"Patience Sarge!  Put it on me if things go wrong!"

In reply to Desiraye Lipost (msg # 150):

Porter takes Desi aside to make his case.

"I counseled against continuing to travel while anyone was fatigued and within minutes we are are being harassed by those carnosaur things!"  Porter mansplians  "Now only seconds after suggesting we put our weakest members inside the tent to get good rest, those same people want to stand watch!  Our weakest, least able to deal with trouble, are now effectively taking over security for this mission and putting ALL of us at risk!"  Porter shrugs.

"You're the boss, I will back your play but shouldn't we leave the sciencing to the science guys and let the soldiers do the soldiering?"

Porter makes himself busy building a decent size fire considering the chances of something being attracted to the fire is countered by the notion that most animals are afraid of fire and will stay away.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:43, Sun 07 June 2020.

In reply to Sgt. Porter Min (msg # 151):
"Point taken Sarge.  I'll order the change of schedule, you see it's followed through please?"

Desiraye will call for all team members to meet with her in the center of their camp.  "Listen, change of orders.  We're going with the original plan with the most injured are in the tent, the rest of us outside on watch.  Porter will set up the watches.

I'll need you two ready working the robot(s) tomorrow effectively."

After finishing building a fire big enough to throw heat and light for the campsite Porter approaches S'Krllk.

"I appreciate your offer, but we have this covered," he nods around the campsite.  "You and Bartja and Orvo are all injured and need rest, so get in the tent.  Desi is injured as well and at least one of the security team should get uninterrupted sleep, so it's settled.  The rest of us will stand watch or try to get some sleep with the breathers.  Robots and I am assuming Hammer, are unaffected by the atmosphere so we should have more than enough security to handle watches."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:53, Sun 07 June 2020.

You settle into the night watches...

Dr. Appleburg sleeps outside in the raft (which was pulled onto shore). He is still weak and needs healing.

(You are right that Mechanons will not need breathers, though they still must power down and "rest" or have similar breakdowns (reaction speed, etc.).)
PM


You rise in the morning glad to have not had any major encounters overnight.

Given the change in watch, Bartja states that he needs time to do his checks and repairs on the robot. He takes the time during camp take down and breakfast to do this, and he continues to do this on the raft for Shemp once the survey robot is in the air again. S'krllk helps him.


As you begin floating down the river, Bartja and S'krllk give you the news about what they have been able to access.

First, the good news: Terry has been delayed about 3 hours in the repairs. The bad news: most of the delays are caused by Terry setting up traps and ambushes for you.

Here are the details:

They get a little feedback from the system's computers on the Moraes, finding (1) that the other crew members are prisoners, not working with him, (2) that he is still waiting on the arrival of LeGrange but has radio contact that LeGrange will be arriving at approximately noon, (3) that he is panicking that you are going to the Moraes and he is rigging some sort of traps on the ship, (4) He has been taking drugs to stay awake and work on the repairs, but that problem in the repairs are likely to cause him about a 3 hour delay, (5) he has three robots, including the damaged one from yesterday, (6) he has been monitoring you from 2 kilometers away, 1250 meters above, with one of the robots, which has been constantly reporting your whereabouts and actions from the sky, and (7) they are able to pinpoint on the map exactly where the Moraes is at.

They also learn these actions from the computer logs:

They fail at all attempts to get into the security, computer, or robot systems. It is then that the attempts (crit fail) send out an alarm. Terry is aware of the attempts to spy and get control, and he destroys the radios that would allow signals to be sent. You are totally cut off.

Some more details:
DAY ONE
9:00: After the airship departed, Terry stunned the three other crew members aboard the Moraes and tied them up in the exercise room. Terry starts the ship's attack/defense security program. That activates the emergency defense systems and provides computer
control of the ship's heavy laser turrets and the survey robots' weapons.
DAY TWO
After 15 hours of labor, the overhaul is only one-quarter complete. Unnerved by increasing time pressure, Terry decides to rig an automatic bridge sabotage. He sets demo charges in the ship's bridge that can be detonated by remote control. He then arranges other
detonating switches linked to the emergency bridge systems. He continually reviews the party's progress through the remote robot's scanners.

He slept from 4:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. yesterday morning.

At noon last night: Terry increasingly worries about the party's approach. He searches
the ship for weapons and defenses. He also experiments with the ship and robot ordinance and a variety of grenades. He plans his ship defense. Then he moves the captives to the bridge, and straps them into acceleration couches with freeze fields to incapacitate them. He then moves all weapons and supplies to the bridge and prepares for siege. He improvises a search
and destroy program for the survey robots.

At 2:00 p.m., after completing his ship defense plans, Terry opens the computer link to the party's robot and tries to take control of it. But he failed and returned to the overhaul work.

At 4:00 p.m., Terry sends a robot to attack the party (which you fought). He is stunned
and alarmed by the results. After more careful assessment of the strategic situation, Terry decides he must destroy the party to win time to complete the overhaul.

From 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., Terry started making traps and rigging ways to kill the party. He reprogrammed another robot to ambush you somewhere. Terry rigs traps on the engineering
and lab decks. Terry rigs traps on the recreation deck and wrecks the radiophones and subspace radios in the Moraes, the aircars, the explorer, and the remaining airship.

Midnight: Terry starts taking drugs to stay awake and make up time for the delays. But this has gained you an extra 3 hours.

The sun has not yet risen but dawn is approaching. You have packed up and are pushing out into the river.

OOC: Anything else to do before you leave camp?

5:00 a.m. (8 hours remaining) (0 hours with no rest) (ADJUSTED for extra 3 hours)
Rations remaining: 52 (each survival ration is for one person for one day)
Bivouac Units: 1 (30/30 SP (structural points); 10 kg each); second one is kept as scrap (10 kg)

This message was last edited by the GM at 03:07, Mon 08 June 2020.

(IC)
With the rest of the team well rested and another rafting journey ahead, Porter climbs into the second raft, keeping his machine gun handy he tries to get some shut eye and recuperate before they reach the landing site.

FYI: Desi did not sleep well.

In reply to GM Heath (msg # 156):

Desi slept in the tent?

No. Desi, Porter, Appleburg and Hammer slept outside. Desi failed her stamina check for one of the hours.

Hammer is ready but recommends any injured get any healing or biocort needed as they start the day.

He will lead the raft down river when they start.

Desi slept in the tent

Hmmm...Desi said the "rest of us," so that confused me. So outside were Porter, Hammer, and Appleburg then. So Desi did get a full rest. Porter should have gotten Desi's bad rolls in that case, but let's just move it forward. :)


I have also been doing a bad job at keeping the stats updated. This means that I didn't notice that, without medical attention, some of you would have been negative and required staydose to remain conscious. So here is where your damage stands before assuming maximum biocort used:

Desi: -3/62 STA. Assuming 3 biocort administered: 27/62. Assuming 3 more for the morning = 57/62. Staydose used: 1

Orvo: -36/60. Assuming 3 doses yesterday and 3 in morning = 24/60. Staydose used: 1

Bartja: 24/35. Assuming 1 dose biocort = 34/35

Hammer: -3/50. Assuming 3 doses biocort yesterday and 2 in the morning = 47/50. Staydose used: 1

S'krllk: 22/40. Assuming 1 dose bioocort = 32/40


Doses of biocort used total (including previous usage)=26.
Remaining biocort= 14
Anesthesia used: 2 (18 remaining)
Staydose used: 5 (15 remaining)


As a reminder of the House Rule, you can use up to 3 biocort per day, plus any used for up to one surgery.

So for some of you, this might mean that you cannot use any more biocort until this adventure is over.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:45, Mon 08 June 2020.

(OOC)
I had figured by the numbers someone had to get bad rolls for trying to sleep with the breathers, I was trying to cut down the numbers as much as possible.  If i am the only one affected, we have done OK and maybe I will get lucky and make up for it napping in the raft.  If not, then the way things look right now, I am the best one to be fatigued, we have all our other bases covered now :)

OOC: No worries. I was just thinking that he would be at -20 RS and -5 STA if he had had Desi's rolls. I'm always curious to see how that plays out because RS is likely to be more of a factor on the raft than on land.

(OOC)
Yeah applies those modifiers to Porter, it was to be expected someone would be affected.  If I am napping in the raft then Reaction Speed is going to be slower than everyone else anyway and I can afford the STA

OOC: The error was mine, so we will still just go with -10 RS for Porter.

You push out into the river and get nearly an hour into the drifting without any problems until you encounter a massive log-and-debris jam blocking the river. You have a few options, such as destroying the dam, clearing it out by hand, or portage through landing the rafts and moving rafts and gear around to the far side of the dam.

New Map:

You will notice that now with Bartja's data taken during his hacking attempt, you now know the exact location of the Moraes.

Hammer looks at the situation as they approach. "It appears that blasting through it or going ashore and around would be the fastest approaches. Blasting it with our guns or explosives will be loud and use up ammo but maybe it will be faster than going ashore and around the dam. What do you think?"

Hammer does an ecosystems check to see if he can get any insight.

(OOC)
I have lvl 2 demolitions skill but I am not carrying any explosives or detonators.

Desi has 1 kg of TD-19.

You can also shoot the log and debris dam with your weapons.

After his ecosystems check, Hammer reports:

It will take a total of 200 points of structural damage to clear it and take 15-30 minutes of careful aiming and shots (minimal delay of 15 min. by using TD-19). Sounds may attract attention.

Portaging around the dam will take 30-60 minutes but subject you to potential damage of rafts or equipment and a random encounter roll on the "plains" table.

Clearing by hand will take two hours but will avoid all risks.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:16, Wed 10 June 2020.

S'Krllk has his bodycomp scan the log jam in an attempt to determine whether or not it's artificial. "Is it just me, or would this be a good way to set up an ambush?"

It appears to be natural, not artificial. It is a build up of logs, debris and other detritus from the river accumulating at a bend in the river where there are rocks, a shallow area, and the perfect environment to have them collect and block water flow on the surface.

Hammer pauses, thinking. "A 200 gram part of TD-19 has potentially enough power to blow through this. I suggest we break it off into 200 gram parts and do two explosions to break through, if we can do that in about 15 minutes. That will give us just over half of the TD-19 for any future need. If two explosions don't do the trick, then we can blast it with a gyrojet or even a laser to get through the last bit."

In reply to Hammer (msg # 172):
Desiraye will begin to break down the Td-19 as directed by Hammer and prepare the charges.

OOC sorry, work is ramping up again, apologies for the vague post.

Feeling good about what they learned trying to hack the Moraes systems, Bartja considers the Survey Robot and sets it to scan the sky and river ahead.

"There's another ambush coming from our nemesis, but these logs aren't likely it.  If I had to guess where and when it will come, I would say it will be in the water gap - probably at some rapids.  That's where I would stage one anyway.  We'll be focused on keeping the rafts upright and an ambush would be easy to hide and would do a lot more damage to us.

If we had enough materials to fully repair our Survey Robot, I would risk sending it out to battle Terry's spy.  However, I have a feeling we'll need eyes up front before we get to the ship - a very strong feeling."

Meanwhile, he directs Shemp to begin clearing the debris and to help the demolition experts set the charges in the log jam to clear the river ahead.

"We should probably pull our rafts out before we set that off.  Might cause a swift current when the flow is released" he observes.

OOC:  Sorry for the absence.  Had family visiting this week and didn't get on!
Secondly; Are we still healing 1 HP after resting?  If so, Bartja should be back to 100%.