Nathaniel Ferrari introduces himself and then after that part settles down he answers the Lizard-Mage.

"We liberated it from a gang of crazies on a commission to bring one of the crazies to justice. Our dead employer used the compass to lead us to a spirit-zombie-vampire infested warehouse in old Dallas. We escaped by placing the compass-key into the slot, but the fighting damaged it and we were brought here. I believe El-Jefe believed that there was some kind of big time treasure to be had and that the compass lead to it somehow...."

"A sanctuary huh? I reckon that makes you what? The caretaker?" Cole says amicably to the Lizard Mage. "Like my friend said, we found that compass as part of a bounty. We thought it was supposed to lead to buried treasure, not some magic gateway to here. I don't suppose you could open the way back with your compass? We'd be happy to pay you for your trouble."

OOC
Today: Cole rolled 90 using 1d100.  Trust (65).

Well shoot, that was a failed attempt at trying to seem trustworthy. Frack you too RPOL dice roller.

"Well, I'm sure some asshole somewhere once claimed killing is its own reward.  Probably the only one we'll find if we run down that supposed treasure."  Cade complained.

Zeke shook his head “Fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into folks. Hoss usually ain’t wrong about treasure and money though. I do know that. So if there are six doors, that mean we got six compasses? And I’m Zeke, since you ain’t tried to kill us yet, good to meet you.” He says to the lizard man

"The compasses all lead to their own destination. Mine leads to another world, and I choose to keep it hidden. I am afraid your leader was mistaken. The compass did not lead to treasure, it is the treasure. The ability to travel easily between here and another land can be very valuable to the right people."

Our heroes look down at the compass. The glass on it is cracked, though it continues to radiate magic.

The mage looks at the compass. "It is as I feared. The six compasses are bound. When one breaks, they are all alerted. It is how I found you, but not all the compass holders as I am. Come, they will be making their way here even now. I can provide some measure of protection, but we must travel to my home. Until the compass has been repaired, you are bound to this land."

He stops and laughs to himself. "Where are my manners? My name is Agrus."

GM: What do you do?
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:44, Fri 24 July 2020.

Cade muttered more colorful epithets about magic under her breathe again.

She then addressed Agrus.  "What do you mean by bound to this land?"  Cade asked him.  "Do you mean Mexico?  Or were we a lucky bunch of suckers and stepped through that compass thing, and ended up on another world that isn't the same as we came from?"

She also got to her feet.

"If shit's heading this way we should probably walk and talk.  Probably better we're on the move while you explain how fucked we are anyway.  Less tempting to dig a hole and throw yourself in when you have momentum pushing you in some direction or another."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:15, Fri 24 July 2020.

"Agreed with the walking and talking, although I doubt we are on a parallel Earth. Nathaniel's aerial report gave no indication we were on a different world, unless they have ley lines too." Chaplain began looking outside, wondering where they were about to go to...although he had a feeling that more teleportation or magic was going to be involved.

He was, however, addressing Cade. "I think when Argus cryptically says 'bound', it means we aren't going anywhere meaningfully or quickly without that compass working again. Our options for trust or distrust have a narrow window. We can take it up on its offer and risk that it is lying to us, or we can decline and find out shortly if it is lying or not. Barring more data, it is a coin toss."

Cole had lots of questions, just like his companions but they weren't really important at the moment. "Pleased to meet you Agrus, I'm Cole. You say trouble is coming this way, fine, lets scoot. You can answer more questions on the way to your place." He turns and looks at everyone, "Alright, gather up everything you can, we are moving. Joran, think you can lift that whole chest?"

He then turns back to Agrus, "We hoofing it to your place or you got another way of getting us all there?"

Nathaniel offers to take the other end of the test, just to make it less unwieldy for Joran. This way they can also keep one hand available for weapons. He follows the rest where ever it is they are going, volunteering to be in the rear if needs be.

"Sounds good, lets go."

Miss clicked her tongue a few times, concerned. But there didn't seem to be a lot of dissent. Her hand crawls away from her sidearm. "I'm hoping we're hoofing it," she mumbles to herself, feeling like that possibility might be slipping away.

"Oh, um. Miss. Julie. Miss. Let's just go quick."

Our heroes depart from the cave to follow Agrus to his abode. Agrus looks up and whistles. A shadow forms over our heroes as a winged bird comes into view. It lands on the ground, massive and imposing. The mage whispers something to it and it takes flight again.

"He'll meet us at my dwelling. Doesn't seem fair to make you all walk while I fly."

GM: What do you do?

"If we could get my walker here somehow, at least three of you would not need to walk in the first place. It's all-terrain transportation, shelter, armory, supply storage - there is a very good reason I want to get it if that is possible." Chaplain looked to the shelter, intent on remembering this place through visual clues. He radioed to Julia, quiet once more. +As soon as I can get confirmation of our location, I'll be plugging in coordinates. Do the same. If one of us dies, the other will still have the knowledge.+

He spoke up, walking somewhat behind Agrus. "But since we don't have that right now, tell me about these 'vampire kingdoms' while we are walking. I didn't know the leeches could make a kingdom. The ones I've seen are psychopaths and have no interest in building nations."

"Alright, so how deep into some shit are we old man?"  Cade asked the lizard as they all began walking.

"I don't do magic, but I know enough about it to know it can be a big pain in the ass if you're on the pointy end of the stick.  So the more we know about this whole mess, and why we can't just walk out of here, the better."

"And it will help us keep from getting lost," Cole said back to Agrus. What he didn't say it that it would also let the old Lizard Mage keep them under constant watch the whole way, not to mention the bird could be delivering a message to anyone or anything back at his place. "Momma would say I'm being too cynical, Papa would call it being smart, heh."

Not having anything to pack more than what he already had on him, Cole waited until he was the last one out of the cave, making sure that nothing and no one was left behind. "Probably won't matter much but lets walk single file for a while, try to keep them guessing how many of us there really is."

After the unlikely group had walked several paces away from the cave, Cole quickens his pace to get near Cade. "Why don't you hang back a bit, bring up the rear," he says to the Dog Girl. "I trust your nose and ears more than mine." He raised both eyebrows and looked back, hoping that she would get the unspoken part of his words; that he trusted her and didn't trust the pair of armed Deadboys at their backs.

Zeke starts moving along with his friends, eyes on the lizard mage at all times. He hadn't tried to kill them, yet... yet. Seemed everyone did eventually, lately.

"The compasses are objects of significant power," says the mage as they walk. "If damaged while while travelling, they bind the user to the land or their origin. The compass builders all came from Mexico many years ago, even before the Rifts, it is said. It is rumored they were meant for more than just traveling between places and dimensions. Perhaps when they are all brought together... "

He grows thoughtful as they walk, their boots crunching rocks as they walk quietly.

"Mexico has long been home to vampires. While there are some few non-vampire settlements, Mexico has been largely appropriated by varying kingdoms of vampires."

Our heroes who can sense danger suddenly feel their intuition sounding alarms. Agrus has stopped too, and peers off behind them. "It would seem others have become aware of the your compass."

Several vehicles have come into view and are barreling quickly toward the group.

GM: What do you do?

Joran introduces himself to the lizardmage, then turns to the chest.  Why must we take the chest with us?  If we just take the contents, we should be fine.  However, we should leave something behind in exchange for what we take.
Should it be decided that the group is going to take to chest, he will place his pack inside of it, and use rope to fashion shoulder and waist straps to wear it like a backpack.  As they leave the cavern, he takes up his grenade rifle, still wishing he had brought his staff.
At the approach of sensed danger, he stops and turns towards the approaching vehicles.  The grenade rifle comes up to his shoulder, but he keeps the barrel pointed downward.  Now what....

03:31, Today: Joran rolled 58 using 1d100.  Just in Case Skill.

03:31, Today: Joran rolled 7 using 1d20.  Just in Case Save.  +5 vs Awe/Horror Factor, 6 or 8 vs Pain, 04 vs Spell Magic, 08 vs Magic Rituals, 10 vs Faerie Magic, 09 vs Non-lethal Poison, 08 vs Harmful Drugs, 07 vs Lethal Poison, 08 vs Psionics, 10 vs Insanity

03:30, Today: Joran rolled 16 using 1d20+3.  Just in Case Perception.

This message was last edited by the player at 07:40, Sun 26 July 2020.

"If that's true, then they operate nothing like their northern brethren." Chaplain was unwilling to accept this without further verification, although he made a note to not underestimate his real enemy down here. "Do you know the status-"

He zoomed his telescopic eye in on the forces coming their way, to get a better look at them, and drew the massive over-under rifle on his back. "Hold that thought, and get into cover or concealment. Now!"

Being in a rush, he didn't have time for much on short notice. He chose to lead by example, searching quickly for favorable terrain or circumstances that would tip force in his favor. He was keeping an eye for heightened terrain that would favor him as well - he could fly, after all...

OOC: 21:43, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 39 using 1d100.  Camouflage, to try and hide something large on short notice - base TN 35.
21:42, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 28 using 1d100.  Detect Concealment, to find a good point for hiding - base TN 45.
21:41, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 2 using 1d100.  Detect Ambush, to find a good ambush point - base TN 50.
Well, they can't all be knocked out of the park. The last roll has low odds even when I do have time to prepare. Hopefully, though, I'll set up for someone else to spring off me.

Whatever they did, he wanted the enemy to not comprehend it.

Prior to the unknown vehicles being spotted...

"We are taking the chest with us for the same reason we didn't leave anything else behind; we touched it.," Cole says conversationally. "Bad enough we didn't have time to cover our tracks or hide our scents but everything we touched, like that chest, a good psychic could use to track us. So we leave nothing behind, not even garbage." Cole raised his voice then enough to make sure everyone in the single file column heard him. "So if you eat something from a wrapper, just put the wrapper in your pocket, we can at least do that much to make it harder."

Current time in scene...
Cole didn't need Wolf to tell him to find concealment or better yet, real cover. Neither did any of his team either, since they weren't greenhorns. He actually didn't take much offense by the comment though. He figured it was just the city slicker's habit, what with being an officer and all.

The Gunfighter did feel like a bit more direction would be in order, not so much for his team, as they already knew what to do in open terrain like this, but to let the two Deadboys know what they were about. "Wedge formation," pointing toward the incoming vehicles to indicate which way the point of the wedge should face even as he hits the sandy, desert ground next to a smallish boulder, more of a large rock. Cole is thankful that the ground here seems soft and isn't straight up caliche. His rifle is out and his right eye is on the scope, hoping to get a better look at what is coming their way.

OOC:
Rolls for trying to; find/make cover, making sure everyone got to cover and looking through his scope to see what is coming a bit better. Unfortunately two of the three rolls were less than stellar.

Cole rolled 13 using 1d20.  Perception.

Cole rolled 75 using 1d100.  Detect Concealment (65).

Cole rolled 97 using 1d100.  Detect Ambush (75).

Zeke shook his head, "Distance shoting ain't my specialty, let's get moving, they keep closing on us, we will deal with them. I'm bettin' they ain't the helpful type. Figure we got lucky with Argus."

09:33, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 9 using 1d20.  jic save.

09:33, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 3 using 1d20.  jic skill.

09:33, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 11 using 1d20.  perception.

Nathaniel follows Cole's lead and takes up the 'point' of the wedge formation. Having the most armor and a backup combat form in case that went sideways was why he usually volunteered for the more dangerous positions on the team. He might have the longest range weapon, but it also fired bursts which could be used for covering fire and he didn't need to reload any time soon. This should allow his companions plenty of opportunity to concentrate fire or reload as the situations required. If nothing else, he could pretend he was relatively alone and let those that could take cover be an unexpected surprise.

"Roger that."

He goes to a kneeling position behind a slight rise in terrain, which just so happens to have a still growing tumble weed at the top. Not much, but something. His railgun is out and he is using his sights, sensors, and knowledge of a vast array of vehicles to identify the ones coming towards them and their various modifications.

"Right, so how do we get unbound?"  Cade asked the lizard.

"I suppose it doesn't matter that none of us actually activated the compass, right?  Because we were transported by it, it tagged us all to never leave whatever it decided is its land of origin."  She said with a sneer.

"Fucking magic shit."

---

Cade looked around just as Agrus made mention of an incoming.

She fastened her armor's helmet and fanned out leftward and to the rear of Cole's 'wedge' shape.

In a few moments she'd squatted down and in a bit of a fountain of dirt, dug herself a nice depression which she promptly dropped herself into.

Wolf spots several boulders scattered about that he and the others could quickly duck behind. From what he can tell there are three small ATV's approaching that could fit anywhere from 4-5 people apiece.

Agrus quickly ducks behind a boulder and motions for the others to do the same.

GM: What do you do?

"These rocks are concealment, not cover, if they start hitting us with comparable force." Wolf thought a moment, as he was shouting at this point. The ringing in his ears hadn't gone away yet, although it wasn't quite as bad anymore. "We have a way of communicating with them that doesn't involve us getting shot by them? If I don't know how long we are going to be here, I don't want to waste the ammo on them."

He hoped they were driving by, although he seriously doubted it. He tried to zoom in with his eye on the lead driver of their convoy, hoping to acquire more information. He was hoping he could identify the ones talking the most into a radio, or the ones shouting orders.

"If you want to wave a white flag at them, knock yourself out."  Cade commented at the mention of trying to talk.

She herself took some additional time to deepen her position so she could get as much dirt between herself and the oncoming vehicles as possible.

It wasn't a great defensive position, but her hasty scrape was better than nothing.  She directed some energy into her armor in preparation for whatever was about to happen and waited.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:47, Sat 01 Aug 2020.