"We're unlikely to sweet-talk those kind of folk", drawled Nyx, quietly unlimbering an ancient-pattern rifle from his back, "So perhaps I should let my Winchester talk for me... Either of you two a decent shot at range? Strikes me that three of us could remove three of them swiftly enough"

Na-Wa shakes his head but draws his CP-30 pulse pistol. “People tell Na-Wa he shoot for shit, but still tell Na-Wa to shoot to make bad guys duck.”

With a laugh, Nyx checked the rifle was fully loaded and then repeated the same procedure with other weapons, "No false modesty, I like that. You're ok, stalker"

Lucas considered all the options before them silently before answering the questions. He didn't like the implications of zombies in the town, but he liked his new companion's gung-ho attitude even less. He shook his head as he prepared to be the voice of reason, realizing his old squad mates would likely be laughing their heads off at seeing him try. "I'm a fair shot, but I believe 'guns blazing' is not our best option at this point. As Na-Wa pointed out, the presence of zombies in the town suggests that the town is either friendly with or owned by whoever lives behind the fence. That being the case, we're unlikely to find much help there, at best, and at worst the whole town will hunt us down as soon as we try anything against this facility. I see two options. One, we stay where we are and gather as much intelligence as we can about both the town and the fenced area, waiting for the other group to finish with the dwarves and come help us. Two, we wait for night to fall without a moon and use the cover of darkness to raid the facility while the town sleeps."

Ouch, that's a 30 point tap. Seems painful.

The syphon entity from within pick axe releases a psychic howl which can be well heard by everyone in the grotto, psychic or not. To Polk, it finally speaks telepathically. "The magic was mine. You were not using it, and I claimed it, dragon." It lashes out, sending a psychic attack at all of the PCs. This is a bio-manipulation attack; Save vs. Psychic Attack or share the entity's pain.

(I thought Polk was alone in the canyon ?)

Letting his laughter fade quietly as Lucas spoke, Nyx offered a shrug, "Folks seldom pay me for sub-" and winced as pain shot through his brain

09:14, Today: Nyx rolled 3 using 1d20.  Save vs Psionics. Failure

ok rolled got a 22.  I am on my phone so copy n paste is impossible it is logged on the die roller though.

Polks eyes narrow as the howl is painful but the words he hears from the thing are not encouraging.

Na-Wa just looks in the direction of the mind attack and then looks at the dragon. "You not a smart dragon, you need to throw mind hurting axe away."

18:33, Today: Na-Wa rolled 12 using 1d20.  Save vs psionic attack 6 or higher.
PASS

Lucas growled as the wave of anguish washed over him. He preferred to let other people's problems stay other people's problems, and so would let Polkitain deal with the axe how he liked... for now. He looked over at Polkitain briefly, and the offending axe, before turning back to Nyx. "Unfortunately, those stupid vampires took all my silver bullets. Do you know if zombies take such rounds to damage, or will regular shots do the job? Or for that matter, how about energy blasts? I'm more accustomed to monsters farther north. Though i still say, regardless whether we decide to attack or wait, we should put the time in to do some proper reconnaissance on this whole place."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:30, Wed 25 Apr 2018.

Players, we need to talk.

First, this party has no name. That's inconvenient for me. Until these five PCs (Polkitain, Lucas, Na-Wa, Jason, and Nyx) pick a name for themselves, I will call them The Fartknockers.

Second and more seriously, I feel that I need to address something. It seems to me that I did not make the situation for the Fartknockers clear. As a result, the Fartknockers have placed themselves into a very undesireable predictiment. I just want to clarify before things pass a point of no return and internet blood is spilled.

The Fartknockers are deep within enemy territory, and their nearest allies are currently two days' ride away. In fact, the Fartknockers are currently inside the borders of one of the Vampire Kingdoms. Even Reid's Rangers have not pushed this deep. That means there are thousands of vampires nearby. They are not all right here at this plantation which is actually on the outskirts of the kingdom, but they are around. That also means there is a Vampire Intelligence and a kingdom's military around.

Several options have been tossed out, some better than others. Hiding and waiting is a valid option. Sneaking into the plantation or into the town is a valid option. Scouting around the perimeter is a valid option. Attacking the front gates in broad daylight is sort of a valid option, very risky but having some strategic merit.

Scouting around during the night is inviting far more trouble than the Fartknockers are capable of handling. If they are spotted at night in a best case scenario, they run into a band of civilian vampires and end up in a fair fight. If they are spotted at night in a worst case scenario, they draw the attention of the Intelligence and get pursued by a professional army of vampires consisting of hundreds of experienced warriors.

I am not advocating a full retreat either. Bruce (the rune sword) is in fact nearby. These vampires currently possess false rune weapons, a genuine rune item, and an Atlantean Chiang Dragon as prisoners. It possible that they may crack the secret of Atlantean tattoo magic. As Jason pointed out, the project is more difficult than they expected. It is also entirely possible that they will learn the secret process of creating rune weapons from a their prisoner who actually knows how to do it. Abandonning the adventure hook could be disasterous in the long run.

In other words, you're playing the epic game right now.

Okay, I think I have clarrified. From here on out, you guys decide the fates of your PCs.

"Fire and silver", offered Nyx, his knowledge of these creatures still burgeoning

OOC: Let's call ourselves the Caulkers, the "boots on the ground" used by lumberjacks (unless someone else has a better name). Despite Nyx being all gung-ho, I figure a more discrete daylight approach is better: over the fence, easy enough on a robotic steed if there's somewhere out of sight of the main gate, and then afoot towards the village or plantation? Failing that, take out the gate guards quickly and loudly and lead off any rapid response force whilst the rest of you infiltrate during the chaos and rescue the dragon and the sword?

Polk looks over to Na Wa, "Maybe your right. I am sorry to my friends, sorry Nyx."

Polk digs and digs and digs drops the pick ax in and buries it and puts a boulder on it. He then looks at what the vulture was munching on.

In reply to Nyx (msg # 33):

OOC: Either of your plans makes sense. Na-Wa is pretty good at sneaking. Unfortunately Na-Wa’s IQ prevents me from really helping with the planing.

You are burying the Syphon Entity? That is funny -- but not an inappropriate solution.

When the entity realizes what is happening, it ceases to sulk or play coy. "Master, do not do this! You are making a mistake. Picky knows things about these creatures that you track. I have intelligence."

The pick axe is speaking directly to Polkitain, but it is transmitting loudly enough telepathically that anyone can hear it unless mind-blocked (which would be reasonable following that bio-manipulation attack).

The bones seem to belong to some alien or mutant bovine creature.

There is no change at the guard shack. Everyone is fully healed and recharged now. It's early afternoon.

~Give Polk this intelligence if it is true I come back and unbury you.~

Polk thought the thing was probably lying but on the off chance it was true he would play at his own manipulation.

Whilst the 'slinger waited for something to indicate whether Polk's pickax had struck a bargain, Nyx turned his attention back to Lucas, "What calibre rounds do you need? As you can see-" and he gestured at the three braces of pistols he carried in addition to a rifle, vibro-sabre and collection of blades, "-if have a need to carry a few spare rounds, many of them silver"

Na-Wa rests and relaxes while the smart people make a plan. Once said plan is voice Na-Wa will make sure he will let the others know what he is good at.

While also waiting for Poliktain to receive his answer, Lucas slumped his shoulders and shook his head. He'd almost managed to forget the foolhardy waste of good ammunition, until Nyx brought it up. "I was an idiot. Had hundreds of rounds, and took them all. Never considered the possibility that the vampires would just toss them out like that. Wasn't able to turn up any trace of them and I checked that tin can top to bottom. To answer your question, I have a couple .44 revolvers and a 15mm rifle. I had plenty of silver rounds for both in case I ever ran into the kind of monsters take that sort of ammo. Have a number of energy weapons as well. So as long as I don't need silver, I can still manage ok." He turned back to look at the town and gate. Coming to no clear decision, he just shook his head. "I'm not sure what the best approach is to crack this one. I mean, I'm pretty sure I can get myself into the compound. Possibly even unseen. Once inside, though..." He shrugged. "I have this sense of urgency to get it done quick. Am I imagining that, or should we hurry? I hate rushing things like this. A rushed op is often a botched op. That being said, we're deep into what I imagine is vampire territory. If we wait for nightfall, we could be surrounded by nocturnal blood suckers."

Looking around at the few gathered in the small trench, he sighed and shook his head again. "I'm open to suggestions. I suppose we could contact the others on the radio and see how their work is going. If they're on their way already, we could wait for them. If not, at least we'll know."

With a chuckle, Nyx unstrapped the pair of Glocks holstered behind his shoulders and threw the set over to Lucas, "Got myselfs some .45s, a wee .40 and a rifle that takes .40-82s. No .44 rounds, nor 15mms. You can borrow these two, I've standard and silver rounds for both them beauts"

He offered a shrug whilst he considered the dejected rangers intuition, sidestepping the words momentarily with some humour, "We go back a long way, though, so I want them back"

And then with a sigh he stopped dancing around, "Quick and subtle works for me; quick, as in we're losing daylight..."

Lucas chuckled. "You thinking a quick smash and grab? Just go in the front door, hit em before they know we're there approach? Could be like swatting a hornet's nest and trying to outrun the swarm that follows."

"Smash and grab would be a last resort; I'm a 'slinger not an idiot", offered the elf, though his feral grin belied that a touch, "Penetrate their perimeter, find your Chiang Ku and run like the wind. If we need to, then torch the place on the way out"

Lucas blinked. "That... ummm... sounds like a smash and grab. simple. straight forward. not much in the way of twists and turns. Given this is vampire territory and it's day time still, quick and dirty might be the best option. if we can pull it off quickly, we'll be in and out and hopefully a long long way down the road before the vamps wake up and retaliate."

"Na-Wa, you think you could pinpoint your sword's location if we get close enough?" He looked over to his long time companion, hoping the answer was yes.

Nyx blinked, but nodded; clearly the nuances were lost on him, but he was keen to see if the stalker could pull off the hardest bit - finding their targets

OOC: For the avoidance of Drama^TM, I'm not being snarky - but Nyx has a relatively poor MA and limited formal training or experience in small unit tactics prior to the Lumberjacks. Attempting to balance that :)

Between searching with binoculars and a minor bit of recon, it looks like it might be possible to cut through the wire fense or dig under it. From the northern side under cover of some rocks and shrubs, this might be done without being seen from the main house. The gate with the zombie guards has the shortest path through the plantation to that house though. Polkitain may change again now.