The cave is cool, a sea breeze wafting in from outside. Our heroes can hear the sounds of waves crashing.

Eyepatch looks around, with his good eye. "Who the fuck are all of you?!"

Our heroes think the same thing as they realize something startling...they have no memory of who they are or how they got here.

A robed lizard man looks at them with curiosity and a bit of concern. "Are you all...all right?"

GM: Yeah so this idea came to me today. Just RP to the best of your ability and let's see what happens. Never gave PC's amnesia before. We'll say you still know how to use your abilities and such. Call it instinct.

Fresh JIC rolls are in order.

What do you do?
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:46, Mon 31 Aug 2020.

OOC: Cade rolled 17,3,68 using 1d20,1d20,1d100.  JIC Save, Perception, Skill
This message was last edited by the player at 02:07, Mon 31 Aug 2020.

Chaplain shook his head, trying to fight the mental assault and keep his sense of self. "Magic...hate..."

He wasn't winning against the force of a planet or dimensional law, though, heroic willpower or no.

He sat down, and looked at...Eyepatch?...and then to the lizard mage. That was his most identifiable trait. "No idea, sir. To both of your questions."

He compared his armor to others. Amnesia or no, his attention to detail was still intact. "We've all been through some serious fighting. My armor is about to fall of. It's..."

He did know how to operate internal systems, but all net systems were offline. Only recent data recorded. "...strange. Self-identification...Wolf, Chaplain, First Lieutenant Coalition States American Army, identification number 054-47-4033, date of birth unknown, biologically twenty three years of age."

It was like reading a slide of someone else's life, and he felt no connection to anything there. Strange, indeed.

He studied his own damage and the damage of others around him. "Claws, teeth, high powered blasters. I...should not be a refugee. I should not be running. I am not helpless. None of us are!"

He breathed out, calm and slow. He was guessing these people were somehow his comrades in arms, or they wouldn't be together. "Let's just get count of food, water, weapons, armor, and shelter. However we got here, something else can follow."

He did a count of weapons - something had cost him a few microfusion grenades, a blast or two from his laser, but for the most part, it was his silver-plated knives which seemed to have been in the most intense fighting, covered in both blood and dark ichor. He noted he was still holding them, so he began the work of cleaning them off - they would probably see use again shortly against whatever it was they were fighting.

OOC: 21:19, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 43 using 1d100.  JIC Skill. Probably.
21:18, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 3 using 1d20.  JIC Perception. No.
21:18, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 8 using 1d20.  JIC Save. No.

The guy in the power armor looked around. Nothing looked familiar and neither did any of the people that were here. What did look familiar were the glowing figures of light floating above him. He knew that he could do that, but what the frack was he really looking at if there were two of them up there and one of him in this armor. Then it hit him, the mental merging with the suit and he knew everything about the suit. He and others had made the suit, its programming, and...it was battery powered. He mentally slapped himself and wondered who the heck wanted a battery powered suit of power armor. Then again who wanted a miniaturized nuclear reactor riding around on your back.

Looking down on the rest of everybody else the two glowing figures wondered different things, like why the others weren't able to fly. They looked at each other, but without some kind of reflective surface to compare they didn't realize they were perfect twins.

"Hey you other light person. Um, nice to meet you."

The other floating persona of light seems to pulse a little, "Yeah, back at you. Umm do you know who you are, like a designation."

Light One says, "I get to be #1 and you get to be #2 because I talked first...HAH you are number #2, but I look like #1."

Light Two giggles a little, but then says, "Do you like race cars?"

Cade looked around unhappily, bristling at the situation she suddenly found herself waking up in.

"What the fuck does it matter to you?"  She barked back at the man with the eye patch.  "By the looks of things, the only thing you should be worried about is whether you're still going to be fucked, beaten, or eaten."  Cade informed him with an eye towards the large ogre adjacent to the one eyed man still bound in ropes.  "Or all three."

"Now I don't know who any of you assholes are, why I should care, how you got here, where here is, or who put you in charge."  Cade stated, her last comment directed towards the man in the skull helmet who'd already moved from asking questions to giving commands.

"But unless one of you can tell me what the hell is going on, I'm going to go find someplace that doesn't reek of fucking fish."

The ogre continues to lay upon the floor for a few minutes as he hears others around him stir.  He evaluates himself, his body, looking for injuries of any sort.  Finding none, he notices the feeling of hard plating upon his arms and legs.  Then he starts to evaluate himself further.
There are gaps in his memory, finding only buts and pieces.  Ogres (the name comes to him from out of nowhere) with sharp teeth and claws, smaller humans taken captive.  Chasing a number if Ogres, armed and armored, marching off to war through a glowing portal.  Passing through the portal, but not going the same place.  Warriors in skeletal armor battling a rag-tag force of various species if beings.  A man, a human, coming from nowhere to grab him and whisk him to safety.  A monastery, monks, how he knows he is unsure, training in different fighting styles.  But, they are only fragments.  Then he sees another battlefield, only he is not helpless, but fighting an unseen enemy.  Then he sees glowing eyes in a shadowy shape coming at him.
His eyes open.  Not in fear, but in readiness.  He sits up, grabbing the large rifle at his side without thinking, then stands.  Holding the rifle up and ready, he scans each of the others with him.  After a few moments, he lowers the weapon.  Something tells him that he can trust most of these peole.  Though, the one-eyed human, closest to him, he distrusts immediately, while the humanoid lizard is a bit more ambiguous in that department.
Who are you people?  Why do I feel like I know you?  His voice is a deep, basso-profundo rumble.

"We made it", was his first, immediate thought. His next thought was "Wait...who are we? And where in tarnation did we make it to?!"

He looked around the unfamiliar surroundings and people, then down at himself. He knew none of them or knew where he was or why he had come. Looking at himself he saw worn but serviceable clothes and equipment; body armor, gun belt, revolver in his hand, a rifle slung at his side, his hat on his head. "I look like a Gunfighter or maybe a Gunslinger," he thought.

It was strange and not a little bit irritating that he knew what those things were but not his own name.

One of the strangers began barking orders, one of the two in matching black, skull faced armor and he felt his hackles raise in response, like instinct. All of the others,  save for the lizard feller, were dressed like him; Westerners. Damn, another thing he knew but still no names.

What the skull man said made sense though so he shook off his feeling of suspicion and double checked his equipment. He seemed to be well armed, with nearly full e-clips for the most part though his revolver was spent. He opened the cylinder, tipped it back to eject the casings and reloaded it with a speed and ease that could only come from long practice. "No doubt about it, im a Gunfighter or slinger" he thought, snapping the revolver closed and holsters it despite many of the others holding weapons in their hands. Something told him that being in its holster made little difference to how fast he could fire it, should he need to.

"I'm good to go," he told them all, "though I don't have have a clue who ya'll are. What say we all holster up just so we don't have any accidents."

The lizard mage, who identifies himself as Agrus, regards our heroes. "I was worried something like this might happen." he mutters. "But I had to get us out of there." He tells everyone what their name is.

His eyes then scan across them, lingering at the one with the eyepatch a second longer than the others. "Your man there was a friend. You all rescued him from dark and evil beings. It is difficult to explain everything as it will be confusing, but your memories will hopefully return in good time. Come, there is a village near here where we will be safe to rest and repair your armor."

Eyepatch looks at our heroes with an odd mix of confused gratitude and suspicious over something he does not remember.

GM: What do you do?

"Finally...I think." Chaplain wasn't sure where the impatience had come from. Chaplain also wasn't quite sure what he was expecting to fight, given his arsenal...and how little had been used. Perhaps he was expecting to be in the field for a while.

He had a strange feeling of forgetting something very important, but then again, he just needed to be reminded of his name by someone who had been "afraid of that". He also recalled a strong distaste for magic, and he wasn't sure why, but it made sense. Probably had something to do with the situation they were in, but it seemed to have also gotten them out - a self-correcting force.

"Welcome back, friend. Let's cut you loose." He really didn't care about the one-eyed man's fate, but apparently they had gone through some trouble to rescue him, so he must have had some value. He was with a mixed group - human, mutant, and - D-Bee? Odd that last felt somehow off.

His computer had no reference of time usable to him - it was on all the old settings. He untied the one-eyed man, although it took a while. Whoever did the ropes did good work.

"Good that you are holding out, Cade." He somehow figured the canidoid was part of his specific unit and structure, although why he would believe that was absolutely beyond him. She wasn't wearing his colors, and she wasn't human either. They had no logical reason to associate, but his brain insisted this was a truth.

"So, Julia. How are you holding out?" Chaplain looked to her. He figured if there was anyone else who could ground him, it was someone else dressed like him.

He wasn't sure if they were still in the Coalition Army anymore, or...humanity was their deal. Something horrible about them, too. Idealism, change...they were a dying nation, killed by wounds it had recently inflicted upon itself, and somehow, this was a...good thing? Or it could be?

He couldn't remember why he worked for them, but he couldn't remember much clear about them, other than general distaste.

The guy in the power armor stands up, brushes off and agrees with the lizard-mage looking fellow who actually seems to remember something...like his own name.

"So, Argus you seems to be ahead on the recovery timeline here or were you not effected the same as we were? Oh, and where ever we left, did we leave anything important behind?"

"You look like you'll be able to manage, somehow, to explain what's going on, be matter how difficult."  Cade replied to the lizard.

She gave the stink eye to the rest, apparently not trusting the rather thin reassurances given so far that everything was fine and everyone was the best of friends.

Cade then trudged off to follow Agrus.

Eyepatch rubs his wrists as he thanks Wolf. "Appreciate it, Wolf. I wish I knew what we've been through together or what you saved me from, but maybe that will come along soon."

"You lost two of your comrades to vile creatures that pursued you," Agrus says, telling them of Reverend and Josue. "There is a device Zeke carries that binds you all to the previous world we escaped from. While I was able to get you out through a portal, it appears to have affected your memory."

The mention of Reverand and Josue jiggles their memories like a dream they can only barely remember before it slips through their fingers.

Agrus leads our heroes out to the mouth of the cave. "Careful," is all he says as they find themselves on a cliff overlooking a massive ocean world with floating islands. The floating island they find themselves on is small one made almost entirely of rock. There is a slightly larger island filled with forest just to the east of them.



The grey ocean beneath them crashes violently against itself, and the sky is a dark blue with long streaks of white clouds.

Agrus walks over to a large, wooden boat that floats in the air near them. "We must take this boat to the neighboring island."


GM: What do you do?

Cade kept her silence as she trudged along.

With an utter lack of enthusiasm she hopped into the boat once Agrus indicated that was the next step to get to wherever they were going.

Cole follows Agrus out of the cave and is as surprised as anyone to see that the cave isn't on solid ground but a floating chunk of rock. He carefully looks over the side to have a better look at the ocean. He doesn't see anything but more ocean but..."Hey do you guys hear that?" He looks around, then backs away from the edge of the tiny floating island to peer over the other side. He is clearly looking for something. "I swear I hear a horse!"

OOC
Cole rolled 19 using 1d20.  JIC Saving Throw.

Cole rolled 85 using 1d100.  JIC Skill Check.

Cole rolled 10 using 1d20.  JIC Perception.
Well pretty sure I made the saving throw! Maybe not anything else but I made the save!

Joran seems to scrutinize Agrus a moment as he claims that One-Eye is a friend of theirs.  He then scrutinizes One-Eye as everyone gets together to move out.
He decides to take the rear guard, keeping his head upon a swivel to make sure no one approaches them from behind.  With his massive grenade rifle in hand, he is prepared to lay down some destructive "love" on anyone who dares to attack.

Agrus arches a reptilian eyebrow at Cole, but says nothing.

The boat sways a bit over thin the thin air as our roes load in. The air beneath it shimmers slightly as its magic works. The wind picks up and the boat floats across the divide, the ocean raging underneath it.

From the back of the group, Joran spies a humanoid in a tree aiming a metallic spear at them. The creature is bald with dark blue skin.

Agrus sees him too and holds his hand up for the group to stop.

GM: What do you do?

Cade slumped lazily in the boat as it went along.

The sudden appearance of the spear chucker elicited a raised eyebrow, but that was it.  She apparently wasn't overly worried about him even before Agrus raised his hand.

"He looks friendly."  She observed sarcastically.

Nathaniel and the glowing twins regard the man, but Nathaniel reminds the twins to watch their flanks. Each turns to watch a different flank and Nathaniel actual turns to watch the rear. He figures the mage or the others can deal with a single spear thrower, but if it is a distraction it would be good to have an idea it was coming.

Chaplain wasn't as world-weary as Cade, and raised his weapon back, taking a moment to aim. "Agrus, does it understand what my weapon should do to it?"

He didn't know what his weapon would do to it, was the problem with this magical gilded Hell. He was in the faerie realm, he was certain of it, and he'd count himself lucky if everyone got out of this place with their brains being able to heal from this place.

OOC: Wolf does not actually know what dimension this is, or anything beyond superstitions that he grew up with. He knows the broadest rules of dealing with the fey, and if he remembered, official CS policy regarding fey is the same as the default policy with practically everything.

Zeke, quiet throughout the strange journey, keeps his hands close to his guns when the blue humanoid appears. Argus cautions them against attacking, and Zeke nods, but his hands never leave the area of his guns. These people all seemed familiar, but he couldn't place just where from, except Joran. He knew they were close, for some reason.

As Joran follows he others out, he is amazed by the view of the landscape around them.  But, then his attention is distracted by something.  The something in the ogre's mind is trying to alert him to potential danger, though he is unsure how he knows this.  It just is the way it seems to him.
Glancing around, he sees nothing.  But, when he turns around and looks up, that is when he sees what he can only assume is the source of the warning.  The blue creature with the spear seems ready to launch in into his barrel chest.  For some reason, Joran is not concerned by that.  But, just the same....
Slowly he slings the grenade rifle over his shoulder and holds both hands up at shoulder level with open palms towards the blue being.  He decides to speak to the creature, making his basso profundo voice sound as soothing as possible.  First he speaks in the same language the others have been speaking, then he speaks the message again in a more guttural tongue, unsure how he knows how to speak it.  Then, using his hands, he says it a third time, again unsure how he knows how to do this.  American/English, Gobblely, Tribal Sign Language
Hello.  We mean you no harm.  We are just passing through.

As he does this, he sends out an Empathic message of his peaceful intentions.

17:16, Today: Joran rolled 92 using 1d100.  Just in Case Skill.

17:16, Today: Joran rolled 19 using 1d20.  Just in Case Save.

17:16, Today: Joran rolled 13 using 1d20+3.  Just in Case Perception.

This message was last edited by the player at 21:17, Thu 03 Sept 2020.

The man who had just learned moments ago that his name is Cole, was confused. Oh, he reason a plenty to be confused what with the amnesia and all but that wasn't what was confusing him at the moment. No what was confusing him was where the hell was the horse had knew he had heard. No one else had heard it though so maybe it had been a trick of sound waves? Or maybe his mind playing tricks on him. Or was it some magic or psychic trick? It bothered him, like something caught between his teeth that he just couldn't manage to pick out.

So when the blue man with the spear was spotted, he actually welcomed the distraction.  It wasn't that he was glad for fresh danger but it did take his mind off his confusion.

He looked over the man but wasn't afraid. Whatever had happened to his memory, it wasn't completely gone. He couldn't remember a damn thing about his personal life but what he had left told him not to dismiss the man and his spear as a threat just because it was a spear and they have guns. A magic spear could be just as deadly as a rifle and right now they seemed to be literally in a boat, floating on a whole heap of magic. That being the case, the man could be a threat but his odds sucked for there was several of them and only one of him.

At least that could be seen anyways...

OOC
Cole just keeps his eyes and ears open but doesn't take up any of his weapons.

The blue man looks at Joran and seems to discern what he is saying. He turns his gaze to Agrus.

"Teemee sotee raytee teemeetee, Sorayso?" he says.

"Ray sotee teeladoh. Doh doh tee meedoh," Agrus replies.

That seems to satisfy the blue warrior who lowers his spear and climbs down.

"Meela tee mee ray lasotee sodoh. Ray teelaladoh la tee so mee doh tee. Teemeelaso ray la sotee solatee," he says and nods toward Joran.

Agrus laughs and nods his head yes.

The warrior hands Agrus a handful of dark berries. Agrus nods thanks and turns to the others.

"Here, eat these. Their properties will help you understand the dialect of the natives. Their are toxic, so you will feel odd for a bit. Things will seem...funnier to you. But that affect will fade and you will be able to hear and speak their language." He smiles and eats one. "I still like to indulge in them when I can."

With that, they begin the march to the village.

GM: If you choose to eat one, then feel free to RP as though you are high as a kite.

What do you do?

Chaplain was content to remain quiet and lacking in understanding, and his trust in recent allies had limits. Agrus being a friend or not, he had no intention of eating anything from this realm if he could help it. He politely shook his head in refusal.

He couldn't recall the sources of these stories, or why his left arm itched so much, or when he got a bionic eye or supersharp hearing or - there was just so much unknown to him right now.

He took a deep breath. Fix armor, reload, prepare, counterattack whatever had put them here. Win, then everyone goes home.

Cade gingerly accepted one of the berries and gave it a smell.

She then made a face and flicked it over the edge of the island into the water far below.

Gathering up her pack she shuffled along trusting Agrus to get them to wherever they were going despite injesting the berry.

Once the berries were handed out Nathaniel moved to the back of the boat. One moment there two glowing spheres and then there was only one. Then there was a naked guy, mostly blocked from view by Nathaniel, who took the berry and ate it. Once Guido would understand the language, he disappeared as well. Shortly there after there were two glowing spheres of energy following along with the boat somewhat over Nathaniel, keeping watch on the flanks, whild Nathaniel kept watch to the rear.

Joran accepts the berry, swallowing it quickly without even chewing it.  He looks around, watching everyone else who has eaten a berry for any signs of illness or other effects.
He steps into the boat, feeling his weight cause it to displace more water and rock enough to almost throw someone overboard.  He looks sheepishly at the others, a small grin on his face.  Sorry, he rumbles apologetically.

18:02, Today: Joran rolled 27 using 1d20+8.  Save vs Lethal @ 7, Harmful @ 8, Non-lethal @ 9, Magic @ 4, Faerie Magic @ 8, Ritual Magic @ 8.

As they walk through the forest after Agrus and the blue warrior, Joran and Nathaniel feels the effects of the beryy kick in. Joran can tell there is some kind of faerie magic at work, but it is non-lethal. The magic, mixd with the chemical compound of the berry make them feel fuzzy, giddy, and deeply empathetic to those around them. While they do not rememer their comrades they feel strangely close to them. It is as though the multiverse has stopped at this moment to bring them all together for things of deep meaning an importance.

The blue warrior looks back at Joran and Nathaniel. "Doh doh, meeteedoh' la?"

While Nathaniel and Joran hear him speak in his own language, they feel that he is saying, "Feels good, doesn't it?"

Strangely, they know if that they are somehow connected to the blue man, and he will be able to feel the meaning of their words now too.

They walk for another hour and the effects begin to wear off, but they can still communicate with him through some kind of invisible connection brought on by the berry's properties.

Soon they emerge at a clearing surrounded by trees and look out on a bustling villag of the blue natives.

GM: Just so there is no confusion - You guys had already crossed the gap by boat and are now on the forest island following the warrior and Agrus.

Only Joran and Nathaniel can understand the natives.
You have been hiking for about 90 minutes.

What do you do?

Zeke, seeing Joran eat the strange food, does so as well.

He looks at the small, blue humanoid.  Oddly, he rumbles, ignoring the illness, it feels... famliar.  It feels like I have this connection with you.  But, I have a connection with them, as well.  He sweeps a hand to indicate the others.  Not enough to translate a language like this, but enough toninderstand how they feel and the general well-being of each.  It is how I know that I can trust them, even though my memories are jumbled up for now.
He falls silent for a bit, trying to make sense of what he had just said.  After a few minutes, he looks back at the blue humanoid.  I have been told my name is Joran.  He looks thoughtful for a moment.  I am what is called an ogre.  What is your name?  What kind of being are you?

"So where we going?"  Cade asked Agrus.

"I assume there's some place here where you can explain exactly what's going on."

Zeke pops the berry and feels his body tingle as he relaxes and feels overwhelming empathy for those around him. He feels...fantastic. He can also discern now what the natives are saying.

Meanwhile, the blue warrior responds to Joran in his strange language. "Yes, you have eaten the berry and now you are connected to my people. It is a good thing. We are mostly farmers, but those of us trained to fight do so with the magic of our ancestors. There are raiders that try to steal from us, but we fight them. My people are ancient and not of this world. We came from the sky many lifetimes ago."

The village has now taken notice of the group, and small, blue children dash up laughing and begin climbing Joran. Joran weaves beneath a massive wave of uncontrolled empathy as the sheer joy and innocence of the children washes over him and into his heart.



"Yes," says Agrus. "We can get food and refreshment. The natives can also repair everyone's armor. I will check in with the chief as well. The villagers are friendly, and you all can move about the village." Agrus then departs for a central hut and enters it.

One of the female villagers seems to regard Wolf for a stretch. When their eyes lock she blushes and turns away. Some part of Wolf says non-humans are not to be trusted. But there is also no denying that she is pretty. Quite pretty, actually.

A small boy approaches Cole shyly and tugs on his hand. His eyes are piercing as he seems to see something in Cole. He hands him a small, yellow figurine carved from stone. A horse.

GM: To sum up - If you ate the berry they got you high and you can understand the natives. They can also repair your armor. Agrus has left you alone for now.

What do you do?

Cade frowned as Agrus flitted off.

She felt a sense of deja vu, but shook it off for now.

Instead she squatted down and waited for Agrus to return and tell them where it was they could go to finally be brought up to speed.

It didn't seem imperative to him, which she reasoned was understandable.  He knew what was going on.  She personally didn't like being in the dark.  Metaphorically at least.

The man who had been told his name is Cole, had taken the berry offered by the blue man but he hadn't eaten it. He had taken it, nodded his thanks and pocketed the berry. He hadn't really thought about it, he didn't really want to eat it but he hadn't wanted to be rude.

The trip through the forest had been alright. No one had attacked them at any rate. He supposed the greenery was pretty but his feelings told him this wasn't his preferred terrain. He felt closed in, like he was surrounded by a green cage or something.

Reaching the village had eased it somewhat for the blue D-bees had cleared out enough land to make their homes. The villagers also seemed friendly enough. Folk were curious about them but that was only natural what with him and his friends being strangers here.

Then something else happened that caused his mind to shift all of its attention; one of the village kids, a boy, handed him a little stone horse. He had taken it without thinking and just stared at it. He turned it this way and that, staring at the small figurine for several seconds before looking back at the little boy. "Thanks kid," Cole says to the child though he knew the boy couldn't understand him. He tipped his hat to the kid and then point at the figurine with his free hand. "Do you have horses here?" he asks. Cole points at the horse, then sweeps an arms to indicate the entire village, then back at the horse.

From the sky..., Joran ponders.  Then, he is suddenly attacked by surprise.  As the children swarm him, it is all he can do to put his grenade rifle on SAFE, then slide it to the ground. His other weapons will have to stay where they are for now, safely snapped into their holsters.
The "swarm" had not triggered his Sixth Sense, since the children did not have any bad intentions and pose no actual threat.
Laughing, as he gets swept up in the overwhelming emotions of happy and playful children he pretend to fall down for the swarm of children, as he pretends to be a diabolical mastermind being defeated by his own slaves.  For several minutes, he plays with the eagerly playful children, basking in the sensation of their emotions.

Zeke nods along, his hands always, instinctively close to his pistols... as non-threatening as he can be. He sticks close to Joran, not really sure why, but he knows he feels comfortable with the big... what was he, an ogre?

Wolf shook off most of the overtures, suppressing a part of himself to not immediately go front and center. "I can accept the armor repair job. What do they expect for..."

Agrus, however, had already exited. "...this."

Did a service count as a gift? He figured it didn't count if it was necessity on the line. He did need his armor fixed, regardless his misgivings. Still....

"They will want or expect something from us. This is not generosity for its own sake. We have to be prepared to give back, and we should not accept anything from them without knowing what we are giving back for it." He shook off distractions from his goal of getting out of here.

This was going to be a long journey through a strange land. He really needed to get back north. His family must be worried sick about him.

Nathaniel is happy to repair the armor of this power armor himself, given raw materials. Guido and Nuncio go off to play with the children zipping among them, providing light shows, and generally being playful light balls. There is not much to do except observe and do the simple work.

Villagers laugh and point as the children climb on Joran.

The pretty woman from before approaches Wolf. She holds a wooden bowl of a stramge black substance and points to his armor. "Tee la la tee somee," she says quietly.

Several more natives approach our heroes with offers to repair their armor.

Meanwhile, the little boy smiles and says to Cole, "Ray meetee so so teemeetee ray latee. Ray la so tee somee." He points at Cole and smiles again.

GM: Do you let them fix your gear?

Wolf - Roll 1d100. 0-65 and you find yourself thinking about the woman a bit more.

All - What do you do?

Joran play with the kids a little bit longer, unused to children just coming up to him like that.  Usually he has to convince them he is friendly, something he actually remembers.  It is actually kind of nice.
I have to go now, kids, he says after awhile.  I have to do some grown-up things for a bit.  Then I can come back and play, he rumbles apologetically.  Normally, he would have to open himself up to feel the emotions of others around him, and usually one at a time.  He closes his eyes, focussing on waves crashing against rocks on a beach, to blank out the emotions of those around him for a bit.
Wait a minute.  How did he know to do that?  How can he be used to sensing what other people are feeling in the first place?  Holy feces....

Cade waited and offered a scowl to any of the natives that approached her.

The armor she wore was in good repair and she just wanted to get to the bottom of what had happened to her.

The rest of these idiots might not mind going about for the rest of their dumb lives happy to be oblivious to what they had lost and just hoping for it to come back but all of her instincts were telling her to go find it.

It was good to see that Cade, at least, was taking to this world as well as he was. The blue-skinned woman would not get out of his head, and it was only civility and the necessity of repairs stopping him from waving a pistol and leaving. This was faerie country, more and more obviously, and half of them were getting themselves ensnared.

"So, for the generous act of fixing our armor," Chaplain asked Joran or Nathaniel, whichever was listening to him. "What do they want?"

Joran looks to Wolf.  That is a good question, he rumbles.  One that we will certainly have to ask.
He heads to where Agrus had indicated they fix the armor for the group members, and ge approaches whom ever seems to be in charge.  What is it going to cost for the repairs and replacements for our armor?

"Right..." Cole says to the little boy, not understanding a word the child had said. He wanted to know what the kid was saying but he was still leery of eating the berry. Joran had and he seemed to be doing alright but Cole wanted to wait a little longer. So he pointed at the kid, then at Joran and then started walking over to the Ogre. He stopped part way to make sure the kid was following him.

Once they got there, he says to Joran, "What's this kid saying?" without any preamble. "He just started saying stuff, right after he handed me this little horse statue."

Nathaniel tries to translate for Cole.

Nathaniel translates for Cole. The boy says that there is only one golden horse, and Cole is a good man.

Soon after, Agrus exits the chief's hut and approaches our heroes. "The chief says it is well that we have arrived, which means we are welcome to stay. The substance from the natives is a magically charged sap they extract from the trees. It has mega damage capacity and can be used to repair your armor. The natives will not expect anything from you. They see you as guests and it is part of their culture to welcome guests that arrive in peace."

He then turns his attention to Cade and the others, the natives giving her a wide berth. "All right, let us sit and talk. Zeke is in possession of a broken device that binds you to a place called the Vampire Kingdoms in Mexico. This place is in another world. Your home world. Now, I posses a companion device that allowed us to escape a serious situation in your world involving vampires and werewolves. I suspect that I was able to move you out of the land due to the companion device's magic, but it did something to your memories. I know of a mage among my people who may be able to restore your memories, but I must travel there and contact him. I am not particularly...welcome...among my people, so for now I must go alone and in secret. You are free to stay here among the people and I will return as fast as I can."

For good measure, Agrus also explains what vampires and werewolves are when he sees the blank stares of our heroes.

GM: What do you do?

"So, if you go off and die, we're stuck here, right?"  Cade asked the lizard.

"Why wouldn't it be better to just take us back home, then go on your trip, and then get us when you get back?"  She continued.

"That way, if someone decides you're so not welcome they decide to put you in the dirt, we're at least back home and not remembering anything instead of stuck here, and not remembering anything."

"I'm sure this will come with no strings." Chaplain was leery about the idea of a gift for nothing, and was not hiding his sarcasm. "Not that I recall much, but the cost of your aid based on what I can piece together has been the lack of coherent memory and navigational disorientation. So, I have two questions, two of several, that absolutely, utterly, require answers. And if you don't know, tell me who does."

"Where is our objective, and what do we know about the area or structure it is at?" He took a breath. "I'd ask 'what', but that will come up in the answer about 'where'. We cannot take attacks forever. And please don't tell me vampires are actually real. I'll buy into the idea of werewolves, but I've never seen vampires, or personally know anyone who actually faced one."

Zeke grabbed the compass instinctively, "This busted piece a shit? Stuck in vamprie kingdoms... stories from bein' a kid I reckon. If that is true, we need to get our memories back pronto chief. We need to get this shit set right." Zeke eyes the lizard mage carefully, "How you reckon we know you comin' back? Not just gonna leave us here for who knows what reasons."

Joran looks to Chaplain Wolf and raises his hand.  Me.  I had one of them staked and immobile in Agrus' house, and one I had just stabbed, until I had to take on that werewolf.
He then nods at the CS soldier.  I'm pretty sure those two you took your silvered knives to were also vampires.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 03:01, Thu 10 Sept 2020.

"Our departure point was a sanctuary that is now most certainly overrun with vampires and werewolves. Since their master seeks the broken device, and now knows I also hold one as well, we can, again, be quite certain they will be waiting for our return. It is inevitable we will have to face them when we return, but if we return now we will die, or worse."

Turning to Wolf, he says, "The objective now is to get your memories back, and to figure out a way back to your world without getting killed. The island of my people is very restricted. Only a small contingent of non-lizard kind may enter, and they must all be fluent in our language. It is a heavily fortified, magical city filled with mages and sorcerers of some renown. I could perhaps get by bringing one of you with me, but all of you is out of the question. If you wish me to live and return," he says, directing his gaze at Cade, "then this is how it must be."

His face grows serious, and his tone to the whole group is firm. "It was not I who led the undead to you. I offered you sanctuary, and I now have lost that myself. I have taken great risk in joining you, as well as coming back here. I know you do not have memory of me, but I ask you to trust me. I do not want to stay on this world any more than you do."

GM: What do you do?

Cole wasn't sure what to make of the kid's words. Try as he might, he didn't remember anything about a 'golden horse', though it wasn't like his memory was in the best of shape right now. "Tell him thanks, Nate" he says to his friend.

When he saw that Argus was busy talking with the others, he wandered over, figuring that it might be worth listening to. "Hold up a moment," he said to Argus. "You're confusing me. You said a minute ago we left some world with vampire kingdoms and are now on this world, our home world...but now you are saying the vampire kingdom world is our homeworld and we have to go back there?"

"Right, fine, whatever, just don't fucking die on us."  Cade conceded.

With things concluded, at least in her mind, she stood up and grabbed her bag then wandered off to find some place to pass the time away from all the blue people.

"We need to locate a..." Chaplain's mind struggled for the correct word. "Rift? Rift. A rift, that goes from here back to where we are from, instead of going to Double Hell or Atlan...tis..."

He shook his head. What the hell is an Atlantis? "Someplace worse."

He felt a strange feeling that where he was from was somehow a lot worse than this place. He didn't see anyone else wearing nearly as many weapons as he had.

He shook his head again, trying to clear it. Those two? "We'll have to pool our recent recollection together, I suppose. I don't recall squat. My recent memories start here, and everything else is muscle memory and jumbled tales from a time I have clearly left behind me. You, Joran, seem to recall the number of foes I was carving up, as well as their nature."

"Does anyone else have any memories? We need to figure out how they were lost, how we get them back, and then we need to go quickly."

He was really tempted to follow Cade out of here, but he actually needed the collective around him to learn what was going on.

He stops, staring in deep thought at nothing in particular, as he does not realize from where his statement had come.  But, suddenly, after saying it, he can see a jumble of images, but two stand out:  seeing himself holding a glowing spear-like weapon in his hand that is being used to skewer two fanged human-like ememies, Chaplain Wolf slicing two similar with a pair of shiny knives, and a humanoid canine clamping his jaws down upon Joran's armored arm before erupting in fire.
Wow.  Where did that come from?  The imagery had been clear, not like any daydream, or hallucination.  Clear.  But, not from his own point of view.  As no one seems to have noticed what he had said, he remains silent for the moment.

Zeke shakes his head, "Not me chief, I just know this thing is important," he says indicating the compass, then turning to Argus, "I doubt any of us speak lizard man..."

Agrus looks apologetic. "The GM may have confused you, and for that, he apologizes."

He shakes his head as though it has just broken a fourth wall, and returns back to the subject at hand. "I will return as soon as I can, you have my word."

With that, he departs.

The sun sets on the ocean world, and the natives build fires and begin cooking and singing. An elder appraches our hero. His skin is a very dark blue, with creases down his face indicating age. He pops a couple of berries into his mouth and smiles. "Hello, friends of Agrus. It is well that you are here. My people have taken an interest in a couple of you," he says, glancing at Wolf and Cole. He speaks to the group in their own language.

GM: So what Agrus meant to say was that you came from your world to this world. Your world has vamps and werewoves. This one has oceans and blue people, among other things.

What do you do?
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:52, Fri 11 Sept 2020.

Chaplain's mind refused to process anything before "I" for some reason. He assumed it was more magical moon speak.

The continued interest of these blue-skinned people in the man in the black skull-invoking armor - namely, himself - continued to bewilder Chaplain. "Hey, Cole. You know why he's looking at us like that?"

As the day wears on, Joran field strips his grenade rifle to clean it, leaving it unloaded afterwards, but always close by.  When night creeps in, he takes an interest in two of the blue people's activities:  the cooking, and the singing.  He jumps up to head towards the cooking fires, offering his assistance.
Teach me your cooking, and your songs, he rumbles with a still fearsome smile.

Cole says nothing as Agrus speaks. He is quiet for a full five second after the Lizard Mage vanishes, then says "He might just be mad as a hatter."

When the elderly native comes to them and then begin speaking in American, Cole listens. "Well shoot, if they could use the berries to talk to us, why didn't they do it in the first place?" he thinks to himself. When Wolf asks Cole why the man is looking at them, Cole shrugs and says "because he is talking to us, I reckon."

The amnesiac Gunfighter turns his head back to the elderly man, "Is that right? Would you know why that is mister?"

After Cade left the group and Agrus to finish discussing whatever until the lizard mage was ready to go, she headed into the tree line skirting the border of the village in the direction they had come up from the water.

One there she found an agreeable tree to climb, and a comfortable enough crook to wedge herself into and take a nap.

Eventually all the singing, singing, really?  Who even does that?, was enough to rouse her from a doze into wakefulness.  The noise from the village had been ever present, she reasoned she'd have to go much much farther to escape it, but the singing was too much to tune out.

So Cade reached over to where her pack was hanging and dug out a plastic bag with some food she assumed she'd gathered at some point.  The raw flesh was squishy as she bit into it, and the smell told her it certainly wasn't fresh but wasn't so old as to be completely spoiled either.

The chief peers at Wolf and smiles. "You walk as a seasoned warrior. They see you both as a protector and a guest. But you are not of their race and for this they find you even more fascinating."

Wolf can feel someone near him. The woman from before. She appears shy, yet brave, as though approaching him took some gumption. She is eating one of the berries. Her almond shaped eyes lock with his. She smiles as the effects of the berry kick in. "Will...you...dance with me?" she speaks haltingly as the language comes to her.

Eyepatch is also invited to dance with a different female and he leaps up, laughing as he joins the party.

The chief watches the interaction.

"It is a sign of affection that the people are eating the island berry now. They seek to understand you. It is a great honor," says the chief smiling. "I eat them just because I like them," he says, eyes twinkling.

Meanwhile, native men and women gather around Joran and show him their culinary skill. The air is filled with delicious smell of strange, exotic seafood. Oddly colored bread is made over the fire in large husks, and smells of a deep, earthy flour.

Finally, Cade eats alone in the top of a tree overlooking the expanse of ocean world at night. She hears a small growling sound and looks to her left. A small, canine looking creature with dark scaly skin beneath patchy brown fur growls as though she is not really welcome there but he might reconsider if she shares her snack.

GM: Wolf - Gimme another 1d00 roll. 0-70 you either dance with her, or reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaly want to. Your choice buddy.

Cade - Why is it I always want to give you a pet?

All - Anyone who got their armor repaired now has cool tribal drawings on them now. What do you do?
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:41, Sat 12 Sept 2020.

Zeke will let them repair his armor, and join in the festivities, hoping for a good drink.

Cole listened to the chief's words. "Well that's mighty nice of them," he says to the old blue man. "One of the kids, a little boy, said something about a golden horse. He also gave me this," he holds up his hand and shows the tiny horse figurine to the old man. "Do you know anything about a golden horse? and this might sound strange but just before we got on the boat that brought us here, I could have sworn I heard a horse neighing."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:34, Sat 12 Sept 2020.

Cade regarded the creature for a moment as she bared her teeth and growled back at it.

She then reached back into the plastic bag and pulled out more.  Unlike the generic gobbet of muscle she'd been munching on herself she realized this piece was very clearly a foot that had been partially cooked as half of it was quite burnt.

Cade gave another passing thought as to where she had gotten these supplies as she tossed the appendage to the lizard squirrel thing.

As some of the group party with the locals, Cole asks about the golden horse. The chief looks thoughtful. "Could be a good omen. There is a children's story of our people about the golden horse that carries the glow of the sun. As the story goes, if you are good and compassionate, the horse will visit you in your dreams and bless your parents. For the child to give you the figurine may be a sign of being blessed."

Meanwhile, Cade grudgingly tosses a snack to the little canine lizard. The thing growls, creeps forard, sniffs the snack and then gobbles it up. It then curls up near her and snoozes.

The night wears on and the festivities continue, but a slower pace. Some of the natives begin to retreat into their huts to sleep.

GM: What do you do?

After Cade finished her food she hunkered down and resigned herself to a long wait.

There wasn't really anything she thought she could do until the lizard returned.  If he returned.

If he seemed like he wasn't going to that would be a problem dealt with then and there.

For now there was nothing to do but wait.

Chaplain was not a good dancer. At all. The closest he could get was the slow exorcises of soft form martial arts, so he basically kept his dance rather conservative given its otherwise extremely martial and potentially threatening nature.

Whatever his nature before his memories went vague, it was pretty clear to him that peace was not part of his current nature anymore...if the plethora of weapons he clear had even when technically unarmed didn't make that clear, with his left bionic arm clearly revealing both an onboard particle cannon on the lower half of his arm, and slots for some kind of blades in his upper arm.

Given that his skin was coated in a layer of mega-damage material over much of his body, and he would forgive someone else if they mistook him for a partial conversion cyborg. He was wondering what in the world happened to him for this to be a good idea.

So, smooth in movement and awkward in ability, he stayed "in his zone" so to speak while dancing. He was wondering when the other shoe was going to drop about this woman. He was aware of being without his weapons and armor...aside from what he couldn't part with, anyways, and felt strangely edgy.

He hated not having something to do, but couldn't think of anything until they had a lead of some kind.

Our heroes watch in awe as their coalition comrade dances with the female, who matches his pace and style. AS the night wares on she takes him by the hand and leads him back to her hut.

Meanwhile, the little lizard dog slowly climbs into Cade's satchel and emits an odd purring sound coupled with little growls as though it is he who is protecting her.

GM: Wolf - You decide whether or not he joins her. And don't worry dude, I won't make you RP anything lol.

All - What do you do?

Chaplain declined as politely as he could. "I have to be ready for tomorrow, ma'am."

His real reason is that this was starting to sound like the part of the story were he woke up the next morning and learned twenty years had actually passed, and everyone he knew was different and thought he had died.

He noted the designs as...interesting. He liked the tribal design, but had a weird feeling that whoever made that hideous armor was not going to be pleased with their necromantic aesthetic being ruined. He wondered what kind of bad guys he used to work for before meeting these people who were supposed to be his friends, thinking about it, or why he'd ever work for such people.

Dead Boys. The thought drifted into his mind as he studied the armor. He glanced to Julia - apparently the gender implication of the word didn't stop them from recruiting women.

Were they some kind of techno-zombie army or something? For that matter, who did they work for? And was that lizard-mage his old master, a rival, or something else?

There were a lot of questions that would make a lot more sense when he got out of here.

Where to go, how they were getting there, who was going to help them, what they could expect to have, anything weird they needed to have details about, what his enemy wanted, a time limit if any, who is in CHARGE here, how powerful their enemy was, how battle hardened they were, and finally what they knew about enemy leadership.

Not only did they lack any of this critical information, but they had no means of obtaining it aside from this Agrus fellow. He controlled all of the information, and its flow.

"Ladies and gentlemen." He spoke to any of his comrades who were present at his table as he began to break and clean his weaponry in preparation for tomorrow. "We have to reverse our dynamic on Agrus. We are effectively his slaves, completely dependent on his perceptions and biases, and at the mercy of his benevolence or lack thereof. Any suggestions? I'm vetoing any decision that involves actually fighting him. I don't think that would be wise. But I'm open to just ideas in general."

"In fact, I'd like Cade to be here for this, or at least be listening in."

"If we're his slaves, then for what, Wolf?" asks Eyepatch. "I remember him...setting someone on fire...but it wasn't one of us. Shit, it's gone. For some reason, part of me doesn't want the answers," he says.

He looks over at Cole, whose eyes have grown wide and distant. "Say, Cole, you all right, friend?" he asks.

GM: What do you do?

"Hmm?" Cole says and then takes a deep, chest swelling breath, like a diver coming up for air. "What? When did...where did..." The Gunfighter looks all around, clearly confused. He stops and looks at his friends. "How long have I been standing here?"

Chaplain growled in irritation and put the armor and gear on, reassembling his weapons quickly and efficiently. "I'm going to see what Cade's up to. When I get back, we need a plan that doesn't involve 'wait for more information from a singular source of dubious trustworthiness'. If nothing else, we should at least spitball ideas and see what comes up."

He was heading out. This, at least, gave the illusion of destiny control.

Nathaniel answers Cole as best he can, but time here is a bit different perhaps than on the Earth he grew up on. Maybe it is just the part, food, and general relaxation after being constantly on the rim of horror and despair for a couple of days.

"Well, it was...", Nathaniel tries to get the amount of time right.

After singing, and cooking, and even dancing with the locals (it seems that the ogre can not only cook and sing, but that he can "trip the lights fantastic" as well, easily picking up not only their songs, but also their dances), Joran makes his way back to his companions with a wide grin upon his face that, for once, does not look like he is relishing the idea of eating a few people raw.  He had collected his grenade rifle as he had stepped away from the festivities.
So, Wolf, how was it dancing with the young lady?  His question holds no sarcasm or immediate impression on insult.  He is genuinely curious.  That seems to be the things with the ogre.  He always seems to give an indication of his emotional state, almost like he is broadcasting it.

Zeke scratched just head, “wolf, you ain’t totally wrong. But we don’t even know what kinda information to look for. I ain’t an expert but I’m damn sure I can’t travel worlds with any skills I have. Plus I do have this busted compass.”

"You sort of spaced out for a second, Cole," says Eyepatch, squinting at Cole with his good eye. "Looked a little pale too. But you're ok now."

Meanwhile, Wolf goes looking for Cade, but to not avail. Well, his elusive, slightly grumpy, comrade will show back up eventually.

The female humanoid, intrigued all the more by Wolf since he declined her invitation, goes to her hut alone. The others eventually go away to sleep, as does the chief.

The night goes by without event, and the sun rises on the wilderness island. A week goes by and there is still no sign of Agrus.

GM: What do you spend your time doing in the days that go by?

After recovering from his disorientation...

Cole would have disagreed with Wolf about Agrus being some master mind out to get them. Far as they knew, they were all friends, just like he had said. Besides, actions counted more than words with Cole and so far all the lizard man had done was lead them to this place where so far, no one was even saying hostile words at them, let alone trying to kill them. They weren't in chains, they were being fed and the company was OK enough. No point in getting riled up. Better to use the time to try and get their memories back or at least go through their stuff and see if they can find anything to help piece together their pasts.

Which is what Cole does...for the most part. Sure, he empties his pockets, goes through all his stuff, hoping to find something besides weapons or survival gear. Mostly he is disappointed as he finds plenty of guns, bullets and e-clips but not a whole lot else. One thing he does find is a small photo. He is in it, dressed a lot like he is now, though without the guns on his hips. He is younger than he is now, maybe by a few years. A younger boy and girl are in front of him and his arms are around them. Behind him are a man and a woman, both of them really tall looking from the scale of the photo. They look enough like him and the other two kids that he reckons they must be his parents. That would make the two kids his younger brother and sister. He wondered what their names were.

He found other clues in the form of tattoos on his body. Tattoos being a permanent kind of thing, he didn't figure he would have gotten them on a whim so they must mean something. They were all really well done, unbelievably colorful and detailed but the ones on his wrists, a silver cross and a flaming sword, were the most magnificent. He knew they had power, he could feel it in his bones but for the life of him he couldn't remember getting them or why. He just knew those two were the most important out of the six on him.

With the rest of his time, time not spent with his friends or the natives, Cole searches the forest, trying to find the same path that he had followed in his dream? Vision? He didn't know what had happened but he wanted to find out. Best he could tell, he wasn't going to find out anymore than he already had from the chief or inside the village. He needed to explore the forest and see what was there.

Nathaniel was very much enjoying the vacation. He hadn't spent a week doing mostly nothing for....for....a long time because he couldn't remember ever doing it before. He played with his suit, tried to see what the physics of this dimension were like, zoomed around in light form, and in general had relaxing fun. He was limited by the very small amount of tools and things he could tinker with, since that was something he enjoyed, but still relaxing.

He tries to engage the various villagers in conversation and learn about them as he goes along. Memorizing their names and faces so he can be 'better' at being a guest in their care. He and his brothers, once they get cloths, even pitch in on manual labor or whatever else can be done around the area.

Cade spent the days waiting for Agrus to return presumably in the woods and other areas around the blue people village.  Likely she was hunting, maybe exploring, maybe just sleeping the time away someplace distant and quiet.

She returned each day at dusk to check and see if Agrus had returned before stalking off again.

As the week wears on, the tribe continues to welcome our heroes to their community. There are nightly festivities with music and dancing. Wolf finds himself the prey as the female (he has learned her name is Mara) continues with her overtures. She grows ever more bold with each day. The other females laugh quietly whenever he walks past them.

As the days have worn on, our heroes find themselves understanding more and more of the tribal dialect. Perhaps prolonged exposure to the wilderness of the area has caused them to absorb some of the effects of the berries.

On the night of the seventh day since Agrus left, something finally happens.

An alarm is raised.

"Raiders!"

GM: What do you do?

The man that didn't know what he was, Gunfighter, Gunslinger, Cowboy, Drifter, he went back and forth, was feeling frustrated. Oh he had plenty to be frustrated about to be sure but mostly it was his inability to find that clearing in the woods where he had seen that golden horse. When he was being honest with himself, he supposed it was a silly thing to be frustrated over but damn it, he couldn't do anything about the other stuff right now. Either his memory would come back or it wouldn't and there was a damn thing he could do to make it happen any sooner.

So when the villagers alarm was raised, warning of raiders, he actually welcome the distraction. It was stupid of him, he knew but just then, in that moment, he didn't think about that. As he ran to find the chief, all of his frustrating thoughts fell away, driven out of his conscious mind as instinct took over. His rifle was in his hands when he found the chief, "Where is the danger?" he asked simply.

Chaplain's food supplies were nonexistent, and so he spent a lot of his days learning how to hunt and live off the land around them, because starving was bad and he needed a way around 'don't eat their food'. He had figured out the 'affirmative' and 'negative' gestures pretty fast.

He had also split his weaponry into 'conservation' and 'free-use' - only the vibro-weapons and the knives counted as free use; the vibro-claws in his bionic arm, the vibro-knife he kept as a hold-out weapon, and apparently his armor had tiny vibro-claws and a garrote wire in it, too.

How many damn redundant hidden hold-out weapons do I have and need, anyways? He was starting to wonder if he shouldn't be afraid to sit down, due to a cannon popping out of his rear and leveling the outhouse. He literally had one attached to his arm, so why not?

This Mara was a problem. She was probably using some psychic trickery, but she might not be, and that second was arguable worse than the first possibility. The first he could deal with - the second, however, had no solutions, as it meant that his mind was becoming his own worst enemy.

He needed to talk to Joran or Cade. Why Cade? Actually, he had no idea how Cade could solve a problem regarding psychics, and chalked that one up to his brain being stressed and just wanting to talk to someone who was just as focused on getting out of here as he was.

He needed to talk to Joran, and ask if he sensed some kind of psychic influence on him.

There was nothing to be done for Agrus. They were stuck here, until he got back, if he came back. They might go native out of a simple need to survive, never seeing their home world again, never recalling anything but the strangest and vaguest clues about it.

The sounding of the alarm was almost a relief to him, the need to focus on things that made sense. He suited up and moved out, weapons in good working order. He didn't defend by nature, though, so his questions would be of a different nature. Cole had asked his first question, so he'd ask his second. "We're not trained to defend a static position. I somehow think trying that got us here in the first place. How do you need us to get to the enemy and neutralize them, while your warriors pin them down?"

During the week, Joran has spent the time cooking, and dancing, and singing, abd playing with the kids.  But, he has also spent time introspectively, meditating and trying to unlock his memories.  To some success.
He has discovered that he has psychic abilities, learning to re-use some of them.  He has also discovered what seems to be at least two forms of fighting styles.  Finding a fairly straight, fallen branch of suitable length, he finds it a comfortable fighting staff.
He also tries to spend time trying to counsel his companions regarding the troubles they are having with their lack of memory.  Except One-Eye.  He finds himself avoiding, almost shunning, the man, his intuition telling him there is something just off about him.
When he hears the emergency call, the warning that raiders are coming towards them.  He turns to the kids to whom he has begun teaching his staff work, Keep practicing.  I need to go see the chieftain.
He soon joins his companions at the chieftain's home.  What do we know about these raiders?

At the call of danger, Zeke smiled, he somehow sensed this was what he was built for... he was covered in guns, as well as a big sword across his back. Following Joran to the chieftan, "Yeah, we're more of a go get 'em type outfit I think. Y'all been good to us, so, if these raiders tryin' to hurt y'all... well, we will do what we can." his voice exuded an unknown source of confidence as he spoke, a cocky grin on his face.

Several warriors with spears line up next to Cole and point east. Cole can see lights in the near distance approaching them.

Meanwhile, Joran talks with the chief who is also arming himself. "The raiders seek our armoring science. They have the resources on their own island but not the knowledge. So they seek to enslave my people. It has been a long time since they tried. They must have a new warlord."

The lights grow stronger and noise fills the air as strange airships make landfall. Armored humanoids that look like warthogs rappel down and attack. One snarls and runs toward Wolf, then flies back as he is shot. Eyepatch looks at his comrade and nods, a gun in hand pointed where the warthog man had just been.

The warthogs are armed with black, curved swords that seem to hum similar to vibroblades.

GM: I'm just going to assume someone gave Eyepatch a gun at some point or whatevs.

Time to kill things!

What do you do?

"Mutant warthogs are the bad guys, blue skinned people are the good guys. I love it when a fight is simple," Cole think as he gives Eye Patch a quick thumbs up before taking a knee and firing off four shots from his rifle.

The entire motion, from dropping to one knee, snapping his rifle up, capturing his target in his sighs, getting proper sight alignment, everything about handling the rifle and doing what it was built to do, comes so smooth and easy to Cole that it amazes him. His body is taking actions without any conscious effort on his part, which gives his mind time to reflect on such things, all while targeting the heads of no less than three of the warthogs which were closest to capturing any of the villagers. He sent death, in the form of high energy particle beams streaking across the field of battle towards them. "OK, I think I'm going to have to rule out Cowboy," he admits to himself.

After taking his last shot, "Chief you've been attacked before, you got someplace for your people to hold up?" Cole figured it didn't matter how much his friends wanted to go charging off, if the bad guys were already here and the villagers needed saving. They were sheepdogs and the wolves were already inside their flock. A flock that had been attacked by these particular wolves in the past and they sure didn't seem stupid. They had to have a fort or bunker or someplace safe for their civilians to ride things out while their warriors fought. The chief just needed to tell them where it was so they could help get the villagers there. At the same time though..."Someone make sure those damn ships don't sail away! We can't let them kidnap anyone!"

OOC
2 actions - Talking
6 actions - 3 Called Shots - head shots on warthogs

I'm guessing since we so easily identified them as mutant warthogs, that their armor (assuming they are wearing armor) doesn't include helmets or if it does, the face plate is open. Cole will shoot (or attempt to) three of the warthogs in their heads. Any three that look to be close to capturing one of the villagers. He is thinking that the blues with spears standing near him and the chief, aren't just for show and can maybe handle close in defense for at least a moment.

Strikes
Cole rolled 15 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.
Cole rolled 21 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.
Cole rolled 11 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.

Damage
Cole rolled 25 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage.
Cole rolled 32 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage.
Cole rolled 28 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage.

Auto-Dodges
Cole rolled 12 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 20 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 20 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 27 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge - Natural 20!.
Cole rolled 11 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.

Edited for flavor text:
During that week, except for when he was sleeping, Cole next left his weapons laying about. It wasn't that he was particularly concerned about their hosts stealing them or suddenly turning hostile and attacking. No it was the simple fact their were children about and they were naturally curious about the strangers in their midst. In his experience, aside from cats, children, regardless of species, were the most intensely curious things around. From the looks of things, these natives weren't that familiar with guns. All of that caused Cole to keep a close eye on his weapons, least the children here accidentally harm themselves or others.

His body armor he also kept a close eye on. He didn't sleep in it, again because he wasn't worried about thievery or being killed in his sleep by the friendly blue folk but also because it was damn uncomfortable to sleep in. He could have left it aside in the hut they had given him to use but he just liked wearing it, when he was awake that is. It was a tangible connection to his now forgotten past. A talisman of sorts. It was maybe irrational of him but he feared that leaving it off would become habit forming and in turn, it would be like some sort of signal that he had given up on ever rediscovering his past.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:38, Fri 18 Sept 2020.

It would have been more polite if they had given us time to put on our armor, Joran rumbles.  But, at least none of us were in the bathroom.
Currently, the only weapon he has is a staff carved from a fallen branch of one of the trees by the parent of one of his students.  And it is a beautiful that he would hate to see destroyed.  Then he sees children running from a trio of warthogoids, and the staff hits the ground.
As the air immediately around his body seems to shift, forming a haze similar to heat shimmers, and a glowing staff begins to form in his hands.  He roars as he charges at the warthog-looking raiders, and begins to dance violently with them.  The glowing staff begins to whirl about in an impressive show of speed, skill, and bluish-white light against much clumsier opponents after he barrels into them.

Activates Psychic Body Field and Psi-Sword first.
04:38, Today: Joran rolled 23,25,15,19,13 using 1d20+7,1d20+7,1d20+7,1d20+7,1d20+7.  Automatic Parries.

04:37, Today: Joran rolled 60 using 16d6.  Critical MD.
04:36, Today: Joran rolled 27 using 1d20+7.  Strike with psi-staff again Natural 20.

04:34, Today: Joran rolled 33 using 8d6.  MD.
04:34, Today: Joran rolled 18 using 1d20+7.  Charge attack and Bodyblock/Tackle with psi-staff held across body

04:33, Today: Joran rolled 17 using 1d20+3.  Initiative. 

The chieftain smiles at Joran. His smile widens unnaturally as his face and body seem to change. The smile pulls back into a snarl, his teeth turning into jagged fangs. "We do not hide. We change."

The people, even the children, all begin to snarl and howl a high pitched scream somewhere between a canine and a feline howl. They all change, faces pulling back tight, sharp teeth baring, as they leap on their enemies.

Cole takes down three enemies, their exposed heads exploding. Two come at him snarling, drool dripping from their tusks. The first attacks with his blade, and Cole bobs and weaves like liquid as he dodges the majority of this hits. A couple find their mark, with one catching him fiercely in the side. The second enemy attacks, and Cole is all movement as he dodges all the attacks.

Meanwhile, Joran impales one warthog, and flinging him aside barrels into another. The enemy's armor crunches britally as he is flung back into his comrades.

Our heroes take stock of the airships, and find that there are six in the air above them. These seem metallic, with some sort of propulsion system holding them aloft.

GM: I wouldn't say they are mutants, per se, just that they look mostly like warthogs. I was too lazy to describe them in lurid detail lol.

Cole - 17 damage to main body armor.

Next round!

"We don't fight them here. We take the fight to them instead." Chaplain points up at the airships. "There. Damage their propulsion systems, and knock them down."

He fired up the jet-boosters in his armor, and flew up to the farthest airship, one that had not deployed forces yet. He pulled one hand-grenade, and flung it into the exhaust of one of the ships at point-blank range, intent on crippling the vessel from within. If that didn't work, he was going to tear the ship to pieces from below using claws and armblade. If it only partly worked, he was going to throw more grenades into their exhausts until the ship decided it didn't like flying anymore.

He figured seeing one of their own vessels go down should demoralize the rest, and inspire them to leave their own behind to die. If not...well, they were going to join them.

OOC: -1 or more HE grenades, and it is a big ship - it would be hard to miss with melee strikes. In a pinch, I have an autododge, should it be necessary.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:03, Sat 19 Sept 2020.

Cole wondered what the hell had happened to the seven blues with spears that had been standing right next to him and the chief, as he tried to dodge the two warthogs that he hadn't managed to kill. Despite their bulk, they were quick bastards but he was no slouch either. He ducked and rolled, managing to almost avoid being hit. Unfortunately he had the bad luck to get his foot caught in a rabbit hole or whatever passed as rabbits here. It was just for a second and it didn't break his ankle but that second of immobility had let them tag him with one of their big ass axes.

His armor was up to the task of taking the hit but Cole knew he was going to have bruises under his armor where he'd been struck. At least his ribs weren't actually broken. He brought up his sights again, trapped his target and squeezed the trigger. Change targets, breathe, squeeze. It was a comfortable routine that brought peace and clarity to his mind.

OOC
4 actions - two head shots on the two bad guys right on me.
4 actions - two more head shots if any others are available. If not, I will pick something important looking on an airship and fire twice at it.

Wilks 577 PB ammo: 7/16, Laser 0/20
Armored Duster: 17/28, Body Armor: 0/75

Strikes
Cole rolled 27 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.
Cole rolled 27 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.
Cole rolled 11 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.
Cole rolled 19 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.

Damage
Cole rolled 25 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage.
Cole rolled 25 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage.
Cole rolled 22 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage.
Cole rolled 27 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage.

Auto-Dodge
Cole rolled 18 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 19 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 25 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 14 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 18 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.

Skill Check
Cole rolled 1 using 1d100.  Basic Mechanics. Nailed it!!!
This message was last edited by the player at 02:43, Mon 21 Sept 2020.

Three glowing orbs burst out of one tent and streak into the sky, roughly 500ft up. From them rip more than a dozen bolts of incandescent coherent light. They lash out in a seeming indiscriminate fashion since their are three point sources, but they seem concentrated on a particular warthog till it is a burning pile of chard flesh. Five sets of three beams sizzle through the air and the scent of fried bacon fills the battlefield.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:49, Sun 20 Sept 2020.

Cade burst from the treeline nearest the fight at her full sprint.

Perhaps she'd just been sitting and watching.  Perhaps she'd been some distance away and had come running when the alarm was raised.

Regardless she ignored the entirety of the fight between the blade wielding pigs and the fang and spear wielding blue beast people.

Instead she made a beeline for the closest sky ship that had a rope hanging from it and which wasn't being filled with grenades.  When she was close enough she made an upward leap that managed to put her several times her own height into the air where she grabbed a rope and began climbing up.

Cade was intent to clear the ship of pig men and take control of it.  Though as she climbed she felt an odd wave of what she realized was deja vu though she had no context for it whatsoever.

Doc draws his auto pistols and opens fire on the 'warthog' like invaders.

This was where his skills lied, in the handguns, he remembered that much. They felt natural in his hand as he unleashed a barrage of gun fire.

13:21, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 19 using 6d6.  dmg.
13:21, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 16 using 6d6.  dmg.
13:20, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 20 using 6d6.  dmg.
13:20, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 20 using 6d6.  dmg.
13:20, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 24 using 6d6.  dmg.
13:20, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 24 using 6d6.  dmg.
13:20, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 17 using 6d6.  dmg.
13:20, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 24 using 6d6.  dmg.
13:20, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 23 using 6d6.  dmg.
13:20, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 24 using 6d6.  dmg.
13:19, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 18 using 1d20+7.  shoot em.
13:19, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 11 using 1d20+7.
13:19, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 4 using 1d20.  shoot em.
13:19, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 26 using 1d20+7.  shoot em.
13:19, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 14 using 1d20+7.  shoot em.
13:19, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 18 using 1d20+7.  shoot em.
13:19, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 11 using 1d20+7.  shoot em.
13:19, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 9 using 1d20+7.  shoot em.
13:19, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 17 using 1d20+7.  shoot em.
13:18, Today: Ezekiel 'Zeke' Holliday rolled 15 using 1d20+7.  shoot.

Wolf launches into the air and fires grenades into the nearest exhaust pipe of one of the airships. It explodes and spins out of control as pig men are flung from it. Another airship flies up next to him and a warthog screams a battle cry and leaps at him. It lands on his back and clings to him with one hand and stabs forward with a vicious looking blade that extends from its wrist. It shrieks and stabs Wolf in the main body of his armor.

Meanwhile, Cole wonders where the blue warriors were, and sees them darted up ahead leaping on wart hogs and tearing into their necks. Two warthogs come at Cole and he takes them down with ease, then opens fire on an airship. The way the ships are moving, it almost looks like they are being guided by some kind of symbiosis from the pilots. Perhaps there is a biological element. He fires at one of the pilots and the ships jerks hard to the right and spins upside down, the pilot seeming to hang from something with his arm attached, while the other hogs fall from the ship.

The squeals of burning pig fill the air from Nathaniel's attacks, while Cade quickly climbs up the rope onto another ship. Four surprised wart hogs pause a moment, and then attack her with their blades. As the blades cut into her armor, her little creature friend crawls out her satchel and growls loudly and adorably. Its growls get louder and more guttural as it leaps off her shoulder, doubling, tripling in size as it attack one of the warthogs and takes it over the edge. The other three are stunned as they watch their comrade die. Cade notices that the pilot of the ship has his arm in some kind of organism that attaches it to the ship.

Zeke is like a sprinkler of death as shots fan out from his pistols, felling warthogs in blood splattering violence.

GM: Wolf - 19 damage to main body, plus you have a warthog attached to you now.
Cade - 20 damage to main body and your pet is awesome.

Next round!

With no more warthogs near enough to be a threat to him, Cole concentrate on the airships. The surviving airships, since Wolf had destroyed one already. He drew a bead on the one that had jumped on to Wolf's jetpack and squeezed the trigger, sending another high energy particle beam into the night. He then changed targets to the pilot of the airship that had inverted. Rather than go for a head shot, he aimed for the warthog's arm, the one attached to the airship somehow.

OOC
3 actions - Aimed Called shot head on the warthog on Wolf's back
3 actions - Aimed Called shot arm on the warthog pilot dangling
2 actions - Called shot head on any bad guy that gets close to me

Strikes
Cole rolled 27 using 1d20+10.  Wilks 577 Aimed Called Shot - Particle Beam. (Warthog on Wolf's back)
Cole rolled 17 using 1d20+10.  Wilks 577 Aimed Called Shot - Particle Beam. (Warthog pilot's arm)
Cole rolled 26 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam. (Reserve shot)

Damage
Cole rolled 26 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage. (Warthog on Wolf's back)
Cole rolled 22 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage. (Warthog pilot's arm)
Cole rolled 24 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage. (Reserve shot)

Auto-Dodges
Cole rolled 27 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge - Natural 20!!
Cole rolled 17 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 12 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 10 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 19 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.

Wilks 577 PB ammo: 9/16, Laser 0/20
Armored Duster: 17/28, Body Armor: 0/75
This message was last edited by the player at 03:51, Tue 22 Sept 2020.

The porcine being does not get to regret its mistake for very long. Wolf seizes its weapon hand, twists in midflight, and hurls the whole thing to the ground with centrifugal force behind the throw, watching it fly briefly before moving to his next target and letting gravity and incoming fire take things from here. Activity on one ship - that one was to be ignored for now, as he felt Cade had that under control. He had used up his HE grenades, and he was saving the microfusions for a real emergency.

Wolf instead went for the ship hanging upside down in a fly-by. Specifically, the pilot. He popped bionic blades and aimed to slice the pilot's arm off, intending to finish the decapitation of the ship's control. Apparently Cole had the same idea, based on the incoming fire. He kept flying by after his swing, looking for the next foe to attack, and preparing himself for the next lunatic that might jump out of a moving skyship to attack a man on a jetpack.

Maybe I'll go for the one with the crazy crew.

OCC: Two attacks are being held in reserve for dodging or simultaneous parry/throw. Most of his actions are simply him moving through the air making his way to the next target.

21:35, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 32 using 1d20+14.  Throw the attached opponent, adding initiative to this strike.
21:43, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 14 using 1d20+6.  Called Shot pilot arm, aiming to cut it while leaving the symbiote alive.

21:50, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 24 using 1d20+9.  Potential Dodge #1.
21:50, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 21 using 1d20+9.  Potential Dodge #2.
21:52, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 27 using 1d20+9.  Potential Parry.
21:56, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 13 using 1d20+4.  Potential Throw.
21:53, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 28 using 1d20+9.  Potential Parry.
21:56, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 7 using 1d20+4.  Potential Throw.
21:58, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 14 using 1d20+4.  Autododge, just in case.

Cade ignored the blows as her armor's protective field flashed with the impacts.

She did not ignore the opening the native critter had bought her however.  She lashed out with fists and claws as she attempted to bowl over the pigs, preferably giving them a heave-ho over the side of the boat.


Cade rolled 17,14,21,16,13,26,12,27(Natural 20).  Strike.

Cade rolled 25,20,27,27,17,13,14,19.  parries.

Seeing Cade grab a rope hanging from one of the ships, he charges through a squad of warthogs, swinging his psionic blade in a wide sweep that connects with them all and sends them scattering on to their backs.  He begins to haul himself up to give her a hand with whomever she has found up there.

03:16, Today: Joran rolled 12 using 1d100.  Climb Rope @ 64%.

It seem to Nathaniel and his brothers that everybody was doing various things. They, however, were of one thought when it came to their blue allies. The beams of photons sliced out to strike warthogs that were causing their blue allies problems or were about to flank them. The three orbs of light acting as guardian angels buzzed about.

Cole and Wolf seem of the same mind as Cole blasts the warthog off Wolf's back, while Wolf simultaneously flings it off of him. The result is a thrashing warthog that seems to stop mid air as it is shredded with gunfire and falls to the ground. Wolf and Cole then fire at the inverted ship pilot and the thing hangs helplessly getting shot an then sags, dead. The ship then whizzes out of control and crashes to the ground below.

Meanwhile, Cade judo chops one of the hogs right off the ship, as Joran climbs and joins her. The remaining hog blanches at the ogre and jumps, leaving the pilot. Cade's pet, having grown even more, sails through the air and evisceates the pilot as he leaps over the airship and back to the ground. All that is left of the pilot is strings of gore attached to the hand in the symbiotic control system. Then their ship jerks as it loses control.

GM: Joran and Cade - Ship is clear but losing control. Do you try and control the airship?

All - What do you do?

With the warthog off Wolf's back, literally, and the rest of his friends, save for Zeke, in the air, Cole switched his attention back to the ground. The group in the air looked like they were doing fine and he couldn't do much more to help them, unless more of the bad guys popped up for him to shoot off their backs.

OOC
8 actions - 4 Called Shots on bad guys, if more of them present themselves as threats he can snipe at.

Strikes
Cole rolled 18 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.
Cole rolled 17 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.
Cole rolled 9 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.
Cole rolled 19 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.

Damage
Cole rolled 29 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage.
Cole rolled 25 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage.
Cole rolled 29 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage.
Cole rolled 17 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage.

Auto-Dodges
Cole rolled 22 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 23 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 11 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 11 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 22 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.

Wilks 577 PB ammo: 11/16, Laser 0/20
Armored Duster: 17/28, Body Armor: 0/75
This message was last edited by the player at 04:02, Wed 23 Sept 2020.

Joran mives forward, struggling against the shifting craft as it starts to lose control from the twitching if the severed limb in the symbiote control sleeve.  He wrenches the arm out, and attempts to shove his own in its place, where he tries to gain control over the crashing vehicle.
What was that creature, Cade?


03:31, Today: Joran rolled 15 using 1d20.  Just in Case Save.

03:30, Today: Joran rolled 6 using 1d20+2.  Just in Case Perception.

03:30, Today: Joran rolled 11 using 1d20+2.  Just in Case Perception.

03:30, Today: Joran rolled 95 using 1d100.

03:30, Today: Joran rolled 38 using 1d100.

03:29, Today: Joran rolled 54 using 1d100.  Just in Case Skill.

This message was last edited by the player at 07:35, Tue 22 Sept 2020.

"A local."  Cade replied to Jordan as she braced, waiting to see if he could bring the ship under control or if jumping overboard would be needed.

Cole takes stock of his surrounding, taking down a ouple f more hogs that come out of the forest. Blue natives growl and stab warthog corpses with spears as the sounds of battle are reduced to the sounds of the dying.

Meanwhile, Joran attempts to take control of the strange controls. He puts his hand in the control and can feel a squishy, cold, fleshy substance inside. It moves around his hand, and then stops. The ship then begins to spin out of control.

GM: Joran and Cade - Do you jump?

All - What do you do?

Three down, three to go. Chaplain gave a quick salute to those on the ground, and continued his flight path to the next. He had learned the real weak point of these ships, and was hoping these beings would change course and start leaving.

He looked for an odd angle on the next ship, one that would enable him to hit the pilot in a fly-by strike, and aimed to sever the connection between pilot and vessel, having figured that this was how these things worked. If no such option existed, then he would see if reverse keelhauling the ship would help out - make a nice, long slice under the hull of the ship from bow to stern, and see what that got him.

OOC: Let me know if I need to roll for something. I don't know my options yet.

Cole continues his methodical, deliberate elimination of any of the invading warthogs that had the bad luck of appearing in his sights. Sight picture, exhale, squeeze, inhale. Sight picture, exhale, squeeze, inhale. That was his rhythm as he doled out high energy death, one shot at a time.

OOC
8 actions - 4 Called Shots on baddies.

Strikes
Cole rolled 21 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.
Cole rolled 28 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam. Natural 20!
Cole rolled 28 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam. Natural 20!
Cole rolled 24 using 1d20+8.  Wilks 577 Called Shot - Particle Beam.

Damage
Cole rolled 26 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage
Cole rolled 54 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage. Nat 20 applied
Cole rolled 42 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage. Nat 20 applied
Cole rolled 29 MD using 5d6+8.  Wilks 577 Particle Beam damage.

Auto-Dodges
Cole rolled 20 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 12 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 17 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 26 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.
Cole rolled 13 using 1d20+7.  Auto-Dodge.


Wilks 577 PB ammo: 15/16, Laser 0/20
Armored Duster: 17/28, Body Armor: 0/75
This message was last edited by the player at 03:55, Thu 24 Sept 2020.

Given that Joran seemed incapable of flying the boat, which was going to be a problem for said boat shortly, Cade started running.

With a bit of speed under her she lept and landed on the next ship that was also not long for this airbound world.

She kept moving and jumped again this time landing on the ground with a tumble to keep her momentum going.

Sprinting still she made for one of the remaining craft still aloft, apparently determined to capture one of the things intact.

As the vehicle begins to spin out of control, Joran begins to try to send out amessage of him being calm, soothing, and that he means no harm, hoping that the symbiote will respond favorably.
If that does not work, he then sends a wave of empathic energy to soothe and comfort the symbiote.  Should that not work either, he then focuses on the electrical and mechanical systems to start shutting things down to try to land it without crashing.

First, use Empathy sense its emotions, send it a message if peace and calm.
Second, use Empathic Transmission to make it calm.
Third, if those fail, use Electrokinesis to power it down and try to land.

Wolf flies by and is able to cut the control panel. A strange goo sprays out and the warthog pilot begins jerking his arm madly to pull it free. The ship bucks and falls to the ground.

Meanwhile, the remaining two ships bank right in opposite directions and swoop down into the woods. Flares shoots up from both of them and explode in the sky, covering the entire area in a strange, thick purple fog. The fog then blankets the entire forest and battleground.

Cole cuts down the last remaining warthogs, while Joran is able to direct he and Cade's captured ship to a gentle crash landing. He and Cade are rattled but unharmed. The massive canine lizard creature comes out of the woods with warthog guts covering its face. It walks up to Cade, sniffing and growling, then begins to mew and nuzzle her.

Our heroes that can sense magic sense nothing magical about the fog, and it is not toxic either. It does however cut off the island from any natural light, and thus the surroundings are very dark.

GM: What do you do?

++Both bogies on the ground, the skies are clear. Two more ships unloading under cover of darkness.++ He wasn't sure if anyone was listening in on radio, but he felt it was worth saying anyways

Chaplain's vision was already very good, but now his eye - the mechanical one - started filtering through multiple vision modes ranging from zoom-in, light sensitive, to infrared, to combinations of all of those. It was a bit disorienting with the other eye that wasn't doing these things, and it seems to be responding to his attempts to follow his foes.

So, if thermal vision could pierce that fog, he would find them. If it could not, then he was going to have to go in, and listen quietly.

*I hear you,* Cole says over his headset as he still has his helmet off. Seeing the strange purple fog come rolling in though, is enough to convince him that maybe it might be a good idea to put it on. He takes a moment to do that and then gets on the radio again, *Cade, Joran, You alright?* While waiting for their reply, he swaps out the e-clip in his rifle that feeds the particle beam. Even though he had taken care to make every shot count, he had still fired 15 times, nearly depleting an entire e-clip. He wondered if the blues could recharge e-clips, since they knew what they were doing with modern armor.

When the purple fog begins to choke out the light, plunging the landscape into darkness, Cole feels an odd tingle in his eyes. It passes before he can decide if the tingling was unpleasant or not. He blinks and is surprised to find that despite the fog, he can see just fine. In fact he can see even better than before his eyes got all tingly. "Its like going from black and white to full color," he thought.

He starts to walk towards where Joran and Cade crashed, staying alert for anymore threats.

OOC
Supernatural Vision tattoo - See the Invisible, See Aura, See in total darkness
Wilks 577 PB ammo: 0/16 (1/4 long e-clips), Laser 0/20
Armored Duster: 17/28, Body Armor: 0/75
PPE: 20/117

Zeke reloads his weapons, cursing under his breath, "How am I supposed to kill these warthog things with thie weird fog around?" he takes up his multioptics band and begins scanning for something to help him see in the darkness they were now experiencing.

Our heroes attempt to pierce the fog, and that it is like staring at a viscous wall. The fog moves, but it cannot be seen through. Sound is strangely muffled around them, and radios are filled with interference. They cannot see further than a foot in front of them.

Wolf does his best to move forward to where he thinks the other ship went down into the woods. He comes across dead warthogs and wounded, groaning natives, but no airship.

Several minutes pass and the fog begins to dissipate. Radios come back online, and our heroes are able to see their surroundings. The forest is littered with dead warthogs, as well as dead and wounded natives.

Wolf ventures deeper into the forest and finds his coalition comrade, Julia, dead. Dead warthogs surround her, with several younglings nearby. Eyepatch is lying against a tree, bleeding from a vibro sword wound inflicted by one of the warthogs.

"She died protecting the little ones," he says. "I couldn't save her."

The remaining two airships are gone.

GM: Julia has been MIA for a while. They were having trouble getting into the game, which happens. No hard feelings. I tried to touch base but to no avail. So I have removed the character from the game. :-(

What do you do?
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:53, Fri 25 Sept 2020.

Cole reached the crash site or what was supposed to be the crash site of Joran and Cade. "Well I'll be...big son of a gun managed to land that thing after all," he remarked, finding that betweent hem, Joran and Cade had managed something more like a hard landing instead of a straight up crash landing.

He stays alert for any surviving warthogs with fight left in them as he moves closer to the airship to make sure Joran and Cade are alright. He hoped they were or if they weren't that they weren't too badly banged up. He was pretty sure the limit of his doctoring skills was pouring cheap whiskey on a wound before slapping a bandage on it. The thought made him laugh, now that the battle seemed to be over, it was his mind releasing some of the tension. "Not like I have any whiskey right now anyways..."

OOC
That sucks about Julia but yah, it happens.

Just like his post reads, Cole is headed for where Joran and Cade went down.

Today: Cole rolled 8 using 1d20.  Perception check.

Cade regarded the mostly intact but currently useless ship then gave it an annoyed kick.

"It's time to go after the lizard, but it looks like this won't be any help."

Hey!  Don't be like that!  She's sensitive!  And in pain!  He lays a soothing hand upon the hull.  It's okay.  She's just mad about the attack.  She knows you were doing what you were forced to do.
He turns back to Cade.  Maybe the Nathaniels can do something to fix her.

As the fog clears out, our heroes all find each other. Joran inspects the airship, and while made with a synthesis of organic material and metallic material, it is not conscious. It seems to need the live hand of one of the warthogs.

Meanwhile, the chieftain comes to talk with our heroes.

"You fought well," he says, face bruised and showing signs of dried blood. "They used their camouflage to escape. They took several younglings and three of the womenfolk, including Zera," he says, looking pointedly at Wolf.

Cole discovers that the boy who gave him the horse figurine is among those that were taken.


GM: Wolf - I realized she needed a name, so Zera it is!

All - What do you do?

"Bastards," Cole says at hearing the warthogs had been able to kidnap people despite all they had done to prevent it. Then he turns away from his friends and begins walking in an easterly direction. Muttered invective can be heard as he walks away, clearly angered by the loss of the civilians.

Cole is an unhappy man. He has a soft spot for children and what decent person doesn't? Heating that the warthogs had kidnapped some of the villagers, especially children, caused his blood to boil. He wanted to yell, scream his anger and frustration but that perfectly natural reaction somehow just didn't seem right. So he turned away from his friends instead and made do with muttering curses at the warthogs. He just needed to walk a spell, cool down and then he would return to the group.

Chaplain was of two minds. On the one hand, this had been exhilarating. On the other hand, the only other person who was like him died fighting the enemy while he was off targeting them directly. He whispered to Julia. "I told you we weren't good at defense."

He pulled her dogtag off, and just looked at it for a moment before he pocketed it. "You died a better soldier than me. Simper fidelis, Julia."

He wished he had been here, though. Together, they would have killed all of these beings, and there would be no dead allies.

He waved to...Eyepatch? Chaplain's sense of reverence was over, and it was time to be practical. "Hey. Everything she has is yours now. Her armor's busted, but you can salvage pieces of it, and the weaponry is still operational. Put it to good use."

He was irrationally furious that Eyepatch lived for some reason, but he did his best to hide it, and he felt it would pass.

He frowned at the events and the explanation of it. "It takes more than camo to go to ground and vanish that fast. Your enemy likely has some advanced tech or magic helping them out, and they seem to know the land."

He was speaking to the chieftain. "Let's even those odds. Where are they going, and what do we know about that area?"

"Can you talk to it?  If it's alive maybe it can tell us how to fix it it something."  Cade asked Joran regarding the ship.

She didn't comment on whatever the blue man was going on about as she couldn't really understand him.

Instead she looked towards Wolf and shook her head.  "Not magic.  Probably not tech either, something natural.  Secreted by the ships or some other native plant or animal."

Eyepatch leans against the tree, wounded, and nods at Wolf's words. He unconsciously reaches up and touches his eye-patch lightly. For our heroes that can detect magic, just momentarily they sense magic coming from Eyepatch, and then it is gone. Odd, that.

Meanwhile, Cade's pet has shrunk back down to size and snoozes on her shoulder.

Cole walks away deep in thought.

GM: Eyepatch is officially a PC!

What do you do?

Pushing himself to his feet, Eyepatch stumbles forwards. Not towards Julia and the damaged armor, but towards the other supplies scattered about. "Maybe there's some gauze," he mumbles.

The three glowing orbs of light starts a search pattern in and around the battlefield looking for other wounded, loot, and perhaps bad guys to interrogate. One of them lands and somehow speaks to the reset.

"Well that was fracking annoying as hell. Glad we were here though or all of these villagers would be dead, slaves, dinner, or some combination."

"They'd have lost resources, but I believe their village would have remained a village. Mass death or abduction usually means less mouths to feed, if times are hard enough for an enemy to raid. They weren't raiding out of hardship, though. Not with a fleet of airships." Chaplain shook his head and glared back to Eyepatch. "She. Is. Dead. There is no medicine that will bring her back from this."

He growled irritably. "Someone make sure her body gets buried or something, and that her supplies are not wasted. She will continue to fight for us beyond life, just as-"

From this moment forward, none of your lives belong to you anymore! You are as good as dead boys as far as the Coalition is concerned!

He paused, trying to figure out where the hell that thought came from. "Just as I would want."

"Where they are, what to expect from the area or structure they are in, and how we are getting in without being detected. If we don't know these things, we need to discover these things first before we attack. If we don't know these things, I'll scout ahead, and then I'll return with as full of a report on my questions as I can arrange." His armor was very bulky, making silent movement extremely difficult. He would not be able to get close...but the coloration favored him, and as long as he kept his distance, he would see enough.

He looks at Cade a moment.  No.  It is not really alive.  Of it had been,the landing would have been easier.  I just started shutting off systems at random.  Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.
As they walk up to join the others, he hears about the children being taken, and a low growl rumbles in his chest.  It seems to me that bacon would make for a really good breakfast, and I think we can figure out where to find a whole lot of that.  He hears the names if several children he has grown close to over the past few weeks, and the growl ceases as he sits on the ground heavily. Damn, he mutters, his head hanging as his hands cover his face.  After a few moments, he wipes his face with his palms and looks at the chieftain.  What do they do with them?  He knows what some species back on his home world do with human children, and the thought horrifies him.  I'm in.  I believe I have a way to be undetected.

Cole turns around and walks back to his friends. He still looks unhappy but he seems to have his killing rage in check. He, like Joran, Looks at the chief. "Some folks in this world just need killing," he says as calmly and naturally as if commenting on the weather. "You point us in the direction of these warthogs, maybe gives us a hand getting there, tell us what you know about them and their land, then let us take care of them for you. Its only fair after all you've done for us since we got here."

Eyepatch lurches to the remnants of Julia's stuff. With more feeling than he has shown any time before, he responds, "I. Am. Bleeding. Medicine wasn't for her, whatever we wish."
Tearing off strips of cloth, Eyepatch begins wipe the blood from around his wound. Somehow managing to stop the bleeding, mostly because of the human body's natural tendency not to bleed, he starts to gather what he can from the scattered materials.
It appears the eyepatch is giving him trouble, as he absently scratches at it from time to time.

Joran moves to the injured One Eye.  Let me help.  He reaches his huge hand towards the injury, closing his eyes in concentration.  A soothing warmth can be felt to build and emanate from that hand over the next half minute.
His hands still becoming warmer, he continues to concentrate healing energy over the next 45 seconds as he tries to gently determine what other injuries the man may have other than the obvious.
I can also increase your rate of recovery, his voice rumbles.  But, it could take several hours to focus my energy into doing it.


Heal bruises, burns, cuts, and similar and restore 6 HP or 4 SDC.
Psychic Diagnosis.
Increased Healing, if Okayed, takes 5 hour trance, doubles healing at professional rate for 5 days.

Eyepatch breathes ever easier as Joran heals him. Meanwhile, the chief listens to their questions about the warthogs.

"Only one of us has ever been taken by them before. It was me."

He lets that sink in a moment. "I was just a boy. They inflicted terrible tortures on me hoping to extract our methods. I did not know the methods of armor creation though. I was not yet old enough. They meant to leave me to starve to death in my cell when they realized I could not help them. The cell was carved from cave stone and I was able to slowly wear away a crack big enough for me to squirm through, I was so thin."

He pauses, the pain of memory rippling across his face. "I wandered through a dark cave system, certain I would die down there. Somehow, I came to feel ocean air and found myself at the mouth of a cave overlooking the sea. I had no boat, no ship, and much despair. Then, a warm golden light shone around me...and I awoke in our forest." He looks pointedly at Cole for some reason.

The chief then explains as best he can where the cave mouth is, and what he can remember of his route. It is spotty, but his mind is sharp. He is able to draw some semblance of a map.

Nathaniel spends his time looking for survivors, friend and foe. He manages to find one warthog alive, but in a deep coma, its skull partially caved in.

GM: What do you do?

Zeke, similar to Cole, was angry. Women folks and kids were off limits, there were exceptions, yes. But simple villagers, going about their business was NOT one of them He processed the disappearance a bit more coldly than Cole did. He spoke quietly to the Chieftan, not whispering, just eerily calm, it was the slinger in him. "Y'all done right by us when you had no cause to, we appreciate that. They took kids, that ain't right. Kids ain't part of no warring. Your map, we will go try to get them back, if not, I'll kill as many as I have bullets, then I'll use my sword. That's my word."

Zeke had nearly forgotten about his samurai training, somehow he knew he could use the sword he had.

"Oh." Chaplain was taken aback that Eyepatch was aiming to cure their own wounds. He hadn't even noticed. "Right."

He refocused on the chieftain, getting his head back in what mattered. "That route you took to escape - have you ever sent warriors or scouts up that route before? If so, were they detected? We might have a method of insertion if we play our cards right. It's a natural stone fortress, if they are still there, and we may know an unsecured route. If, again, they have not moved their prison."

"Beyond us, will there be any support in the attack, either you, allied tribes, or even traitors or spies within their forces? I need to know who not to fight, and if we are working with anyone else. Advance sabotage would be vastly appreciated, if it can be done."

OOC: Questions two and three, right here. Apologies for the Shadowrun style approach I am having. Days or hours of planning, and minutes of everything going wrong and all hell breaking loose.

At Wolf's line of questioning, Joran laughs his deep, rumbling laugh.  It seems that he finds Wolf's questions to be deeply funny.  After a minute or so, he stops, the laugh fading to a chuckle before it vanishes completely.
Sorry, he rumbles in apology after clearing his throat.  I just get the feeling that we are the sort of company that does better when the plan get thrown completely out the window.  That we are at our best when we adapt, improvise, and overcome.
He looks at each of them in turn.  I get the feeling that is exactly how we got here.  Somebody messed up our plan, and we had to put our faith in someone we did not know in order to survive.

"He knows," Cole thought when the Chief looked at him. He cleared his throat and looked at the Chief. "You say a golden light brought you to this forest? So if someone were to see that golden light again, maybe it could take them back to where you escaped from?"

Cole had of course heard everything everyone else said, his mind was just focused on the Chief's comment about the golden light. He agreed with Joran though, plans were great, right up until they meet the enemy and Murphy. They were worthwhile sure but best looked at as a guideline, not inflexible laws, because when things went sideways, you had to think fast and move faster to stay alive.

Eyepatch thanks Joran, and continues to scrounge through the detritus to fill out his 'kit'. On several occasions, he stops and swats at his eyepatch as if some flying insect had landed on it. In the meantime, he listens.

The chief answers Wolf seriously. "I have never been back. We are not an attacking tribe. We defend our lands fiercely, but we do not venture across the sea. It is a testimony that in their last attack they only got me. We can spare one of our boats for you all to make your way across the air."

Looking at Cole, he says, "I do not know what, or who, saved me. But I sense that perhaps you do. In any case, I believe it expended significant power in saving me all those years ago. I remember it...straining to save me. Tell me true, Cole. Does it yet live?"

Meanwhile, warriors drag the comatose warthog Nathaniel found into the camp. Perhaps it can be used to drive one of the airships. But then again, one of the tribal boats may operate better in cover of night, while being easier to destroy.

GM: What do you do?

Cade left the rest to be babbled at by the blue chief.

She spent that time, while others were regrouping and such, poking at the captured airship.

Joran had said it was apparently alive enough to recognize pain.  Cade didn't think she would be able to communicate with it, but she figured it would be worth spending some time trying to figure out some other way to elicit a reaction, aside from kicking it that is.

"You've never count-?!" Chaplain sorted this out mentally and returned his voice to his calm officer's voice. "You've never counterattacked them."

He thought a moment. "This can work for us. If they cobble up defenses, they will be hastily assembled, or aimed at another group than us. They aren't used to you swinging back."

"Before we can determine if we are going in by air or by sea, we need to know if the coastline is a viable option in the first place, or if we are just going to break apart on sandbars and rocks. And one of these airborne vessels could destroy us with near impunity if they saw us coming, so we need to not be seen." He considered a few other things. "They collect slaves, so that means they cannot invest too much of their might outward. Fear of rebellion. Half of their strength or more is still intact right now."

He breathed out, looking at the unconscious warthog. "I want to know everything he knows. I need..." He looked around hurriedly for writing tools and writing scratch. If he could find none, he was going to use his survival knife and some spare wood. "...something to write with. I'll need your talents, Joran, if they are not exhausted yet, and if you can read."

"For now, I need to know beachheads and landing zones. If we go in blind, we could lose more. If we can get supplies sent to us when we are there, or if there is a resistance waiting to help us, that would be great, but right now I'm operating on the assumption of weapons and supplies being OSP." He realized no one probably knew what that meant. "On Site Procurement. Means we are stealing what we need if we have to, and resupplies cannot be expected otherwise. I'm curious, how long have they had ships in the sky?"

Cole looked the chief hard in the other man's eyes for a long second and then nodded his head. "I think so, yes. I've been seeing a golden horse, never for long and I'm not sure if it's real but if it is, it's trapped somewhere to the East. I think it is dying. I wasn't going to say nothing because I wanted the focus to stay on getting your children back, not chasing after something that might all be in my head." He looks at his friends, "Sorry guys, I was going to tell you, when I was sure if I was dreaming it all or not. It doesn't change anything though, we are still going to the East, still going to save the kids. Just maybe we will find some... I don't know, horse spirit or god or whatever too. If we save it, I reckon it might be pretty grateful to us. Maybe it could get us back home."

Perhaps wanting to be helpful, Eyepatch offers up "I can read, and write, and see without being seen."
With a shrug, he goes on, "not to good at flying, though."

Zeke gave Cole a nod, "We seen weirder shit already, ain't we. Gold horse might not be that strange friend. Let's get the kids, then we can look around for your horse. Less we happen on it first., yeah?"

Joran places a massive hand upon Cole's shoulder.  We all have secrets of one kind or another, the ogre rumbles comfortingly.  Except me.  I am pretty much an open book.  I have not done anything, yet, that I am worried about anyone knowing.
He looks to the others.  I am not a pilot.  I barely kept that thing from a worse crash.

"Their land is surrounded by vast, rocky mountains," says the chief. "They are nestled within the the range above the cave system I escaped through. Our boats does not sale on the ocean surface, no one dares do this, for fear of the sea monsters within. It does however fly such as the boat you arrived here on with Agrus."

Meanwhile, the warthog begins to convulse and foam at the mouth. It makes no move resembling consciousness. It is essentially a vegetable.

"One of ours, if they are willing, could steer the boat to the enemy island. The cave is well hidden, and they could await your return."


GM: To sum up - The bad guy island is lots of rocky mountains. The warthog is alive but brain dead. If one of you can pilot you could feasibly use the warthog to active the ship and try and fly it.

The other option is to use the native boat and float across closer to the ocean surface to remain under cover.

What do you do?

Joran looks thoughtfully for a few moment, then appears to have an idea.Perhaps we can do both.  Have a group go in through the mountain, and, when they are ready to rescue the hostages, they call the other group.  The second group goes in with the warthog airship to create a distraction while the first team get out.

"Island. Sea monsters. Mountainous terrain. Cave system below. You fly, too; this is normal tech. If the ship is hover-tech or controls like a robot, I can drive it. Otherwise, someone else will have to take the wheel." Chaplain nodded at the chieftain. "An extraction team waiting to cover us and expedite the retreat would be very helpful, because we might be hot as hell leaving, with an army at our backs. Make sure your team is brave and resourceful, capable of hurrying up just to wait, and getting food and water in hard lands quietly."

"This...golden horse. If it can get us out of here, then we have another incentive to go. I'm just hoping it will be working for us instead of them, and that we can do what we are going to do first." He thought a moment. "It's unlikely, but do they make demands in exchange for a return of the abducted, like a ransom? You might be able to make grounds communicating with your enemy, or at the very least, you could lower their guard further by making them think you are begging. A contemptuous enemy is a vulnerable one."

"And do we have a time limit, either for them or this golden horse?"

Cole responded to Joran first, nodding his head to his friend and placing his hand on top of his. He gave it a squeeze then released it, indicating that his friend should release his shoulder. Cole could only handle so much displays of bro affection.

"I can't say I'm excited about the idea of splitting up. Could be useful sure but could also be a great way to get our assess kicked too. Lets take them up on their offer to pilot one of their flying magic boats for us to get us there. Once we get there and see what there is to see, we can think about if we should stick together or try something fancy and split up." Then he snorts, "Or still try something fancy and not split up. I reckon with a whole mountain of hogs versus just us, we are going to have to do something fancy to even the odds."

He then looks at Wolf. "Pretty sure it doesn't work for them. It looked more like a prisoner. Sick too, like it doesn't have too long left. It didn't say no words but it seemed to me that if we could just free it, it would get back on its feet. It was in a cave, some kind of jail with bars and all. Maybe we will get lucky and it and the children will be near each other."

"Truthfully, I do not know if they will except some kind of bargain or trade. When I was taken my people did not have you all. In all likelihood, the torture has already begun, though."

He looks at Cole for a long time. "I told you about the story of the golden horse. It is a children's story meant to lull them to sleep. But sometimes old fools like myself forget that deep truths are to be found in the songs and games of the young. The story says that the horse sleep soundly, and can be awakened when children are good. "The horse doth sleep / but wakes when the child makes her parents smile."

GM: What do you do?

"So, 'no' to the idea of demands being made or delaying them with talks." Chaplain shook his head. "Stupid, though. They have something to prove to their prisoners. That does make the time limit short, though, if they are careless with the torture. When we rescue them, they will likely be exhausted and hurt, and we will need to account for that."

He shut his eyes, only for a moment to clear his thoughts.

"We should be in a supervisory role here. If your people come along, they answer to us, and I hope they are disciplined, because our lives will depend on them." He focused on the next question. "Tell me everything you can about the enemy we are facing. What they can do, what they like to do, what weapons they did not use that you know of, and how many of them are worth how many of you in a fight, and vice versa. How tough do you think they are? Be honest. It will help us kill them better."

"There were many of them, ruled over by a violent warlord. I would estimate that there are around two hundred of them in their stronghold. They are not very intelligent, and I suspect that they inbreed heavily. They fortify their stronghold with catapult weapons, but I do not recall weapons much beyond their blades."

A few young warriors volunteer for the rescue mission. The village cannot spare any more as much work is needed to take care of the wounded.

GM: What do you do?

Cade jumped down from aboard the pig ship where she'd been trying to coax it into some sort of cooperation and had been unsuccessful.

She then gave the hull a particularly vicious kick since she was both genuinely annoyed at the craft and fully possessed of the knowledge that she was actually communicating those frustrations and not just making herself feel better.

"Which way is this place?"  Cade asked, pantomiming as well to ensure she was understood.

Once she had a direction she started off.

"I'm going to go kill shit so we can get on with going after the lizard."  Cade announced as she headed off into the woods.

"You still have to protect your people, I get it" Cole says when the chief explains that only a few of his warriors will be able to go with them. "That should be enough help, giving us a ride there and back, plus guarding the boat while we go rescue everyone, yah," he says, nodding his head, "that should be enough."

Cade!  You can not walk there.  We have to go by boat, he rumbles loudly as the caninoid woman walks away.

"I'll figure it out!"  She yelled back.

"Your warriors will be enough." Chaplain spoke to the volunteers. "If the boat is discovered in our absence, move it, and relocate. Stay alive, but stay nearby. We will need it, and so will your people."

He did a quick count. "Outnumbered over twenty-five to one, and by your best count-"

He called out to Cade, noting Joran's contribution. "Joran's right. I need that bloodlust of yours tense for when we get there and we have to kill quietly. Don't slake it on some animal. I would like you to come with us, unless you plan on swimming their across 'sea monster infested waters' if our chieftain informed us correctly."

He returned to the topic at hand. "Outnumbering us by that much, if they have any leadership capable of keeping order, they could throw themselves at us en masse and win. To attack them with seven people would require the leader of such a unit to be out of their mind. Luckily for you, the death of one of mine has driven me crazy." Chaplain was going for his last piece of information. "Tell me what you know about this warlord."

Cole briefly laid a hand on Joran's shoulder, "Even mad as she is, I don't think she is fixing too dog paddle the whole way there," he says to the big man.

Looking at his remaining friends, the man in the stetson asks, "Anyone need fresh e-clips? We all set as far as gear?" He looks at Joran, "How about you?"he taps the side of his head, "you got enough juice left in you or do you need a break?"

Cole's words would make people think he isn't in a hurry but they'd be wrong. He wants to save the children and yes, the golden horse, as soon as he can. "But going off half cocked and getting dead won't do anyone any good," he thinks to himself. While waiting for replies, he feels a release of energy and then a large silver and wood wardrobe appears out of thin air. Opening it reveals dozens of short e-clips, a railgun, ammo and other odds and ends. He places the two spent long e-clips in one of the drawers and selects eight of the short e-clips, securing them on his person.

OOC
In case anyone forgot, we collected 75 short e-clips during our first mission. We tried to sell them in town but no one was buying. I figured stashing them in Cole's handy dimensional closet was a good place for them.

What I have used, Joran rumbles as he taps his temple, I will regain between now and then.  However, I do not have an energy weapon.  I have a grenade launcher with a finite amount of grenades, and no apparent way to get more.

Eyepatch begins calmly walking after the caninoid, muttering, "she's right, stupid lizard wizard has that damned thing, gotta find it."

Cole smiles at his taller friend and jerks a thumb at the wardrobe. "I got you buddy," he says and walks the few steps to the portable closet. He reaches in and lifts out the railgun, its make and model clearly stamped into the mega-damage metal of its frame 'NG-303'. He turns and hold it out to Joran. "This should take care of that problem right nicely. I've got," he slaps the ammo drum already slotted in the weapon, "five more full drums for a total of 1200 rounds. Even firing 10 rounds at a time, that's a good 120 bursts before you'd be empty. I only got one set of hands and I still have plenty of e-clips for my rifle so its all yours for this little trip if you want it."

"I am sorry," says the chief, "but I know nothing of their new warlord. I assume he is new because the last one was quite old when I was taken. He is likely charismatic, and very intimidating, at least to the other warthogs. I have told you all I can. I must depart now, and see to my people. I will say that I remember the warthogs not being the best strategists. They use brute force. If you can devise a plan that outwits them, then the numbers may not matter. I recall arriving to the port where there ships lie. Be on your guard as there as there are many that keep watch."

With that, the chief departs and begins seeing to his people.

The three warriors, two female and one male, step forward and nod their heads, awaiting instructions.

Meanwhile, Cade stalks away, her lizard pet growling at the others as Cade tromps away. When in the forest, the creature begins to growl even more and stare off to the east, where the warthogs came from. Cade can feel her (how she figured out the creature is a girl, she doesn't know) grow to about the size of a large rat. The creature leaps off her shoulder and barks, hisses, and growls at her as though trying to communicate something. She barks and nods back toward the group, and then to the east in the direction of the warthog island. She then grows to about the size of a horse. Cade intuits that her new pet is saying something like, "Get your ass back there and go with your comrades. I want to kill more of the hogs!"

She then shrinks back down to size and scampers up to her dog boy's shoulder once again.

GM: So are you guys taking the native boat or the airship?

What do you do?
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:45, Sun 04 Oct 2020.

Cade gave the creature a look, double checked the direction it was growling in that seemed to be the one she was headed, and then kept going.

"They'll catch up."  She idly commented as she picked up the pace and began to sprint.  "We'll be there by the time Wolf gets done asking his thousand questions."

"They have a hunt. We'll make due." Chaplain sighed. "We will settle then, for what we know and what we have, which is more than we did. No real knowledge on the warlord, just a hope that he has more fire than experience. We will be outnumbered by forty to one if this place goes hot. Just as dangerous, really. After twenty to one, the numbers don't really matter."

He was speaking as much to the volunteers as to everyone else.

"We take their ship, and we fly in, and we imitate them as much as we can while doing it. We won't survive a second glance, but we might survive a once-over. We go in quiet, find that cave, and sneak right up their rear ends." Chaplain started playing with one of his knives, his mind turning as he turned the knife. "Primary objective, extract hostages. Secondary objectives, damage pursuit and counterattack capabilities. This means sabotaging vehicles and antiaircraft capabilities, as well as whatever they use to keep these things in the air. Tertiary objectives, as targets of opportunity, kill their officers, champions, and leaders. Without them, the rest are rampaging sheep and thugs - dangerous, but without a head or a tail, be they two hundred or two thousand, nothing more than a mob, easily dispersed by an organized force of any size."

"Our golden horse counts as a primary objective, from the sounds of things. Save the rail gun or the grenades for when we go hot, and try to go hot in a way that doesn't harm the primary." He put the knife up. "I'm ready if you are, unless there is more to consider."

Cole waits until Joran takes the railgun or doesn't, then puts anything not taken back in the wardrobe. A second after her closes the doors, the thing vanishes like it had never been there.

He only had one thing to add to Wolf's plan, good as it seemed to be. "We shouldn't count on that weird airship of their take get us there and back. It sure would be nice to have a backup," he jerks a thumb in the direction of where the blues keep their magical flying boats. "Especially if the damn thing goes and completely breaks on us half way there. From what the chief said, we don't want to go swimming if'n we can avoid it."

What Cole didn't say was that he was glad Wolf felt that rescuing the golden horse was important too. He didn't know why, hell he still wasn't sure he was just having dreams but finding that horse sure seemed important. Like it was destiny or something.

He reached into his pocket and grasped the figurine the boy had made him, and gave it a small squeeze. It had become like a talisman to him and having it in his hand somehow gave him strength. He would find the boy and bring him back alive or by all the gods, he would find and collect the heads of the ones that had killed him.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:47, Sun 04 Oct 2020.

Off towards the sea he jogs, trying to keep up with the she-dog and her little friend. He kept thinking 'she had to have heard that there was an ocean in her way, but acted as if it weren't an issue. What does she know that no one else knows? What would she do? What's the secret?'
Secrets fascinated him, with a call he couldn't help but answer. A call that was almost overwhelming at this moment, when even his own name remained secreted away.
When she marched out of sight, easily outpacing him, he continued doggedly on in the direction she left.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:08, Sun 04 Oct 2020.

Nathaniel appears in his shorts and T-Shirt while his 'brothers' float around, "We could go scout if you guys want. Don't need a boat, I think, in order to do that...."

One of the warriors steps forward and clears her throat respectfully. "According to the map our chief made, the cave entrance is toward the bottom  of the hog island. We can go in under cover and make our way up to the surface. They will never even know we are there."

Meanwhile, Eyepatch follows Cade to the eastern "shore" of the floating island. He pauses, weaves a moment, and then continues.

Nathaniel goes laser light and scouts out the enemy island. He finds a rocky place with a stronghold nestled into the mountains. There is indeed a docking area near the floating coastline, with manned watchtowers. Sentry airships also patrol the docking area.


GM: The entrance to the cave system is at the bottom of the floating island. Think of the islands as shaped like a spinning top. The bottom half extends down to a point. Make sense?

Cade and Eyepatch - Just so I can make sense of your location, are you headed to the eastern shore to wait for the others to join you? They may be taking the airship, which is currently at their location. They could pick you up, though.

What do you do?

"Sounds like a good idea," Cole says, tipping his hat to the blue skinned woman warrior. He then looks at Wolf, "Lets get going. We'll stop by the shore, pickup Cade and Eyepatch, whether they had the good sense to wait on the beach or start dog paddling, then go in low for hog island. We see what there is to see, then we can make a better plan for how to rescue everyone and maybe give them so much grief, they never, ever think of messing with these people again."

Cade paused at the "shore" and had a look.

She was looking to see what there was to see.  If the island the pigs came from was close enough to be visible to her keen eyes, or somewhere far enough away to be over whatever passed for a horizon in this place.

The comatose warthog is dragged into the airship by the young warriors, and his hand is placed in the bio-control. There is a suction sound as the organic material closes around his hand. The ship hums to life.

It would appear the ship doesn't need the thing conscious to be piloted, just alive.

The young warriors grin.

GM: OK, who is flying? And don't forget to pick up Cade and Eyepatch!

As he catches up with Cade, a feat possible only because she stopped, he doesn't bother to hide his presence. "Did you feel that?" he asks, "like something on that island is trying to pull something to it. Is that why you rushed to the shore?"
"I was hoping you had some form of transport. We've got to catch that scaly thing and get everything back!"

OOC: Depends on what the vehicle counts as. I can drive it if it is either hovercraft or if the controls are directly comparable to power armor or a piloted robot.

Now that the ship was ready to depart, he spoke. "Let me know if there is a area we can dock at where we will not be seen. Until their leadership is diminished, we do not want to engage them in a stand-up fight on their own turf. To recap -"

Chaplain was walking up to the controls of the ship. "We arrive, we sneak in, we get hostages and other prisoners out. We cripple pursuit, artillery, snipers, champions and leadership as needed to escape later, advance immediately, or just as we can, but we stay cold for as long as we can. While the enemy is unsuspecting or in disarray, however things go, we leave, on the ship that the rest of you loyally kept ready for us."

"I couldn't ask for a better crew or squad. Let's do this." At that point, he got a look at the controls, to discover firsthand if he could, in fact, do this.

Joran head back to the hut the tribe had set up for him, collecting his weapons and repaired armor.  The Branaghan environmental armor had been repaired using a sap from the local trees that has been dyed to match the coloring of his armor closely enough, with tribal drawings added to decorate it; drawings that tell the story of their arrival.  The Branaghan duster had been replaced by one of a similar design woven from plant fibers; it, too, has been decorated, but with recently done drawings telling the story of the battle against the warthogs while they had been in conversation with the chief.
Once he has his armor on, finding himself happy with the fit, he collects his weapons.  Including the railgun handed to him by Cole.  Soon, he is prepped and ready to go heading for the warthog ship.  He climbs aboard, running a hand along the gunwale, trying to get a feel for the ship.

Our heroes depart, picking up Eyepatch and Cade on the way out. The warriors take their native boat and lead the way, since they understand the seas a bit better. Joran easily pilots the airship using his abilities. The airship is a strange organism that lacks thought, but is strangely present. Nevertheless, he is able to interface with it and fly.

The seas below writhe with massive, dark menaces, indicating giant sea monster below the surface. The warrior boat dips lower as the enemy island comes into view. Sailing low, they go to the bottom point of the rocky spire underneath the island, and locate the cave entrance.

GM: The cave entrance has a ledge, so you can "park" both ships and head into the cave system. Do you take the warriors with you r have them stay?

Cade - Trip took an hour.

What do you do?

"Remain behind. Keep the ship out of sight, and get ready for us to leave, cold or hot." Chaplain did a mental check, and kept all his weapons away for now.

He casually flipped the various error messages his onboard computer was giving him off again. Since the repair job, it had been telling him the systems were both compromised and nominal at the same time. They also apparently had no new data to provide him with.

He moved in the cavern, keeping an eye open. Old data suggested these areas were a blind spot, but only a fool failed to respect an enemy's resourcefulness. If they tracked escaped slaves to here, they might have set up something.

His artificial vision was still something to get used to, but he was adjusting quickly, and the hearing was absolutely stellar. Hell in a gunfight, though.

OOC: 22:43, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 13 using 1d20.  JIC Perception
22:44, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 31 using 1d100.  JIC Detect Ambush - TN 65.
22:44, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 7 using 1d100.  JIC Detect Concealment - TN 60.
22:44, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 53 using 1d100.  JIC Prowl - TN 33.
22:45, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 73 using 1d100.  JIC Camouflage - TN 70.

Heavy Armor is hard to sneak in. -20% penalty is hard to overcome. I'd have passed without that. Also, apparently I've neglected my "move in a way that my unit is concealed on the go" rolls. Let's hope these aren't needed.

Cole figured there wouldn't be much to see on the long flight over. Not much he would want to see at any rate, so he reckoned the best thing he could do with the time was to rest up and make sure that when his friends and the captives needed him, he would be ready. He stretched out, put his hat over his eyes, and slowed his breathing down to a crawl.

When the flight was over, he tipped his hat back to its proper place on his head as he stood up. He gave his gear one more check before hopping off the captured hog airship. He was glad Wolf had told the blues to stay behind with the ships. Best way to make sure their rides would still be here when they needed them.

As the team moved out, he slung his rifle and drew one of his pistols. He was actually a better shot with a pistol and besides, small area like a cave wouldn't be the best place to try swinging a rifle around. His eyes still saw right through darkness though something told him that wouldn't last much longer. He'd spend the energy again when he needed to though. For now it was working and he used it to check for anyone r anything that might be a problem.

OOC
Perfect night vision, See Aura and See the Invisible for the next ten minutes, then I will have to spend more PPE

Cole rolled 27 using 1d100. Prowl. - Success!

Cole rolled 50 using 1d100.  Detect Concealment - Success!.

Cole rolled 83 using 1d100.  Detect Ambush - Fail!.

Cole rolled 20 using 1d20.  JIC Save - Frack you too dice roller!.

Cole rolled 5 using 1d20.  JIC Perception - Pants!.

Cole rolled 77 using 1d100.  JIC Skill Check

On the voyage over, Joran had decided to sing, a  series of songs that came to mind suddenly.  Songs he had heard when he was travelling with Lewis DiBono, from the time before the Rifts.  A capella, his basso profundo voice actually did the songs justice, and, though he did not sing loudly, it travelled across the ship to be heard by everyone on the deck.
First:
Jump back, what's that sound
Here she comes, full blast and top down
Hot shoe, burnin' down the avenue
Model citizen zero discipline

Don't you know she's coming home with me?
You'l lose her in the turn
I'll get her!

Panama, Panama
Panama, Panama

Ain't nothin' like it, her shiny machine
Got the feel for the wheel, keep the moving parts clean
Hot shoe, burnin' down the avenue
Got an on-ramp comin' through my bedroom

Don't you know she's coming home with me?
You'll lose her in the turn
I'll get her!

Panama, Panama
Panama, Panama

Yeah, we're runnin' a little bit hot tonight
I can barely see the road from the heat comin' off of it
Ah, you reach down, between my legs
Ease the seat back

She's blinding, I'm flying
Right behind the rear-view mirror now
Got the feeling, power steering
Pistons popping, ain't no stopping now

Panama, Panama
Panama, Panama


Second:
I get up and nothin' gets me down
You got it tough, I've seen the toughest around
And I know, baby, just how you feel
You got to roll with the punches and get to what's real

Ah, can't you see me standin' here
I got my back against the record machine
I ain't the worst that you've seen
Ah, can't you see what I mean?

Ah, might as well jump (jump)
Might as well jump
Go ahead and jump (jump)
Go ahead and jump
Ow, oh, hey, you
Who said that?
Baby, how you been?
You say you don't know
You won't know until you begin

So can't ya see me standing here
I got my back against the record machine
I ain't the worst that you've seen
Ah, can't you see what I mean?

Ah, might as well jump (jump)
Go ahead and jump
Might as well jump (jump)
Go ahead and jump
Jump

Might as well jump (jump)
Go ahead and jump
Get it in, jump (jump)
Go ahead and jump

Jump
Jump
Jump
Jump


Third:
Yeah, yeah, ah, yeah
I live my life like there's no tomorrow
And all I've got, I had to steal
Least I don't need to beg or borrow
Yes I'm livin' at a pace that kills

Ooh, yeah
(Ahh)
Runnin' with the devil
(Ahh-hah, yeah)
(Woo-hoo-oo)
Runnin' with the devil
Yes I'm, yeah, hoo

Ooh, you know I
I found the simple life ain't so simple
When I jumped out, on that road
I got no love, no love you'd call real
Ain't got nobody, waitin' at home

Runnin' with the devil
(Hold on, hold on I'm runnin' ah yeah)
Runnin' with the devil
(Ooh ooh, one more time)

Runnin' with the devil
(Oh, yeah, ya-yeah)
Runnin' with the devil
(Woo, woo)
Runnin' with the devil
(I'll tell you about it)

I found the simple life, it's so simple
When I jumped out, on that road
I got no love, no love you'd call real
Ain't got nobody, waitin' at home

Runnin' with the devil
(Oh, yeah)
Runnin' with the devil
(Ah-ha, yeah, ah-ha, yeah, ah-hah, yeah)
Runnin' with the devil


When he is done, he reaches up with his free hand to wipe away a single tear from each eye.  I wush you all could have heard thosesongs as I heard them in my head.  The original guitarist was a genius, made me wish that my fingers were not to thick to shred like he could.  Even though, I know I could never be that masterful.  He had this guitar solo called Eruption that lived up to its title and could just blow you away.
He gives a small smile.  The man who saved me when I first came to Earth told me about a... concert that he and his then wife went to see, at a place called the KFC Yumm Center, in Louisville, Ky, where the city of Nostrous now stands in the Federation of Magic.  Years before the apocalypse, he said, this band, Van Halen had been "rockin' it" for more than thirty years.  He said they had seats in what he called "The Nosebleeds", where it felt like they were climbing a mountain without ropes and gear just to get to their seats.
Part of their view of the screen behind the band was blocked by a lighting bar, but their view of the stage was clear because of how steep the seats were set, despite needing binoculars.  He told me many people in their forties and fifties were dressed like they were teenagers again, and it was comical seeing that.
The opening act was a group called Kool and the Gang, a band of black men singing what Lewis called 70's Funk.  It was nit what the crowd had come to hear, but the band had been very popular right before Van Halen began, and he said the crowd loved it and was singing along.  They got the crowd energized, he said, and they went wild when Van Halen came out.  I got to listen to recordings of the music he heard from that show, and I can understand why both bands had been so popular for so long.  He and his wife at the time had really enjoyed that show, he said.
He told me that the guitarist, Eddie Van Halen, had been one of the greats, alongside the likes Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, who some claim was a god.  And, he said that when Eddie Van Halen died, so did a little bit of the music in the world, just as it had with other great singers, songwriters, and musicians, like Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, James Brown, David Bowie, Luciano Pavarotti, Liberace, and many more.  All were Days the Music Died.  "Bye, bye, Miss American Pie," he had said.
The ogre then falls into a thoughtful melancholy for the rest of the trip.
When they dock, he takes up his weapons once more and follows his companions from the ship.  His pack he leaves aboard, but he carries additional drums for the railgun in a duffelbag he has slung over his shoulder.


R.I.P. Eddie Van Halen.  Your work will be cherished forever.  That opener for their 2012 tour really was awesome.  Felt the need to do a memorial.

19:15, Today: Joran rolled 14 using 1d100.  Singing @ 80%

13:29, Today: Joran rolled 17 using 1d100.  Just in Case Skill.

13:29, Today: Joran rolled 14 using 1d20.  Just in Case Save.

13:29, Today: Joran rolled 11 using 1d20+3.  Just in Case Perception. –

This message was last edited by the player at 23:16, Wed 07 Oct 2020.

The man with one eye scratches absently at patch opposite his good eye, and moves along with the others. His name has escaped his grasp, but he remembers how to walk softly and keep his head on a swivel. His surprise at this memory distracts him, and he isn't as quiet as he could be.

OOC
Eyepatch rolled 64 using 1d100.  prowl barely missed
Eyepatch rolled 57 using 1d100.  detect ambush barely missed
Eyepatch rolled 83 using 1d100.  detect concealment  no good
Eyepatch rolled 20 using 1d20.  JIC save nope, nothing yet
Eyepatch rolled 3 using 1d20.  JIC perception really?
Eyepatch rolled 99 using 1d100.  JIC skill check, yep, really.

Nathaniel is back in his armor with his long range railgun, even if it doesn't pack as much punch as he would like. His brothers are bobbing bubbles of light that take up flanking positions and exude light in the more infra-red spectrum, nearly becoming invisible against the sky.

"And on we go...."

17:47, Today: Nathaniel rolled 53,8,12 using 1d100,1d20+2,1d20.  Skil, Per, Save.

Cade spent the boat ride over napping and didn't let a little thing like a belting ogre disturb such an important activity.

Once at pig island she disembarked and headed into the cave with everyone else.

Zeke gave Joran a nod, "Maybe, as crazy as things are, we can find some recordings of this guitar man when we get back to earth. I'll keep an eye out."

Joran smiles at the thought of Ezekiel finding recordings of the musician.  Then he suddenly stops, a look of surprise shifting his facial features with the ferocity of a tornado.  Then the smile slowly returns.
That was a memory!  That was a lot of a memory!  I just got a memory back!
As the continue on, even attempting to be quieter, he still has that lopsided smile on his face, pleased by the surfacing of a memory.

20:08, Today: Joran rolled 36 using 1d100.  Prowl at 15% with armor penalties.

The young warriors nod their heads solemnly with the rhythm of Joran's song. Some music transcend time and space.

Our heroes step into the cave system, the warriors remaining behind to watch the crafts if that is what they are ordered to do.

Some move quietly, others stumble, but it is not their fault. The rock floor is jagged and slippery. There are skittering, chitterng sounds as things scramble away from our heroes. There are crooks and crannies where multi-legged things scamper away just before coming into full view.

Cole feels himself pulled along like metal to a magnet. The group soon find themselves deep within the cave system. They are not on an incline, and they get the feeling they are not yet ascending.

They find themselves at a gap in the path. Below the gap is a pool of dark, roiling water. The gap is around fifteen feet. There are spiky rocks on the walls and ceiling.

GM: Bonus XP for Joran's rad song.

What do you do?
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:55, Fri 09 Oct 2020.

After a few moments of looking at the opening in the rocky floor, Joran shrugs, and glances at everyone around him, each in turn.
Might as well Jump, he rumbles lyrically.  He then spreads out his arms a bit to get everyone to.make some room, before taking a running leap to the other side.  His immense ogrish strength carries him across the opening and he lands solidly on the other side.  He turns back to his companions.
See?  No worries.

Cade made sure to give Joran plenty of room when he asked for it.

She then stood back and waited for everyone to make their way over the jump.

Cole too had given the big man some room to move when Joran made his leap across the deep pit. "Not bad", he said to his friend from his side of the gap.

Cole put a hand on his hat and from a stand still, leapt over the gap to stand near Joran. He grins up at his friend, saying "we lighter folk don't need as much room to get going."

Chaplain just took a quick glance, and observed Joran and Cole going over. He pointed to Ezekiel. "We can fly, and I have little doubt Cade can get over this. How about you, Eyepatch? You got this, or you need help?"

Chaplain had determined his negative reaction to Eyepatch was him being raw about the death of the only other person who had been wearing armor like his. He figured getting over it was in their best interests, at least until they were out of danger.

Guido and Nuncio float into the gap that the others are jumping over. They stand ready to help, since they can naturally fly when they are not armored up...just not as quickly as when they are all shiny.

Nathaniel makes the jump easily with the robot strength afforded by his power armor.

"I don't remember this being here on our way out...."

Taking a moment to feel out the spiky rocks on the wall, the one-eyed man backs up from the gap and says to Wolf, "To tell you the truth, I don't know. But I think I know how to find out."
He runs at an angle towards the edge of the pit, then leaps outward to propel himself along the wall. His boots, however, start to slip and he scrabbles at the spiky projections in an effort to arrive on the other side.

And, if Eye-Patch falls, he lands on a hard but transparent surface that seems to be blocking the hole in the floor.  If anyone looks at him, Joran shrugs his massive shoulders with a smile.
It's a forcefield, and it will last just under an hour and a half.
What?  You did not think I would make sure everyone could make it across?
This message was last edited by the player at 01:28, Sat 10 Oct 2020.

As our heroes cross, something seems to catch Cole's attention down below in the water.


GM: What do you do?

Chaplain finished crossing, his reflexes having to calm down from jumping to save Eyepatch. His jets were cooling down - thankfully, they were still nearly full, with around fifty-five minutes of fuel left in them. When he finished crossing, he figured he had one more question in him.

"So," He was directing this at Ezekiel. "You want to tell us about these caves? You seem to have some recollection about this that I don't, and even an outdated recollection might offer some insights."

Cade walked across the gap nonchalantly thanks to Joran's improvised invisible bridge.

It was then onward to whatever light lay at the end of the tunnel.

Scratching absently at the patch on his eye, the one-eyed man says, "you'ld think I would've noticed that. It's like I'm walking around with one eye closed."

Cole cocks his head, as if listening for something. "Do you hear that, fellas?" He walks to the edge of the gap and looks over the side. He tips his hat up, as if that somehow improves his vision as he continues to peer over the side.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:55, Sun 11 Oct 2020.

If Nuncio and Guido can't see anything below the water, they can turn into flashlights. They can even dip into the water and turn on the lights below the water line so there is no reflection back up into the cave. They suggest as much to the rest of the team, but don't do so in case the others want to be overly cautious.

As our heroes walk across the force bridge they hear a silent sploosh below as Cole jumps of the bridge through a gap between field and rock, and disappears beneath the surface. Stunned silence from our heroes follows.

GM: Joran - I sort of assumed Cole could find a gap and jump in the water because it is rad that he did that. :-)

All - What do you do?

"I hope he can swim."  Cade commented at the noise as she continued walking deeper into, or perhaps on the route out of, the tunnel.

Chaplain's jump-jets glowed and then went dim again in the half-second it took for him to realize that Cole was deliberately diving down. "Tabarnak, Cole."

"We just crossed this, with the intention of avoiding doing that." He got ready to fish him out. "I hope this is worth it."

Zeke shook his head, "Just once, a plan going... well according to plan would be nice, wouldn't it?" he says as Cole dives down, "Do we wait, or keep moving?"

Guido and Nuncio takes a dip for themselves and ratchets up the 'brightness'. Amazing how water is not wet when you just refract through it. They attempt to follow Cole.

Nathaniel says, "You can lead a Cole to water, but you can't make him drink....figure Cole is a bit eccentric when it comes to horses and it's not like we have a time limit here. Give him a minute."

Our heroes wait for several minutes after their comrade jumps into the dark water below. He does not return. On the other side of the gap, they notice that the trail begins to trend upward. Perhaps their friend knew what he was doing when he jumped in. Can they stand to detour while even now the warthogs have the captives?

GM: What do you do?
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:40, Mon 12 Oct 2020.

When everybody stopped to gawk at the water, Cade reluctantly paused for about a minute.

She then gave up waiting and kept going onward and upwards.

Chaplain growled. "We don't have time for this. If he didn't explain himself, he doesn't need our help. He can take care of himself - the hostages cannot. Our time limit is the mental trauma of those we are rescuing and the cruelty of their captors. The longer we take, the more likely they will take a hit that cannot be healed, or just be killed for sport."

He moved after Cade. "The trail's going up. I'll move with whoever is with me."

He had started this following Cade, and it hadn't failed him, yet. Eyepatch continues following.

If Nuncio and Guido can't light up the waters and 'see' where they are going, they will head up to the surface of the water and report such. Nathaniel is reluctant to leave Cole to whatever end he might have, but he heads up with the others and his two clones follow.

Our heroes reluctantly leave Cole to wherever he has gone, trusting to their instincts that their comrade knows what he is doing, and continue upward.

The dark cavern twists and turns upward. The group emerge into another spacious chamber filled with strange webs that look like glass.

"Yesssssssssssssss...." hisses something in the darkness.

GM: Fresh JIC rolls please!

What do you do?
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:03, Tue 13 Oct 2020.

Cade looked to see what made the noise, since darkness didn't afford her prey the concealment it might otherwise have been used to.

"We don't have time to deal with you so just fuck off if you want to live to eat the next sorry asshole who finds themselves wandering around down here."  She informed it.

She hadn't sensed it was about to attack so Cade decided to give it fair warning as she just didn't want to have to deal with it if it wasn't strictly necessary.

Cade rolled 13,10,43 using 1d20,1d20,1d100


Cade will activate sense evil as well since she knows things are about and it might be useful.

Slowly moving to one side, Eyepatch calmly readies his laser while attempting to spot who (or what) ever is here.

skill	roll	result
prowl	12	success
detect ambush	18	success
detect concealment	44	success
save	5	?
perception	3	?
JIC skill	19	?

Chaplain figured it would either attack him first and he'd be forced to fight it hand-to-hand, or it would attack someone else and he'd have time to draw an appropriate weapon for cave fighting. With that in mind, his right hand did drift near the laser sword hilt almost of its own accord, as he gestured to it with his bionic left.

"Our intel didn't indicate these tunnels were occupied. You've hidden yourself well, for someone who seems pleased to have company. Name's Chaplain, and these are my friends. What's your relationship with the...boar people above?" He still wasn't sure what to call them. Of all things, he had never given his enemy a name.

OOC: 00:15, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 18 using 1d20.  JIC Save.
00:15, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 21 using 1d100.  JIC Skill.
00:14, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 7 using 1d20.  JIC Perception.

Barring Perception, I'm feeling pretty optimistic about my chances. I guess it doesn't occur to me to flip to Infrared...or it doesn't quite register in an expected way, like an object or a cold-blooded creature.

Joran knew something was about to happen when Cole jumped into the water.  He did not know what, but he could feel the conflict within his friend suddenly resolve.  Something he had heard or seen had brought that resolution.
With a sigh, the ogre chooses not to follow, trusting in his friend's choice.  And hoping it is the right one.  Instead, he continues on with those following Cade, his eyes wandering about the walls, searching for dangers.
As they enter the cave and the voice is heard, the ogre stops in his tracks and begins scanning in earnest.  Somehow, he is picking up on the emotional states of those around him, feeling the adrenaline fueling and energizing those who produce it.  So, he focusses, trying to find the outlying emotional state....

Activating Empathy:  active detection of emotions.

02:23, Today: Joran rolled 4 using 1d20+3.  Active Perception.

02:22, Today: Joran rolled 89 using 1d100.  Just in Case Skill.

02:22, Today: Joran rolled 15 using 1d20.  Just in Case Save.

02:22, Today: Joran rolled 21 using 1d20+3.  Just in Case Perception. 

Nathaniel deals with mechanical things, so unless the being in here was mechanical, he was glad to let others do the talking and intimidating. He did, however, take a look around the cavern with his thermographic site. He was amazed to find that everything was a drab colorless mesh and completely consistent....that is until he looked at the front of the scope to see that the cover was still on it.



Private to GM: 20:24, Today: Nathaniel rolled 5,3,10 using 1d100,1d20+2,1d20.  JIC: Skill, Perception , Save.
--Natural 1 on perception....FTW!

The thing in the shadows chitters with laughter and menace as Cade and Wolf try their different approaches to dialogue. Our heroes sense evil and hatred coming from the creature that comes forward. It is a large, many legged, crystalline spider with baleful, pale eyes.

Chittering sounds come from all directions as crystalline minions begin to appear.

The queen quivers as needles appear around her body and she tenses to fire them at our heroes.

GM: What do you do?
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:48, Wed 14 Oct 2020.

"Alright." Chaplain decided to draw one of the Wilk's 237s, aimed, and fired into the eye closest to him. "We'll do it your way."

OOC: 22:33, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 26 using 1d20+12.  Aimed Called Shot to alpha monster's eye.
22:32, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 40 using 1d20+22.  Aimed Called Shot to alpha monster's eye - adding Initiative.
22:34, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 13 using 1d20+10.  JIC Parry.
22:34, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 21 using 1d20+4.  JIC Autododge.
22:35, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 21 using 6d6.  Double Blast damage.
22:35, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 23 using 6d6.  Double Blast damage.

His intention wasn't to blind it completely - he wanted to throw its aim off and antagonize the creature. He popped the claws in his bionic arm, but otherwise had every intention of playing it cool and shooting it when he could.

Cade flicked her armor on, then pulled a grenade from her harness and chucked it towards the spider.  "Stand clear!"  She shouted in warning as she began moving herself.

Cade did her best to circle around to get behind the beast, while avoiding it, the "webs", and the other smaller spiders.


Cade rolled 17.  Strike.
Cade rolled 22.  Damage (12ft area)

Cade rolled 22,28,31,31,20,31,13.  dodges

Nuncio flits forward, near the spider and away from his allies and turns into nova of light....twice before flitting back to his allies and gets out of dodge if he has to. As the smaller spiders appear Guido sends sizzling bursts of coherent photon beams at them until they are sizzling. Nathaniel points his gun at the spider, which is reflecting a lot of light and is now an easy target and opens up, but keeps enough concentration to move when he needs to.

Wolf's shots take the queen in the eyes, and while she flinches back in angry pain, the eyes remain intact.

Meanwhile, Cade's grenade explodes with a deafening blast. As the smoke clears, the minions and the queen continue forward, showing burn marks and cracks.

Cade's pet leaps forward, growing massive even as it rages toward the queen and leaps at her, growling and biting.

The queen throws bucks Cade's pet off, and then fires a strange liquid at the creature. The liquid quickly hardens and her pet is immobilized in a thick, solid webbing.

Nuncio and Nathaniel take out several spider minions damaged by Cade's blast. They have an outer shell of strange glass that cracks and exposes flesh, which then cooks as he fries them. The queen shrieks, enraged.

The queen tenses as her spikes vibrate and she spins as they fly out at anyone within 100 feet of her.

The spikes fly from her body with whistling sounds as they strike the armor of our heroes. Suddenly, those who can sense magic feel it coming from one of their own. Eyepatch, a spider spike protruding from his covered eye, weaves in place as his covered eye seems to spark, blood and steam pouring from it, and he falls to the ground, unconscious.

The spiders suddenly halt their attack and pause, as though listening to something. The spiders all quickly scamper back into the cracks, the queen cackling with laughter. The cave groans, and a loud, unsettling cracking sound emanates all around them. It would appear that Cade's grenade is bringing on a cave in.

GM: Cade - You gonna save your pet? Who is going to carry Eyepatch?

Everyone (except Nate and Nunio if they were not in human form) takes 22 MD to their main bodies.

What do you do?

Cade circled back around to where she began on account of the spiders having retreated.

Leaning down over Eyepatch she yanked the spike free and tossed it aside.  She gave him a sniff to confirm he wasn't dead then looked up at Joran and motioned towards Eyepatch.  "Grab him?"  She asked the ogre, though she didn't wait for an answer.

Instead she sprinted towards where her animal friend was encased in the spider "webbing" and powered herself into a slide tackle against the block of crystal.  Cade assume a blow towards the bottom would be the least likely to injure the creature if she managed to shatter its temporary cage, and worst case would break the whole crystalline apparatus free from the floor so she could push it along and make good on an exit.

Chaplain wasted as little time as possible. He moved next to Eyepatch, grabbed him up with one hand, exhaled, and fire his jumpjets up for a brief and body-wrenching experience to have them both clear the rubble. "Advance! To me!"

He didn't crash, at least, and the rough landing was one they could both walk away from. He set Eyepatch down with a crouch, one hand on him to keep him from potentially panicking and standing up in a dangerous area, and kept the pistol pointing about him, searching for potential hostiles. Secure area, stabilize Eyepatch.

Hopefully Joran and the others would clear the danger zone. Chaplain only had time to save one if no one else was capable of getting out. If Joran didn't get here within fifteen seconds or less, Chaplain would have to heal this man.

This felt like an oddly familiar situation, but he wasn't sure why.

OOC: 00:51, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 55 using 1d100.  Jetpack landing - base TN 62. Chaplain's strength is only 13 - he's stronger than a normal person, but not that strong. If this injured him a bit, I'll take the hit.

Zeke rushed forward, further up the cave, in the direction they were heading. THis was no time to get crushed to death, not that there was one. If he was behind Eyepatch or anyone else who needed assistance he would drag them or help them walk best he could. "Joran, this is probably your time to shine my friend."

Joran re-activates his forcefield, having dropped it as they left the opening in the floor, and uses it to put up an eighty foot-long protective tunnel leading to the exit.
<b>EVERYBODY RUN FOR IT!</b>  His voice rumbles like thunder as he bellows the suggestion to his friends.  He then unleashes three rapid bursts from the grenade rifle at the crack where the mother spider had disappeared, the second burst following straight behind the crystalline arachnid into the crevice where she had hidden.

19:31, Today: Joran rolled 13 using 1d20+4.  Dodge under the forcefield.

19:29, Today: Joran rolled 78,61,69 using 20d6,20d6,20d6.  MD to 40'.

19:28, Today: Joran rolled 7,21,6 using 1d20+3,1d20+3,1d20+3.  Grenade bursts.

Nathaniel heads over to Eyepatch and wolf, ready to assist with his mechanical strength. On the way he puts his rifle on its magnetic hook so he can use both hands. As necessary he picks up whomever needs to be picked up and takes them where they need to be taken as quickly as possible. Nuncio and Guido provide covering fire, literally, on anything that looks to big or might his somebody as they float along with Nathaniel.

The cave crumbles down around them as they dash to the other side, Joran's shields providing them safety from the falling rocks. Cade dashes along and frees her pet, who shrinks down and leaps into her satchel for safety.

Our heroes stand breating amidst the dust of the fallen rocks and gather their wits. Eyepatch begins to wake. The eyepatch is now gone, though, and a metallic, spherical object hangs from the hole. It some kind of electronic device that has been destroyed.

Eyepatch still doesn't have his memories, save one. His name.

GM: Eyepatch - What's your name, dude? You can insitinctively use your magic abilities, but you don't remember how you got them.

Yeah, Eyepatch can do magic. Player's idea and I thought it was rad.

All - What do you do?

Chaplain wastes no time making his priorities clear as he moves a hand from Eyepatch's chest, speaking as he visually sweeps the area. "Can you walk?"

He looked back to the rubble, without waiting for an answer. "We'll find another way out. Take one of their ships, or rappel down the side to our own if we must. Whatever it takes. We will not fail."

Reaching up to touch the sparking orb hanging from the eye socket behind the patch. The one-eyed man grumbles, "man, that was cold."
Using his combat knife, he worries at the wires till he removes the dangling orb so he can get a good look at it. "It's like a hidden set of shackles."
With a grimace, he puts the device in his pocket and rearranges his eye patch over the hole.

You know what the poem says about the best laid plans of mice and men, Joran rumbles.  He turns to Eye-Patch.  Is the damage in your eye socket bad?  I see some blood.

Our heroes begin to make their way up the cave path, which twists and winds for what seems an endless amount of time. Soon, the group starts to feel a mild breeze coming from somewhere up ahead.

GM: What do you do?

Cade prowled forward so she could listen and smell as to what might be at the mouth of the tunnel, but stayed far enough back so she couldn't be seen.

Cade scouts ahead and begins to hear the sounds of the sea. Coming up to the mouth of the cave she sees, just beyond some rocky hills, the perimeter of a fortress.

GM: What do you do?

Cade sits and watches.

She looks for visible ways in and out, whether they have pigs making watch, etc.

The boys hold back, not wanting to silhouette any of their friends with their brightness. In fact, they stay a couple of turns back until somebody tells them to move.

Chaplain slowly moves up, wanting to secure a visual on the area himself.

OOC: 17:23, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 56 using 1d100.  Camouflage to find the best route one could remain hidden along based on known outposts. TN 70.
17:22, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 78 using 1d100.  Detect Concealment to find good hidden positions. TN 60.
17:22, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 92 using 1d100.  Detect Ambush to see kill zones and sentry sites. TN 65.
17:21, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 23 using 1d100.  Intelligence; anything that would be good to know. TN 62.
17:21, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 92 using 1d100.  Electronic Countermeasures to see if the terrain would interfere. TN 80.

So, good on hiding ourselves as a squad and on intel, bad on recognizing anything else I considered valuable. If successes or failures change any of my other rolls, well...these are the base results.

"Bout go time folks, everyone make sure you're locked and loaded. Get your heads straight. We got a job to do, let's get it done. See if the scouts can tell anything, then we kill them, save the prisoners."

Our heroes creep out of the cave system and blend into the darkness as well as they can. Wolf suspects that there are likely sewer systems at the base of the fortress walls. Cade confirms this is true because she can smell piss and shit on the wind.

GM: What do you do?

"Even if we can get in through the sewers, we're likely to be fairly exposed on our way to the wall. We could set fire to some trees, if there were trees."
"On a personal note, I remember my name. Get this. I'm John St. John-Smythe."
"Finally pull my name from the void and it's freakin' John Smith."
He limbers his laser pistol and tucks a wayward wire back into his eyepatch. "Plus I can only make myself invisible, the rest of you will stand out like dandruff on black spandex."

Cade stayed where she was and looked for other options.  Going through sewers was not high on the list of preferences.

Instead she looked at the wall to see how difficult it would be to get over, how many pigs they'd have to deal with to do so without raising an alarm, and whether circling towards whatever lay to the sides or rear might yield other options.

Chaplain wrinkles a nose as he considers his method of insertion, and looks over to...

"John, huh?" That name was definitely hitting some bells in his mind, too. Something forbidden, the vampire's bane, the fire, the heart in thorns...strange memories.

"Well, John, how quiet do you think you are? The only way I'm seeing past those sentries is through their sewage, and I'd rather not any of us do that. Our likely injured hostages or ourselves might catch something nasty that will kill after the mission. We need a cleaner insertion and extraction if one exists." He popped his helmet up and grinned. "Although all that methane and ammonia could make one hell of a distraction or cover, given proper application. But we have to get the hostages out first. Fire and chemical weapons do as they please, and they are chaos - favors us right now, just because we are a smaller target, but neither friend nor foe in the end."

Our heroes spy the sewer drain, and see that the bars are rusty and could be easily torn out. The fortress walls are made from stone, with spots that could work as handholds pocketing the surface. Those could be good for climbing.

GM: What do you do?

Chaplain's telescopic vision was still making out the handholds, and scanning the walls. "We need some places where sentries will not see or hear us going over those walls. For our way out, we will need to steal one of their ships, and rendezvous with our allies waiting back at the entrance. They don't know we cannot return that way."

His mind tried to mentally create the path back down to the ship below. The caverns were cut off, but they still had options. "So, we get over that wall, we secure a ship, take out any pursuit or ack-ack op...antiaircraft options, get our hostages out. The plan is unchanged, save for the addition of a meet-up, which increases the importance of getting rid of pursuit."

He could feel the friction building up in the plan, though. "Defenses are lax. That works in our favor, as long as we can keep it that way."

OOC: Say, what time of day/night is it, and is there a point on the wall Chaplain believes they will not be spotting climbing over?
This message was last edited by the player at 05:32, Tue 20 Oct 2020.

Cade figured she'd seen all she was going to see get where they were at.

"Ok.  Keep planning, I'm going to go take a better look."  She stated before closing up her armor.

After a moment she turned mostly translucent and moved off towards the walls to see if nobody was actually watching as it seemed was the case.

Actually, I have an idea, Joran rumbles.  I am certain that I can sneak in there, scout around and be back without being spotted.

John watches Cade head out, then as Joran speaks the one-eyed man says simply, "ditto" before attempting to approach the wall without being seen.
After chanting what appears to be gibberish, John vanishes. He can be heard to move away towards the wall, but is unseen by most.

OOC: invisible but not prowling all that well

Slinging both railgun and grenade rifle diagonally across his body, in opposite directions, Joran steps out towards the wall.
Those who successfuly save vs Psionics can still see and hear him.  To those who fail, he seems to cease to exist.

Our heroes that turn invisible scout around the fortress and find that there are, in fact, sentries. The sentries exit from stone towers built into the fortress. They climb down the towers using the handholds and and stand guard at the base of the towers.

GM: Wolf - It's the middle of the night. Say 1am.

All - What do you do?

Cade took a count of the sentries, and thus towers.

She also scoped out the layout of the walls, and how they either turned or arced away from the front in order to form whatever sides and/or back walls were present on the encampment.  While doing so she also tried to gauge how many of the sentires could actually see their fellows based on the terrain and/or shape of the walls.

Cade reasoned if they got lucky they might be able to find a section where there was an isolated pair, or triplet, that could see each other but not any others.

Chaplain was flipping between nightvision and thermals to try to keep tabs on his teammates. Even though Joran was right there in front of him, he didn't notice - why would he? His mind just kept moving away from the spot to observe around him and create occasionally false information about what should be in the area Joran was blocking.

Multiple small red crosshairs lined up on the sentries as the eye responded to his subconscious designations, flagging their hypothetical and confirmed positions. He had at least figured out what the handholds were for, and mentally confirmed that this wall wasn't for defense against people.

OOC: I don't know if thermal vision can perceive magical invisibility. Depends on whether it is simple or not, or what it's fiddly bits are. So Saint John might be off the radar, too, so to speak. Psychic invisibility is different - it simply operates on the "ignore this area" principal as far as I can tell.

He gestured to indicate following to everyone behind him, pointing to where he believed were visually safe zones, and slowly crept or crawled to move to a more forward position, one better able to exploit a weakness discovered. He was wondering if the garrote wire might not be the weapon of choice here, and he unspooled it from the armor in his right wrist. If he could catch one quickly, throw them to the ground and choke them, and the others dispatched their partner, they could kill two silently, take command of a tower, get quick intel, and use it as a short-term forward post.

All a complex way of thinking "kill two, all their base belongs to us, advance to next target."

He figured Cade was in her element, so he'd follow her lead for now.

John prowled around the sentry, trying to determine how it would communicate to its superiors. Despite caressing both his knife and his laser, he made no move to actually approach the creature. Besides, his store of energy was limited and needed to be used wisely.

Knowing full well how vulnerable to being spotted he is from a distance, Joran takes a quick look around, then heads back down the wall and to the others.  Though not particularly skilled in intelligence gathering, he is skilled in math and can do a head count of the humanoid warthogs he sees.
17:47, Today: Joran rolled 15 using 1d20+3.  Perception.

Nathaniel and brothers sit tight, ready to provide covering fire in case it was needed. Nathaniel for his part was looking through his scope hoping to find something before it found them or catch some detail worth noting.

As our heroes gather intel, they hear an alarm go up inside the walls of the fortress. The sentries below scramble up the tower and back in.

A faint beam of light, much like sunlight, has begun shining down from the night sky. It is a single beam shining down into the center of the fortress.

Whatever the anomaly is, our heroes know one thing: it has the warthogs' full attention.

GM: Cade - You estimate four warthogs per tower, with there likely being 4-6 towers total.

All - What do you do?

He took advantage of the moment to move again. As long as the guards were all staring at the wrong thing, he'd move to a better position. He had seen where they would gather up, so now he felt he could better ambush or bypass them.

If Cade picked up the pace, so would he.

Taking advantage of a distraction to sneak into a fortress is historic, ubiquitous, and exactly what John tries to do. Following the sentry, he attempts to climb up the wall to get inside and see what the hubbub is about. Even after slipping off, the first time, John persists, attempting to find new hand holds.

Cade turned back towards the cave and gave a wave towards the fortress.  It was rapid enough that whatever effect she was under broke momentarily and her arm was clearly visible telling those waiting it was time to move up.

She then picked a point equidistant between two of the towers and took a few running steps before she jumped upwards and grabbed hold of the top of the wall.  Cade then lifted her head just enough to see over so she could get a look at whatever was going on.

The ray of sunlight turns bigger and brighter, and is followed by an explosion of holy light that sends warthogs sprawling and squealing.

As the smoke clears, our heroes that scaled the wall see a crater in the middle of the fortress grounds where the explosion took place. At its center they see a golden horse, shining bright with holy light. Atop the steed is the gunslinger, Cole. Next to him stands a winged, armored humanoid they have not seen before. Her armor also glows with divine, golden light.

GM: Finally, welcome Symeril! It took some doing, and a bit of dimension hopping, but the band is finally all together.

Cole - You have your memory back.

All - What do you do?

He had just finished clearing the wall. He figured his own small flash from his pack would go unnoticed with the massive column of light eating attention.

"Well. That's...unexpected." Cole, unfortunately, was in the middle of the camp, having drawn all the heat this place could muster to himself. He spoke to Cade. "We finish the mission. Get the hostages out. He knows what he's doing."

"I hope." He intended to move to the holding cells and get the prisoners out during this distracting display of power. He figured the building he was looking for would be one that was more built for utility and sturdiness than for residency.

He hoped the prisoners hadn't been divided yet. Going to every damn building would take far too long, and would necessitate killing their leadership instead of being a side thing. Meanwhile, if he thought he could kill one quietly, a leader, someone shouting orders (or trying to through a mega-damage garrote wire), he would do so. That would buy Cole a bit more time for whatever the hell he was doing.

Stepping through the divine realm gateway, accompanying the spirit Horse was a figure, clad in Red and Silver trimmed Flying Titan Powered Armor.  The powered armor bore silver spikes on the fists, forearms, knees and feet... also a gorget with a silver Crusifix and a crossaxe secured to the armor's breastplate.  Strapped about the figure was a veritable Arsenal of Weaponry, held in metal-mesh MLBE {modular load bearing equipment} harness.  Four holstered pistols two in twin gunbelts at the waist and two in shoulder rigs, three Rifles ~ two in rifle sheaths at each shoulder one on a sling, a long battlesword hung sheathed behind at the waist and thigh-sheaths filled with a combination of wooden and silver stakes on both legs. Finally, a Water Cannon hung across its back with attached water tanks. There was also various carrying cases and survival gear attached and held secure ~ weight evenly distributed on the Powered Armor including a large Supply case. Clearly the powered armor exoskeleton was carrying the load, and was loaded to bear!

What might have been unclear with all the carried gear ~ the distinct hour-glass feminine figure under all the armor and weapons was made clear as the figure spoke in a woman’s voice...



“Well this is... unexpected. I thought you were in a cave Cole?  Are these agitated half-boar humanoids friends of yours?”

“...sorry pardon me, I’m Sir Symeril ‘Battle Angel’ ~ I hunt vampires, Nathan told me you were running from fighting vampires an asked me to help... in a round-about way.”

Though waiting for his reply... the Flying Titan PA’s Laser Wing Turrets began to auto track the agitated boar-men around them, targeting computer already loading a firing pattern to the battle computer based on the boar-men’s location.

Then the armored woman gestured with her left hand and a crackling Claymore Psi-Sword of violet-hued psionic energy blazed into life in her hand casting a reddish hue from the combination of the golden globe of pure sunlight that was clearly emitting from the woman in powered armor.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:29, Fri 23 Oct 2020.

Cade put up her armor's extra protection just in case, though the distraction seemed enough for the moment to occupy the pigs.

A distraction she herself was ignoring.

Instead she opened up her nose looking for the distinct scent of the blue people so she could track down where they were being held.

When the beam of light had come down, Joran had turned back to the wall and begun climbing again. Once he made it to the top, whatever it it had been was done, and a crater remained with the figures of Cole, and golden Horse, and a Flying Titan power armor, lit up by a miniature orb giving off what appears to be sunlight.
He climbs over the battlement, moving to the nearest tower so he can get downstairs, so he does not have to jump or fall to get there.

Warthogs begin to get their wits back, drawing swords and slowly approaching Cole and Symeril, their own swords drawn.

Meanwhile, Cade picks up the scent of the blue natives in a cement structure on the far side of the stronghold. Wolf, following her nose, notes the location of the structure as well.

GM: What do you do?

Cade zeroed in on the structure she assumed the captives were in.

She gave the pigs a bit of side eye and then made a beeline for the building at whatever pace she figured would get here there the fastest without drawing attention.

She reasoned she'd have a quick look for a door once she got there, or just make her own.

With a sly smile, John renews his invisibility and creeps up behind the nearest warthog preparing to stab the critter with his combat knife.

Cole looked around, just as surprised as anyone else. In fact, he was probably more surprised since in addition to being transported to the center courtyard of the fortress in a column of golden light, astride a mythical horse, standing next to a glowing woman in power armor, he also had all of his lost memories back. "Holy shit," he muttered, forgetting, understandably, about The Code's injunction on using profanity in front of women.

Cole turned his head to look at the woman in question. He had never seen or heard of her. That was actually more interesting to him.than the fact she had appeared out of the same column of light he had. Still none of that changed The Code and its rules on proper etiquette,  especially when dealing with women folk. He tipped his hat at her, "Pleased to meet you ma'am. No these varmints ain't friends of mine. Ifn you could lend a hand with them, I'd be mighty grateful. "

Cole was fully aware that asking a woman to join in a fight was generally frowned upon by The Code but he figured, based on her appearance, and calling herself Sir and battle angel, that she was a warrior. That being the case, he'd be foolish not to ask for her help. Looking like a fool, in his reckoning of The Code, was bigger violation than assuming a woman was a fighter. Besides, if he was wrong, she could be mad at him and he'd apologize just as soon as they were safe.

He looked around to tkae in his surroundings and wondered where his friends were. The hogs seemed to be stunned but he reckoned that wouldn't last. "Well shoot, looks like I got picked to be the distraction. Best get to distracting then," he thought to himself as he drew his CFT 1886. It wasn't as accurate or as powerful as his Wilks but it was louder and louder was just what he wanted right now.

He leans forward and strokes the mane of the golden horse, whispering in her ear as he does, "Come on girl, let's have us some fun with these hogs," In response the horse rears up on her hind legs, kicking at the air with her fore legs and letting out a loud and echoing neigh. "Death rides for your hides!" Cole shouts and fires off a shot at one of the warthogs. "Run! Run for your lives so we can ride you down and trample you!" Even as he shouted at the warthogs in sight, he squeezed the trigger of his pistol, sending more high energy packets of death at them.

OOC
2 actions for threatening/scaring the hogs
6 actions for 6 normal shots at any hogs in sight

Cole rolled 34 using 1d100.  Intimidate 65%.

Strikes
Cole rolled 8 using 1d20+6.  CFT 1886 Normal Shot.

00:05, Today: Cole rolled 8 using 1d20+6.  CFT 1886 Normal Shot.

00:05, Today: Cole rolled 13 using 1d20+6.  CFT 1886 Normal Shot.

00:05, Today: Cole rolled 18 using 1d20+6.  CFT 1886 Normal Shot.

00:04, Today: Cole rolled 25 using 1d20+6.  CFT 1886 Normal Shot.

00:04, Today: Cole rolled 11 using 1d20+6.  CFT 1886 Normal Shot.

Damage
Cole rolled 6 using 3d6.

Cole rolled 8 using 3d6. CFT 1886 Damage.
Cole rolled 15 using 3d6. CFT 1886 Damage.
Cole rolled 10 using 3d6. CFT 1886 Damage.
Cole rolled 14 using 3d6. CFT 1886 Damage.
Cole rolled 5 using 3d6.  CFT 1886 Damage.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:39, Sat 24 Oct 2020.

Two flashes of light later and two golden 'sunlight' beings are floating just behind Cole and to either side of Cole. Guido and Nuncio have their normal light intensities pumped up to the max making about a 100ft radius area almost a bright as daylight and slightly less intents as it extends outwards to 700ft. Any enemy that starts aiming a ranged weapon at Cole or their other friends in the crater have their own piece of 'sunlight' sizzle out towards them.



What appear to be warning shots hit the ground and back wall burning swaths of material in long lines.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:20, Sat 24 Oct 2020.

Taking her que from the gunslinging cowboy Symeril nods, “Fine... “

She hits a release claps on her harness and the 200 pound re-supply case drops to the ground unburdening the powered armor for combat.

“Supplies from Nathan... when you need them.”

A cyber-controlled command to the powered armor sent her exploding into combat.  The Wings of the Flying Titan scissored-up into attack flight position and the PA thrusters burst into full - leaping her into the air.  The Battle Angel tore a hole in the sky, englobed in a roughly 50’ft sphere of pure sunlight and took in the view of the alien landscape and the fortress below.  The Red and Silver Flying Titan power Armor battle computer identified the hog-men targets upon the fortress battlements and approaching Cole on the ground.

Spotting Nathan’s photonic brothers Symeril switched to loudspeaker, “Guido and Nuncio, your brother’s Nate, Nathan, Neil and Nolan send their regards ~ we’ll talk later.  Guido stay with Cole cover him with light, Nuncio follow me if you can ~ I’m circling the fortress battlements, I have Radar and polarized lenses I’ll give Cole cover fire and pick off the battlement troops if you will cover me!”

Her senses keen to threat she saw a multitude of potential futures and her Sixth Sense warned her of the hogmen’s reactions and incoming attacks the cyber controls reacted with the speed of thought as she spiraled into a series high speed evasive dodges.  She punched the nuclear-power engines to max thrust rocketing through the sky circling the fortress at a 400 mph at an altitude of roughly 100'ft above the battlement walls.

When the defenders move toward toward Cole she goes weapons free and the twin wing laser turrets of the Flying Titan PA opened fire in controlled rapid short bursts targeting the hogmen's unarmored heads a red and silver streak in the nightsky surrounded by golden sunlight raining down laser death!

12:09, Today: Symeril rolled 76 using 1d100.  Weapons Systems - Laser Targeting [60%]. – [roll=1603555796.18141.349743]

However, the residue energies from the divine gateway were still playing some havok on her suit's targeting systems then the foes began to scatter with Cole & the Nathan brothers weapons & energy fire all temporarily confusing the laser targeting with the multitude of moving targets, grimacing Symeril settled for iron-sight targeting...

Triggering her Comm system from the H.U.D. on the exact frequency Nathan gave her…
+”This is Sir Symeril ‘Battle Angel’, Calling Nathaniel and companions... I have been sent by Nathan to render assistance. I have currently dropped a resupply of ammo and supplies, at the center of the hogmen compound near Cole and Guido. Please Respond. Over.”+

Then she pulled her HI-80 Combat Laser Rifle on its sling in one hand, augmented in strength by the Flying titan powered armor and laid down a controlled series of aimed shots at unprotected Hog-men heads as well... her glowing Violet Psi-Claymore in her off-hand ready to use if needed.

A storm of death raining down on the defenders...

12:13, Today: Symeril rolled 12 using 1d20+11.  Dodge - Flying 300+mph 1#. – [roll=1603556029.91618.349743]
12:14, Today: Symeril rolled 28 using 1d20+11.  Dodge - Flying 300+mph 2#. – [roll=1603556073.89949.349743]
12:15, Today: Symeril rolled 16 using 1d20+11.  Dodge - Flying 300+mph 3#. – [roll=1603556111.82772.349743]

12:16, Today: Symeril rolled 6 using 1d20+4.  FT PA - Laser Turret - Short burst 1# {head shot}. – [roll=1603556164.22218.349743]
12:16, Today: Symeril rolled 7 using 1d20+4.  FT PA - Laser Turret - Short burst 2# {head shot}. – [roll=1603556210.8903.349743]

12:22, Today: Symeril rolled 12 using 1d20+3.  HI-80 Combat Laser Rifle - Single Shot 1# {head shot}. – [roll=1603556527.41853.349743]
12:22, Today: Symeril rolled 18 using 1d20+3.  HI-80 Combat Laser Rifle - Single Shot 2# {head shot}. – [roll=1603556569.13031.349743]
12:23, Today: Symeril rolled 8 using 1d20+3.  HI-80 Combat Laser Rifle - Single Shot 3# {head shot}. – [roll=1603556623.76659.349743]

12:40, Today: Symeril rolled 8 using 2d6.  FT PA - Laser Turret - Short burst 2# {Dam x2}. – [roll=1603557650.05011.349743]
Total: 16 MD
12:40, Today: Symeril rolled 5 using 2d6.  FT PA - Laser Turret - Short burst 1# {Dam x2}. – [roll=1603557612.89452.349743]
Total: 10 MD

12:42, Today: Symeril rolled 26 using 4d6+6.  HI-80 Combat Laser Rifle - Damage Single Shot 3#. – [roll=1603557777.77774.349743]
12:42, Today: Symeril rolled 19 using 4d6+6.  HI-80 Combat Laser Rifle - Damage Single Shot 2#. – [roll=1603557746.57179.349743]
12:41, Today: Symeril rolled 24 using 4d6+6.  HI-80 Combat Laser Rifle - Damage Single Shot 1#. – [roll=1603557715.81783.349743]

Symeril has two actions remaining she is saving them for reactions as needed.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:31, Sat 24 Oct 2020.

Guido and Nuncio already are committed to what they are doing, but over an open coms channel Nathaniel replies +"Acknowledged Battle Angel. We are on a rescue mission to collect hostage-meals that were taken from some allies. If it looks like a WartHog its an enemy. If it looks blue then we are here to rescue them. Otherwise it is probably a member of the team. Oh and nice ride!"+

Meanwhile, Nathaniel is doing his best to get to the top of the walls. If he can jump it using the armors boost and strength, fantastic. If he has to go up the wall punching hand and foot holds into the wall to use, then he will do that. Once he is on the wall, he will help clear it with the railgun or provide cover for his Cole and the Battle Angel.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:28, Sat 24 Oct 2020.

As the sound and fury begin in the center of the compound, John moves silently around the edges. Invisibly, he approaches a target and gives it a quick slash before creeping on to the next.

attacks
1. 22:08, Yesterday: St. John-Smythe rolled 91 using 1d100.  prowl (59%).
   16:24, Today: St. John-Smythe rolled 7 using 1d20+3.  slash a warthog.
   damage 2
2. 16:28, Today: St. John-Smythe rolled 62 using 1d100.  prowl (59%).
   16:25, Today: St. John-Smythe rolled 10 using 1d20+3.  slash a warthog.
   damage 1
3. 16:28, Today: St. John-Smythe rolled 47 using 1d100.  prowl (59%).
   16:26, Today: St. John-Smythe rolled 23 using 1d20+3.  slash a warthog.
   natural 20, maybe slashed a hammy on this one
   damage 3
4. 16:28, Today: St. John-Smythe rolled 59 using 1d100.  prowl (59%).
   16:26, Today: St. John-Smythe rolled 7 using 1d20+3.  slash a warthog.
   damage 5

Chaplain paused his advance to find an out of the way place to communicate.

+Acknowledged, Angel. Glad for the surprise backup and on-site resupply. We'll try to get you out, too. Primary objective for us is rescue and extraction. We have an airship below to transport the captives. Secondary objective is the elimination of airborne pursuit vehicles and anti-aircraft artillery. Tertiary objective is to kill anyone of the boar-people who looks like an officer or screams challenges. They possess a reckless, individualistic courage, but without leadership they are like any other mob.+

He let the garrote wire spool back. He had no intention of fighting right now - Nathaniel, Cole, and Symeril seems to have things well in hand, he figured Ezekiel was on overwatch or something, Joran was...somewhere, probably close, Cade was going for the goal, and John seemed to be trying to kill himself a staggered path to the supplies.

Of course no one listened. So much for the plan.

He continued to the objective. Sneaking wouldn't save him from stray fire or explosions, but it would stop him from being singled out.

19:33, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 12 using 1d20.  JIC Perception.
19:32, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 20 using 1d20.  JIC Save.
19:31, Today: Chaplain Wolf rolled 34 using 1d100.  JIC Skill.

There is a brief lull between the warthogs and our heroes, then things explode into chaos.

Joran makes it down a tower, which has now been abandoned in favor of dealing with Cole and Symeril. He is thus far unnoticed, surprising given his size.

Meanwhile, Cade and John make their way to the cell where they believe the hostages are being held. John deftly stabs several hogs en route and quickly keeps moving. They squeal in pain and surprise as an invisible source draws their blood.

Guido and Nuncio, Cole and Symeril are a symphony of light and death. Hogs stagger back in fear and awe as they are mowed down and scorched.

Nathaniel arrives at the top of the battlement and finds it clear of hogs.

Wolf makes his way through the battlement and arrives at the cell too.

More hogs stream from the surrounding stone perimeter, possibly from bunkers beneath the surface. In any case, our heroes find themselves surrounded by around 100 of the damnable warriors.

A roar rings out as a massive humanoid the size of Joran comes stomping out in heavy, metallic armor that emanates magic. Joran notices with some surprise that the warlord is, in fact, an ogre. The creature notices Joran and roars a challenge. The surrounding hogs pause their approach on our heroes. It would appear that their next move will depend on whether or not their boss wins a fight.

GM: Wolf - Sorry if I read your post wrong. It sounded like you were making your way to the prisoners too. If I goofed, I'll revise my post.

All - What do you do?

Cade ignored whatever commotion happened to be going on in the courtyard of the fortress.

Instead she continued towards the goal of finding and freeing the blue people being held somewhere.

Symeril notes the pause in combat, seeing the approach of the Ogre Warlord...

The triggering her Comms, +"Hey, Cole, Nathaniels... hold fire!  If Joran can resolve this test of leadership on his own, we might be able to prevent much unnecessary bloodshed! If I'm reading there hogmen's reactions, its a hunch that should Joran win.. HE might be taken as the new recognized Warlord.  He might be able to end this conflict without anymore deaths!"+
This message was last edited by the player at 03:42, Mon 26 Oct 2020.

John follows Cade towards the allegedly imprisoned blues. He limbers his Wilks and watches for sentrys.

OOC: I may have been vague, but you got it right.

+"Champion duel? Joran? Can't see the situation from here, and not going to lie - I'm kind of in favor of pouring concentrated fire into them and letting the effect of a quick and efficient death hit their morale, followed by the quick and explosive destruction of their equipment to further inspire them to break and make a successful retreat possible. If you must fight, Joran, cheat. Do not fight honorably."+

Upon reaching the door, Chaplain felt subtlety needed to give way to expediency. He popped the left bionic claw, and aimed to sheer the door open at the hinges. If he succeeded or at least obviously weakened the door, he was going to kick it down.

"CQC tactics. Cade, cover left. John, cover right. I'm bait and got everything else." In the tight quarters, he drew one of the pistols as he breached the door...if he breached the door.

He hoped they learned fast. They had never practiced a door breach together.

Cole decided to follow his gut and stopped shooting the warthogs. Not because of Symeril's order, he didn't know her, only that she knew Nate. He stopped shooting because he reckoned that if they really were fixing to have a showdown between Joran and their boss, all their attention would be on that and not what was happening elsewhere in their little clubhouse...like the rest of the team freeing the prisoners. If on the other hand, they kept blasting away, sure, that would distract a lot of them but not all of them. They might decide to go checking the rest of the fortress and Cole didn't want to risk the prisoners, especially the boy that had helped him.

He ejected the spent casings from his CFT and reloaded it, one round at a time from his belt but made no move to aim or fire it when he was done. Instead he holstered it. He had guessed he was pretty fast before he got his memories back but now that he had them, he knew he was a Gunfighter. There was practically no difference between the pistols being in their holsters and them being in his hands if things went sideways and it was time to start shooting again.

Symeril continued one last flying circuit of the fortress and swooped in to land on the highest and most distant perch on the fortress battlements.  The Wings of her Flying Titan armor folded down but she was still in motion slinging her HI-80 Combat Laser Rifle, she pulled from her right shoulder  rifle sheath a different rifle a GR-15AR Assault Rifle.

Taking her time she attached the barrel extender and the multi-spectrum sniper scope in practiced precision and speed.  Then dropping the bipod legs took up a sniper position covering the courtyard of the Fortress.

Muttering, "Play nice... pig-boys... or you won't hear the one that Ends you."

Triggering her Commms, +"Symeril, Hull down in sniper position north east fortress tower covering courtyard. 'Party Favors' ready to dish out if they don't play fair. I got you covered Joran ~ kick his ass. Over"+

Joran steps forward, answering with his own roar.  He calls out to the other ogre in a rough and guttural language.

The warlord ogre smiles viciously as Joran answers back with his own challenge.

He begins charging forward. He blinks out of existence for a moment and then appears right in front of Joran, an armored fist heading straight for his jaw.

Meanwhile, Cade, John and Wolf bust into the holding cell and find a stairwell leading downward.

GM: What do you do?

John looks down the stairs, and says, "watch your eyes" before a quick chant sends a ball of sunlight floating down the stairwell, lighting up the place. At a look from either of his companions, he shrugs and says, "now even the deaf ones will know we're coming."

Cade shook her head in bewilderment at John, then took the lead down the stairs.

She trusted herself to catch any surprises before they caught her, and thus the others.