on the deck of the ship, two figures (one of them an orc) are trading shots with Arulas and Nyx who are still back on the ridge. Glancing at her own glittermount, she notices something unexpected; a gauge indicates that the machine's PPE reserve is dropping quickly.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:56, Sun 11 Feb 2018.

20:56, Today: Nyx rolled 8 using 1d20.  Save vs Psionics.

Failed vs Psi, therefore takes Damage to his armour together with whatever effect of the Biomanipulation. From the comment regards MD, I presume his Energy Conversion power does not extend to his armour? I read it would, since otherwise the aspect of halving MD over 30 would be meaningless

Kalista nodded to Ethan. "Move them to me and let me in. Keep them there and I can finish them." She dismounted and ignited her second sword, moving twoard the forcefield.

Polk tried to shove the bat with silver in it into the trolls heart since he didnt have more silver or wood. He checks to see if the troll has anything to stake with though.

Seeing his target drop, Ethan responds as he had been trained and indexes his trigger finger again while scanning for another target. Kalista’s sudden request, to be encased inside a force field with the pair of vampires, interrupts his search for another target. He turns to face the two imprisoned vampires, his laser rifle still at the high ready as he looks through the close combat optic and sees his lady wife stride confidently toward them.

His first reaction was to deny her entry into the dome of near invisible force which was containing the blood suckers. It was only his first reaction though, the understandable reflex of a husband not wanting to allow his beloved to place herself in harm’s way when he could prevent it. “But she is no ordinary woman, not by half,” he thought, feeling a surge of pride in her. It was true that as a Cyber-Knight, she was hardly a frail flower but be that as it may, she was still deliberately going to place herself, alone, in what amounted to a locked room with two vampires. Such was her courage and her will to destroy evil wherever she encountered it.

So after only the briefest hesitation, he willed another dome of force into existence. This one covered the original force field which still held the two vampires, and his wife. The first force field then vanished, leaving Kalista alone in the dome with the two vampires. Ethan wanted to be in there with her but he knew the limits of his hand to hand combat skills. It was more likely that he would get in her way, rather than help her. “And if any of the others should get hurt while I was in there, I couldn’t do a damn thing about without lowering that dome first.”

OOC – One action to create the new force field, one to drop the first one. 200 MDC spent on this field too.

Nyx, that is a good point. Okay, the Psi-Slinger's powers to protect his own armor as well.

Polkatain has the very creative idea of staking one vampire with another staked vampire. No, the muscle was not carrying a wooden stake and mallet. Looting the body does result in finding small belt pouches containing various dried bits of plants. Even in death, the strong troll's chest proves to be too rigid for getting stabbed by a dead bat. Even clawing the chest first doesn't help. The bat just gets crushed and bloody from the effort. Polk gets that XP bonus for a creative but futile idea, and I'll let this all count as a free action.

Nyx feels his legs lock up. He can still move his arms well enough, but running or dodging right now would be impossible.

Don't worry about attacks per melee. We'll just keep cycling through the initiatives until someone else drops. Kalista is no longer mounted and thus doesn't receive as much of an initiative bonus. Here is the revised initiative cycle:

muscle (troll) 20
NYX 19
KALISTA 17
DOC 17
scout (bat) 17
Severance 16
ARULAS 9
POLK 8
stitches 5
tinkerer 5
ETHAN 2
scout 2

The boots of Kalista thud on the dirt when she drops off her glittermount. She strides into fray with a psi-sword in each hand, looking majestic.

Doc finishes quickloading his spent cartridges. From his line of sight, he can see Severance and the vampiress on the deck of the ship above him, but pinging either would require a called shot just to hit their bodies.

Severance flips a thumb switch on his weapon. The orc's red eyes do not waver from his target. A blazing hot charged ion flashes towards the ridge. Arulas is struck this time. 11 points of mega-damage to his armor

Arulas and Polkatain get to take actions next.

Polkitain spreads his wings wide to make a bigger target, and looks to Doc and the rest of his companions. Then makes gun fingers as if firing pistols like a gunslinger then pointed at himself.  He hopes they will understand and shoot more silver rounds at him he needs something to stake with.

He also wants to keep the big troll vampire down so keeps clawing at him with one of his back claws.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:07, Wed 14 Feb 2018.

Okay, Polkatain is perched on top of the the troll's body and is pantomiming.

Basically get into the forcefield and turn it into a blender. If the gm could roll for me that would be fab!

  Arulas takes the ion blast and chuckles a little bit as the energy burns off some of his armor. He takes his rifle to his shoulder and stands up and starts slowly walking towards the wreck or lair or whatever these damned vampires called it. The whole time sighting on the orc and his beady little head.

Ethan stands just outside the force field dome he had created to encase his wife and the two vampires. Despite what he had just told himself about how remarkable a woman she is, how deadly and skilled a warrior, he looks on with concern as she engages the pair of undead in close quarter combat.

He was aware, peripherally at least, of Polk doing his best to shred the troll like vampire with his hind claws. He was aware of it but couldn't think of a way to assist the young dragon.

OOC - Ethan is basically holding and watching.

Arulas boldly stands at full height and strides into combat with his gun at this cheek.

The two vampires facing Kalista suddenly lose their ferocity as she walks into their captive space. I am guessing that Kalista is using Intuitive Combat here. They slash are her with caution. The tall one uses a small vibro-knife while the shorter one uses a claw. The Cyberknight easily parries both blows.

Then she is hit with a wave of psychic attacks. One attack is repelled with ease while the next snakes through with a little luck. Kalista suddenly feels her confidence faulter. Any attacks against the vampires from here will require first making a Save vs Horror Roll.

UPDATE -- scratch that, I was wrong. I found the full description of Empathic Transmission in Nightbane of all places. Kalista does not need to do that. Instead, she experiences Confusion. She suffers -3 to her combat rolls and will drop to the bottom of the initiative.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:24, Sat 17 Feb 2018.

Ethan monitors events which are happening inside of his bubble. He sees Kalista expertly parry two undisciplined attacks, but then he sees her movements slow a bit. He cannot read her expression while she has her helmet on. If Ethan wants to do anything else right now, he may.

The vampiress on the top of the boat squeezes off another shot from her Wilk's Laser Rifle. Her target it is Nyx whom she seems to know has been paralyzed. With an evil grin, she fires an shot (without the aim bonus this time) at the elf. 11 more points of mega-damage, unmodified

Nyx Returns fire against the smirking vampiress. The confident monster doesn't even attempt to dodge his shot. The way that her armor was degrading, she might have thought that he wasn't using silver ammo -- or maybe she was just certain that he would panic and miss.



The bullet pierces her chest and leaves her with a shocked look on her fanged face as the pain sinks in.

Doc lines up his shot next. His target is Severence the orc, is it not?

Speaking of the posse leader, Severance grimaces at the defiant cyber-knight, Arulas. He fires another ion burst at the elf again without taking careful aim. 14 to strike Arulas, 13 mega-damage to armor

Now, it's Arulas' turn to take his aimed shot...

 The elf can be heard laughing as the shot misses so badly that he merely turns sideways. The ion blast arcing around him. His mirth is infectious as he stops moving for just a moment to fire a burst at the Orc hoping three bullets shot will do what one could not.

That burst definitely got the attention of Severance. The short burst of bullets from the rifle of Arulas tears a large chunks of the vampire's skull away. The posse leader staggers backwards but remains on his orcish feet.

Meanwhile, Polkatain looks around. No one has yet decided to shoot him. His rear claws continue to dig deeper into the mucky innards of the large vampire's chest and abdomen. Whew, Polkatain thought that these things smelled bad on the outside.

Inside Ethan's dome, the two vampires strike at Kalista as if sensing a moment of weakness. It doesn't help. The tall vampire in the misses pathetically with his vibroknife again. Has the guy never held a vibroknife before now? The dwarfish vampire, however, has better aim. He swings with a smallish rune-covered hammer at Kalista's leg. The cyberknight despite her wobbliness expertly deflects the blow with a flick of her wrist. Her glowing psi-sword slices the head off the hammer. With an audible cry, the Syphon Entity inside this false rune weapon escapes. Anyone who can See the Invisible will be able to see a cloud-like and tentacled energy creature floating upward towards the highest point of the dome.

Does Ethan want to declare another action now, or is he still monitoring Kalista's fight passively?

The vampiress on the boat's deck looks up from her chest wound. She drops to the deck, making herself a smaller target (but still equally vulnerable by game rules). She lets out an angry wolf howl.

Kalista stumbles half a step forward but resumes her assault, stabbing and slashing with two psi-swords at the same time. Her first blow stabs the taller vampire through its neck, tearing open a gaping wound as she yanks her blade free. Her simultaneous second attack slashes the short vampire with an upswing that catches his shoulder. The short vampire almost managed to parry that blow and possibly would have done so had his weapon not been destroyed. Both vampires suffer some significant damage.

Nyx and Doc are up again.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:09, Sun 18 Feb 2018.

Ethan didn't know why Kalista was having trouble with the two obviously unskilled vampires but he didn't need to know the why. It was more important what he did in response to it rather than take them time to understand what was going on. Every second could count and he would waste none of them on extemporaneous thought.

To that end, acting mostly on instinct, he did something he had never done before. He raised both of his hands and pointed them at the two vampires. Eight bolts of invisible, concussive force leapt from his hands, four each to strike at the vampires under the dome of force he had created to contain them and Kalista as she fought them.

Polk moves the ugly Vampire obviously a chupacabra over to the glitter mount and scrables through its bags finding stakes. "Finally." He gathers a bunch and stakes the Chupacabra.

The thought on his mind is he has to help his friends and protect Kalista. He runs over to help her and smashes snout first into the forcefield.

"Ow." He shakes his head, "Tricky vampire powers !"
This message was last edited by the player at 16:09, Sun 18 Feb 2018.

Kalista will take a moment to use Suppress Fear Psychic power on herself before continuing the assault.

OOC yes, unless another target presents danger to Doc or his brother, Severance is his target.

Doc will fire again at the orcish vampire seeing him hit with Arulas' rifle.

Sighting the female vampire through his scope, the calm cold expression on his face showed where Nyx Hoarfrost had earned his name as a 'slinger. He took a shallow breath, smiled a wisp and caressed the trigger once more

19:57, Today: Nyx rolled 14 using 1d20+6.  Attack - Sniper.
19:57, Today: Nyx rolled 16 using 5d6.  Damage. => Double to 32HP

Power erupts from the fingers of Ethan in an unimpressive display -- but only because it is difficult to see. It likes like just a wave of slightly off-color heat waves passing between the medic and the general direction of the two vampires if anything is noticed at all. The first two bolts slam into both vampires. The damage is instantly negated of course, but it does knock the monsters back. Since their weapons are melee (and short melee at that), this prevents them from attacking Kalista better.

Polkatain reaches the saddlebags on the Glittermount and drops several other pieces of gear onto the ground before he finds two wooden stakes, one for each foreclaw.

Nyx calmly shoots with an archer's steady and calm percision. He buries another large silver round into the should of vampiress. She is looking very bloodied.

More or less simultaneously, his brother Doc is wildly blazing away with two revolvers like a gunzerker. Follwing the lead of Arulas, Doc aims for the orc's exposed face.
 Does Doc only get +1 to his strike rolls from his WP, or am I missing something? The bullet from the right gun glances harmlessly off the armored collar of the vampire's coat. The second bullet catches Severance right in the jaw.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:41, Mon 19 Feb 2018.

The leader of the vampire posse, Severance, reels after being shot in the face with another silver bullet. The bloodied monster drops the aim of his long gun, no longer targeting his attackers. He raises his right arm in a fist towards the sky. At his mental command, the across the battlefield thickens and smells more humid. Moisture rises up from the grass and soil all around. Within a breath, the battlefield has been wrapped in a blanket of fog.

A mist has formed, and it's getting thicker by the second. Any ranged attacks made from more than a couple of paces away from now on will get a -10 blindness penalty. For the purpose of determining friendly fire, these are all wild shots. This restriction applies equally to both sides of the conflict.

OOC yes sir, unless I've messed up somehow.

Okay, Arulas and Polk are up. Polk can still stake the troll even in the mist, but a called shot is needed. Arulas has lost sight on his target but can still make a blind shot into the mist if he wants, or he can sword-up and get prepped for some tooth and claw range scrapping.

Inside the dome, the two vampires have been pushed put of melee range, so they try switching their tactics again. The taller vampire pulls a false rune knife out of his coat pocket. A bio-manipulation attack attempts to immoblize her left arm. The dwarf-vampire hisses a command in Spanish, "The gringo is insulting your honor my interfering in our duel. Tell him to stop using his powers and back away." Kalista's mind is again assaulted psychic warfare. I will make two Save vs Psi rolls.

Ethan watched as his force bolts passed through his barrier to slam home on the two vampires that Kalista was fighting. He had fired the bolts on instinct, not sure that they would pass through his force field or be stopped by it. Seeing the vampires knocked back on their heels and put off balance, brought a grim smile of satisfaction to his face. "She should be able to make short work of them now," he thought.

He felt certain enough that those vampires would be destroyed soon, that he turned his attention to how the rest of his companions were doing. He had just started to survey the battlefield when he sees Polk charge directly at his force field containing Kalista and her opponents. The combat medic begins to shout at the dragon to stop but isn't fast enough to stop the hatchling from crashing against the nearly invisible dome with a loud *THUD*. If it weren't for the deadly serious nature of their situation, Ethan would likely have laughed.

Instead of laughing, Ethan, standing just a few yards from him, shouts at the dragon, "My force field is keeping the vampires in place. Kalista has this, help the others."

And that is when the mist rises up and blankets the battlefield, obscuring everything.

Update: Kalista succeeded in her saving throw to resist the bio-manipulation attack. She failed against the Hypnotic Suggestion.

05:09, Today: Polkitain rolled 17 using 1d20+3.  Called shot staking.



Polkitain stakes the chupacabra then sees the fog closing in. Glancing off to Ethan who is becoming obscured he nods, "Ok, I will help the others. You make things foggy ?"

Polkitaine decides to end the vampires he has first. He starts flapping his wings and getting that water from the fog moving like a river. Pushing the water down at the Chupacabra and the mangled bat. He makes sure to walk in a circle to keep water moving in all directions to keep Vampires away from him.

"Doc spin revolvers please !" He calls out hoping he could hear his friend and thus be able to go and help him.

Ethan lost sight of his targets. Is he attempting the blind shots?

Polkatain finds the mangled troll-corpse back where he left it. He finds it in the mist without difficulty, but it doesn't look as badly mangled as he remembers leaving it. With a mighty slam, his dragon muscles puncture the monster's heart. The monster lets out a scream-like his of last breath escaping. The skin turns to ash, leaving behind a skeleton and a wooden stake.

Polkatain voice pierces the field of white, shouting, "Doc, spin your revolvers."

Sixth Sense! As they move carefully through the literal fog of war, the elves sense imminent danger coming for them. Doc and Arulas both feel the familiar urgency of an incoming attack. If Doc attempts to dodge, he could drop or leap from his horse or attempt to dodge with the horse which is more tricky. Arulas is already on his feet.

Kalista can barely make out the forms of the two vampires just a step or two away from her, but their pale outlines in the field of white are enough. She presses forward with a spinning attack that catches one and then the other, slashing both deeply.

Nyx gets an action here.

With his vision now obscured by the sudden and seemingly all pervasive mist that had covered the land surrounding the ship, Ethan is unable to continue his distracting attacks on the vampires his wife faced alone inside the dome. He knew from experience that his force fields were proof against fog yet despite that, this fog had no trouble invading the dome. “So unless this is the doing of one of us, which I doubt, it must be another trick that vampires can do. Swell,” the thought ran through his mind as he considered his options.

Firing blindly into the dome wasn’t acceptable. He estimated he had just as good a chance of hitting Kalista as he did one of the vampires or even nothing at all for that matter. His reasons for not entering the improvised battle arena had not changed with the coming of the mist. That left the world outside the dome. Unfortunately since the mist covered the entire area, he could no more see to shoot one of those vampires than he could the pair attacking Kalista. “This wouldn’t be a problem if I had the IR attachment for my helmet,” he thought. “Unless of course this magic mist messes with thermal imaging too.”

Then he heard Polk shout. From the sound of it, the dragon wasn’t far off. Ethan began walking, slowly, in that direction, calling out to the hatchling. “Polk, talk to me,” he said, hoping the dragon would realize Ethan planned on using his voice to guide him.

Polkitain tilted his head Ethan wants to talk ?

Polkitain shrugged a bit then thought maybe he was interested in the rusty ship.
"The ship is old Ethan, a lot of rust but there are traps in there too. Crafty vampires rig it with traps ! I am sure they have people in there too ! I smelled a lot."  Then Polk remembered Doc telling him he could spice up tales by not exactly telling the truth.

"I put holy water bombs in ship like everyone said. Vampires are all out here though now !"

"Ethan should see ship, it is spooky, smells strange vampires were doing strange things one was butchering meat, another was working with mechanical contraptions. Not like other vampires at all."

Kalista continued to press her attack.

Ethan doesn't know why Polkitain is talking about holy water bombs being in the ancient cruiser but his on going narrative is useful for finding him through the heavy mist. "Maybe he is trying to trick the vampires? Long shot but I don't see how it could hurt."

OOC - Ethan is just following the sound of Polk's voice to find him.

"Ethan doesn't usually talk to me much. Pick unusual time to talk." Polk kept flapping his wings keeping the water moving around him.

"Ethan should warn poke of bubbles, that hurt my snout !"

The Lumberjacks have mostly splintered off into quasi-isolated pairs, so the initiative chart doesn't matter as much anymore. I will ignore it for a while.

Inside the dome, two vampires find their courage again. Kalista, they think correctly, is now operating without direct oversight from her teammates. They both lunge at the Cyberknight and attempt to grab and pin her arms in place. They fail due in part to continuing miserable dice rolls, and Kalista knocks both away with the guard and pommel of her psi-swords. The shorter vampire actually stumbles into her blade. She takes advantage of the opening and delivers another stab the half-crazed little vampire. The vampire fails terribly to save himself and takes a psi-blade to his right eye.

Kalista lashes out with another pair of wide blade swings. The taller vampire proves to be the weaker of the two, but he is also the more clear-headed one and dodges the blow. The monster which used to be a Dwarf takes another deep slash to its shoulder and frenzies. This is the most damaging blow yet, cutting entirely through the vampire's shoulder and deep into his chest.

Kalista has still not taken a scratch of damage to her armor.

Meanwhile on the ridge, Nyx feels a familiar tingle of sixth sense which draws his attention behind him. Four hairy figures step towards him out of the mist. He's looking at four coyotes who are looking at him like a fat chicken left in a coop with the door open. These canines do not have the glowing red eyes of vampires.

In the shadow of the large ship, Doc and Arulas learn what Severance had in mind for them. The orc-vampire and the vampiress drop on top of the two elves from above. These vampires have switched to using their claws and fangs. The psychic warning of Arulas serves him well as he avoids the claws of the female vampire. Doc has no such psychic aid, but he knows an obvious ambush when he sees one. His elvish spryness carries him out of harm also when Severance drops down onto his, slashing with inhuman claws. Both elves dodged. At least those rolls were close. Whether Doc dodged with his horse or moved off of it, I'll leave up to him. He dodged well enough that I will allow either.

Polkatain and Ethan find each in the unnatural mist. The gentle spray of compressed humidity looks like it is beginning to have some very minor effect on the skeleton of the vampire-troll and the body of the bat.

Polkitain growls and  moves towards Ethan only when he knows it is him does he stop.

"Help me destroy these ones please. I need to help Doc and Nyx. Want to protect Lady Kalista too. Why did you leave her bubble still protect her ?"

Polkitain whimpered a little, "Stupid fog. So many people to help."

Ethan had become somewhat concerned when Polk stopped talking to him and started growling. Fortunately for both of them, the young dragon didn’t just growl and leap but waited to see if the shadow that had been moving toward him was a friend or foe.

When Polk asked him why he had left Kalista under the dome shaped force field, he answered, “She will be just fine. She can handle a pair of vampires easy.” His voice projected confidence in the female Cyber-Knight despite Ethan being worried for her. He knew from both his training and experience as a NEMA Officer that it didn’t matter if he wasn’t sure about the situation. What mattered was that he looked like he was sure. Other soldiers looked towards their Officers during moment of stress, like say combat against undead, blood sucking creatures that could summon blinding fog. Those soldiers needed to believe that their Officer was confident or else they became unconfident and that would quickly lead to Bad Things. The dragon wasn’t a soldier and Ethan wasn’t his Officer but the NEMA Combat Medic had internalized the lesson too deeply for him to act any other way.

He changed the subject by pointing at the vampire he had staked with silver. “I have a lighter but no accelerant or fuel to make a fire big enough to burn that. I take it you’re not a fire breathing dragon? Well Kalista told me that if you rip off their heads and toss them, it will take them longer to regenerate. Maybe do that for now.”

"Cant you pour canteen on bat one ?" Polk asked.

He then tried to remove the trolls skull.

Polk lowered his head, "No, Polk is not a fire breathing dragon."

"Sorry Polk, little busy!" he shouts back to his friend, a smile crossing his handsome face as Severance misses his attack due to Doc spinning his horse out of the way just in time.

He spins again, to face the vampire now, both revolvers brought to bear at Severance's heart, might not kill him, but would stop him long enough to stake him or cut his head off. Doc opens fire with both revolvers.

Kalista grew tired of this game. She allowed her mindblock to alter the situation. Her psiswords disappeared, but she was far from weaponless. She flipped open the visor on her helm and winked at the vampires as she touched the tattoos on her neck, creating a flaming falling-star-hammer and increasing her strength dramatically. She began whirling the the chain, and flipping the visor back down. "Come get some"

With whatever attack she has left she will use the hammer to smash the vampires. I am basically stuck using my kindle so I ask the GM to continue to make rolls for me. Thanks

Kalista also switches tactics. Like flipping a switch, her Mind Block clears her head of the lingering confusion and hypnosis. It also takes away her psi-swords and the edge from her Intuitive Combat. Confidently, she takes the tradeoff.

The two vampires press their assault. Their first attacks are skillfully parried by the Sea Titan's weaponless arms. A bright flaming weapon appears in her grip. It's too bad that none of her teammates can see this in order to feel impressed. As she activates her next set of weapons, the monsters take advantage of the opening to continue their assault. The shorter vampire finally manages to score a lucky hit. His doubled fangs tear into the armor on her right leg. 17 points of mega-damage to armor, already recorded on character sheet

Clear-headed Kalista counters with a move that would have been awkward for anyone else. In a single fluid motion, she tears the vampire off her body with one strong arm and strikes her target with her magic weapon using her other arm. The vampire is torn in twain with a shower of flames and sparks.

This leaves Kalista inside the dome with the vampiric Body Fixer, by far the less dangerous of the two opponents.

Meanwhile, Doc attempts to eliminate the posse's leadership with two silver rounds at point blank range. Between the sight-obscuring mist and the movement of his own horse underneath him, even an expert shot like Doc can miss. His first bullet deflects off Severance's armored hat. The second bullet catches the vampire right in his orcish nose. With a face looking more like smear of red than the face of a living creature, Severance steps backwards into the mist. He also drops something as he does.

Doc spurs his horse to pursue before he loses the target in the thick mist. A high explosive hand grenade goes off in the spot where the scheming monster was standing. The damage is absorbed by Doc's robot horse, but the explosion rattles the elven gunslinger's teeth and causes him to lose sight of his enemy. 10 points of mega-damage to the Arabian

Arulas is still face to face with the wild vampiress, and Nyx is still paralyzed in one leg and surrounded by coyotes.

Polkatain manages to tear off the troll's skull quite easily as per the instructions of Ethan. They are both distracted by gunfire and a grenade going off maybe thirty to fifty paces away from them.

Ethan watched as the youthful dragon reached down towards the vampires with his giant claws and casually ripped off its head. After he drops it, Ethan looks first at the headless body and then the severed head. Two domes of force, one over the body and a smaller one over the head, appear. "Maybe this will help keep them apart, maybe it won't," he thought to himself. "Never know until you try right?" he said out loud to Polkitain.

When the grenade goes off, Ethan's head whips around in that direction. Though it had been close, thankfully it hadn't been so close that he or Polk had been caught in its blast radius. The lack of any screams on the heels of that explosion made Ethan even happier than not having been caught by it. Although he was good at what he did and enjoyed healing others, relieving them of their suffering, he would just as soon people not get hurt in the first place.

An idea struck him just then, one he needed to share with Polkitain. "Hey if you were to shape shift into something that doesn't need to see to find its way around, could you use that to find our friends?"

"What about the bat ?" Polk said and popped the head off the bat.

"I still think you should use canteen water on it."

Then the explosion happened and Polk shook his head and blinked hard. Staggering sideways he kept shaking his head. "What Ethan ? Sorry ear holes ringing bad."
Polk whimpered a bit from the pain but he was a quick healer and knew it should stop soon.

Polk flicked the water from his wings on to the bat hoping to dissolve it.

Yes, the spray of water onto the bat does seem to dissolve its fur slightly. This spraying is a slower version of the tactic of holding a vampire in flowing water to dissolve it, and that takes several minutes.

Stranded somewhat awkwardly in his sniping position and with a paralysed leg, Nyx cursed somewhat fluidly in his native Elvish as the sun-furred canines emerged from the mist. Thankfully the trusty Winchester was not the only weapon attuned to him and a pair of pistols appeared, one in each hand

Doc cursed, probably nearly simultaneously to his brothers own outburst and made a mental note to get the horse repaired, "Lost Severance in the fog... chicken shit that he is." Doc patted the horse on the head, and began to move after Severance, "Everybody good?"

Did Nyx switch to his Glock-17s or his Wilks-Remi six shooters?

Everyone should be able to hear Doc's statement just fine. The exception would be his twin brother who can not hear much of anything over his own cursing and shooting.

OOC even Polk over the ringing in his ear holes ?

It's the six shooters, they're marked as such on his character sheet

The explosion went off well before Doc shouted. Polk should have been able to hear enough of it to get the meaning at least.

Nyx is getting charged by multiple varmints. He has his six-shooters ready, so he may fire off a shot from each before the doggos reach him.

"Ok Doc." Polk calls back.

Looking to Ethan,"Climb on we help others." if Ethan does Polk raises his wings to shield Ethan and moves to the nearest sound of combat.

Handing Ethan the bat.
"Still need to destroy that."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:43, Tue 27 Feb 2018.

Ethan acted on reflex and brought his hands and arms up to accept the headless bat and its detached head. Thanks to his wife, he now knew that not only are vampires real but that they can shape shift into bats, among other things. "At least they don't sparkle," he thought, remembering a particularly atrocious old movie he had suffered through while dating a woman that was obsessed with old 2D films.

He looked at the head and body and willed into existence two spheres of force. Each sphere completely encapsulates the head and body respectively. Ethan didn't know how long or even if they would keep the vampire from putting itself back together but he did know it was the best he could do until the thing could be destroyed permanently. He knew from Kalista that running water could do the job but unfortunately the amount in his canteen just wasn't enough.

Once the bat and its severed head are contained, he drops them to the ground and gets on Polk's back as he had requested. "Ready to go," he tells the dragon, hoping he could somehow find his way through the mist.

Polk nods and moves off to the nearest sounds of battle.

Very concious of this rider he does not run at full speed and does his best to keep Ethan from harm.

Polk, gimme a Perception Roll, please. In fact, Ethan, Doc, and Arulas can all attempt to find Severance in the mist, but onlu Polkatain stands a good chance od sniffing him out.

06:59, Today: Polkitain rolled 15 using 1d20+3.  Perception.

Polkatain smells a figure skulking around the bow of the ship. It smells like death and gunpowder.

Inside the dome, Kalista continues to press her advantage and wear down her enemies. The freed siphon entity howls at the ceiling of the dome but finds itself mostly helpless to interfere nor to free itself. Kalista squares off against the vampire in the dirty lab coat. This vampire looks around nervously, unwilling to attack Kalista again in a direct fight. After seeing his companion turned into so much ash and body parts and then seeing no one to assist, he resorted to his desperation move. The vampire pulled a small heavy object out of its coat pocket -- another grenade?

Kalista swung hard for the hand which held the grenade. She hit it (just barely). The hand shattered into sparks and ash. The object tumbled into the grass. The cyberknight could not tell in the darkness and mist if it had been triggered or not.

They traded attacks again. The monster slashed at Kalista's weapon arm with its good claw. She dodged the slash. She struck back with a high swing. The vampire actually managed to duck that blow.

The vampire instead of attacking again, pulls off its lab coat -- which is on fire by now, so that was probably the right call. With the coat removed, Kalista sees a shocking sight. The vampire is wearing a belt across his chest covered in grenades and wires. The object which she had batted away was not a grenade itself but a trigger. The vampire is the bomb. As the vampire steps back against the wall of the dome, the trigger begins to float off the ground under the power of the syphon entity's levitation.

Polk used telepathy with Ethan.

~Use radio tell Doc go to bow of ship. We go too Ethan be prepared to fight.~

Polk then lept anf flew a bit before landing and prowling in that direction.

~Smell death and gun powder tell Doc. Trap or just gunslinger ?~

"I can add riding a dragon to the list of things I never thought I would do yet find myself doing," Ethan thought as the dragon in question leapt into the air and took flight. When Polk spoke to him in his mind, something he wasn't entirely comfortable with, he patted the dragon's shoulder in acknowledgement and then keyed the radio built into his helmet. "Doc, I'm riding Polk. He wants you to head for the bow of the ship. He thinks he smells gun powder but can't tell if its from a bomb or a gun."

It is only after the words had left his mouth that Ethan realized he could have phrased things differently, specifically the part about 'riding Polk'. "I'm sure the jokes are coming," he thought as he too looked around to see if he could spot anymore dangers.

In reply to Polkitain (msg # 131):

The skulking figure smells more like Nyx or Doc than it smells like a big keg of gunpowder.

Ethan, Polk already found the adventure hook. Without a natural 20 or another big explosion, Ethan can't see jack in this mist from the dragon's back.

I know but you said for everyone to make a perception roll so I did. It also makes sense in character for him to try and stay aware of what is going on as best he can.

Surrounded by snarling beasts and slavering jaws, Nyx leaned back into the sniper's hollow he had concealed himself within and began to let his thunderous ancient replica pistols speak for him. "Bang!", each cried, "Bang Bang Bang!" in a staccato voice that was as comforting and familiar as the wreaths of smoke and cordite that were quickly lost in the mist

Going off the comment that I had enough time for several shots, I've rolled a melee round's worth of pistols. When sharpshooting he has six attacks and can use the pistols as a paired weapon with different targets, hence twelve rolls. Choice of targets is to ensure each of them is winged at least one and then concentrating on those nearest.

10:39, Today: Nyx rolled 24 using 1d20+4.  Attack - Sharpshooter. => Critical
10:39, Today: Nyx rolled 5 using 1d20+4.  Attack - Sharpshooter. => Fumble

10:39, Today: Nyx rolled 12 using 1d20+4.  Attack - Sharpshooter.
10:39, Today: Nyx rolled 23 using 1d20+4.  Attack - Sharpshooter.

10:39, Today: Nyx rolled 12 using 1d20+4.  Attack - Sharpshooter.
10:39, Today: Nyx rolled 24 using 1d20+4.  Attack - Sharpshooter. => Critical

10:39, Today: Nyx rolled 23 using 1d20+4.  Attack - Sharpshooter.
10:39, Today: Nyx rolled 18 using 1d20+4.  Attack - Sharpshooter.

10:39, Today: Nyx rolled 21 using 1d20+4.  Attack - Sharpshooter.
10:39, Today: Nyx rolled 5 using 1d20+4.  Attack - Sharpshooter. => Fumble

10:39, Today: Nyx rolled 15 using 1d20+4.  Attack - Sharpshooter.
10:39, Today: Nyx rolled 14 using 1d20+4.  Attack - Sharpshooter.

Damage is 4D6+3 MD if they're regular creatures, since these are his charged weapons, or silver hence doubled if their undead - these are Remmingtons but the 1863 Remington .45 Revolvers not the Wilks-Remmington, the ones marked with a star as mentioned. He will need to recharge when he reloads, which will be next round as each weapon is out of ammo now, which will take half a round. Whether he does so or draws another weapons depends on the outcome!

10:49, Today: Nyx rolled 19,20,8,13,21,14,16,18,17,12,20,18 using 4D6+3,4D6+3,4D6+3,4D6+3,4D6+3,4D6+3,4D6+3,4D6+3,4D6+3,4D6+3,4D6+3,4D6+3.  Damage

Polkitain scrunched down low like a big cat.

~We attack Ethan be ready hold tight ! Tell Doc it's a Slingerpire, Ethan if you want to get off now is the time. Dangerous are slingers.~ Polk blended in with the fog and night using his natural chameleon abilities.

Polk leapt into the air flapped his wings to gain height and soar silently. Activating his demon punch ability. He then descended like a big cat intending to bring his front claws down on the scent of death he smelled and rake with his back claws. (a power punch)



06:41, Today: Polkitain rolled 10 using 1d20+3.  Power Punch.
Relying as much on sound, smell and psychic sensitivity to evil.
Polk can target based on sound.
06:42, Today: Polkitain rolled 49 using 12d6.  Power Punch Damage.

Doc cautiously moved towards the bow of the ship, his silver bullet loaded revolvers in his hands.

Nyx opens fire on the coyotes who are closing in on him. His first bullet misfires in the chamber and fails to go off. His other gun hits the nearest canine straight and true. The unlucky coyote stumbles as one of it's front legs is shot off entirely. The remaining three coyotes charge and reach Nyx, jaws snapping. They are unable to injure him through his armor, but they do keep him pinned to the ground.

Nyx manages to her one of his arms free and fires off shots at point blank range. Blam! Blam! Blam! He picks off the three mongrels with his next three attacks. He kicks the carcass of a dead coyote off himself. It is then that he realizes he has regained the full use of his legs.

Doc walks steadily but carefully to the bow. Then, he passes around the bow to the far side, still attempting to track his opponent. Polkatain drops onto the ground right in front him. Ethan is there also, riding on the dragon's spine and looking like he's holding on for dear life.

Severance made his Prowl skill roll. Polk rolled okay with his attack but not well enough to score a hit with the blindness penalty. Between these two rolls, I am ruling that Severance managed to slip past.

Polk looks around and realizes that he recognizes where he has been lead. The battle took him entirely around the ship. He is now back near the entrance to the ship that he explored earlier.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:28, Sat 03 Mar 2018.

Polk sniffs and circles a bit.

"Doc ?  We near entrance now.  Smart vampires use traps though. Dont like. Follow me."

Polk will use his tail to lead Doc and move a bit away from the entrance to claw an opening.

Polk looks to Doc, "Smart Vampires use tripwires and traps in the dark halls of the ship. I think slingerpire lead us here as a trap. Careful my friends. Should we wait for Nyx and Kalista ?"

"Doc, can I have my Ax back ?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:22, Thu 01 Mar 2018.

Kalista turned to the entity floating the trigger. She only had seconds to decide how to act. She dropped her weapon0 and tried to grab the trigger out of the air.

Ethan clung tightly to one of the spines on the back of Polkitain as the dragon dived for the bow of the ship. He could see the ship now that they were so close to it despite the fog. “If there are prisoners in there, they could need medical attention,” he thought, shuddering at the images his mind conjured of how these monsters would treat any prisoner that fell into their grasp. “Why don’t you rip open a new entrance?” Ethan asks Polk in response to the dragon’s concern about traps.

Though he was concerned about possible prisoners and their probable condition, Ethan was foremost concerned about his wife. He knew how tough she is, both in spirit and body but that didn’t stop him for worrying. He resolved to give her another minute before risking distracting her by calling her on the radio.

Kalista is now holding a remote with a great big button on one end. The vampire facing her sees a slim opportunity for escape and begins tunneling into the dirt with its claws.

I hope this dome holds. She triggered the bomb...

++ What's happening brother? ++, snarled Nyx as he discarded his six-shooters and let sparks fly from his fingertips into the remaining coyotes, ++ It's a furball full of furballs here! ++

Use his Energy Expulsion power to strike out at the remaining coyotes, 3D6 SDC per 2 ISP. Do you need rolls to Strike?

Doc tossed the ax to Polk, "Severance got away, it seems, Polk wants to go back in the ship... have some trouble up there did you? I thought you liked them hairy... he teased his brother.

Polk hugged the ax to himself and he swelled with pride.

"Thanks Doc."

Polk was happy to have the gift the last town had given him again.

Nyx finishes off the last of the coyote pack with his psionic power. These critters might have slowed him down, but they posed little actual threat to him after all. His outfit, however, is extremely dirty now even the standards of a dusty saddletramp.

Polkatain catches the axe tossed to him. Feeling properly armed now, he tears into the steel hull of the ship. Although the steel is thick, it's also old and corroding. It doesn't take him long to rip a dragon-sized hole into it. He along with Doc and Ethan can see through the hole into a dark interior cabin. More fog flows out of the hole. The ceiling is low here, but if they duck slightly, they could enter inside and drop a couple of feet onto a solid deck floor.

Kalista gambles on the integrity of her armor backed by her natural Sea Titan toughness. At least the vampires didn't get a chance to steal any fusion blocks. With a push of a button, all of the grenades on the vampire's belt engage at once. The vampire has time to only glance down at surprise when his straps begin humming.

BOOM!

Okay, I want to pause and give a little explanation here. These grenades were looted from the equipment of the new players. I didn't pick out the type. Now that I'm looking at the stats, these particular grenades have a blast radius of only six feet. Since the vampire is trying to dig under the force field, he's at the edge. Kalista is likely outside of that small radius. Well shucks, Kalista escapes taking no damage yet again. She sure as heck isn't on her feet when that pressure waves reaches her though.

The vampire gets liquified by the intensity of the explosion, right down to its bones. The blast in a tiny fraction of second reaches Kalista. It picks her up off her feet and sends her sailing back towards the far end of the dome. A hundredth of a second later, Ethan's force field, buckles, cracks, and vanishes completely. Kalista picks herself up from the ground, her ears ringing and seeing double. She checks her armor and finds it surprisingly intact despite all of the damage around her. Looking through the cloud of dirt and fog, she sees another figure stirring in the crater of blasted earth. The vampire, now naked and shaking his own head, pulls himself up to a kneeling position.

Ethan will feel his force field collapse. Nyx and Arulas are in a position to have seen the flash if they like.

Polkitain moves aside to let the others in and then the explosion happens and Polk drops his ax and falls to the ground. He rolls around in pain claws going to cover his ear holes. His world becoming fog, ringing, and smells.

Whimpers coming from him.

He had been like this early when Doc and Nyx found him and had fired their guns. They found out the gang that had bought Polks egg and enslaved him fired guns near his ears as punishment or as cruel jokes with his sensitive hearing. It took time for him to overcome Nyx and Doc firing their revolvers around him but he did it. Explosions were something he was still working on.

Polks rear claws dug into the ground.

"Polk bad, Polk bad ?"

Doc's face twisted in anger, Polk was the strongest in the group likely, but he was also basically a toddler. Relatively speaking. Doc placed a hand on Polk's back, "No, Polk good. Those booms mean these leeches are having a tough time and we're doing our job, I'd wager. You just do your dragon stuff Polk. You see anything strange you let me or Ethan know. I'll take the lead then, Polk you stay with me, see anything, point it out. It may get loud. Stay calm."

When Polk saw Doc he could see his mouth moving but couldn't hear so he used telepathy.

"Polk will protect. Yes let you know if I see things." Polk said too loud like someone who couldn't hear their own voice and so spoke louder then necessary.

Polk tried to pull himself together and recover his Ax.

He shook his head to get rid of his tears and brought up his sensitivity to evil focusing it more to be better help to Doc and Ethan.

"Nyx ok ? Kalista ok ?"

Ethan felt the force field dome he had created to contain two of the vampires while Kalista dispatched them, shatter an instant before the sound of the explosion that had done the shattering reached him. He jerked in response, as if he had touched a live wire. It wasn’t so much the sensation of one of his force fields failing that caused his body to spasm but rather fear for his wife. She had been under that dome. If she had destroyed the vampires and wanted to be released from it, she had only to call him over the radio and he could have removed the bubble of force instantly. The fact that she hadn’t called him, even now that the rolling thunder of that explosion rolled over the landscape, worried him. It worried him enough that he barely noticed Polk’s whimpering about ‘Polk bad? Polk bad?’.

He was already sliding off the dragon’s back when Polk’s overly loud “Nyx ok? Kalista ok?” registered with him. “I don’t know,” he shouted back as he hit the ground and took off at a dead sprint for the where his dome had been. He keyed the radio and Ethan’s normally calm voice was filled with emotion as his concern for Kalista broke through the icy serenity he normally used when speaking in combat. “Kalista?...Kalista come in, over!”

OOC - Running full speed towards where the dome was.

"Nyx is fine, he's just draggin' ass like always." he grinned.

Polk couldn't hear Ethan before he could focus telepathy on him Ethan ran off.
He did telepathically get Doc's thoughts and nodded.

~Ethan looked scared, Should radio Kalista ? Please radio Kalista Doc, she not lay egg yet.~

Polk remembered some of the lore about vampires from the last town and carved crosses out of the metal for people.

Doc reached out to Kalista on the radio, "Hey lady, you ok?" Polk can easily hear Doc's words as his thoughts echo them... hadn't laid an egg... a baby!

All this time, Sir Aluras has been playing cat and mouse with the vampiress. The former scout was wrong about which one was the cat. She had thought that forcing a melee ranged confrontation would play against the elf's strengths with firearms. The cyber-knight was actually the most deadly of the Lumberjacks at close range. As they circled around each other in the fog, the vampire thought she found an opening and lunged for his back with intention of tearing her fangs through his throat. With a single fluid motion, Arulas twisted in his saddle, formed his psi-sword with a long katana-like blade, and carved the fiend's head off her neck. It would have been an impressive display had any of his teammates been able to see it.

The outcome of this fight was inevitable. I decided to use some handwave and get Arulas caught up with everybody else since his player has been occupied.

Kalista's head rang. Muffled voices were shouting. She did not have the time of concentration to deal with it. She had two vampires to destroy again. She did not know where the second sprang from, but it would die along side it's comrade. She shouted the way a person who was deafened shouted, without knowing, "I'll kill you both. Have at thee, bloodsuckers!" She reformed the chain weapon and reinitiated her assault.

++ Shiny ++, is Nyx's singular response to the radio check-in, as he tumbled one of coyotes off him and rolled to his feet. He paused for a moment, reloading both six shooters and summoning his robotic horse to him - swinging aside as it swept past and nudging it with his heels to a canter towards where it's internal compass suggested the pre-Rifts ship still lay

++Leech down. Headless. Get me a target or bearing guys. Do we have eyes on the orc?++ he says a little winded into the comm set. The run had been a blur, but the orc had to move so it accomplished something.

~Doc these smart Vampires what if we all go in and he comes out to unstake his playmates ?~

Doc paused, Polk was clever. "You saw inside, how many he got left? we can wait here for Nyx, if you want."

"Think he has living people they were butchering meat.  Saw only some of ship so dont know."

Polkitain starts to inhale inflating his chest. There was still ringing in his ear holes and do when he let out a roar it was far louder then it had to be, because he was trying to hear his own roar.

~There Doc, Nyx and others should know where we are so they can come here.~

The dull thud sound rings out from deep inside the ship. It sounded like someone struck at the steel bulkhead with a sledgehammer.

Kalista moves into a sprint at the same time that she touches her tattoo to summon a fresh morning star flail. She pursues the tall vampire who is attempting to vanish into the fog and get away from her. The tall vampire moves quickly, but the Sea Titan keeps pace well enough to keep it in sight.

At the same time, Ethan is moving at an incredible sprint around the ship's hull. He turns a corner at the ship's aft. He sees another figure coming his direction far too late for him to slow. Ethan and the tall (now naked) vampire slam into each other, knocking one another onto their backs. They take no damage.

Nyx catches up with Arulas in the shadow of the ship's hull. Nyx looks grizzly, covered in blood and gore. Arulas has his glowing sword out, and a headless body rests beneath his horse's legs.

As Polk and Doc peer into the darkness of the ship's hull, a blur of movement catches their attention from the corners of their eyes. Severance, on a robotic horse, is bolting out of the ship's entrance and riding hard westward into the fog.

~Doc Hop on before he gets away ~

Polk will be Doc's horse if need be and use his speed to keep pace of atleast let Doc get off some shots before Severance gets away.

For the purposes of not dragging out this fight longer than is desired, Doc may shoot accurately from Polk's back as if he were shooting from horseback.

Ethan’s training had included warnings about ‘tunnel vision’ and ‘audio exclusion’ as well as ways to counter them. He had years of experience in using those techniques and most of the time, they worked. Tonight was one of those times they didn’t work although to be fair, they might have, had he the presence of mind to actually use them. Unfortunately the combat medic’s mind was entirely focused on getting to his wife as rapidly as he could, rather than paying attention to all the little things that one should when in sprawling, chaotic combat situation like this. That is why he was not only completely surprised by the sudden appearance of the naked man, he was also unable to avoid their collusion.

He landed in a sitting position, his hands on either side of his hips as he shook his head and got his first good look at the man. Despite the mist, he could see the pronounced canines clearly as they stood out against the darkness. Ethan knew that his laser rifle would be of little use against the vampire so instead of pulling its trigger when he brought his hands up, aiming the rifle at the monster, he left his finger indexed alongside the weapon. A bolt of near invisible force shot out of his finger, aimed at the vampire’s head. Ethan hoped that the bolt of force would be enough to knock the vampire on his back, which would give him time to draw his silver knife.

Ethan shot at the remaining vampire with his fake-gun attack. The vampire tried to dodge but failed badly, taking a blow right to its center of mass. The blow does seem to knock it back or at least slow its progress forward.

The vampire turns towards the ship's hull and sinks claws into the rust holes and splitting steel plates. It attempts to climb away. It doesn't get far before Kalista emerges from the mist, flaming weapon in her hand. With the ferocity of a beserker Viking, she buries her spiked weapon into the vampire's back. With a grunt, she yanks the monster off the ship's hull, steel slicing to ribbons under its clawed grip. The vampire lands on the dirt ground with a stumble but stays mostly on its feet.

Meanwhile, Polkatain spins around and positions himself to give chase after his target. He pauses only long enough for Doc to have a chance to grab a hold of his back.

Doc deftly leaps to Polks back, "Let's ride Polk! We're gonna finish him, he ain't gettin' away from us!"

Polk takes off following Severance trying to protect Doc with his slightly raised wings and runs as fast as he can paying attention to Doc's knee movements to direct him.

The Ax and a stake were held in Polks mouth.

Kalista Will press her attack and finish off (both) vampires. I know there is only one, meant as joke.

The battlefield widens as the combatants move in different directions.

Severance leads a chase over the open ground as the blood moon dips low in front of him. Polkatain and Doc are hot on the villain's tail. The dragon covers ground at amazing speed and is even gaining on the robotic horse. Polkatain, however, is a creature of flesh and is breathing hard. It's unclear even to him how long he can keep up this pace. Doc is bouncing around on the dragon's back like he's starring bucking bronco film played in fast forward. It's all he can do to hold on to Polkatain's wings with one hand as he draws a revolver with the other.

Suddenly, they all punch through the outer edge of the fog. The night is clear, and Doc has the best unobstructed line of sight he's had all night.

Severance twists in his saddle to see his pursuers. His face still shows the bullet wounds from earlier, but his injuries seem less extreme now. He turns back and adjusts a small rear view mirror attached to the horse. He lifts his assassin's long gun with his good arm and points it backward over his shoulder. It's a testament to the skill of the thing when it was once a living gunfighter that the vampire would even attempt to shoot while riding and holding a long gun in a single hand and aim for a target using a mirror reflection. He squeezes his trigger, releasing a burst of deadly ion energy...

Meanwhile, Ethan and Kalista have cornered a most annoying vampire. The ugly creature trashes on the ground. Every strategy having failed it, it grasped for cyber-knight's weapon out of desperation. It attempts to pull the morning star from her grip. Attempting a roll to disarm. Kalista dodges the grab. It's mathematically impossible for her to not dodge is actually burns an attack to do it. With her sight coming in and out of focus, the vampires seem to blend into a single image and then split again. Sparks spit off the magic weapon and it slams into the vampire's belly. 14 damage, it has just a sliver of health left.

Ethan catches the breath which had been knocked out of him and finds his silvered knife.

With the mist and beneath the shadow of the hull, Nyx pulled up from his canter - the robotic stallion skidding to a halt and skudding dirt and small rocks over the headless leech beneath Sir Arulus' mount. Blood and fur dripped from both rider and horse, runnels marking out a strange geometry from the splatter of the coyotes and the bouncy and the wind from the ride. He rode with his knees, one of the reloaded six-shooters in each hand, gesturing to the ship itself, "What was that hammer blow?"

Polk when he saw the vampire oddly aiming with a mirror though it strange, ~Doc I thought they didn't appear in mirrors ?~

Polk lowered his head and raised his neck up to help protect Doc from any incoming fire. He was pretty determined to protect his friend.

  As the hammer blow sounded out Arulas was calming his spooked horse. Nyx rides up covered in gore. Arulas laughs. "No clue, but let's say we find out."

At the knight's shrug, Nyx nodded and cried out a command to his stallion, "Hai, up!", intent to make the standing leap up onto the ship's deck - or close enough. He braced himself in his stirrups, ready to hurl himself the final feet if the robotic steed fell short

Kalista went after the now single Vampire, attempting to kill it before it could do more harm.

I did not decide how high off the ground the ship's top deck would sit. Why not? Nyx propels himself up from the back of his robot and manages to wrap his arms over the edge. From there, he is able to grab a railing and pull himself the rest of the way up. From his commanding view of the battlefield, he sees the outer edges of the fog bank with himself at the center of a perfect circle.

Ethan, still on the ground in more or a less a kneeling position, saw that his invisible bolt of force had struck the vampire. He knew it had connected not because he could see it any better than anyone else but by the way the creature had stumbled. The combat medic had just gotten his silver knife in his left hand and was coming to his feet when Kalista rounded the corner of the ship, a flaming Morningstar in her hand. She brought the vicious weapon down into the vampire’s back, staggering it.

The sudden appearance of his wife not only raised Ethan's spirits and soothed his worry about her but it gave Ethan the chance to get his feet under him. Since the Cyber-Knight was clearly the more dangerous foe it faced, the vampire turned his attention to her, ignoring the combat medic. Ethan used the opportunity to lunge at the vampire’s back with his silver knife, using his years of medical knowledge to aim for the undead monster’s heart.

  Arulas laughs at Nyx and simply cuts a hole in the side of the relic. His Psi-sword slicing through the metal like a hot knife through butter. The molten metal dripping down onto the ground or Arulas' shoulder. He starts yelling hello as he carves a tunnel forward for himself.

Doc grinned, a worthy foe, then used his knees and hand to steer Polk away from the shot while simultaneously firing back at the undead orc, "Maybe he's fancy Polk, don't rightly know. But we bout to kill him."

Arulas finds a large room inside. The floor is covered in loose dirt. Bones shards are scattered about. This appears to be the room where the vampires rest during daylight. He can definitely heard the sounds of fighting further inside, just past this room in fact.

Ethan plunged the silver-coated knife into the monster's back. With a slight adjustment and a twist, he finds the heart and pierces it open. Strangely cool blood pours out over his hand. As Kalista begins her swing for a killing blow, the monster in front of her turns to dust and bone and collapses in front of her eyes. Ethan did not make the called shot, but what the heck. He made an extra skill roll instead. I see no point in dragging out this fight any longer.

"ETHAN!" Kalista was talking really loud, like she couldn't hear well. Trickles of blood from her ears would confirm this. "I AM SO RELIEVED YOU ARE UNHARMED. THANK YOU, HE AND HIS TWIN MERGED A MOMENT AGO. I THINK I AM HAVING TROUBLE HEARING AS WELL AS SEEING."

Ethan watched as the vampire instantly turned into dust and crumbled before him. He let go of the silver knife and paid no more attention to it or what was left of the monster. Seeing blood flowing from his wife’s ears, combined with her overly loud speaking, was enough to concern him both as a husband and a medic. Kalista was showing all the signs of perforated eardrums, likely caused by the massive explosion he had heard earlier the one that had demolished his force field.

He stepped over the pile of bone and dust that was all that remained of the vampire and put his hands on Kalista’s shoulders to steady and comfort her. People that had their one or both eardrums perforated often suffered from extreme vertigo. He had learned that both in medical school and first hand during this time with NEMA before and after the Coming of The Rifts. He guided her to a sitting position if she didn’t fight him so that he could begin triage. Ethan knew he could likely heal all of her injuries with a touch but he wanted to be sure he had identified all of them as he had been trained and not rely on the mysterious power he had gained as a result of exposure to the energies of a powerful rift.

She did not argue, allowing her husband to lead and guide her as he choose. She blushed, "HERE IN FRONT OF EVERYONE? YOU ARE NAUGHTY."

"MAKE WITH THE PEW PEW BANG BANG DOC." Polk said as he followed the direction of Doc's knee movements.

Ethan was grateful for his helmet just then as it hid his furiously blushing face from view. Considering that, as far as he could tell, all of the rest of the Lumberjacks weren’t in view, no one else would have seen him blushing anyways but he was grateful for the helmet’s faceplate nonetheless. His wife’s loud and uncharacteristic risqué outburst confirmed what his examination of her had already determined; she was suffering from perforated eardrums and a mild concussion. Judging by the burn marks on her armor, she had survived a point blank explosion of some magnitude. It was a testament to her durability that she was alive at all for any mortal woman would have been blown to pieces or at the very least, suffered massive internal bleeding from burst arteries, veins and internal organs.

Finished with his triage of her and after getting his face’s coloration back under control, he removed his helmet and gave her a goofy grin. “You probably can’t hear this but you are incredible,” he told her, reaching for her ears with his hands. He cupped the sides of her head gently and then concentrated on his hands, filling them with a portion of the energy his body now produced and that he had learned could be harnessed to heal others.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:20, Fri 16 Mar 2018.

Atop the ship, Nyx took in the rolling banks of fog, lapping at the island deck beneath his feet. He looked around for an entrance, not seeing Sir Arulus' entrance beneath nor the others within the fog

Doc used his free hand to fire his revolver at Severance.

As Severance rides away into the night, the monster is pursued by Polkatain and Doc. All three disappear into the darkness from the point of view of the other Lumberjacks. The shot which Severance fired skimmed past Doc who was able to duck and weave away the aim. Doc responded with a shot of silver which plinked off the back of Severance's armor. As the orc attempted to vanish over a hill and Polk's legs grew weary, the gunslinger fired two more shots. One went high due to the buck of the dragon underneath him. The other caught the vampire in the back of his neck. Severance fell off of his robot horse and thudded onto some rocks on the grounds. The gunfighting vampire neither moved nor breathed.

Meanwhile, Nyx found a hatch in the top deck. It's very near where Severance had been standing and has a ladder which leads down deeper into the ship.

Ethan investigates the injuries suffered by Kalista. He finds that the damage is not as bad as it first appeared. Although her own healing abilities could set it right, he did not wait. His energy flowed into her skull both comforting with a warm that washed away any lingering pain and restored her hearing instantly. Ethan had never spent so much of his energy at one time and felt a little light-headed himself from the experience.

End of Combat!
It's another victory for the Lumberjacks

Polkitain trotted over to the vampire and hammered in the stake if there was no armor if there was armor in the way he tried to claw it out of the way so he could stake the monster.

"Good shot Doc ! I bet Nyx owes you something now. Uhm I claim fast fake metal horse though. I can ride like a gunslinger on it."

Doc hoped off Polk's back smiling, pleased with the young dragon and his own efforts. "Me and Nyx can teach you to ride little buddy, don't know if we can teach you to shoot while you ride like we do though. That's a lot of practice. You did real good Polk, you want the metal horse, it's yours. I'll ride it back for you, you just make yourself small enough to sit on my shoulder or somethin' yeah?" Doc will cut Severance's head off, and check his body for anything valuable besides his guns, which Doc was keeping, trophies.

"I will bring the body back, I want to see what happens to them when the sun comes up. My hearing it is coming back, I hate such loud sounds." Polk carries the staked headless vampire body back.

"I just want to look pretty like you and Nyx. You have nice clothes. Gunslingers look very cool."

Doc grinned, "Handsome, men are handsome, women are pretty... well, you can tell Nyx he's pretty." Doc laughed and patted Polk on the back, "We can get you some clothes if we need to, and gunslingers look cool, because we are cool Polk, lotta history out here in the west about gunslingers... long time ago. We can find some books somewhere, I bet."

"I know how to read Doc. So I can read if we find books. Hmmm ok so Kalista and Nyx are pretty and were handsome hombres." Polk smiles.

Polk looks at Sevrins body since he was dressed like a slinger. "Awwww I guess I shouldnt have ruined his clothes huh Doc."

Coming back to her senses she looked up at her husband in gratitude. She pressed her face against his hand, enjoying the momentary contact.

Drawing both pistols, Nyx crouched on the ship's deck and used the barrel of one of them to slowly lift the hatch. As it opened to the day, he spoke softly on the radio, ++ Atop the boat, where Severance emerged. Anyone have sight of him? ++

Doc laughed, "Yes, they are pretty, and we are handsome hombres Polk, and you don't wanna wear no vampires clothes, we'll find your style and make it happen buddy." Hearing his brother on the radio, Doc replies, "Dead, me and Polk are bringin' his body and what's left of his head back now. I got 'im good. Haven't checked all his gear yet, but I got first dibs."

From deep within the ship, Nyx can hear some voices speaking calmly.

Meanwhile, (I use that word a lot, don't I?) Arulas sees a creature run towards him into the dirty-bottomed room. The tall monster is instantly recognizable as a ghoul.

Polkatain was able to get through the armor rather easily. Only duster coat and hat were armored. The rest of his outfit was regular cloth. The vampire's robot horse follows obediently. It isn't obeying Doc so much as following the body of Severance. It doesn't prevent Doc from riding on top of it. The horse can be reset for a different owner if you guys can find anyone with mechanical skills like Robot Electronics or even Computer Operation.

++ Good work ++, observed the 'slinger, with a smile and a pause before swinging down the hatch, ++ Make sure you mount it ++

After a few steps down into the bowels of the boat, he peered down and called out softly in his native tongue, "Who's there?"

Ethan smiled at his wife as she nuzzled his hand in a surprising display of public affection. He stroked her cheek with his other hand and then cleared his throat. "Come on my Lady," he says to her as he stands up and offers her his free hand. "There might be more bad guys inside the ship. The vampires may have been keeping prisoners here too, victims that will need medical attention."

Kalista and Ethan walked towards an entrance to the ship. Which entrance? Including the holes that Polk and Aru made, I could four ways inside the ship. Please pick one.

Nyx dropped out of sight into the dark interior of of the vampires' lair. I am moving you to the other thread.

Kalista wrapped her arm around Ethan's waist. She liked that part of him, it lead up to the wide shoulders in a kind of V. "Prepare yourself." Then she used TK Leap and her own tremendous strength to jump them both into one of the holes Aru made. That should put them in the thick of it.

Ethan had just enough time to think, “Prepare myself for wha…” before his wife used her strength and unknown to him, her psychic abilities, to jump both of them up and down into the battered old ship.  During their flight he hurriedly put back on his helmet, sealing it just as they touched down inside one of the holes that had been made since the battle had started.

Once she released him, he looked around, gathering his bearings before selecting a direction to head down. He activated his helmet’s built in radio as he scanned the dark interior of the corridor they had landed in with the night vision optics of his laser rifle to give his teammates an update. “This is Ethan, Kalista and I are inside the ship. We came in through one of the holes on the top deck.”

OOC – Looking around 360 degrees, floor to ceiling, using the passive night vision scope on his laser rifle.
Ethan rolled 19 using 1d20.  Perception check.

Polk sings an old prerifts song he heard in a cantina on his way back.
"Im a cowboy and on a steel horse ride and Im waaaanted dead or alive."

"I hope that pesky fog is gone Doc."

  Arulas merely laughs as he dispatches the ghoul. "Gotcha Ethan got a ghoul or two running around so watch yourselves. Got some sort of hammer user on the other side of this bulkhead going through it now."

On the radio, Nyx responded to Ethan's report, ++ Inside. Contact, three 'escapees' ++

Doc laughed, "We gotta work on that singing voice buddy." As they approach, he replies to his brother, "Nyx, keep em at a distance til we can check em out. Make sure they're escapees and not messin' with us."

Polk pouted slightly.

"Ok, I'll work on it. Perhaps dragons are not musically inclined."

++ Handshake too close? ++

"Nah, you're too pretty to keep em away anyway brother," Doc laughed, he turned to Polk, "I'm kidding, messing with you. You sing fine, ewe all need practice though. Or we get bad at things."

++ Found three so far: a psi stalker and two men - one's claims to be some kind of ranger and the other is ... well, full of fancy names but wearing rags. Say they've killed a vampire or three ++
This message was last edited by the player at 11:42, Mon 26 Mar 2018.

"Tell Nyx to remember tripwire and boom booms smart vampires set up."

Arulas lashes out with his curved psi-sword, cutting the ghoul in twain. The monster looked intimidating enough with its height and huge jagged jaw, but it almost ran into the cyber-knight's blade. The monster collapses in pieces onto a floor of thick and soft dirt. The large room seems to be where the vampires had slept in the earth during daylight hours.

Kalista and Ethan entered the through the hatch at the top deck. They slipped down a ladder not far behind Ny. Although they are privy to the conversations being played, it's fairly clear also the general directions of everyone inside because no one is hiding their voices.

Ethan also notices the entrance to the entrance to the bridge. The doorway is obstructed by a piece of scrap metal leaned against it, but the bridge beyond is remarkably clean and intact. It appears to be where one or more of the vampires had spent much of the their free time. Musical instruments are lying around as well as old holovid projectors. The windows offer a remarkable view of the surrounding countryside or at least 180 degrees of it. On the window sills, someone has set out several pots of flowers, both native and alien.

I'm moving everybody into a new thread where everyone may communicate freely.