Trace staggered as a wave of hatred struck him like of thousand angry voices screaming in his head. It was only pure look that instinct made him open his eyes and look up to see the incoming psychic blast.

The boy dived out of the way, rolling on to the floor and backing away from the giant floating heads. His retreat was stopped when he came to face-to-eyestalk with a dalek, screaming at him to explain. For a split second he forgot it was Farren.

His mind went blank. Okay Trace, he thought, talk your way out of this one.

(might need a moment to think about this)

The doors are locked.  If she really wanted in, there was always the Possible Knife.  But her arm and her side throbbed with a recent, painful reminder of just how fickle the paradox artifact could be, and she knew that the timelines were still jangling from that.

The doors are locked.  But they'd been shut before, when she'd paused to bait the Dalek guards, and she'd felt that monstrous presence anyway.

The doors are locked.  But the gates of the mind are never closed to me!  And as much as any Dalek mind has been bred to hate anything not like itself, it has surely been taught that a Time Lord is not merely to be hated, but to be feared.  If she can penetrate its thoughts, she hopes, it should notice.  And that may distract it enough to give her allies the freedom to defeat it.

She concentrates and sends her consciousness plunging through the doors, past the vague hints of Farren and Trace that she feels, and into the seething pit of hatred beyond them.

OOC:  So, I don't have Telepathy, and can't exactly project to "call out" the brain or brains.  But I figure that it should certainly notice my attempt to read it / them with Psychic.  And do I read the traits correctly, that Psychic and Psychic Training both apply if it counterattacks?

Call that a mind reading attempt, plus an attempt to resist psychic attack as a second action.  Can I tell if the doors are providing a lot of psychic shielding?  I might have to delay and get the doors open first if that's the case.

OOC:
Tarys: There is some degree of psychic shielding, reflecting back the psychic energy (the inner walls are reflective and could function as mirrors with the lights on), and but some still leaks through. The Power Brains can't attack through the closed doors.

Psychic Training gives +2 Resolve to resist a psychic assault of some kind. That will apply to getting through the wall of hate effect. OTOH, Psychic gives +4 to resist being mind-read or possessed, but the Power Brains aren't attempting that, so it doesn't apply.

Please roll Resolve + Awareness + 4 as normal for Psychic to make contact or try to read the brains.


Trace: You can spend a Story Point for a clue or idea of mine. ;)

OOC:

I'm torn between spending a story point for a clue, or to find something useful in my pockets (Resourceful Pockets). Go for whichever ks

is cooler.

[Definitely liking the passive roll being done for me. Makes things much easier. :D]

So many pieces of the puzzle, and Axander didn't have Tarys on hand to tell him what was best. She was more experienced, more used to this black ops specialist stuff. She'd seen the War firsthand. But that didn't matter. She was busy, and doubt wasn't going to make any of this any easier. Axander was together with Bluetooth on this. Together, the two of them could...

"Two of us? Bluetooth, where's...?" Nothing. He snapped his fingers as though trying to conjure someone from the void. "We had six pilots. Elona was full. There were six of us!" The young Time Lord's face went pale as realization stuck his gut like a knife.

"Someone's missing. Oh by Rassilon's wisdom, someone's missing from my mind... P-Professor, one problem at a time. Bluetooth, one Dalek at a time. We can free the prisoners, make our way to the generator, plug the device in, fry the place, sabotage the infernal contraption, and make our escape, good plan? Great pla--" The panic had him speaking quickly, but his mind worked just as fast. It really did sound sensible to him. What didn't sound sensible was talking with a Dalek on the way.

Part of him was terrified. Part of him was excited. He had tried to ignore that bit most of his life, pretend it wasn't there. This time, maybe it would be of use. A moment of clarity and he glanced at the machine Bluetooth had created.

"Blue, get ready!" With that, he quickly found a hiding spot and pulled the Professor down out of sight with him.

Tarys feels the static of whatever shielding the Daleks have designed into the door as soon as she starts her probe, but she pushes ahead anyway.  Perhaps it will be enough....

OOC:

Tarys rolled 16 using 2d6+13 with rolls of 1,2. Probing / distracting the brain mutants: Resolve(5) + Awareness(4) + Psychic(4).

Farren & Trace:

As Trace searched desperately for something to say, the power brains began to rotate furiously in their tanks, snarling and spitting.


Tarys:

Tarys's keen mind penetrated the shielding, finding it only worked one-way, designed to keep a psychic force in and reflected back on itself, more than to keep one out. She touched a mind, no, nigh-identical minds, of pure, unrelenting, and incessant hatred and loathing, nothing but hatred, cold and sharp and crystal-clear. They pushed intolerantly at her, but she slipped under like a shadow.

Axander & Bluetooth:

Ramst was bewildered. 'Missing? But there were only the two of you...' he began, before Axander suddenly dragged him behind a laboratory bench. The terrifying silhouette of a Dalek loomed up the corridor wall...


OOC: Bluetooth? Both of you, please make hiding rolls and state any actions prepared.

Quickly, as an idea came to him, Trace cowered in front of the "Dalek," covering his head with his arms in a futile attempt to ward off the Dalek death ray.

"Please master,"I the boy whimpered, trying to put as much fear into his voice, "I ...  was sent to check the power regulators. The weapon lab isn't getting enough power to test the latest weapon. Please don't kill me, I was only doing what I was ordered to!"

[Stealth roll, Awareness 3 + Subterfuge 1. Coulda been Coordination, but it's also 3 and I think Awareness makes more sense in context.

15:10, Today: Axander rolled 15 using 2d6+4 with rolls of 5,6. Awareness+Subterfuge.]

I don't know what it takes to hide, but Bluetooth isn't very good at it. Not even sure the word is in his vocabulary!

08:36, Fri 22 May 2015: Bluetooth rolled 10 using 2d6+2 ((3,5)).

He has no subterfuge, so when hiding appears to fail, Bluetooth is all ready to use his Dalek Decimator gun (sounds better than what Ramst called it!).

Farren & Trace:

The power brains seemed satisfied by Trace's story, or at least, they were no longer concerned with him. They were more agitated now by the unseen mind poking them from afar.

Axander & Bluetooth:

As Axander and Bluetooth dove for cover behind the laboratory bench, the Dalek turned into the lab, stopping before Ramst and focusing its eyestalk upon the trembling scientist. 'Why are you not at your sta-tion?' it growled.

'I— I came to adjust the power relay junction. It was out of phase, 3.1 amps.' The slaves were naturally incredibly nervous around Daleks, so Ramst's anxiety was only to be expected.

The Dalek swivelled to look at a control panel. 'The power is cor-rect.'

'I've adjusted it now.'

The Dalek stared at Ramst for a long time, before finally uttering 'Return to your sta-tion.' Ramst started walking, then jumped as the Dalek screeched 'Halt! What is that be-hind the work-bench?' It was a tail, a furry Rakshasa tail.

'...A duster?'


OOC: A "No, But" Failure for the Dalek. Bluetooth is spotted, but can get the jump on the Dalek.
10:22, Today: Secret Roll: GM BadCatMan rolled 12 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 3,2.

Still whimpering a little, Trace scuttled backwards away from Farren and got to his feet. He moved warily towards the large console between the two monstrous heads, eying it as he approached. Maybe he could kill two birds with one stone; use the console to send a surge through the tanks while he set the power generators to overload.

Farren & Trace:

As Trace approached the console, he found the repulsive psychic force field was still up. It was only when Axander gave the order and a nod of his eyestalk to the power brains that it had. Trace stumbled through and made it to the console, uncomfortably close to the hateful brains.

He found a typical Dalek console which was, needless to say, complex and difficult to use. For one, he didn't have a Dalek plunger to interface. He found he could shut down power to the whole Citadel of Eternity from here, though not the Daleks or the Temporal Exterminator, which drew its power from the Tantalus Eye.


OOC: Make an Ingenuity + Technology roll versus Difficult 12, at a −6 penalty for the difference in Tech Levels. You can apply Technically Adept and AoE: Computers.

After the field dropped Trace stared at the controls, attempting to decode their workings. Not being designed to be operated by human hands, the young engineer had to ignore the layout of the switches and dials, and instead trace the flow of power in his head.

His heart sank a little when he realised that he could not send a power surge to the Weapon or fry the big giant heads. But he could control power to the entire Citadel. At the very least, that would buy them some time.

"Master," he said in a fearful voice addressing the 'dalek' behind him. "Do I have your permission to initiate a manual power cycle procedure?" He hopped Farren would get the message as to what he was about to do.

OOC:
23:09, Today: Trace rolled 16 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 3,6. Ing(5)+Tech(4)+Aoe(2)+Tech Adept(2)-Diff(6).

Also, is it possible to reroute the power back to the reactor in an attempt to destroy the citadel's power system?

OOC: You can do anything you want to try, with the right roll and technobabble. That includes destroying the power generators or the brains.

Farren-Dalek's eyestalk followed Trace as he said, "Oh so you are the Hu-man slave sent to adjust the pow-er levels.  Your dis-patch was re-port-ed to me.

You should know bet-ter than to fail to re-port your arri-val im-medi-ate-ly to the rank-ing Dalek.  How-ever, as you are currently use-ful, I will not ex-ter-min-ate you... for now."

When Trace requested permission, Farren-Dalek replied, "You have per-mis-sion to carry out your task.  You will make the nec-ess-ary cor-rec-tions to the pow-er levels... im-med-iate-ly!"

In a soft whisper, Farren added, "Slave, if you need me to in-it-iate the fi-nal po-wer cy-cling as your pathe-tic in-fer-ior species lacks the sup-per-ior Dalek tech-no-log-ical in-ter-face, you will in-form me im-med-iate-ly.

There will be no ex-cuses for fail-ure to re-dir-rect sufficient po-wer to the weap-ons lab-ora-tory.  The weap-ons test-ing must not be de-layed!  You will Ob-ey!"

Bloody hell... this mental "translating" of even the simplest ideas into "superior Dalek-ese" is turning my brain into mush.  How can a species this backwards in communication command such deadly technological advances and instill such abject fear!?

Trace began to flip switches, opening and closing relays across the citadel and rewiring the power grid by remote. By routing the power through several systems, including the giant head jars, and then sending it back to the generators, he was able to set up feedback loop. Each cycle through the loop, the charge grew ever higher, and system after system would short out and blow. Deep below, the atomic generators began to get very warm.

Hopefully there was enough time for the others to do what they came for.

Not sure if I'd ever given it any thought before now, but, yes, Bluetooth has a tail. Of course, now I'm picturing the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz...


Still not sure of his options... is the Dalek Decimator functional... against one Dalek... without having to be plugged in somewhere? If it has to be plugged in, Bluetooth will quickly scan the workbench for an outlet to plug into, then fire at the Dalek.

If that's not an option, he'll jump on top of the Dale and try to pry the dome off or break the eye stalk. Watched the first Peter Cushing movie over the weekend... The image is stuck in my head.


If he needs to plug in, he's looking for some place to do so:

22:29, Mon 01 June 2015: Bluetooth rolled 10 using 2d6+4 ((1,5)). Awareness+Ingenuity

If he can fire the Dalek Decimator that he jiggery-poked together...

22:30, Mon 01 June 2015: Bluetooth rolled 14 using 2d6+9 ((2,3)). Coordination+Resolve+Brave

If the gun doesn't fire/work, he'll physically attack:

22:31, Mon 01 June 2015: Bluetooth rolled 16 using 2d6+10 ((1,5)). Coordination+Strength+Natural Weapons

Farren & Trace:

Trace's power feedback loop did its destructive work, overloading systems at random throughout the base. Error messages in Dalek script scrolled down the screen. The lights in the generator room dimmed and the throbbing psychic heartbeat of the power brains skipped a beat.

The power brains thrashed in their tanks, bobbing furiously up and down.


OOC: A straight Good result for Trace; he shuts down power to the base until the Daleks can fix it.

Farren & Trace:

Out in the corridor, the lights dimmed briefly and Tarys heard something far off sizzle and spark.

Axander & Bluetooth:

Given that cue, a ferocious tiger-man leaped up behind the work-bench, wielding a terrifying agglomeration of technology and wires, which he levelled ominously at the Dalek. He jammed the button down.

Click.

Click.

Whoosh! Violet lightning erupted from the parallax inversion module, arcing across the lab and striking the Dalek in its approximate front. Immediately, it let out an electronic squeal, 'E-mer-gen-seeee!' its dome spinning around and around as lights flashed and eyepiece raised up and down. Finally, it stopped, everything drooping. The Dalek seemed to entirely incapacitated.

Yet Ramst looked at the dormant Dalek with white-faced horror. 'That's done it. We have to escape now.'

Suddenly the lights dimmed, plunging the lab into a momentarily blackout before returning to normal illumination. Then the power relay junction on the wall sparked and exploded.

'Now!'


OOC: The Dalek Decimator has its own power pack, sufficient for blasting one Dalek at a time. I don't think you actually need a roll for a Gadget to hit.

Dalek is stunned for a number of rounds.

The sudden power failure argues strongly to Tarys that Farren and Trace have accomplished their task.

Tarys checks the door.  It seems likely to her that the failure state of the door would allow it to be shifted manually, because otherwise the Daleks would have no way to access the controls to effect repairs.  As she tries to force it, though, agony shoots up her injured arm.

She decides to risk calling out.  With her good arm, she beats a staccato on the door that a Dalek would have difficulty replicating.  "Trace?  Farren?  You hear me in there?"

She listens intently, not just for a reply, but for noise outside in the base.  The Daleks will, in all likelihood, be sending units to investigate the outage before long.

OOC: Figure it won't be easy to move that door with a Strength of 1, alas.

Trace jumps back from the console as a shower of sparks erupt from one of the shorted controls. "That's our cue to leave I reckon," the boy says to Farren as he beats a hasty retreat to the door. "Tarys, is that you?" He calls out to the muffled voice on the other side of the door.

"Wow. Did I do that?" Bluetooth asks when the console explodes with sparks.

Knowing that the Dalek is only temporarily stunned, Bluetooth wonders what a second shot would do...

Then another thought hits him (he forgot to duck).

"What happens if we tip the Dalek over on its side? Is it like a turtle? Would it be stuck like that?" he asks whoever is still around... Axander...Ramst.

A shower of sparks had never been anything to run from, in his book. Still, he's torn between attempting the tilt-a-Dalek ploy and listening to Ramst.

Axander stayed hidden from view as best he could until he heard the device's noise (he assumed it was the device, anyway) and the dalek went quiet. That was quite a ruckus. He slowly looked out from behind the table, even as Ramst frantically tried to get them moving. Everything was dead. Did the gun really knock out power to the whole lab? Maybe it was the others, and they just happened to have extremely coincidental timing. They did have a Time Lord with them, after all. A proper one.

"Hm. Normally touching a dalek would set you on fire instantly. With its power off, I suspect that isn't the case. Regardless, the antigravity modules that allow it to fly would also allow it to right itself with far less effort than it would take us to tip it over in the first place. I suggest we listen to the professor and get the other prisoners someplace they can do some real damage. Well done, Bluetooth. Professor, lead on!" A small smile was creeping onto his face. They'd just fried a dalek. The monsters weren't invincible. Not totally, anyway. The thing wasn't dead, though, and it would be right behind them in a dramatically appropriate period of time. Xander assumed that would be about the time they started mobilizing prisoners.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:50, Wed 03 June 2015.

Farren, Tarys, & Trace:

Reunited, albeit on opposite sides of the door, all that remained was for Farren to unlock the door before they could be on their way again – toward the Temporal Exterminator and the fate of the universe.

Axander & Bluetooth:

Led by Professor Ramst, Axander & Bluetooth hustled out of the lab, finding the power failures and overloaded circuits had spread much further than the expected yield of the Decimator. Puzzled scientists were creeping out of darkened labs and workshops, staring blankly at the travellers. One was a Martian, still in his armour; he looked eerily familiar, but in no way Axander could put his finger on.

Quickly, Ramst rallied the enslaved scientists, and a stream of them poured toward the exit. They found the security doors unlocked and sitting open – an emergency measure in case of vacuum or fire, designed to expose the slaves to whatever was afflicting the base as a last act of Dalek spite.

They were back out in the main base, ready to be on their way – toward the Temporal Exterminator and the fate of the universe.