Agility:
Thomas blasts at the nearest yao guai (X10) and backs up . The hot plasma roasts the bear's face, and soon there's just a pile of muscle and fur sitting where the creature once was.
= Total 11
Those hoping to delay for the Yao Guai to move closer are absolutely shocked by the bears' preternatural speed.
Only one bear doesn't have to run to reach the party, and that bear attempts to bite and claw at Marcus.
The hardened knight is able to deflect both blows.
The rest of the yao guai charge towards the party, attempting to pounce with claws only.
Fitz manages to barely jump back from the leaping bear.
EH-RK ends up quickly surrounded by bears that just straight run around and ignore Aeryicka to leap towards the robot, while the giant bear makes a B-Line towards Mickey and Badger, hoping to attack both.
EH-RK's first strike misses. (Parry 7 for the regular Yao Guais)
=Total 21 = Raise = Auto-Pin for the Yao-Guai (Need an opposed str to get out, all other actions are at -4 while pinned)
Both miss even with -2 to AC from pin.
EH-RK manages to duck and dodge two of the great beasts, until one from the northeast runs, leaps past Aeryicka, and slams him to the ground, pinning the huge robot with his natural girth.
Mickey and Badger manage to evade the great beast's natural weapons, and then unfortunately cannot get their rifles up in the tight space to shoot the bear.
Spencer meanwhile raises his rifle and absolutely murderates the bear on Marcus, putting a bullet clear in the beast's brain.
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Papa dances with the bear's attacks, growing more comfortable with his new metal skin each passing day.
The knight draws his sword and grabs it with both hands. The sword falls savagely, with the power armor increasing the power behind it.
"Keep your ground, guys... and bear with me!" yells Papa with a stupidly stupid grin.
Fitz likewise draws his new weapon and attacks in tandem with his new robot arm. Unlike Marcus he retains a defensive posture
"Yes, let's settle this in claw to claw combat..."
Papa dances with the bear's attacks, growing more comfortable with his new metal skin each passing day.
The knight draws his sword and grabs it with both hands. The sword falls savagely, with the power armor increasing the power behind it.
"Keep your ground, guys... and bear with me!" yells Papa with a stupidly stupid grin.
[Dice=Wild Fighting] 1d10 + 2 - 2 ; 1d6 + 2 - 2 ;
[Dice=Wild Benny] 1d10 ; 1d6 ;
[Dice=RIP AND TEAR] 1d10 ;
[Dice=Damage] 1d8 + 1d12 + 1 +2 ;
total=11 to get out of the pin.
With a shrill cry, Cray rose up and dived at the head of the giant predator, his claws slashing deeply into one of its eyes.
Aeryicka, seemingly ignored by the strange bears, huddled against the van, though one hand grabbed a stimpak while the other held her spear.
The chainsword cranks into high gear and Marcus chops fiercely at the giant yao guai. For all his might, the thing's thick fur and fat absorbs most of the blow, but he does manage to wound the great thing, even though mostly it looks like he pissed the creature off and gave it a bad haircut.
Despite the swift kick Marcus gives the thing to topple it over after his good chopping, the beast doesn't topple.
Fitz manages to connect with the deathclaw gauntlet, but not his steel arm, though the wound seems not deep enough to do more than stun the bear.
EH-RK's mighty hydraulic arms fling the bear back a good 10 feet and he stands to his feet
Aeryicka's bird, quite huge for a bird of prey (roughly the size of an osprey), but still no larger than the giant yao guai's paw, rushes the huge beast and the bear, distracted by Marcus's attack, is caught completely by surprise...as is the rest of the party, when Cray straight-up ripped out both eyes of the bear, leading the creature to flail around for a moment before dropping completely dead.
The bird pearches on top of the van and starts to eat it's trophies, looking at the smaller bears like "what b#+@#?" considering it just straight-up merc'd something roughly 100x its size.
"Hm. Are we certain that is a natural bird?"
"Ain't any kind of bird I read about."
Mickey tries draws his pistol, but is too late to fire his weapon.
Aeryicka - Six of Diamonds
Badger - Two of Spades
EH-RK - Six of Spades
Fitz - Six of Clubs
Marcus - King of Diamonds
Mickey - Nine of Hearts
Spencer - Queen of Clubs
Thomas - Queen of Diamonds, Nine of Diamonds
Yao Guai - Five of Clubs
"Once more, then." Fitz says, and assaults the Shaken Yao Guai.
Spencer moves around the van as the fighting continues, glad he has room to maneuver without a giant mutant bear all over him. Seeing that Papa has one of the yao guai near him covered, Spencer pops off a short burst at the other one near him, firing between Mickey and Badger.
EHRK attacks the Yaoguai at W18
Statement: I am stuck between a van and a bear place.
but he fails to harm the creatures.
Fitz manages to slash at the bear with his deathclaw gauntlet, but doesn't dig in deep enough as the bear instinctually backs up...too late, though, as Fitz's one-two combo hydrauli-punches the thing's skull, smashing it into the nearby wall.
Now that the giant yao gaui is out of the way, Marcus's chainsword makes short work of his nearest target, easily decapitating the mutant bear.
Spencer, too, manages to pepper his nearest target with a burst of bullets, easily taking down the yao gaui.
Backing away from the violence, Aeryicka hid by the corner of the van, while Cray, finishing his snack of bear eyes, zeroes in on one of the other bears and dives at it, scratching into its hide with his talons.
Cray flies up and gouges at the face of the nearest yao gaui, shaking it, while Thomas fires at it, but the bear's thick, matted fur absorbs the blow like it's nothing,
Snarling, the stunned bear rears up on it's hind legs and wildly swings at the bird in it's face, while another steps up and does the same to Marcus.
The bird is connected with, but manages to fly backwards to absorb most of the kinetic energy before hitting a wall or anything, only Shaken...Marcus, meanwhile, suffers the first blow that actually hurt since getting his fully powered armor, but not enough to leave an actual wound (Shaken also).
Macrus cleaves into the bear with his chainsword, leaving a pile of fur, flesh, and bones in his wake.
Recovering quickly, Cray circled around for another attack, his talons flashing in the low light of the artificial cavern.
Cray swoops in and claws at the face of the attacking bear, which is already off balance from it's wild attack. Talons move in, and snatch out eyes again, and the bird takes off with another pair of trophies to gobble down again.
The corpses of the bears line the cave, and the silence of the wasteland is eerie, but somehow calming, as you can feel the wind blowing around outside...
...strongly...a storm is brewing...and judging by how haywire your PipBoys are going, this is going to be a radiation storm. Fortunately you've got a pleasant cave to bunker down in, if you can get the bodies out in time to not stink the place up before the storm hits.
As you clean out the cave of bodies, you find a dead body in a suit of reinforced leather armor , with a football helmet, a shishkebab, and a medium sized shield made from a Yield sign. The flesh has been picked clean of the body by the yao guai. The leather armor needs some stitching, and the tubing of the shishkebab can use some fixing , but there is a functioning PipBoy on the body's left arm. Underneath the armor you can see a vault suit with the number "98" on the back of it. The body also has a 10mm SMG tucked away in the belt with 300 bullets in a large pocket of the pants.
You also notice tucked away in a corner of the cave a "Fusionhorse" brand motorcycle, powered by Microfusion cells. The tires are rotted, and it needs a little TLC, but you think you can get it up and running if you try hard enough It seems the skeleton here had the same plan you did, but not nearly enough people to survive.
"Well, at least we'll have plenty to do while we weather the storm!" Fitz says, and sets to work fixing things with a gusto, starting with the motorcycle.
He looks around for any materials that might be used to at least patch the tires for now. If he finds nothing else, perhaps the Leather Armor can be used?
"You know, I can't remember a time when I didn't have something to tinker with, a pet project or vital repair that needed to be done. The Wasteland hasn't changed that much, at least."
"I was lucky, in the Vault. Or skilled, I suppose. Well, no need to be modest. yes, I was skilled. I took the time to memorize the patterns of that ridiculous GOAT test across the years, and simply gave the answers that would give me the job I wanted. I tallied up the answers I would have given and it put me in Vault Security! A waste. Though, hm. I suppose I did end up learning to fight after all. I guess I would have made a good guard."
"Still, I would not have enjoyed it nearly as much. And every Vaultie knows keeping the Vault itself running is the most important thing. And the disrepair! I wonder how they're even keeping it going without me there. I hope someone remembered to change the patches I put on some of the cooling ducts. We didn't have the materials for a proper repair, so I was doing it over every few months..."
Fitz rambles on this way the entire time he works, unless someone asks him to stop.
"Sorry about freezing up like that. Never seen a bird do anything like that before. Took me for a spin."
As Aeryicka stood up, Cray finished his meal and flew back to his human. Scrounging around for a cloth, she helped clean off the blood from his beak and talons. "Cray is fine member of his species, rising above others," Aeryicka said softly with a grin. "He would be mighty leader of flock if he not travel with me. Not many people find me worthy, too quiet and small for age. So I find comfort in learning about animals and healing. I good healer, help out in clinic occasionally. Once help save overseer's life. Had accident and cut leg bad, hit artery. Was able to stop bleeding until doctor arrive."
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Marcus cleans his power fists off blood and gore, and so does he with the blade. He revs it up a few times to shake the last off.
Exploring the cave, the Kknight feels enraptured at the sight of the motorcycle. "I... I always wanted one of these! Maaaan, they are as neat as in the holotapes!" he says as he inspects and probes the thing. "I think I can get this beauty in working condition, hell yeah! Sans for tires, but we can worry about that later hahahah! Knight Papa and his trusty booming steed!"
The knight seems to glow in joy, a long kept wish finally fulfilled.
Then the storm starts to threathen them, and Papa decides to leave the bike alone for a while. "Any of you know how to start a fire without smoking us all? I feel like dinning Yao Guai Mignon tonight. Speaking of which, we should take these poor sods out... but first things first, both their claws and meat are pricey. And we can always thank more caps."
After "scavenging" the Guais to their hearts content, Papa asks EH-RK for help moving the things out.
When both return, the Knight starts working on the bike with Fitz while he smokes a cigarette.
"Let a professional Senior Knight handle this, Iron Man" jokes Papa.
Statement: Oh boy. Dragging ursine corpses out to rot in the sun, my existence has become one marvel after another. EHRK emits as he assists the Knight
Mickey struggles to light a fire, as he's lost in his own world. He listens to the others trade stories and smiles fondly.
"Molly would have gotten a kick out of you guys."
After a moment he elaborates.
"She was a classy gal, you know. She was smarter than half of the population of the vault combined, but she never lorded it over anyone. Just wasn't her way. I used to ask her about what she was working on with the reactor all the time. Couldn't make heads or tails of it, myself. I just -- I just liked hearing her explain things."
"And she -- I mean, she must have known, that I didn't get it. Couldn't get it. No matter how she explained it. She must have. But -- but she always sat there with me anyway. I never did figure why she wanted a big, stupid lug like me around. I mean, she was smart and beautiful and just, kind of perfect, you know."
A lone tear falls out of his eye.
"I, uh, got something in my eye. Need a moment. Excuse me."
Mickey walks off to a private corner for a little while.
Badger shakes his head, whistles.
"Why do I even carry a gun with y'all around?"
When Mickey takes off to get himself together, Badger lights a fire with whatever fuel he can find and helps to drag the bears to the "cave" mouth.
He starts cutting one up for meat and pelt.
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Query: Senior Knight Marcus Edwards, Have I told you of the first time I tracked and slaughtered a cell of Communist saboteurs.
Statement: No? Well, it was a summer eve. I would wax eloquently about the feeling of the sun upon my skin. But I neither have tactile feeling, nor do I have skin. I will however attempt to describe the sublime feeling of fulfilling your programming through calculated violence.
Query: Have you ever been in love Senior Knight Marcus Edwards? Have you experienced that rapturous bliss?
Statement: That is what fulfilling my programming "feels" like to me.
EHRK doesn't get why Marcus is looking at him oddly.
As the storm begins to pass outside, you can see it in all of it's slow marching horror. A huge green blob of wind, rain, and radiation comes blowing towards you, and you manage to bunker down in the cave. Spencer, for his part , seems genuinely terrified of the situation, as you can hear the thunder, and the geigers on the PipBoys are going crazy from the radiation outside. He sits in the corner of the cave, as far away from the opening and storm as possible, muttering to himself about huge claws and terrible memories, refusing to listen or take comfort from anyone else.
Meanwhile, Fitz and Marcus manage to tinker on the bike until they finally get the engine running, mostly by cleaning off the corrosion with a toothbrush Fitz found in the overpass, a bottle of Nuka Cola, and holding together a capacitor with some used bubble gum and metal spoons.
As the storm raged on, the green glow giving the cavern an eerie look, Aeryicka sat down with her back against the divider, Cray perched above her. "How long storm like this last?" she asked Papa as the only human non-vaultie there.
"Don't know. Never seen anything like this. What about you, Papa? You've been on the surface longer than anyone."
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Marcus looks towards the cave's entrance but his sight seems to be fixed beyond. A few seconds pass before the knight turns and answer the question.
"Huh? Ah, radstorms. Yeah, a couple hours if we are lucky. A day or two if not. Maybe even a whole week if it's real charged. Maya would have known better, she loved 'em."
"It's been years since I last thought 'bout her. I'd like to say we had a beautiful story of unchained love and passion like the holosoap operas, heh..."
"Truth is we got ended together out of fear for our lives. Instinct, I guess."
The knight removes the campfire logs before continuing.
"Back when I was an apprentice knight I usually ended getting all the boring missions, partly because I didn't follow orders well so CO didn't trust me enough. Anyway, there we were, a group of three B-Class civs plus me, Mac and another would-be paladin, being escorted to research an abandoned factory north of Dome cuz the B-Class had heard rumours of fusion cores and energy cells there in bulk, some kind of incognito army stash."
"They only allowed me to go because they expected machinery in need of fixing, but man was I glad. It was my first "Sweep & Retrieve" mission and I thought I would find some prototype plasma rifle, or a new power armor. Thing is that s$@~ factory turned out to be real huge. And I mean huge as f$&#: 5 floors plus at least 10 underground sublevels."
"With my usual smartassery I managed to get myself separated from the rest while I was expecting some prewar ammo assembly line, but Maya stayed with me. She wanted to explore deeper, and the place wasn't dangerous as the deffenses were offline, and so we did."
Papa sighs before continuing "A bold move, fo'sure. Not even three rooms after that I touched what I shouldn't and a gas pipe blew up. The following cave in left us caught inside a room not bigger than the van, with the roof crunching and water leaking. We rationed our supplies and drank from the leak but three days later we had nothing. I was only a big dumb child, and she was only a couple years older... and I couldn't stop crying."
"She simply hugged me until I calmed and then, well, I won't finish the story with childs around."
"Mac and the rest managed to find and save us, and we didn't talk about what happened afterwards. Then a month or so later the B-Class returned to the base and we met at night again. We been like that for almost two years, but I fell in love... and seeing Mac and Maria together made me envy 'em."
"I had to f~$& up real bad because after we spoke she never came back again. I just wish wherever she is, she is doing well."
The storm rages on throughout the night, but you all manage to get a comfortable night's sleep, between those of you who bothered to actually purchase bedrolls and the cushions of the van's seats, and skinning the yao guai for parts, you manage to get some pelts good enough to serve as functional sleeping pelts.
Assuming you take turns having watch in case the storm ends, or worse yet, something comes out of it, the night ends mostly uneventful...with the exception of the rad storm, of course, which clears somewhere around midnight. Badger's fire provides adequate light for those standing guard.
The morning time comes around and now you can prepare to head back out again.
Mickey takes his shotgun, pistol and ammo. He even takes his trusty tire iron. He leaves behind his other weapons though, even his grenade launcher. He takes five days of MREs, three bottles of water -- should have bought more -- and his medication, including stimpaks. He hesitates, but then decides to also take his first aid kit. That all gets stuffed into his pink backpack.
Everything else goes in the dufflebag and is left in the van. He walks away and then turns back to take a single frag grenade, too.
Just in case.
After much better sleep than she's had previously since leaving the vault, Aeryicka gave a leisurely stretch before looking around the cave once more. "So, we go to Tampa now?" she asked the others as she walked up to the corpse. Kneeling down, she quickly stripped him of his armor, while taking care to not really look at the body. Folding the armor into a small package, she placed it in her bag before examining the Pip-Boy. Figuring since nobody else had claimed it during the night, and it might have some interesting programs on there, she strapped it up to her wrist before standing back up. "Ready to go now."