Up topside, Vult and Kalsk are happy to see you. "Some monsters came by," says Kalsk, "but Vult and I drove 'em off good. They were weak, and Vult was at his strongest." The speaker is a humanoid, but with leopard-like head, hands, and feet.

Vult is currently a vaporous being again, floating like a thin but persistent orange wisp in the air. "Yeah, you guys missed my fourth form. Oh well, it'll come around again eventually."

Then Vult notices Pesky. "Oh hey, speakin' a fourth, hi! You guys found a fourth human!" The orange vapor wafts over to Pesky. "They tell me the big guy is a human, but I'm waiting to see more evidence before I'm convinced," he whispers to Pesky. "Anyway, I'm Vult! What's up! Besides you guys, I mean. Oh, and there are the moths, back, too. Wondered where they went."

The Duke shows their companions the over stuffed cooler and even the big bowl of fries he took to go enough to feed a whole family for a week which he is happily munching on.

"There was a real cafetaria down there. Its a great place."

Alyn nodded.

"Yeah...a lot of crazy stuff happened. Robots on the fritz, bandits. Large ant-bug centaur monster things. More bandits. Weird but pretty friendly and oddly gracious owls. Oh and the moths are here because I gave them some dinner. But I got my hardware at least, plus a few other things that let me fix up our gear, and we have a medkit now too. So more options is always great I say." Alyn said.

"Sorry about the monsters, by the way. Those were probably the ones who escaped the Duke and my err...um, let's just say there was a diplomatic breakdown, but everything is okay now. And yes, we have another human in our group. He's going to be our scout and medic, and wants to find the Cloister with us too."

Alyn looked silently toward his Psiwalker, which was parked a bit in the distance, and it began to suddenly move and head toward him as it was prompted by his silent psychic command.

"We're gonna head back to the Doomwalker now, and from there, to Gnost. The moths will um...they'll be around. Or perching on my Psiwalker. Or something." he added, followed by a shrug.

Pesky squints a bit as he exits the facility.  It's a little brighter than he expects.  As his eyes adjust, he begins to take in the others waiting for them, oddly surprised that they are not human like the others.

After the leopard man speaks, the ethereal mist draws closer.  Not wanting to cause any division between himself and his new teammates regarding Duke's humanity, Pesky simply nods noncommittally.  He crosses his arms across his chest, vaguely uneasy, slightly defensive.

He scans his new team, and in the light of day he can tell that Duke, despite his focus on food only, seems injured.  He pulls the newly acquired medkit from his pack as he walks toward Duke.  "Hey," he says, nodding at Duke's visible injuries.  "Let me help with that?"

The Duke eyes Pesky as he comes closer and puts the cooler on his back  interposing himself between the new one and their main food supply. He does however offer the bowl of fries.

"They are extra salty."

Pesky stops, surprised by what appeared to be Duke's refusal of healing.  He shrugs, reaching back to return the kit to his backpack.  He eyes the fries and nods a firm no.

"Thanks though," he added.

Kalsk nods at the information. "It is good to have healing skills."

"I don't think the monsters we fought were your fault, though," says Vult. "I've seen 'em around before-- kinda rodent-bird-dude-hybrid guys, led by a... bird-cyborg guy. They're losers. Just scavengers. I mean, you don't wanna just laugh 'em off, but they were no match for Kalsk and me at my most awesome, and they knew it, so they ran off. No big deal."

It is just as well that we leave this place, say the mind-moths, although only Alyn hears them. The strange minds to the east should be avoided.

And so, the humans and their allies get back on their vehicles and head back toward the Doomwalker...

(Somebody make an Insightful roll! (Just one person!))

18:45, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 6 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 4,1.  Insightful.

The vehicles move across the landscape, back the way they'd most recently come...

...Then, after hours of staying alert... from the northwest...

(...Alyn gets 1 new xp.)

"Aw, crap, they're back," says Vult. "And right when I'm about to become a liquid."

Kalsk and Vult explain that it is indeed the mouse-parrots they drove off earlier... led by their general, the cyborg Commander Hornbill...

"Now it makes sense," says Kalsk. "They only retreated to get their hardware."

Each of the mice-parrots are now riding atomic fusion-bikes... With Commander Hornbill plugged into some sort of wrecked spacecraft that he's lashed to the nosecone of, to which giant tires and shock-absorbers have been added.

The horde is faster than you, and coming to run you over and kill you all...

"Crackers! Crackers! Buckets of blood! Pieces of eight for the horde!" the biker mice-parrot pirates squeak furiously as one over the purring of their fusion-engines.

There's about 20 of them (although some have sidecars too).

None of them have guns, but they do have swords (some of them are vibroblades).

(What's the first line of self-defense to be?)

"I have a strong desire to buy them off with some of the food we have acquired, and looting rights to the place we left. Any other ideas?" Ajakstu suggests.

The Duke looks at Ajakstu as if the man lost his mind as he cradles the cooler close to himself and then as he works himself upright in the hoover car makes sure its securely strapped to his back.

"You lost your mind?"

His fixed mauler gloves crackle with energy as the biker parrots come closer and the Duke pops his neck and rolls his shoulders. Then as the beasts are close enough he leaps from the hovering vehicle straight at the first bikes zooming towards him.

"NOBODY STEALS MY FOOD!!!!!"

ooc: Only a little atrocious on these vile creatures that want the Dukes food. He will employ the gloves that are destructive and impactful.

7 to 9: Weak Atrocity: Charge any weak opponent and destroy them. You don't even need to use any weapons (though you may).
If your next move is a basic attack or an Atrocity, take +1 forward.

23:25, Today: The Duke rolled 8 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 3,4.  Atrocity.

(Choose one, The Duke:

--You defeat 1/3rd of the attackers but take no damage yourself
--You defeat most of them but take some damage yourself)

Having successfully goaded The Duke into lambasting the current set of marauders, Ajakstu cackled out loud and nimbly maneuvered the walker behind Alyn's cumbersome and poorly piloted pile of junk so that he was afforded maximum concealment and cover by the other vehicle.

21:54, Today: Ajakstu Gul rolled 10 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 3,5.  Agile to use Alyn as my shield wahaha.

The Duke gets the green light from Foers to totally waste these mouse-parrot biker pirates, so he leaps amongst them with his weaponized Mutilator Gloves. Each punch causes nigh-seismic impacts of kinetic force that deeply disrupt the safe balance of the nearby biker mice's atomic bikes, gyroscopes be damned. Soon several of them are crashing into one another, and subsequently falling off.

Meanwhile, in a feat of tactics, Ajakstu moves his vehicle behind that of Alyn. How can Ajakstu lead from behind if he isn't behind!? So he makes sure he is.

"Take this," Pesky says, leaving the wheel without waiting for Kalsk to answer.  He climbs into the back seat, immediately spotting the obvious leader.

He looks back to see Kalsk grab the wheel as the car jerks suddenly to the left.  "Keep it steady," Pesky yells uselessly.  Their path straightens and he readies his rifle, aiming to take out the big one.

He exhales, then fires.

OOC: 11:47, Today: Pesky rolled 5 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 2,2.  Shoot cyborg hornbill-man.

OOC: Changed xp from 3->4.

Alyn sighs as the Max-Max style parrot-bikers emerged over a dune/hill ont heir bike things to attack his party. He absolutely agreed with the Duke's sentiment about guarding their food. He also wanted to guard their dignity if at all possible. What little they had, heh.

He decided that he needed to take action, but then he had an idea as his eyes flickered with energy...

OOC: 11:54, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 9 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 3,3.  Charming.

So Alyn made 2 rolls, because the first is to try and forcefully establish a psychic connection with them. He rolled a 9, which is enough to force contact (without them even knowing) among weak targets which I suspect these are. His power will let him connect to the group, if he wants, which is what he does. Then. he does something more insidious

11:55, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 11 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 3,5.  Charming.

And implants a hypnotic suggestion in all of those the GM declares affected to have a suggestion of "ignore the mind moths."

If Alyn feels his suggestion take hold:

Alyn sends a quick telepathic message to the mind moths who were perching on hos psiwalker, or who may be otherwise flying around nearby:

Oh mind moths! You guys said you wanted some better food, right? Well...how about some poultry? They are there to nom on and I even went ahead and made it easier for you. Bon apatite!

(Pesky gets 1 new xp point. (Be sure to record it on your character sheet or whatever.))

Pesky fires... and misses. The shot zips right past the hornbill-machine-man's head.

It does get his attention-- a red laser sight zeroes in on Pesky.

ZORCH

Oh, no, wait, that was an actual laser, not just a targeting system. Owwwwww.

(Pesky loses 2 health levels.)

Having made his intentions known, the big spaceship-on-wheels changes direction, heading specifically to run Pesky (and his vehicle--those are really big tires) over.

Meanwhile, the mind moths settle on the heads of the mice-parrots, feasting.

Yet still the mind-moths complain. Stupid creatures. Hardly worth bothering with. Barely a snack, they grouse.

"Son of a BITCH," he yells, almost dropping his rifle out of the car.  He ducks down, one hand immediately going to his recently bandaged shoulder.  It comes back wet and red.  Burns like hell.  He sinks down a little further, hopefully protected by the back of the seat.

He looks to Kalsk, who hasn't noticed that he is almost laid out in the backseat.

"Hey!" He grimaces and yells again. "HEY!"

When Kalsk finally turns and sees what's has happened, Pesky, still yelling, says, "Can you shoot?!"

"I'm not too bad a shot," says Kalsk. "Want to change jobs?"

The jaguar-man looks ready to grab the gun and let Pesky try driving the vehicle, if Pesky gives the word...

Pesky winces, trying to get back upright and into the front.  He passes the rifle to Kalsk, then holds out the same hand for an assist.

Kalsk emits a low growl of effort as he pulls Pesky quickly and firmly to the front seat.

Pesky grunts in pain with the move, but slides toward the steering wheel.  His left arm hangs almost limply by his side as he clutches the wheel with his right.   Without turning to look, he nods, indicating it's time for Kalsk to take up the fight.

Kalsk aims carefully, trying to get the feel of this new weapon he's never fired before...

(16:51, Today: Kalsk rolled 7 using 2d6 with rolls of 5,2.  Kalsk, firing defensively..)

He takes a sort of practice shot. He doesn't come as close as Pesky did at all-- misses by about 6 feet-- but he's got the feel of the weapon now. Also, the return laser fire goes over Kalsk's head.

"All right-- keep driving defensively, then keep it straight and smooth for just a couple of seconds in 5... 4... 3... 2... NOW--"

(16:51, Today: Kalsk rolled 13 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,6.)

BAM-- the hornbill's large head goes back and to the left, and the spacecraft-on-wheels veers off to the left, also (running over two of the remaining bikers, for that matter).

“Chaos!” Ajakstu shouts with a certain amount of glee.

With that, he sets The Duke’s walker off in pursuit of the spaceship on wheels.

The Duke sees the bikes zoom about and grabs one of the things that wants to do a fly by attack on him out of the air and crumples the bike and its rider up in a bloody ball as he eyes the troupe chasing his companions and tosses the meatball of steel at the attacking enemies like he is bowling.

ooc: Well another 9 and a +1 on the next act of violence.

Also guys i can not prophesize you if you do not use your existing prophecies! Or can i overwrite old ones for fresh ones?

11:08, Today: The Duke rolled 9 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 3,4.  More atrocious then ever.

OOC: Duke I was saving mine for the Doomwalker, because the thing "Feels" like a real-life prophecy about the doomwalker. Are you able to make new prophecies if we use up old ones? That's the biggest reason I've been scared to use mine up.

Alyn considered his next action, as he has his Psiwalker practically leap up and over a biker who was being nommed on by moths that had since lost control of their bike.

Alyn then attempted to read the minds of one of the Parrot-bandits, to try and learn more about them, but the chaos of the battle wasn't making it easy...

09:16, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 5 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 2,2.  Insightful.

(I'm okay with you rewriting old prophecies with new ones.)


With The Duke's new attack, the bikers aren't all destroyed now, but none of them are moving anymore. The mind-moths have turned off the mice-parrots' brain activity...



(Yes, he can make new ones if you use the old ones.)



There's nothing left for Alyn to read.

The spaceship rolls in a complete circle... then Commander Hornbill's body slumps forward, and the spaceship is headed right for Alyn (again).

Commander Hornbill couldn't have survived that shot, could he?

Normally, no... but what if the cyborg part of him, still plugged into the big ship, still retains a little control/awareness...?

OOC: Does Alyn gain an xp for his roll of 5 from before, or no? Just checking to make sure my records are accurate.

Seeing Hornbill's ship veering suddenly toward him, Alyn's eyes flicker as he makes a shoo-ing motion with his right hand, sending a wave of telekinetic energy toward the oncoming threat.

15:20, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 8 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 2,5.  Weird/Scary.

OOC: My intention is to telekinetically blast the thing away from Alyn. If you make me choose between damage or movement from my 8, I favor movement i.e. making Alyn not an attack target this turn.

Neutralized or not the Duke goes to town on the immobilised pirrots turning them all into one big ball of scrap to throw at the space ship.

(Yes. I've been maybe making a little extra effort again to remind lately for Pesky's sake, but I expect you three old pros to mostly remember to mark it yourselves every time.)



Alyn moves the vehicle-- it lurches to the left, again, and passes him harmlessly by a good 50 yards...

Pesky risks a quick glance behind them.  Seeing the hornbill's ship angling off, with the driver slumped over the wheel, he faces forward and begins to decelerate.

Turning to regroup with the others, he addresses Kalsk without looking at him.

"You do that?"

"I believe so."

OOC: Okay, then xp 4->5 in my profile. ^_^

"Look alive folks! I sent his ship veering away but he's still a live threat. I think his cybernetics are running the show more than he is though...hmmm...what to do?" Alyn said as he considered.

Alyn's eyes lit up all of a sudden...

21:59, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 7 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 5,1.  Weird/Scary.

OOC: The intention is to telekinetically grab Hornbill right out of his vehicle and just...toss him to the ground nearby.

The Duke realizing his friends are still engaged after he is done mopping up the birds uses two of their bikes to propel him forward and launches himself into the spaceship demolisher fists first. It sparks and arcs and the thing tumbles and rolls as cyber enhanced brute clashes with dead cyber birds electronics. And then the Duke hits something with to much electricity for him to bear and FOERS and the dead birds electronics fuse and with a terrible roar the ship takes flight taking the Duke and his food along turning into a light blinking out at the horizon mere moments later.

ooc: So a partial success. Took the liberty of turning it into a vanishing act for the Duke. ;-)

10:33, Today: The Duke rolled 9 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 1,5.  Forcefull.

“What?! No!!!!!” Ajakstu shouts as The Duke and his intended salvage vehicle disappear into the distance. “Well, crap, Rake,” he mutters. “Now we are left with an egotistical mentalist, an untested new guy, a scurrilous feline, and a shapeshifting fart.”

The still-sparking body of Commander Hornbill is left lying on the ground, but his spaceship hovers away to the west erratically (though it looks like it might change course left or right (or down or up) at any time).

You can examine the body (maybe see if he's got anything in his pockets), see if Commander Hornbill is still alive or not, or just leave him there, but whatever you do, the avian(/rodent) fight is over...

Ajakstu casually makes his way over to the Commander and pins him to the ground with the walker. fishing out a snack from the cooler he climbs down and scrutinizes the fallen foe.

"So I'm going to count to three. If you're still with us, start begging sooner rather than later. At three I'm cutting the metal out of you."

Taking out his knives, he begins. "One....Two..."

Pesky stops the vehicle and exits, followed closely by Kalsk.

As he nears the oddly still body of the pseudo-avian leader, he hears Ajakstu say something, though Pesky's not sure what it was.  He comes to a stop close by, just as Ajakstu begins to count slowly.

Alyn watches the Duke (fly off in the distance?), and has a strange psionic precognitive notion that they would be seeing the Duke again soon, and that they shouldn't worry.

He turned to the others, and watched Ajak examine Hornbill.

"Go for it bud. If it doesn't respond, try and um...loot it or whatever and see if there's something we can use."

The right side (your left) of Commander Hornbill's body shakily raises up (but not remotely to his feet-- just lifts his head and part of his torso off the ground) and looks at you... gestures... very vaguely... Clacks his beak a couple of times but doesn't speak.

"Looks like the cyborg part's somewhat operative, but not the flesh," says Kalsk.

"Yeah, he was totally talkin' when we first met 'im," says Vult.

In reply to Kalsk (msg # 38):

Ajakstu slowly and cautiously begins to cut out the cyberware. Gear gets tossed to Alyn. Fleshy bits get thrown at Kalsk.

Alyn continues to watch the grisly actions of Ajakstu, and sees what salvage they obtain.

"Damn," Pesky thinks.  Cutting shit off the dude when the thing's still moving.  That's rough.

(Roll Insightful, Ajakstu)

In reply to The GM (msg # 42):


19:24, Today: Ajakstu Gul rolled 8 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 3,4.  Insightful .

Ajakstu recognizes ONE thing of potential value amongst the cyborg's hardware.

What is it?

(Pick one:
--A weapon?
--A specialized piece of computer circuitry?
--A useful clue about who made Commander Hornbill and why he attacked you?
--Or mmmmaybe make a suggestion of your own that's none of these three?)

Ajakstu paused and straightened. He glanced at something in his hand, scowled, started to pocket it, looked at the others, and then pocketed it.

“Circuitry,” he said. “We can see if any of the three vehicles can make out what it is, starting with mi..The Duke’s. Regardless, dibs.”

Ajakstu plugs the circuitry into The Duke's vehicle.

It turns out it's an autonomous piloting system! You can now just tell The Duke's vehicle where to go, and with what speed, with voice commands. It will only work for you humans (and Kalsk and Vult, if you program it that way). It doesn't have any sort of global positioning system-- it won't know how to get to Gnost without directions, for example-- but now you can have it follow you without a driver on board if you ever need that for some reason, or you can just shout commands to it while you shoot at things, etc.!

Ajakstu relates the information to the group, leaving out any mention of programming it for Kalsk and Vult.

"So if we can't get the Doomwalker running, in theory we can strip its weapons, mount them on the largest vehicle, and have a gun platform."

Does Ajakstu think this circuitry is enough to control the Doomwalker?

Alyn nodded, although the curves of his mouth lowered into the beginning of a frown ever so slightly.

"You're not wrong. But I'm hoping I can get the thing back up and running." Alyn responded.

"It supposedly has repair systems and stuff, and I got this repair kit now to help things along. I'm suspecting the thing has its own AI or something, depending on how much I can get it restored, so I should be able to theoretically give it commands from afar with my telepathy along with my data pad, so I'm hoping you can keep it to upgrade your transport. So it's my hope that between all of us we can eventually have our own fleet of absolutely-overkill bad-ass vehicles that puts any action move to shame. Or real-time sci-fi game for that matter." Alyn said with a chuckle.

"And you make a good point, Ajakstu, about looking for weapons that we can mount on our vehicles. Especially if we can give them orders from afar autonomously. My Psiwalker walker responds to my telepathic commands and can move independently, and your circuitry can upgrade your/Duke's large transport. And I'm working on the Doom...err, the Alynwalker. I feel like this is a turning point in the creation of our world-dominating fleet of eclectically awesome vehicles!" he said excitedly.

Pesky looks at his vehicle, suddenly feeling a little inadequate.  His groundcar is strictly functional at this point.  He's never taken the time to weaponize it, though that seems like a good idea.  For another time.

"Guys," he says, his voice coming out urgent and pained.  "How long's this gonna take?  I gotta get...somewhere."  He nods his chin, indicating his brutalized shoulder.  "Can we talk upgrades later?"

OOC: Health is 3 FWIW - not exactly sure if that's dire or not, but it ain't great.

(No, that's a whole different type of system.)



(He's got a point-- y'all should rest for the night soon and let Pesky have a chance to use the REST move.)

"We should get going then," Ajakstu said. "Got to get back to the battlemech before The Seeker and his mechanical minions arrive."

With that Ajakstu mounted the walker with perhaps a sad glance in the direction of The Duke's disappearance.

"Or do we go see if perhaps The Duke landed in a convenient hay bale?"

Alyn considered.

"I think the Duke went flying off in the direction of the Doomwalker anyway, so let's head that way. And Pesky can rest on the way too."

Is it a plane? Is it a Bird? No its a big fucking ball of fire heading straight at the ALynwalker!!! Well not straight. The ball of fire swerves like mad and is it cursing? It doesn't take to long to realize its the Duke with what seems to be the only thing left from the ship he left on its massive truster. The giant and the piece of teck blast super close past the Alynwalker and slams into the ground nearby the last remains of the engin part melting in a flare of fire as the Duke steps away from it making sure his cooler was okay. He beams when all is good and he only seems to have some singed clothes here and there.

"Well guess you cant make a jetpack out of it."

And without further ado hops into the back of his taxi and falls asleep

"It's like I spoke it into being," Ajakstu whispered.

He went over and helped The Duke to rise and place the cooler in its spot in the walker.

"Wait until you see the upgrade!" he chortled, and went on to explain the voice control feature in very small words.

Its totally clear the Duke needed no help carrying the Cooler though he offers Ajakstu a half eaten burger assuming the small man was hungry.  When he starts to explain the upgrade it was made even more clear the Duke had little interest as he was greeted by the loud snoring of his student.

Pesky moves slowly away from the others, returning to his vehicle.  Climbing into the back seat is painful, but he hopes a good rest will help.  It usually does.

When he wakes, it takes a minute to remember that he is even injured.  He is shocked at how much better he feels, though he still doesn't make any sudden moves.  He steps out of his car and slowly stretches, looking around for the others.

Alyn does a quick inspection of everyone to make sure everyone is okay after the rest, and then after eating a bit with the others he gently herds people back onto the road to head toward the Doomwalker again.

As the group approaches the Doomwalker... it's still where they left it, good...

Closer... uh-oh, Vomol and his robot followers are there! Bad!

Closer... They're trying to get into the Doomwalker... Bad...

Closer... They... don't appear to have quite succeeded in getting that one hatch open again, that's good...

Closer... OOPS but they JUST did!

But you're close enough to do something about it now! May we dine? the mind-moths ask Alyn, just for starters. Some of these things ahead can think...

Alyn nodded to himself, as he looked skyward a bit.

Yes my pets, please feast to your hearts content on them. he replied back telepathically.

He turned to his party.

"Alright look alive people! Those asshat robots are trying to break into my Doomwalker! Dukie? I helped you get all kinds of exotic food justlike I promised. Ajak? I helped you get some cool lewt. Pesky? I helped save you from becoming monster-chow, and hooked you up with some nice gear because I want to help you shine. Cat-men and elementals? I've been having your backs all along." Alyn said.

"So now's time to repay the favor. Let's get those asshole robots out of my Doombot, by any means necessary! Lethal force is fine, but the mind mothers are going to be helping too so please adjust your attacks accordingly so you don't harm any of them. Or my Doombot, for that matter!"

Alyn's eyes then began to flash with bright light for a moment...

21:31, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 4 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 2,1.  Weird/Scary.

OOC: Ack! I was trying to telekinetically grab the robots that were about to go in and fling them way back outside again!

Duke? does this failure qualify for your prophecy? I'd like to dust that bad boy off.

ooc: Aye loosing the roboy sounds a spectacular bad thing.

The Duke rouses from his snooze in his ride and grins as they rush at the robots. Still with his mind on wanting a suit of armor his voice cracks as he leaps from the vehicle way to soon to run over.

"Metal and scrap glorious in its shine. Stomp it chrush it to make it mine. Destroy them without fear to make from them an armor i can wear."

The Duke rushes over with a happy whaaagh as the prophecy excapes from his mouth.

ooc: And so its Written but hey the Duke loves to fail this move for some reason. Well GM feel free to fuck up another try for a robot sized armor ;-)

10:07, Today: The Duke rolled 6 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,4.  Scary.

--6 or lower: the GM will do his best to make some part of the weird mad
babbling come true, as soon as narratively possible, but it won't be nice, and
will probably be twisted and freaky

09:43, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 1 using 1d6 with rolls of 1.  Prophecy.

OMG lol! I guess Alyn as doomed to fail his telekinesis check LOL. Doesn't mean we lost the doombot yet, but it is a bad start lol!

Pesky finally spots them.  Just in time to see them go from calm to agitated.

He mutters to himself as he grabs his gun from the car and runs to their side.

What the hell's happening now?

Ajakstu shrugged. "I see our plan is chaos," he says to Rake.

Disembarking from the walker, he orders it. "Go stomp on all of the robots or metallic beings or non-organic mobile units near the large structure."

With that he skirts the edge of the combat, looking for The Seeker, the head of this metallic snake.

Alyn grabs a robot and flings it-- and he does so. But it turns out that that robot was holding onto the Doomwalker's "ankle hatch," and he/it takes the hatch with it-- the hatch is ripped off-- three robots hurry inside.

(Ajakstu notices that one of those robots was Vomol.)

The mind-moths descend on the robots... they cluster around just a couple of them, though... Then other robots activate two devices they're carrying about the size and shape of hat racks... the moths return to Alyn. They have machines to ward off telepathic attack. It should only affect you somewhat, but it is very effective against us.

In reply to The GM (msg # 64):

Seeing  Vomol go inside, Ajakstu scans the Doomwalker for a separate access hatch.

19:38, Today: Ajakstu Gul rolled 11 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 4,6.  Insightful .

Interesting. Well, I wonder what they'll do when they aren't able to use those machines anymore? Fall back for a bit until we're able to do something about those machines. Alyn thinks back to the moths.

Alyn then turned toward the fight, and his eyes flickered...but he couldn't get his powers to focus properly due to being so angry that they were entering his Doombot!


23:31, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 4 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,2.  Weird.

Well I was going to try and telekinetically grab the anti-telepathy things and fling them away or something, but...instead, I'm contributing to the community xp pool. :P

The Duke starts to sprint a horrifying sight when that mass goes ever faster and faster with no intention of slowing down. His demolisher gloves activate with a crackles and the Duke barrels straight for the group of robots and that open door!! Will he fit? Will the momentum do damage and how bad are those gloves. Comming close he spreads his arms to draw as many of them through that small door hole as possible with the maximum momentum. It was going to be a meatgrinder for tin cans!!

ooc: Back to the rolls that do succeed. Atrocity!!

A 10

10-12: Strong Atrocity: Charge any one strong opponent, or group of weak opponents, and destroy them. You don't even need to use any weapons (though you may). If your next move is an assault or atrocity, take +2 forward.

10:50, Today: The Duke rolled 10 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,3.  Atrocity Time.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:44, Mon 18 Sept 2023.

Pesky ducks low and runs as best he can, skirting the group and heading to the back of oncoming mob.  As far as he can tell he has not been seen.  He kneels, bracing his rifle, and fires at one of the robots trying to get into the doomwalker.

11:56, Today: Pesky rolled 10 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 5,4.  Shoot robots - add Insightful, trying to uses Tactics.

Tactics with a 10 gives me 2 bonuses:
--Take -1 damage each time you take damage in this fight.
--Others get a -1 penalty toward hitting you for the rest of this fight.

Ajakstu finds the outline of another hatch at the base of the Doomwalker's other leg-- and it's not being guarded.

---

Alyn draws attention to himself. "Incoming!" yells one old robot painted in colors like he's wearing a military uniform. Two of the largest robots-- each of them half the size of Alyn's vehicle-- come racing toward Alyn.

---

Pesky takes out the next robot to attempt to follow Vomol inside, cha-KOW! Then The Duke arrives at the hatch...

The Duke tears into the robots by the hatchway that Vomol already went through. He (with the timely assistance from Pesky) manages to stop anyone else from following their leader inside. The others draw back for the moment, uncertain how to best deal, in a hurry, with this horrifying human semi-natural disaster.

Massive girth plus momentum this thin called physics make it impossible for the duke to stop his rampage into the titan. Powergloves on hi slams through the door with a mighty *PFLOP*  as the hole is streched a little wider in a quite uncomfortable way and the Duke rushes to introduce his Demolisher gloves to Vomol caring little how much of the Doomwalker he needs to use to reduce the Doomwalker thief to a pilke of scrap.

"HERES DUKIE!!!!"

ooc: Atrocity 10. Vomol is my main target now. Collateral damage isto be expected and encouraged with the building destroying gloves turned on and in a tight space.

10-12: Strong Atrocity: Charge any one strong opponent, or group of weak opponents, and destroy them. You don't even need to use any weapons (though you may). If your next move is an assault or atrocity, take +2 forward.

08:45, Today: The Duke rolled 10 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 5,2.  Atrocity +2.

"Dukie! Go easy on the Doomwalker, will ya! Or so help me I'll...I'll...I'll put you on a diet or something!" Alyn shouted as he turned and looked angrily at the oncoming robots.

"Enough playing around..." he mutters as his eyes flicker with power.

OOC: Okay, so Alyn is trying to telekinetically grab both of the 2 robots that are heading towards him, and hurl them hard at the area where the telepathy jammers are (or at least at one of them otherwise), and trying to cause as much damage to said robots and jammers as possible.

In all of the confusion Ajakstu ducks lower and skitters over to the second hatch. Whipping out his infiltration kit, he works to gain access to the inside.

The Duke rushes up to Vomol, and catches up to him in the lower part of the Doomwalker's torso.

"No!" says Vomol, and he activates a device...

The Duke and Vomol are both teleported back outside. "To me! Quickly!" says Vomol, and a very shiny and strange-looking robot runs up...

...Oh. So that's it. The shiny robot surrounds Vomol, forms a large suit of armor around him. "Now... die, large one! I am just as large now!" says Vomol...

(But you did great on your last roll... describe how you deal with Vomol successfully in spite of him wearing his shiny armored ally.)

---

Alyn manages partial success-- he grabs ONE robot coming toward him and throws it, destroying ONE of the psi-protector units.

(Alyn, pick one thing that happens next:
--damage to your vehicle
--damage to your personal forcefield
--damage to you)

---

Ajakstu manages to get inside the Doomwalker's left leg. The robots had been working on this hatch earlier, it seems... but apparently they abandoned it when they started having luck with the right one-- or perhaps they set off traps on this one that discouraged them. Either way, Ajakstu has no trouble with traps, and now he's in. Now what?

---

(Pesky, presuming you post soon: pick one:
--follow Ajakstu into the big giant robot
--try to help Alyn, perhaps by shooting
--Something else I haven't thought of yet)

The Duke is only momentarily disoriented by the fact that he is now back outside but its long enough for the enemy to armor up. The Duke utters a jealous growl at the nice and shiny suit he would love for himself but then slams his own fists against each other the mutilate gloves shooting sparks when the destructor mods activate.

"I am not only large tin can. I am also the strongest and FOERS is there to help."

And FOERS the Dukes imaginary teddybear was hopping all over the shiny robot pointing out the weak spots in the enemy. The Duke rushes at Vomol who in turn swings with his left arm to punch the Duke with killing force in the head. But his own right fist swings out right at it and with a massive crunch like a car slamming into a wall the destructive force of the glove is unleached into armor and Vomol turning the robots arm into an immobile crumpled tin can dangling from its shoulder. The Duke misses the low sweep that makes the giant crash onto the ground and he needs to roll his massive girth away from the big feet stomping down to crush his face. Here Vomol gets cocky assuming the big guy was made of fat. The Duke was a lab bred war machine and so it was all muscle in just a light coat of fat and after the thrid stomp down the Duke rolls but also grabs Vomols leg as he does and actually roll back unbalancing Vomol enough to make the situation so that The Duke ends up sitting on Vomol and then the giant starts to bring out the mutilator fists like hammers on an anvil turning into a living scrap compactor shouting with each slam down.

"Don't steal my friends things!!"

Seeing Ajakstu disappear into an unattended hatch, Pesky turns his eyes to Alyn just in time to see two robots rushing him.
Mentally tagging the one in front, he takes another shot.

13:54, Today: Pesky rolled 9 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,2.

OOC: Alyn will take an injury. HOWEVER, he will expend his shield point for the scene to negate it.

(Oh right, this kind of situation is what I made the new Armor rules for! Yay! Yes, that will be fine.)

While Alyn is throwing the first robot, the second one e-l-o-n-g-a-t-e-s its body and reaches up and smacks at him. Fortunately, this is what Alyn has a personal force field for-- but it'll need to time to recharge before it can protect him like that again.

A shot from Pesky knocks the robot to the ground-- it gets back up and sort of shakes its head, rebooting some systems before it can attack again...

Meanwhile, The Duke has damaged both Vomol and the shiny robot ally he's wearing as armor. Neither is quite incapacitated yet, but neither of them is able-- so far-- to move The Duke off of them so as to get up...

(Y'all have damaged, stunned, or intimidated the robots present so that you get to do what you will for the next round//the next move is y'all's.

The complication for Pesky's result of 9 was that he got what he wanted-- hitting the robot and helping Alyn-- but that the robot is dazed but rebooting systems, so it'll be a threat again soon if nothing is done.)

The Duke pummels on and on and on blind to the world around him.

ooc: Hope the scrap counts as weak now as the Duke plans to finish his act of violence utterly.

7 to 9: Weak Atrocity: Charge any weak opponent and destroy them. You don't even need to use any weapons (though you may).

If your next move is a basic attack or an Atrocity, take +1 forward.

16:00, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 7 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 3,3.  Weird/Scary.

Going to do the same thing he did last round: pick up the other remaining robot and hurl it hard into the remaining psi-blocker. I figure last round his roll of 7 let him handle one of the robots and destory a psi-blocker, so he'll use the same roll this round to handle the second robot-blocker pair.

Alyn's eyes flicker again as the offending robot's attack bounces off his forcefield. The charging robot suddenly lurches unnaturally up into the air, before being flung hard at the remaining psi-blocker just like his partner was previously.

Alyn sends a quick mental signal up to the moths.

Once the second psi-blocker is disabled, go ahead and enjoy your robot buffet.

Ajakstu begins climbing up. Not slowly but not without caution. This isn’t his first infiltration rodeo, although he expects no gems or farmer’s daughter this time.

His goal is to get above any invading robots and if needed block them with his bottled thicket.

(That worked that way last time because there were TWO robots attacking you, so you got a partial result. 7 means you get a partial success this time, too.)

Alyn tosses the remaining robot-- but it misses the other psi-blocker device.

It rights itself, and starts coming at him again... more slowly, this time. It doesn't understand what happened, and it's cautious...

---

(The Duke's logic, on the other hand, seems mostly sound.)

The Duke partially-disassembles Vomol's armor-bot.

(The Duke, do you want to rip Vomol out of it, or just do damage to him, too, while he's in it?

To say that another way: destroy the armor-bot completely to get at Vomol next round, or just do partial damage to them both now?)

---

Ajakstu reaches the doomwalker's lower torso, and is mildly surprised that he encounters no enemy presence. That fits with his plans, though, so fine-- he stands guard, ready to unleash his brambles if he detects enemy robots coming.

23:47, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 4 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,2.  Weird/Scary.

Well...that's another fail, but more Community Pool xp! :P

Alyn attempts to gather his power to fling the robot back again, but he still is having trouble concentrating and the energies just won't come together!

"Pesky? Think you can shoot that other psi disrupter and destroy it for me? Then the moths can do their thing. My powers are acting wonky right now so hopefully you can just blast the damned thing to bits." Alyn said.

The Duke was lost in his frenzy and pummels on and on and on.

ooc: I raise your 3 with my snake eyes!!

10:01, Today: The Duke rolled 4 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 1,1.  Scrapidy scrap!

Ajakstu shrugs. Perhaps he is default ruler of the Doombot. More reasonably, the chaos below has prevented any upwards progress by the competition.

"Rake, stay," he commands. "Should any approach you come get me."

With that, he hefts his mighty and magical BOARD OF DOOM and his bottled thicket and proceeds down the other leg with his ears listening for foes.

"Got it," Pesky says, already shifting his sight to the disruptor.

He calmly exhales and slowly squeezes the trigger.
His aim is perfect.

"Done."


OOC: 10:16, Today: Pesky rolled 13 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,6.  Take out disruptor.

The robot in question suddenly surged forward and fired some sort of chemical globule at Alyn-- his forcefield didn't seem to know how to deal with it, and it landed on Alyn's left shoulder. Alyn quickly took off his clothing covering that area, but not before the concoction ate acidically through and burned Alyn's shoulder.

(Alyn takes 1 damage.)

Meanwhile, The Duke is doing great until there's a huge electrical discharge that actually knocks him back off the robots he's hammering away at.

Vomol shakily gets up... his armor is no more... but two more big robot bodyguards move to protect him...

(The Duke takes 1 damage.)


Suddenly, Pesky snipes the psi-blocker, shattering the top of it.

The moths rush over and stick to the head and torso of the robot that was rushing at Alyn (the one that just shot acid at him). It's not dead yet, but its sensors seem affected, so it's now blinded, maybe deafened and other issues, too. It's just sort of rolling slowly in a circle now, using its arms to feel around in front of it as it goes... Its movements are getting slower and slower... It clearly doesn't have the mentation to try to use its arms to scrape the moths off its head...

The Duke wobbles and is dazed as he lashes around wildly.

ooc: Well how far along are we on that xp track? I copied Alyns last roll.

23:54, Today: The Duke rolled 4 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 2,1.  Atrocity.

The two robots move forward to punch The Duke-- then the one on the left (The Duke's left) backs up again to better continue to guard Vomol, while the one on the right goes ahead and punches him, hard.

(The Duke takes 1 damage.

I have been expecting y'all to tell me when the new XP Pool is full.

It would not surprise me if you told me it was full now. (So, is it?)

If it is, and if y'all all wanna level up now, I would have no objection.

I would also be fine with if you wanted to wait until this combat was over.

If the pool is over-full, all "extra" xp just goes straight into filling it for next time.)

ooc: I kinda expected you to track the xp now but you at least missed 4 already seeing the last update was from september and we are fucking about big time right now.

I thought you were tracking too, but yeah the pool needs to be updated and I think we're close or dang close to full.

And then Alyn gets scary/weird from +1 -> +2 and will start going real Firestarter/Akira/Carey on people. :P

Alyn Cringed a bit as some of oncoming attack got through his forcefield. He'd have to work on upgrading it a bit more to handle sustained pressure, but for now he had to deal with the matter at hand.

Ignore any robots with mind moths on them. The moths will take care of them. But let's turn the ones the moths aren't nomming on into scrap. Maybe I can use it to help refurbish the Doomwalker. Alyn's voice said, as it resounded gently in the minds of the party members through the psychic connection he gently sustained with them.

He then looked, and smirked evilly, as the last psi-disrupter was destroyed. While he was strong enough to have some psychic effect even through a dampening field, he didn't want to risk it being dulled. But now? Now he could unleash his full charming personality without risk of even the slightest dampening.

His eyes flared with power - with far greater intensity than they have yet so far this fight. This was closer to when he had the psionic storm back on the base. A strange sensation rippled off of him, and for that moment...Alyn was terrifying. Not in a power-compelled sort of way, but more like how the Duke was Terrifying when he was full-power tearing and rending something apart.

Death. Destruction. Nihilistic annihilation. his thought-waves suddenly rippled outward, not into the party' connection this time, but into one he forcefully - and probably stealthily - forced open between the robots and himself.

OOC:

20:15, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 10 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 3,4.  Charming.

Yeah baby! I'm back in action!

So Alyn is doing a domination move, and with a 10 he forces open a psychic connection. Now, based on how you rule GM, if there is a group of weaker foes he will afflict their entire group and force them to attack one another. If they are only strong targets, then he'll take control of one of them and make them do some sort of kami-kazi action that will try to kill both themselves and at least one other robot ally if possible.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:23, Mon 09 Oct 2023.

The Duke was in a mindless frenzy now and Alyn gets a wrong number dialtone over the psychic link as the Duke throws himself at Vomol ignoring the two in the way.

ooc: Just trying to do unspeakable things to Vomol.

12:36, Today: The Duke rolled 9 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 4,4.  Atrocity!!

Pesky gives a small smile to himself, pridefully watching the disruptor explode into pieces.  After all these years, that feeling is still so satisfying.

Hearing Alyn's suggestion to hit the bots that aren't being attended to by the moths, he looks around for the most threatening.  He hesitates, silently admonishing himself for doing so, and sees The Duke take a hit or two.  Pesky pivots, drawing a quick bead on the one that last attacked The Duke, and fires.

OOC:  10:07, Today: Pesky rolled 10 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,3.  Attack an un-mothed bot/help The Duke.


Also OOC:  No idea on the XP pool.  I tracked mine, but dropped it once we went all communal.

Alyn starts scrambling the robot's minds-- they know there's combat going on, but now they have trouble telling friend from foe.

Because of this, the robot that was still guarding Vomol attacks the one that just hurt The Duke. The still-thinking-straight bot unleashes some sort of energy weapon that fries the mad bot... but then a shot from Pesky takes out the winner-- leaving The Duke free to pound on Vomol once again.

Pesky looks around... The situation seems pretty under control now. A few bots are being eaten by mind moths, a few are attacking a few others... and a few are starting to retreat, vaguely back the way they came (south-ish)... There's no one actively threatening the party of humans (and their colleagues) anymore...

"Time for me to evict the squatters in my Doombot. We'll let the moths clean up out here for now." Alyn said as he headed toward the entrance to the Doombot. "Good shooting by the way, Pesky." he added.

He then turned and headed inside.

"Vomol? Get your metal ass of my Bot! Dukie? You better take it outside too or so help me I'm destroying the cooler. Including the extra candy bars, dammit!" Alyn said angrily as his eyes flared up, while he reached telekinetically inside the bot as he went to the entrance...

22:32, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 8 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 5,2.

Alyn is attempting to grab Vomol and telekinetically hurl him back outside the Doombot, to let Pesky and Duke deal with him while he heads inside. But he's had enough with collateral damage etc.

The Duke wasn't open for reason as Vomol is left unguarded and the Duke is on the robot demolisher gloves fully active and froth on his mouth as he slams himself into the enemy leader.

KILL MAIM BURN!!!!  A 12 for a forceful using the building destroying gloves. Vomol is getting a functional asshole!

19:22, Today: The Duke rolled 12 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 4,5.  Regular angry Vomol stomping +1 forward.

Pesky moves slowly, cautiously, scanning as he heads toward the Doomwalker. The enemies, what's left of them anyway, seem to be either badly losing, or just running away.

As he rounds toward the entrance of the vehicle, he pauses.  He can't quite see what's going on yet, but it sounds like The Duke is absolutely wailing on someone.  He breaks into a jog so he can view the beast in action.

(Vomol was already outside-- he teleported him and The Duke back outside in order to call upon his robotic helpers to deal with The Duke (it was not enough help).)

Thanks to The Duke, Vomol is now a lot of spare parts.

More robots (who are able to do so) start fleeing. This combat is pretty darn over, unless you want to chase escapees.

Hearing the sound of tearing metal and triumphant bellowing followed by silence, Ajakstu shrugs and pivots about heading back up the stairs.

Should he pass any kind of control panel he will of course stop and try to hack in.

The Duke seemed not happy to stop till Vomol was turned into metal dust and kept pounding on the robots remains for several more minutes till his rage was fully spended. By that time he is exhausted and just drops down next too the pile of dust panting heavily.

Alyn sighed with relief as the Duke and the enemies had since taken their fight back outside the Doomwalker. He was about to go Carey on everyone or something if they kept causing a ruckus inside, including possibly the food cooler, but thankfully such drastic measures weren't needed.

He took out his Doombot Datapad, and thought some mental prompts into the thing. He still had absolutely no freaking idea how and why his telepathy worked so well on machines, but right now was more worried about the Doomwalker.

Computer, I have the hardware to re-assign myself as the proper owner and administrator for this system. Please guide me where to go to finish the installation, and exclude myself from targeting by any active defenses but feel free to target others as enemies may still be around, and then guide me to where in here I need to take the Hardware.

This message was last edited by the player at 03:19, Tue 24 Oct 2023.

(There's one in the torso area. Roll Insightful.)



PLEASE PROCEED THE DOOMWALKER'S HEAD.

It then also gives some simple instructions about where on the "dashboard" to find the slot to stick the cartridge you've got.

You get the feeling that programming choices like defenses options need to wait until the cartridge with the drivers is installed (but also that you and your allies won't be in danger from automatic defenses before such choices are made).

19:07, Today: Ajakstu Gul rolled 8 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 3,4.  Insightful.

Ajakstu fiddled and diddled with the interface, certain that he would be more successful than endangered.

Ajakstu breaks into a sort of "safe mode" menu. He can look at various stuff, but changing advanced, complex, or dangerous settings is mostly still locked.

(What is it he particularly wants to do/check/other, exactly?)

Alyn proceeds deeper into the Doomwalker, heading for its head. When he gets there, he will begin installing his Hardware. If he encounters Ajak on the way, he'll inquire as to if the man needs help with something or wants to learn something before resuming his hardware installation.

The Duke after panting and resting for a bit gets back onto his feet and starts to go thourgh the wreckage. Those armor robots would be surely something he could make an armor for himself out of.

Ajakstu busies himself ascertaiing the state, readiness, and deadliness of any active intruder countermeasures that are defending the Doomwalker.

He then sets the lighting to his preference.

He also does a quick search to see if the Doomwalker has any means to aid him in salvaging the remnants of Vomol's gang.

If possible, he engages dual verification to log in, requiring his retina scan.

And yes, he waves Alyn off with a snort and a side eye.

As he rounds the entrance to the Doomwalker, Pesky sees The Duke scouring the wreckage.  Not a bad idea.  He picks an area that hasn't been searched and begins scavenging.

OOC: 08:52, Today: Pesky rolled 8 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 3,3.  +2 Insightful to search the field of battle.

(The Duke, roll Insightful.)

(Pesky finds something-- an energy weapon. It needs some work in a workshop, though, before it's fully safe to use.

Pesky's New Energy Weapon:
--Normal damage to biological beings and even energy beings
--Extra damage to robots
--Currently Unstable-- on a roll of 6 or lower, will fire, but will also explode. On a roll of 7 to 9, will not explode, but also won't work...)




(--Ajakstu manages to make himself a login for the Doomwalker separate from Alyn's.
--Ajakstu sets the lighting to his preference.
--Now that both ankle hatches downstairs have been breached, the Doomwalker's self-defenses are quite low-- although there's a nasty surprise trap waiting for anyone who tries to climb or fly in through the cracked window at the front of the head. (The mind-moths were too small to trigger it).
--Once Alyn starts uploading the new drivers, though, what Ajakstu is seeing changes:
--There's exterior lighting that can be accessed-- headlights, running lights-- might be best to leave those off, though, because they'll run down the battery.
--Scanning also improves. (Ajakstu can add a +1 to searching for salvage outside just this once.)
--Intruder countermeasures also improve-- the ankle-hatches downstairs can now be re-closed (with about ten minutes' manual labor), sealed, and the electrical traps on them can be re-set to shock intruders.)

The Duke keeps looking.

10:06, Today: The Duke rolled 7 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 4,2.  Insightfull.

Alyn continues to upload the drivers for now. There isn't much he can do until the process is completed.

However, he does see if it is possible to assign Ajakstu as a "subordinate administrator" for the thing. Obviously, Alyn is the prime administrator since the Drivers were customized for him specifically, but Alyn wanted to see if it was possible to make Ajak some sort of "beta admin" or something. Something where Ajak could give it commands unless those would contradict Alyn's. He figured having a redundancy like this could help later on if for some reason Alyn wasn't around, or they were working on a plan where they had to split the party to re-unite later, etc.

He also attempts to see if there was a way he could "white-list" the other party members, as well as the mind moths, so that the walker's defenses wouldn't attack them or be triggered by them.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:49, Mon 13 Nov 2023.

Distracted by the thought of shinies, Ajakstu utilizies the sensors to help him scour for valuable salvage. Although the mere presence of the scurrilous Kalsk seems to be mitigating his success.


17:57, Today: Ajakstu Gul rolled 7 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 2,3.  Insightful.

As an aside, do the robots down below account for those seen on the road awhile back? As in, Vomol didn't split his forces did he?

"Well, better than nothing", Pesky thinks as he inspects the newly-found laser pistol.  It's in rough shape.  Definitely a 'fixer-upper'.  But with some time at a workbench, he believes he'll be able to repair it to its former glory.

As his new traveling party seems to be entirely composed of conflict magnets, a new sidearm seems like a valuable addition.

--The Duke finds an armored sheet of metal that might make a good breastplate-- yes, even for him! ...with some time in a good workshop with a lot of hammering and, like, some good material for very sturdy straps and stuff.

--Alyn can absolutely make Ajakstu a "subordinate administrator," a "beta admin," where Ajakstu can give it commands unless those would contradict Alyn's.

(Alyn is still not currently aware that Ajakstu has already made his own secret account (that's even slightly better in some ways, slightly worse in others) than what Alyn intends to give him. If Alyn does this thing, Ajakstu will have two accounts, one Alyn knows about, and the secret one.)

--Alyn is also totally able to "white-list" the other party members, even the mind-moths, so that the walker's defenses won't attack them nor be triggered by them.

--(Ajakstu, I'll give you a choice-- you can find something else a little useful, OR you can realize something about what's left of the robots below. Which will you choose? Tell me, and I'll tell you.)

The Duke seems to love his new piece of sheet metal formerly known as the armor bot and keeps fitting it for size showing it off to anyone who wants to see till it falls down again. Realizing he needs omething to hold it in place he stats to look among the rubble for some flexible robot parts. Anyone who was expecting the Duke to be patient enough to do work in a place suitable to do so was in for a surprise. He finally had his armor so it was going to be fitted NOW!

OOC: Correct...I'm having Alyn make his white-list mods and beta accounts etc using the information he knows IC, rather than what I know OOC. And yes, white list the party, and allied NPCs like his moths and their elemental and cat-man companions, etc.  ^_^

(cool cool)



(Roll Insightful, The Duke... but with an extra -1 penalty.)

surely the demolisher gloves would be able to help the Duke forming the armor.

ooc: 09:39, Today: The Duke rolled 4 using 2d6 ((3,1)).

The Duke enthusiastically uses brute force to try to tear some promisingly elastic-y-looking cables and wires out of a big "dead" robot.

It explodes. Ow! And the cables and wires fall apart, too. Grr! Maybe The Duke really shouldn't poke at the dead robots anymore. At least for now.

(The Duke takes 1 new damage level. Unless that would kill him, in which case he's just (instead) a weepy mess for a while, feeling sorry for himself and his boo-boos.

Or both (as in, not dead AND weepy anyway). Both would be okay.)
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 16:25, Fri 16 Feb.

The Duke cries out when the expplosion rocks him and angrily kicks any remaining robots far away before he bursts into a pouty mood and heads for the cooler.

Alyn attempts to activate the self-repair systems of the Doom Alynwalker, and also runs a dignostic scan of the enire system to get a better feel on what things are repairable, and what state the walker will be in after the repair system activates.

--(Ajakstu, I'll give you a choice-- you can find something else a little useful, OR you can realize something about what's left of the robots below. Which will you choose? Tell me, and I'll tell you.)

Choosing to learn something about the robotic remnants.


Ajakstu busies himself rejiggering the lower ankle hatches so they close and are trapped once again while he gives the remnants of Vonmol's horde the twice over.

--Ajakstu finds nothing new.

--Ajakstu DOES realize something about the deactivated robots around him-- Vomol had more, when you first met his little parade. For example, the guy Ajakstu got his insta-thicket isn't here. And not just because some robots ran away-- some were missing when you got back to the Doomwalker already.

This was about... 2/3rds of them. The biggest, most military-brute-force types, it feels like. So that's nice, in a way, but...

Hm. Wonder what happened to the rest of them?



--Alyn gets a report.


EXTE_IOR WEAP_N_ SYSTEMS: 0% OPERAT__NAL
INTE_IOR DEFENSES: 21% OPERATIONAL
LIFE-SUP_ORT SYSTEMS: 45% OPERATIONA_
SENS_RS: 60% OPE_ATIONAL
P_WER: 24% REMAI_ING
GYROSC_PE: 86% OPER_TIONAL
COMPUT_R SYSTEMS: 78% O_ERATIONAL

Okay, so not a ton of change. A few things higher than last time. Battery 1 percent lower. But wait, there's more:

SELF-R_PAIR SY_TEM... COMING ONLINE...
SELF-R_PAIR SY_TEM... PROCESSIN_...
SELF-R_PAIR SY_TEM... ATTE_PTING TO REB_OT...

A deep voice starts speaking from somewhere near Alyn. THIS IS DOOMWALKER. MEMORY SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN DAMAGED. HARD RESTART IS UNDERWAY. HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO REFER TO THIS UNIT? "DOOMWALKER" IS ACCEPTABLE, OR YOU MAY GIVE NEW NAME.

It waits for Alyn's reply (and only Alyn).

Alyn was intrigued. He had suspected the possibility, but now he was sure that the Doomwalker had some sort of AI in it, despite the technology being from some sort of big war or something from sometime in the past. Although the fact that there were AI robots in the military facility where he got his hardware also made it easier to see how the Doomwalker could too. But really, there was a whole lot he still didn't know about it despite all the things he had learned.

At the very least, it seemed to have a sense of self and understood that it could be named.

This was actually convenient, since it meant he could issue the thing commands and communicate with it from afar with his telepathy. Which he STILL had no freaking clue about why it worked so well with many types of machines. But whatever.

So Alyn thought a response to the Doomwalker, since it would be easier and faster than him typing on a keyboard.

You can refer to me, your owner and the primary administrator, as Alyn Reed, or just Alyn in casual conversation. I'd like you to accept an ongoing psychic link with me as well.

I would like to rename this unit from Doomwalker to become ALYNWALKER.

Also, I have no idea about your previous history, so while I'd like you to preserve your old memory system as best you can for the sake of posterity and for enhancing your system knowledge, I'd like you to purge any loyalties you may have or do have to any other primary administrators besides myself. You can leave Ajakstu on as a Beta Admin though, of course, as well as retain the whitelist of guests I input as well, like my moths and companions.

Please use those parameters and conduct a hard restart using the new updated Alyn-drivers I just installed.

This message was last edited by the player at 07:38, Tue 20 Feb.

ACKNOWLEDGED.



...NATURE OF OFFER UNCLEAR. WHAT IS PSYCHIC LINK-- PLEASE DEFINE.



ACKNOWLEDGED.



VERY LITTLE TO SAVE. EVEN LESS TO PURGE. ...PURGING OF PREVIOUS AFFILIATIONS MOSTLY SUCCESSFUL. CHECKING FOR POSSIBLE MISSED DATA WILL TAKE MORE TIME.



ACKNOWLEDGED.



All the lights go out... then start up about five seconds later. Whew.

PROCESSING...

That did it. The fact the Walker was able to respond to his psychic commands confirmed it had an AI. And the fact that it continued to respond to his mental prompts despite not understanding what Alyn was asking about psychic commands was, in and of itself, basically an acceptance of said psychic presence.

So he simply remained silent and let the rebooting complete itself, and waited for it to fully restart.

One thing he did notice was that it's speech abilities seemed to be improving as it initiated the reboot. Perhaps this was a good step that he had it do, to help it begin to repair and heal its past damage and neglect.

Alyn touched one of the panels, and remained silent as his eyes glistened a moment before returning to normal.

Alynwalker...can you provide me a status of your progress with the reboot?

And also, as you do, I'd like you to de-frag yourself to make it easier for your self-repair systems to fix your CPU as well.

...
...
......Nothing. No response.



...
...
......NEW REQUEST MAY DELAY/EXTEND TIME TO COMPLETION, says Alynwalker. Okay, at least that was a response. Even though it replied out loud, it could hear when Alyn thought at/to it.

......TIME UNTIL COMPLETION UNDER CURRENT PARAMETERS CURRENTLY... APPROXIMATELY... FIVE MINUTES. DO YOU STILL WANT TO EXTEND?

Alyn considered, and thought a response to it.

Can you tell me how much longer the defrag would extend the reboot? I think doing this is important and if it's a reasonable amount of time I'm willing to wait. Like 24 hours or less I'll definitely wait.

He turned to the nearby Ajakstu.

"Um...it's gonna be a while. I'm still working to get it rebooted and begin repairing its systems. Could you do me a favor and check on the others, and make sure they aren't getting into trouble or something while I work on this?" he asked, nicely.

After sulking about and eating a nice chunk out of the Cooler the Duke was 'happy' again. Still seemingly lying on a pile of rubbish might have taken care of those nasty burns but now his back ached. Still all that stuff with the robot was getting reaaaaaaaally boring by now and the Duke starts to wander. Sure there was something fun to do here right?


ooc: Well no beef on the healing.

TOO MANY VARIABLES. POSSIBLY. . . AN ADDITIONAL 5 TO 55 MINUTES. DO YOU STILL WANT TO EXTEND?




(Roll Insightful for me again, The Duke!)

If 55 minutes is the worst possible estimate, then that's fine. Yes, please extend as necessary and add in some de-fragging. That should help your systems perorm much better, and probably will make you "feel" better too. Alyn replied, telepathically.

ACKNOWLEDGED. The voice is quieter, this time. Guess it's already hard at work...

21:35, Today: The Duke rolled 12 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,5.  Insightful. – 12

(Ooooh.

The Duke, you find a life form! Pick one of these:

--it seems like a non-sentient animal, and like it might be delicious if cooked properly

--it seems like an intelligent being, and says something to suggest that it might be friendly/helpful/kind/useful

Once you pick one, I'll fill in more details, or ask you follow-up questions, depending)

ooc: Do intelligent. The Duke has just eaten after all

Ajakstu laughs to himself at the idea that Alyn considers him to be the responsible one. Sensing opportuunity, he heads for the Duke once he wraps up the ankle hatches. Having first encountered Pesky cowering from the mants or maybe the raiders Ajakstu figures that one is certainly not getting into trouble.

"Duke! I think I can help you secure that chest piece!"

The Duke finds... a blob.

Well, a blob that stands up on two pseudopods like a human would. And it has two... pseudoarms, too. It even has a stubby little-- top... growth... on top, where a (thick) neck and a (slightly pointy) head would go on a human.

So. A greenish blob, almost-transparent but not very (it'd probably be really pretty if you shone a light behind it, though)... about five-ish feet tall...

...And it talks. "...Oh! Look at you! You poor thing! Has someone been fighting with you? Are you hurt?" The voice is like that of a human woman... if just a little underwater. A bit of a lilting, almost sing-song accent.

Foers almost immediately classifies this blob as DO NOT KILL.

Ajakstu has trouble finding The Duke at first (hey, the lighting is not optimum out here), but after a minute, oh, there he is, by that... green blob. Person. That's talking to him. Huh. Okay.

The Duke eyes the blob person who looks really like Jello a lot and loves her instantly. Whats not to love about a person the looks like your favourite dessert after all. Even FOERS seems to like her making heart hands at the beauty. The Duke just stares at her for a few moments and then with only a little drool forming on his lips nods in response to her question. Yeah the Duke is utterly lovestruck. The Lady must have looked down upon him favourably to send such a beauty on his path.

Ajakstu looks for a comfortable seat from which to watch The Duke's encounter unfold.

Also, some sort of obstruction to hide behind in case it gets creepy and weird. A large, sight obscuring and sound mitigating obstruction. Hopefully with the power to eradicate memories.

The blob notices Ajakstu. "Hello... another one... Not as cute... do either of you speak? Do you have names? Mine is Dulcinea. Me... Dul-cin-e-a..." says the green blob, pointing a pseudopod at herself.

(The new pic isn't perfect, but it's as good as "pic for green blob person" would let me get)

The Duke keeps staring at the woman his mouth moving but not a single word coming out. Still he seems to mouth her name the lips moving liek he is tasting it but no sound except a massive sigh as he points at himself and seems to fail to even utter his own name. The poor thing clearly was having a mental meltdown.

"Well, you understand me, I think... Who hurt you, poor thing? Were some bad monsters picking on you...?"

The Duke just slowly nods again and gestures in the general direction of the Doomwalker. He even manages to utter a sob that comes from his toes as this woman seems to be the first that understands just how hard it is to be the Duke.

"Ohh! Did you get in a fight over by that big 'ol thing? Someone tried to fight you for it? Poor li'l scrapper! You didn't deserve that...!"

His cover blown Ajakstu takes a half step backwards. This looks like a good match for Gas Bag back at the walkers with Fish Breath.

"You are speaking to The Duke, Destroyer of Enemies. Myself, I am called Ajakstu Gul. Next in rank is Rake, who you may see flying about. There are a few others of no consequence. The Duke can explain."

Having lubricated the skids of romance, Ajakstu takes a full step back and squats down, seemingly lost in contemplating the dirt beneath his feet.

"Ohhhh, The Duke? Do you have a Dukedom?" She's forgotten about Ajakstu already, still focused on the poor little giant.

The input from Ajakstu seems to break the spell a little and the Duke shakes his head when she asks the question. The fact that FOERS was jumping around her with hearts visualizing over it was not helping much of coarse.

"You are pretty."

Ajakstu thinks as hard as he can, "Pretty boy! Egoist! Alewife! Alwyn! Ypou gotta get down here and see this! Or at least un tongue tie The Duke!"

"Ohhh! Aren't you sweet! You can talk, you're just a little shy! More a young man of action, I'm sure...! And does your teddy have a name...?"




Kalsk wanders over. "Why, what's going on?" Then, taking in Dulcinea, Kalsk moseys up next to Ajakstu. "Who's the, uh... lifeform?" he asks in a lower voice...

The Dukes eyes grow wide and might even look like big hearts for a second.

"You can see FOERS? He is my bestest friend."

Seems there was a little coherence coming back to the big brute. Still it was clearly a little strained at the moment.

(...Oh dear. Is Foers just a sort of program that only The Duke can see? I thought it was a literal teddy bear he carried around, but the truth makes a lot more sense.

...Well, hell, sure, what the hell, Dulcinea can see Foers. Dulcinea has convenient-for-the-GM powers.)

"Awwww, that's so sweet! I bet you've had Foers for a long time, eh?"

Following Ajakstu's call, Pesky rounds the corner.

The scene looks like a tense standoff, Duke and...whatever that is.  But the temperature is all wrong.
The Duke seems almost mesmerized.  There is an edge to the scene that is just this side of ridiculous.
Pesky decides to just be still and watch this play out.

Kalsk notes Pesky's slight perplexity. "From what I can tell so far, The Duke's found a lifeform that wants to mother him," he explains. "The big fellow's so delighted, he hardly knows what to do."

The Duke nods.

"Forever. He tells me who the baddies are and then i punch them."

17:40, Today: Ajakstu Gul rolled 12 using 2d6+1 ((5,6)). Charming.

"Duke, the lovely.....Dulcinea has remarked upon both your sweetness and um.... prettiness. It is clear that the time is now for full speed courtship!" Ajakstu suggests, with almost no trace of humor in his voice.

--AW, C'MON!
You get +1 forward when you succeed in a Charming roll that involves giving hope or cheer to someone who needs it.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:44, Fri 01 Mar.

"Courtship? But he's only a baby! He needs looking after, not a date! You're a silly-billy, Mr. Fancy Hat."

The Duke looks offended.

"The Duke is no baby! I am big and strong!"

He even flexes his massive belly muscles in a display of power.

OOC: I thought Foers was a program as well inside Duke. Alyn sensed it only because of his telepathy, but he didn't want to mess with it since it's helping regulate Duke a lot.

Alyn heard Ajakstu call for help? Backup? Moral support? Once he heard "pretty boy!" he knew he was calling for Alyn. Because Alyn was basically the team's eye candy. And also something of a naggy wife at times too.

Alyn got up from the terminal, and let it keep running its defrag and reboot and he went down stairs and outside and saw the situation before him.

"Alright you guys! What sort of slimey situation have you gotten yourselves entangled in this time? I let you run off out of sight for 5 minutes and..." he said, as he literally saw the slime-woman.

"...and oh brother. It really is a slimey situation!"

Alyn's eyes look piercingly at the slime.

"What are you? and what are you doing here with my companions? You do realize that Duke probably is interested in you because of hoiw potentially edible you are, right? Whatever you are." Alyn spoke aloud.

"Yes, baby! But you're all hurt...! You poor thing...!" Dulcinea glorps forward and gives The Duke a big, loving, comforting, reassuring hug.

(The Duke regains one health level, but has a penalty on his next roll.

(To Dear Old Gang: this is The Duke's new agreed-upon level-up perk. Dulcinea can heal The Duke a little every so often, but it gives him a penalty on his next roll.))




(Well, you were right. Dulcinea can see it anyway, though.)



(Good idea (not to).)



Dulcinea disengages from the hug, and resumes her "standing" form, pseudopods on pseudohips. "Of course this poor dear wouldn't eat me! He couldn't, successfully, anyway. My name is Dulcinea, and I'm a licensed scavenger from Gnost. I have all the permission I need to be out here!"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:24, Sat 02 Mar.

When the living jello comes closer and engulfs the Duke in a soothing sweet embrace, she even smelled like jello, the massive giant can not help but give her a nice and sweet lick going all starry eyed. If one wouldn't know better one might assume the big guy was high the way he just looks starry eyed at this new wonderful creature. When she wants to release from him he clearly tries to keep her engaged in the hug. But she pulls back and the Duke clearly is a little down like comming of some kind of nice upper.

"Gnost. We got to go there."

He says in a dreamy voice.

Dulcinea tastes slightly of lime, with a hint of green tea and maybe a bit of white chocolate.

"Oh! Do you need to visit Gnost, dearie? Well that's fine, I've got enough things that I'm ready to start heading back there myself, too..."

"I'll go with you."

De Duke declares matter of factly and reaches out to hold her by a tentacle inching closer to be in her personal space.

Alyn nods.

"Well this Doombot is not scrap, so please don't try and salvage it. It's my ride." he said, his tone growing nicer once he hears she's from Gnost. And she does seem to be helping with duke's injuries somehow, in some slimey way.

"But with that said, my companions are right though: we are actually on our way to Gnost. We just had to make some pit stops first, since I had some errands to run and I also promised to help Dukie fill up our food reserves, which we did." he continued.

"Dulcinea, you said, right? I was wondering if you couldn't possibly do us a favor." Alyn asked.

"Do you know of or think you could give us an introduction to a skilled surgeon in Gnost? We heard that it's possible someone is there who could help safely remove a parasite from someone." he asked.

Alyn did not forget about Kalsk's situation. Things merely had been quiet on that front since Alyn's presence was keeping the parasite in check, but as none of them were skilled enough to remove the thing without harming Kalsk, they were in a stalemate. But he'd love to remove it and feed it to his mind moths. The thing would probably be scrumptious to them.

"Hm? Oh, well good for you. It's bigger than I can carry... and more complicated that what I normally try to mess with, anyway."




"Not for sweetie?!?!?" she exclaims, aghast. After it's explained that the patient in question is not The Duke, but Kalsk, Dulcinea calms down. "Oh, well, let's see, there must be someone... Doc Bolts is dead, last I heard... and he was better with inorganics anyway... Doctor Quasit is too unreliable... he's mad, you understand... Professor Ratch will make you feel better, but he tends to make it so you have to keep coming back to him for more treatment later... Timaeus-- no, wait, that's right, he fell off the wagon again, you wouldn't want him... I guess maybe Regina-Ra. She knows what she's doing... might be a tiny bit expensive. And you'll have to listen to a lot of her religious stuff. But if those things aren't dealbreakers... then yes, I'd say she thinks enough of me that introducing you would help..."

Alyn nods.

"Heh don't worry. Any parasite that went into the Duke would have been digested long ago. No, this is for our furry friend here." Alyn responded.

"And Regina-Ra sounds like our gal then. We may be able to convince her to do it, or perhaps do a favor for her as payment. A favor from us is quite valuable, you know." he continued.

He then considered.

"Oh, and by the way. Do you know of anyone in Gnost who happens to be an expert in quantum-mechanics and/or machine systems? We need to cross the (whatever that unstable zone is called), and I want to mod my Doom...err, my Alynwalker to it like can generate a stability field or something. Or failing that, I'd like to mod my Alynwalker so it can drill into and travel underaround as well as on land." he said.

"This second thing is as much for Duke as it is for me and the others, by the way. Because you wouldn't your beloved Dukie to get turned inside-out and then explode in a shower of flower petals or something from the Unstable-Zone's fields, would you? I could possibly make it through myself, but the attempt could equally possibly create a black hole, if I goof it up, that kills us all and sucks in Gnost and the surrounding region as well, so we're avoiding that option if possible." Alyn added.

Hopefully playing the Duke card helped motivate her to help them more.

"Well, of course. You've got Sweetie to help you. ...And a giant mecha-thing. That does give you more options, if you've got it working."





"Professional mechanics and technicians are easier to find in Gnost than qualified doctors of organic lifeforms. I can think of two or three people right off the bat. How do you know about the Unstable Zone, though? Not that I mean to pry..."




"You want to take Sweetie into the Unstable Field?!? No! I simply won't allow i... Well... Hm. If you're planning to drive the giant mecha in there... that much metal might actually give you some protection. With the right adaptations, I mean. Especially since it's a thing of the ancient past. ...I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask the professionals in Gnost about it. If it can't be done, then maybe they can talk you out of it. ...Why does Sweetie have to go through the Unstable Zone, anyway? What's in there-- or on the other side-- that you folks need?"

Ajakstu waited fir the response. The Cloister? Maybe, it seemed that there was payment involved. Helping Kalsk? Off the table, what with how his kind had rudely imprisoned his most innocent self.

"Unstable Zone sounds quite pricey for expert assistance such as I provide," he clearly stated.

Alyn nodded.

"Actually, Dukie is going willingly. I'm not forcing anyone. All of us are going willingly. Although we need to talk to Kalsk and our elemental buddy here soon about what they want to do after we deal with the parasite, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it." he said.

"As for the unstable zone...it's a really weird story. But let's just say we met a reliable source that warned us about the reality-warped terrain and the ongoing warping fields in the area. But we're looking for something that is semi-mythical to most people. It's called the Cloisture, and is supposed to be the other main hub of humanity on this world. It's sort of a sister to the Ziggurate is my understanding, or it may have come first. I don't really know that much about it beyond the basics." he said.

"But Dukie, Ajakstu, and I all have reasons to want to find it. We have a shared goal of trying to re-establish contact between the Ziggurat and the Cloisture, for the simple fact that there are only 2 bastions of humanity and it would probably boost every human's morale to know there were other human colelagues out there to connect with." he continued.

"I know many think the Cloisture is just a story myth, but the same source who primed us about the unstable zone also believes the Cloisture exists somewhere on the other side of it, somewhere out there, by itself. But the Ziggurate humans have lost a lot of human history and knowledge, and by reconnecting with the Cloisture we're hoping to try and get that back and try and get a better understanding of this strange world we're living in. Cus no one fully seems to know WHY all the various weird things that are going on have happened."

The Duke looks at Alyn when he tells they are voluntarily and simply chimes in.

"I ate to much and they send me away. I think they don't want me to return. People where always mean there. But my friends are nice so i help them and make sure we have enough food in the cooler."

With that he taps his trusty cooler. He seems to be thawing out a little but is still looking at Dulcinea like he could eat her.

"Elemental?"

"Hey guys," says Vult, still a vaporous gas, floating over.

"Oh, a Shifter? I've met them before. Let me guess, you're a teenager."

"Yeah, how'd you-- how can you tell?"

"Well, the voice, I suppose... but mostly because only a teenager would be hanging out with these people."

"Yeah, my family-- all the adults, I mean-- are totally square," agrees Vult. "But look, humans! Real humans! I found some!"

"Humans?" repeats Dulcinea. She looks at The Duke. "These are all humans?!? But they're so... adorable!!!" Then she turns and faces Alyn, Ajakstu, and Pesky again. "...Well, I guess it varies a lot from individual to individual."




"Eh? Oh, The Ziggurat, I guess I've heard of that. Some sort of trading colony down to the southwest, huh? Not sure I ever really believed there were humans there. I've heard legends of a place called The Cloister, though... Is that the same place? Never heard where it was, nor that it involved humans, though."



"Well, that makes sense. So it's a family/species thing. Instinctual. I can understand that. ...Oh! Maybe there'll be other children like Sweetie there! Now I kind of want to go and see!"




"Whaaaat?!? Sent you away?!? That's outrageous! We'll have to make sure you get all the food you want! There'll be plenty of food in Gnost, though. Um... if your friends have enough money."

The Duke looks confused.

"Money? Why do i need money when there is food?"

He turns to the majestic hat.

"Lets get the car and see what they have!"

"To buy more food, sweetie. You're a growing boy."

The Duke flexes his muscles.

"The gladly feed me."

"Okay so what I'm getting out of all this is: it's time to get in the giant robot and head to Gnost, amirite? If I am, then: sounds good to me, let's go!"

Hearing the opportunity to escape, Ajakstu follows the Duke's orders and sprints to their walker. Saddling up, he heads back for the group, stomping and kicking any robotic remains he spies.

Alyn nodded his head.

"Yup, we're humans. Well except for Vult and Kalsk of course. Mind you, The Duke and I are not normal humans by any means but we are human-enough for scanning purposes, and Ajakstu and Pesky also have their own heroic qualities that set them apart from normal humans. They are action-movie bad-asses and sometimes I swear even more. But we are human enough! Don't let the fact that we occasionally antagonize and then agonize monsters and robots, make friends with slime-women, elementals, and cat-people, and tame and breed psychotic moths and such throw you off." he said confidently, with a grin.

He then shook his head.

"The Alynwalker is going to take a bit more time to finish rebooting and I don't want to leave it right now. But if you guys want to, you can go on ahead and I'll catch up. I've got some rations, water bottles, and candy bars from the base in my Psiwalker so will be fine for food for a bit. I shouldn't be more than an hour or two behind you, but who knows...maybe this Alynwalker can haul ass and I'll catch up with you en route." he said.

"And Dulcinea? don't worry Duke is just being dramatic. I've made sure he stays quite well-fed this entire journey. As much for the good of the world as for his own, mind you." he said. "We've got preserved crab meat, water, candy bars, and rations in our big cooler. So we're not going to starve." he added.

"I can't say we have money though. I'm not sure any of us even know how money works out here. It didn't work that way back in the Ziggurat, and on the road we mostly take what we want or, when we're feeling nice, we exchange favors with others. So you may have to give us a primer on the economy of Gnost later, okay?" he said.

At this, Pesky nods and adds, "I'll stay back with you."

"Eh? Boys, never split up the party...! That's, like, scavenging 101! I mean, when there is a party. I'm a party all by myself, but I'm a lot harder to digest than most scavengers. Sometimes that's the reason I've ended up as a party of one, even when I start out an expedition with other people..."



"Oh, sure. There's a few things people trade for currency in Gnost. I'll help. But uh... I think everyone should stick together... or at least that Sweetie should stick with the giant mecha..."

The Duke looks at the Doomwalker and then at his love bite.

"It has no food. Lets go to Gnost."

He then gets into the hover car and pats the seat opposite of him for Dulcinea.

"These two will do just fine on their own. Lets see what snacks Gnost has."

Alyn nodded.

"Don't worry - I can track you guys psychically, so I'll be able to find you sop we can meet up again." he said aloud.

He then turned to Dulcinea. She would suddenly be able to hear Alyn's voice in her mind. His presence caressed against her mind gently, and his initiation of a connection was "polite" for lack of a better word. No tricky side-entry, etc.

Dulcinea? This is Alyn. Yes, I can speak to you mentally and no, I'm not doing anything bad to you. Just talking right now. I have an understanding with the others traveling with me: we give each other grace and such each other a break, in exchange for the same. It's us against the world, but as you can see we can play nice with others too. sometimes. his voice said, mentally, followed by a mental chuckle.

I only offer this to my closest travelling companions, but I will never try to mind control or deep-probe your thoughts and so on so forth unless I'm proactively doing it to try and help you. Like for instance, to try and push out another invading mental presence or something, or if you specifically ask me to for some reason like you need help recalling a forgotten memory, or need me to help you stay calm for something, and so on. I have the feeling you'll be travelling with us for a while, and I'd like to offer you this "mental alliance" deal if you're interested. I do these psychic favors for close travel companions for free, by the way. Your mutual goodwill is all I ask in return.

A few moments later.

I will not force you to accept a passive mental link right now if you don't want it, but know that it will let us communicate even across vast distances, or in situations where there's radio jamming and so on. The choice is yours.

"Yes, but--"



At first, he can tell she doesn't like this kind of communication... but as he keeps "talking," he can tell that her practical side kicks in-- she can see the potential usefulness of what he's offering. I'd prefer to talk by vibrating the air-- for both/all of us, I mean. But I accept that this might be useful sometimes, too... and important. Maybe I'll take you up on that offer someday. But for now, try to stay out of my mind unless it's necessary.

Dulcinea's mind is weird, by the way. It's like a million little minds fused into one. There's a lot of echo and reverb when she thinks, or at least that's a result that Reed can't ignore. A lot of them are thinking the same thing, like Private, Keep Out or Must Protect Sweetie, but quite a few of them are thinking their own things, like musing over memories. Dulcinea is old, like really old. She's experienced a lot.

"But anyway, seriously, I'm not worried-- well, not anymore-- about you people getting lost from each other. It's just a safety-in-numbers thing. Sweetie will be safer traveling with you and your giant mecha. It's still a good ways before Gnost."

No problem, and I understand. You - all of you - at least now know what my telepathy is like. Just in case you encounter other powerful psychic beings. We can speak normally for now. Offer is on the table indefinitly while you travel with us. he replied mentally.

Oh, and if you see some sinister and potentially murderous psychic moths on and around me, please leave them be. Some stuff happened and I'm sort of their hive queen right now. Or at least...their very stern big brother who treats them like pets since realize I'm a far bigger psychic predator than they are if they piss me off. But they actually have a strong sense of community and are well behaved to my party. I just don't want you to worry when you see them soon. Oh, and I'll let them know ahead of time that you're on my white-list.

Alyn then sent a quick mental update to the mind moths about Dulcinea, and added her to his white-list of people they are not to mess with.

Alyn nodded, and spoke aloud.

"I'm fine with staying together, and strength in numbers is definitely a thing. But I CAN'T leave the Alynwalker right now. It's booting up and wont be able to protect itself until its done. And I need to make sure no more of those robot fucks some and try and mess with it. Cus if they do, I'll psychokinetically turn them into a can-opener for the Duke." he said.

"Which means you all need to occupy yourselves for an hour, and TRY to stay out of trouble while I spawn-camp my Megazord." Alyn said.

Suddenly, the Alynwalker thinks: UPDATE COMPLETE.

Well well well.

It didn't think it AT Alyn (did it?) just thought it so... with such focus that Alyn heard it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:12, Thu 07 Mar.

Alyn suddenly snapped to attention.

"Oh...well that was fast. I guess out banter passed the time faster than I thought. Let me go check it out. Be right back." He said to everyone as he hurried inside the Alynwalker and ascended to the control room.

He sat at a counsel, and thought commands to it for ease.

How are your systems doing, now that you not only rebooted but defragged yourself too? Please refresh your system status update for me.

And how sophisticated are your self-repair systems? Can you like...rebuild your shattered windows and circuitry and stuff?

And how are your movement systems? How about your attack and defense systems?
This message was last edited by the player at 02:17, Thu 07 Mar.

EXTE_IOR WEAP_N_ SYSTEMS: 0% OPERAT__NAL
INTE_IOR DEFENSES: 29% OPERATIONAL
LIFE-SUP_ORT SYSTEMS: 51% OPERATIONA_
SENS_RS: 62% OPE_ATIONAL
P_WER: 23% REMAI_ING
GYROSC_PE: 91% OPER_TIONAL
COMPUT_R SYSTEMS: 85% O_ERATIONAL
SELF-R_PAIR SY_TEM: 14% OPERATIONAL




CIRCUITRY... SLOWLY. WINDOWS... MUCH MORE SLOWLY.



P_WER: 23% REMAI_ING
GYROSC_PE: 91% OPER_TIONAL
COMPUT_R SYSTEMS: 85% O_ERATIONAL

READY TO WALK. FASTER THAN MODERATE WALKING SPEED NOT READY AT THIS TIME.



EXTE_IOR WEAP_N_ SYSTEMS: 0% OPERAT__NAL
INTE_IOR DEFENSES: 29% OPERATIONAL

PRIORITIES SHOULD NOT BE OVERRIDDEN:
--LEGS BEFORE ARMS.
--TORSO AND HEAD BEFORE ARMS.
--RIGHT ARM BEFORE LEFT ARM.

OTHER PRIORITIES APPLY.

POWER-SAVING SUBROUTINES CURRENTLY APPLY.

"Hey Bossy." She means Alyn. "Are you think-talking to the mecha? Are you cyborg?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:11, Thu 07 Mar.

Alyn got an idea, and thought a new command to the Alynwalker.

Besides resetting your remaining functional defenses and traps and such, and keeping enough power reserved for walking, can you have the self-repair systems otherwise fully focus themselves on repairing itself? Basically, I want you to use self-repair on the self-repair systems. This should create a snowball effect of self-repairing!

Alyn then notice Dulcinea came with him and he looked at her, smiled, and nooded.

"Yes, I'm thought-speaking to the mecha. No, I'm not a cyborg. I'm all organic and biological. And yes, it makes absolutely zero sense that my telepathy works fairly well with machines, all things coinsidering. But I also can communicate telepathically with Vult when he's gaseous, and you as a slime-woman with a VERY unique mind. It's like you're more of a living network, like a protist or something. Except on the real-world level you're thoughts are cohesive and you take clear, intentional actions. And somehow, I still can commune with you. You're not nearly as strange mentally as that one tree-thing was..." he replied.

"Yeah, you head me right. I even communicated with a really, really told sentient tree-thing once. It was...strange. I have an easier time with machines even than I do with intelligences THAT alien. But it seems I'm able to communicate with just about anything that has some sort of intelligence." he said.

"But honestly, I have absolutely no freaking idea how it works. Really, my powers defy logic and science but yet they work somehow." he added.

"But I told you, we're...kinda different from normal humans. Duke and I break physics, quite frankly. I'd be terrified of Dukie if I weren't also as freakish as he is. And the others are some sort of action-movie hero at worst. I mean how is Ajakstu not dead yet, for crying out loud? That's supernatural in and of itself! And I think I saw pesky tie a cherry stem with is gun barrel once too!"

USER PRIORITIES ACKNOWLEDGED.



"...Sounds like you're tapping into some sort of religious stuff to me." Dulcinea waves a pseudopod, as if "religious stuff" is a swarm of gnats she's shooing away from her. That's the end of that discussion.

(Reed wonders if Dulcinea doesn't like thinking about what she categorizes as "religious stuff" because she doesn't understand it, or because she does understand it...)



"Sweetie is not 'freakish!' Don't be condescending, Bossy! Or... patronizing? Or both? Is a giant mecha freakish? Is a rainbow fish freakish? Is breathing air freakish? Maybe you just have judgey self-esteem! Pretty ironic for someone so bossy! Let your special banner fly, I say! Also, Sweetie could eat you so I'd be nice to him if I was you!"

"I'm absolutely both condescending and patronizing, thank you very much!" Alyn says with a hmph, followed by a playful grin.

"Actually Pesky and Kalsk are the only two humble ones in this group. But it works for us since we're the dream team." he continued.

"And lady? If my powers are because I'm the chosen of some sort of religion, and that makes me a priest or God help us all a Saint...then this world's fuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked!" he added. "Cus I'm like so not the messiah type."

"Oh, and yes the Doombot is freakish, yes rainbow fish are freakish, breathing air...is alright though, I suppose. But seriously? I may be the only being on this planet who the Duke wouldn't want to eat, since I'd absolutely be able to give him indigestion! Turns out getting a psionic storm in your stomach isn't very palatable." he said with a grin.

"Hmph! I wasn't saying that." She seriously considers: what the heck had she been suggesting, anyway? "...Maybe it's an ability you're being granted by-- Hm. Never mind. You and Regina-Ra should have a long talk, that's all..."




"Hmph! You and me both. So is the big mecha ready to walk, or what?"

Alyn raised a curious eyebrow at her as she cut herself off, but decided to leave it be. They needed to meet Regina-Ra anyway. He didn't really expect a slime-woman to actually truly know about the nature of his powers, which seemed a bit different from the "normal" psychic things they've encountered thus far. His powers were unstable - almost as if a dice were being rolled when he activated them - but on the flipside the upper limit of his potential was unknown.

"Very well. We'll deal with it and other stuff in Gnost. And yes, the Alynwalker is ready to go. you probably should stay with the Duke for now, who in turn should stay with the cooler in his transport." he reponded.

He looked to the party.

"And you guys need to drive in the transports and bring your vehicles though - don't leave them behind. I will follow you guys in the Alynwalker, and my Psiwalker will follow me too, since it can follow me unattended. But we shouldn't just ditch the other transports. On the contrary, we may be able to use them to get money, or simply may need them for other things." he said.

"And let's see if there's anything that we can scrape from the robots that maybe we can sell in gnost too. I know Ajakstu combed through for the choicer bits, but maybe there's more general scrap we could load into one of the transports and sell in gnost?"

"Definitely! Any one of them would bring quite a bit of money in Gnost."




"Yes, good idea. Get nuts, bolts, gears, metal. Don't worry so much about getting plastic. Oh, any sort of oil reserve, too, if you see any. Just, uh, don't tell any robots we meet in Gnost that you were the ones who destroyed these robots..."

(Someone-- ONE of you-- do an Insightful roll)

With perhaps a bit of an eyeroll Ajakstu dismounts from the walker and dicks around with a few of the robots.

"Could have left the cat behind with Al," he muttered.

16:19, Today: Ajakstu Gul rolled 9 using 2d6+1 ((3,5)). Assuming did not get the +1 forward for helping Duke with his pitching of woo.

"And what have we here? As a man I once knew named Wikus said, 'This is the biggest find that I've ever seen!'....didn't work out to well for Wikus though. Prawn."

Dulcinea looks over what Ajakstu has chosen. "Yes, this'll do. This'd get you a nice bargaining stake even if it's all you boys were bringing to the table. Not bad, Hat Boy. You might have a future as a professional scavenger. Of course you could only benefit from the experienced example of a veteran like myself..."

When Dulcinea's not fussing over The Duke, her voice sounds like an old lady. It's only when she's fussing over The Duke that she sounds like an overexcited mom.

She rubs her upper pseudopods together. "Ha ha ha ha ha haaa! Load it up, boys! I know just who we'll unload this stuff on! Well, shall we go...?"

She turns to Alyn. "Hey Bossy, can I talk to your giant mecha for a second? With my voice, I mean. If you let me, I'll give it coordinates for Gnost."

01:59, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 2 using 1d6+1 with rolls of 1.  Aid (Insight)

Well thankfully it wasn't a 1 so no penalty, but Ajakstu's dice are both better so the aid does not modify anything. So we go with his 9. I hope his treasure powers help a little, lol.

Alyn tried to help Ajakstu look for scrap, but was too distracted by Dulcinea and the Alynwalker to be of much help.

He turned toward the slime-lady.

"Huh? Voice? Oh ah yeah. Voice. Yes, go ahead. Turns out the thing has an AI in it, despite being who knows how old. I'm starting to think that whatever civilization came before now was far more advanced than people realize. I think once I get this Alynwalker fully repaired, it's gonna be an absolute beast." he said.

"And yeah, go ahead and make an inquiry of it. I white-listed you as a guest so it should give you basic courtesy, as long as it doesn't think you're doing or asking anything that's harmful to us. I appreciate you sharing the coordinates with it." he said.

In reply to Dulcinea (msg # 192):

Ajakstu filed Bossy away as the new name for the ...well....Bossy guy!

Alyn almost catches a stray thought or emotion about that from Dulcinea, but he can't quite make it out. She has Opinions about the past... but doesn't like sharing them.



If taking it through the Unstable Zone doesn't make it a wreck by the time you get it to the other side... thinks Dulcinea-- there, he heard that one... or did she mean for him to catch that one?



"Sure," says Dulcinea. "Hey giant walker robot, give me a local map, please." A hologram map appears in front of Dulcinea. "Yeah, thanks. Make it so I can zoom in and out, please."

ACKNOWLEDGED.

"Thanks." She starts using her upper pseudopods to zoom out, out... Then in again, on the upper part... in a bit more... Then she touches a spot. "Yeah, there. See where I'm pointing, giant robot? ...This isn't working. Respond when I call you BossyWalker. See where I'm pointing on this map, BossyWalker? Make a marker there and label it 'Gnost,' G-N-O-S-T, because that's where we're going next."

ACKNOWLEDGED.

Alyn didn't mind the nickname. Truth be told, this world and his situation was so strange, so weird, and filled with so many strange, potentially harmful, and wonderous beings and life forms that he had to become super Assertive in order to survive and get by. But equally, he was the main one keeping the herd of cats who were travelling with him at least somewhat organized and focused as well.

Despite everything, including some weird psionic situations, Alyn had done a lot for this group so far. He went out of his way to help Duke make sure their food stores were always topped off, he geared Pesky, helped Ajakstu get lewt opportunities as well as generally survive against giant monsters and such occasionally, and even Kalsk and Vult he helped by forcing the Parasite into a stalemate and thus, buying Kalsk time to remain in control. Even now, Alyn had a "lock" on that thing and the moment it dropped its psychic guard Alyn wound be on it like flies on shit. He also knew, though, that despite how the group acted that they were aware of Alyn's contributions and appreciative in their own way. It was this deep non verbal understanding they all had that made them work so well as a party.

He also "silently" listened to Dulcinea's "accidental thought," but did not probe or otherwise take action. He remained passive. For now, he's give her social and mental space to process things, and hopefully later when they were more comfortable with each other she'd open up.

"Well people! I think it's time we go to Gnost then. We got lots of scrap and other ways of earning money as needed, and we have several errands to do when we get there. But by God, we're going to get there!" Let's head out now. Everyone? Please get to your respective vehicles. I am going to be in the Alynwalker and the Psiwalker will be following me. Let's do this!"

"Yeah, let's go!" enthuses Vult.