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.