They had done it, they'd made it unto the ocean and so were safe enough from the ravenous horde of vampires. Cole was just starting to think maybe they'd pull this off when, over the sounds of the waves crashing into the shore, he heard a loud *whomp* from the direction of the skull walker.

The Gunfighter turned in the saddle to look at the CS robot, searching for what could have made the sound.

OOC
I figure Cole is about 30ft or so away from the walker.

Cole rolled 9 using 1d20.  Perception
Cole rolled 13 using 1d100.  Detect Concealment - vs 80

Dyna illuminates the area enough that Cole can see what looks like a large, metallic machine next to the spider. It seems to be a large, lobster shaped vehicle. It is not attacking the spider, but is nudging it not too gently back toward the shore. He also sees several more making their way toward the other vehicles.

Dyna whinnies with agitation and nods toward the beach. Several power armored beings land on the coast and stand looking at Cole and the golden horse.

GM: Whattya do?!

The mystical steed's warning was enough to draw Cade's attention from atop the cargo hauler.

Seeing the... crafts, approaching from under the waves, she swore (mostly to herself) then prepped herself before she jumped from her perch aiming to land atop the closest one.

Her goal was to evaluate how to decomission the things as efficiently as possible.

The lobster shaped crafts make no immediate move to attack, but have effectively surrounded out heroes.

Back at the shoreline, an amplified voice bellows forth from the power armored leader. "Parlay!"

Beneath that armor the group can sense vampires.

GM: What do you do?

Wolf was aiming the underlaser as the lobsters, when he caught a garbled yelling that he heard as "Pary!" He took a guess as to what they meant.

+"Really? They chased us out here in power armor, and all they want to do is talk? This has 'Coalition Mage Diplomacy Protocols' written all over it."+ Chaplain realized he might have to elaborate on that. +"That means they will shoot us to death the moment we do not surrender to them, and we will die in captivity if we do surrender to them."+

He focused through the lens, preparing for movement towards him as a signal to fire on the strange lobster mechs. +"I'm going to try and buy time here. The lasers should work down here. They aren't slugthrowers, and shouldn't become flooded after the first shot. And if all they want to do is push, I can push back while shooting. When the sun comes up, we'll go to shore, blow their armor off, and see how they like some fresh sea air."+

+"Yet every moment we Parley, is another moment closer to Sunrise. Lets give them some rope..."+

+Someone get Symeril to go sermonize at them.  That should keep them occupied for a little while.+  Cade suggested as she did her best to inspect the lobster mechs from her vantage point in the water.

She didn't think they'd get through this without a fight so figuring out how to best deal with the water based threats seemed to be the best course of action right now.

Joran had not gotten to the larger all terrain vehicle in the surf in time to hel heal the wizard, Symeril impatiently using more of her magic to finish the job before he could assist her.  He turns to the clone materializing from light within the cockpit of the Mountaineer.
Take the wheel, he says.  I will topside and mount a weapon to fight back.
Initally, he goes to mount the railgun and its belt of wooden ammo.  But, when he hears the attack on the submerged spider skull walker, he switches to the grenade rifle.  While wooded slivers will not do much damage to military and armored vehicles, the explosive pressure of the grenades will wreak havoc because of how much more force is transmitted by water than by air.  He makes sure he loads standard fragmentation grenades for the best effect.

Wolf thought a moment, and smiled. +"That... is actually a really good idea, Cade. Nate here makes a good point. Standard resource hostage protocols basically state that when the hostage cannot be destroyed due to its value, that we are to stall the other side with conversation as long as possible, because the longer everyone talks, the less likely people are to get shot. I'm assuming they want to do this to us, likely because they have some plan to block out the sun. If we can stop that somehow, or otherwise level the odds, then stalling them with bullshit IS our best plan."+

+"Symeril, do you believe you can appeal to their 'good nature'? Do NOT expose yourself to enemy fire, but do keep them talking."+

Symeril stirs in her bunk in a meditative slumber, perhaps a bit fitfully from her horrific encounter with the vampire lord.

She is oblivious to the current situation... as she went to sleep expecting the refuge in the waters would give her ample time until dawn to rest an recover.  Nothing... as yet violent, jarring, or loud has occurred to wake her from simple normal sleep... as she told the wizard Argus that was her intention.

She continues to sleep until awoken, tossing somewhat fitfully as any normal young women exhausted from the day's activities...

Their mage friend, Sam, sits up with interest. "How are vampires wearing power armor? Something here doesn't make sense. In any case, if you can stall them, I might be able to create a mild diversion. The faster I get to the ruins the faster I can destroy these devices. I have a theory about them. If three are destroyed together, so the other three shall be. And if a vampire possess one...they will burn."


He thinks a moment. "I don't know if we can all go together, but if a couple of you can help me get there, then we have a chance. The man with the clones is critical to the ritual, though."

GM: What do you do?

**I'll ride with you,** Cole says to Sam over the radio net.

"As you can see, my Naut'Yll associates do not intend to let you hide under the sea until sunrise," the master vampire bellows from the shore.


"All right," says Sam to Cole over the radio. Turning to the others in the vehicle, he says, "This may be disconcerting, but trust me it hurts even more."

With that he smacks his own jaw hard, and it goes slack and crooked. He groans with pain as blood pours from his mouth. He cups his hand under the blood and a small, metallic object the size of a tooth falls into his hand. He then smacks his jaw again and groans even more.

"May I see the damaged compass?" he asks Zeke, who hands it to him. He takes the metallic tooth and begins fitting it into the cracks of the broken compass. "I got this from a shaman as he bled out in a jungle in another dimension. It is a magnet of sorts. The metal interacts with leylines in a curious way. It has helped me track them from time to time, In this case, I suspect it will interact with the broken compass in interesting ways. Now, everyone, please get ready because I am going to open a rift near the vampires at the shore. It will only be open a few moments, but that should be enough for a few, perhaps even all of us, to make our way to the ruins."

GM: What do you do?

Chaplain's sensors didn't quite catch what was said, but he wasn't sure if anyone had the sense to do this, so he took manual control and moved from full to partial submerging, coming out of the sea like a bad B-movie monster, and speaking through the megaphone. "So, nice mobile coffins you got for yourselves. Refurbished? Chipwell? I don't recognize the designer."

Chaplain was immediately sizing up the nature of his foes, and he knew of a lot of power armor designers, and was going down the list in his head. He was hoping Chipwell, but wasn't going to bank on it. But if he had encountered them before in a dossier, he'd know exactly who made it, and have some idea of what they could do.

Although to be fair, right now, even a dozen Chipwell suits could take him clean right now.

Cade swam beneath the nearest crab and began looking for the good nooks and crannies that would be well suited to getting something explosive jammed in them while Wolf was making a bit of a distraction and, apparently, the wizard guy was planning on doing some sort of magic teleport thing.

Cole wasn't sure exactly that the wizard had in mind. It seemed strange to plan on teleporting but wanting someone to ride with him. "It must make sense to him," Cole mutters to Dyna, waiting for his cue to ride with the mage.

"I am up for whatever helps us get out of this 'mess' of a situation. Just let me know what to do."

Wolf sends a good taunt to the vampires while trying to suss out the armor they are wearing.

"Whatever the armor," says Sam, "it must be a prototype for a vampire to wear it. They don't like armor, makes them nervous."

He crams the metal tooth into the broken compass and whispers a strange little spell in a guttural language. "This will not teleport us anywhere. A rift will open near the vampires. From where, I don't know. But it will give us a chance to make a run for it. You must get me to the ruins."

Cade swims beneath the crabs and finds their armor to be sheen and smooth. There doesn't seem to be a good place to cram explosives. Strange, squid like humanoids begins to swim into view from the depths and take positions near the lobster tanks.

Meanwhile, outside, the wind begins to blow lightly. Cole sees a ball of energy forming up above the vampires. The wind picks up even more, growing more and more violent by the second. Green and gold lightning begin to spark from the energy point, growing and joining with the wind.

Then a massive rifts open, a deep red heat bursting from it.

GM: What do you do?

He got off the megaphone for a moment. "Well, no point in panic. We are probably already dead. You did good, Nate, for all that's worth."

He figured he might as well continue as if he didn't care.

"Angrar Robotics? Is that it? Heard they sell some freaky regenerating power armor to CSA enemies at a discount rate - they saw some use on the Tolkien front. Tough as hell, especially the big ones." Chaplain was casually talking to the vampires in the armor. He figured he was basically at ground zero for an old world nuke, or the magical counterpart to one.

"Oh, yeah. Rift. That your doing? Mostly curious."

For all he knew, those were going to be his last words.

At the shuddering of the winds and the crackling lightning outside Symeril stirs as the RIFT opens and she wakes with a start!

"What the he~"

Rolling out of her bunk, she grabs her TX-26 Particle Beam Pistol from under her pillow and her < AZUREHEART > Silver Spear/Bayonet from the nightstand coming to her feet unsteadily.

Quickly she grabs the duffel with her Light TW Body Armor 'Arzno Mercenary Corp' medic's armor and heads for the WR-5050, driver's Cab to rush to Nathaniel's shoulder, "What the heck is going on? I thought we were camping in the water surf to wait for dawn?"

The young woman Cyberknight/Palladin is only wearing a halter top and some panties as the warmth of her closeness registers to Nathanial at the controls.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:37, Fri 15 Jan 2021.

John sits on his magic plank, one more time. +Maybe I can buy us a few more seconds,+ he radios.
Zipping towards the power armored vampires while the rift distracts them, John throws a spell over the master vampire to keep him in place. Then he high tails it back to whatever transport he can manage while he transmits +that won't last long, if we're lucky some of his assistants will try to help him and get stuck as well.+

OOC: John is tossing the Carpet of Adhesion spell on the master vampire, this will stick him down to the ground and catch anyone foolish enough to touch him, as well.
spell duration is 80 melee rounds, but a save allows someone to extricate themselves in 2d6 melee rounds

Nathaniel uses the Rift distraction to start moving North, past the vampires on the beach, and then onto the beach. He starts the APC moving towards the point where the mage says he can do something to destroy all three of the compasses. Now that the vampires have shown up, the brother clones are no longer trying to scout out for them. Anything in the water or on the beach that starts to attack the APC, ATV, Walker, or Cole get liberal doses of photon beams from a 1000ft up. These are mostly meant to provide cover and confusion among the enemies.

Symeril watches as Nathaniel drives the Cargo Hauler and sees the crab submersibles in the water...

"The Vampires have underwater allies?  That... is really unexpected, I'd never thought they would have any dealing with undersea creatures... they have nothing in common!  Ok.. I guess Chaplin was not wrong about undersea traders helping vampires... that seemed so far-fetched... regardless, I'm Still out of any psychic energy reserves, not even an hour of sleep!"

She begins putting on her Light TW Body armor...

"I'm not really sure how helpful I'll be... exhausted as I am."

Sam, his eyes lingering on Symeril a moment, shakes his head as though to clear it. "Been too long," he mutters. "I am hoping whatever comes through that rift buy us some time to make our escape."

As he says that, the sensors on the vehicles begin to read elevating temperatures in the water. Cade, still swimming, can feel the ocean water around her beginning to warm.

John throws down a carpet of adhesion, and traps the vampires where they are. Before they can begin to truly struggle, an outpouring of hellish heat and demons pour through the rift like water from a spigot. It is hell on earth as temperatures on shore begin rising quickly.

The demons wash over the vampires, and begin to flow into the water. The water bubbles around them as they burn a bright, flaming blue.

They begin attacking the Naut'Yll, and the lobster tanks begin to shift their attention away.



"This is odd," says Sam, "but the rift should be losing energy and closing soon. Instead...it is gaining energy. We must leave...quickly."

GM: What do you do?
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:20, Sat 16 Jan 2021.

Symeril scowls darkly, {Hiss!!!} "...THIS is the one thing about Shifters and Ley-Line Walkers I do indeed share the similar sentiment with the Coalition War Doctrine... you Wizards are WAAAY too Reckless in opening RIFTS!  You do more harm than good!"

Gripping Nathaniel's shoulder tightly, "GET us the hell out of here, Quickly ~ Gun It!!!"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:28, Sat 16 Jan 2021.