"Atlas, I don't know the answers to your questions, I can just sense magic, I don't know anything about it. Shakti?"
Shakti tells the others what she learns from her enhanced scan.
Shakti relays that this portal is certainly more than meets the eye. The other side of the real vault door has been turned into a Rift that leads directly to a realm of dead spirits that are hungrily awaiting more bodies to inhabit. Something inside is strong enough to hide this fact from the mundane, but not the sensitive folk. Jalera has taken a step back and is covering her pointed ears as best she can. Shakti seems to have no trouble with the screams that are slowly building in tempo, just at the very edge of her senses.
Soon, the image fades away and all of you can see what is really there. Standing just in front of the Rift is Alana Grayspear, in all her Fallen Cyber-Knight Glory. In her hand is a spear that radiates a terrible green glow. Behind her, in the blue light of the Rift, you see a large group of people wearing those small necklaces. Grayspear smiles.
"You still haven't given me your answer. See, these fine folk are more than willing to accept immortality at the low price of their free will. I am willing to allow you to keep yours, as long as you join my crusade and rid this world of the Coalition, the Federation, and especially the Legion. Or, you may choose to do what the ignorant always do and attack first before you know what is truly at stake. Do so, and they all become my slaves. Submit and they are free to return to their homes, unharmed. Time is running out Legionnaires."
Burgurk growls "I think you're bluffing, Grayspear. Or haven't you noticed the loss in power being supplied by your viney friend back at the entrance?"
Grayspear turns up her face in a grin wider than should be allowed. "Do you honestly think I didn't notice your little deal with the entity? I made a better one. I'll give it both worlds to feed on. You have your friend the wolfen to thank for that."
Jalera stands back, still holding her head, "No! We must..complete the ritual.. or she will... take control.."
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"It is better to die for free will than live for yourself," Atlas drones as he advances on Greyspear, his heavy battle boots stomping ominously forward while the railgun spins up.
"Complete your ritual. I will handle her," he calls to the group.
'Target acquired,' the A-TAC happily chirps, several internal targeting recticles settling onto Greyspear.
= 16 ._.
Atlas spins up his railgun and empties several bursts towards Alana Grayspear, Fallen Cyber-knight. Faster than Atlas's systems can correct for error, Grayspear brandishes a verdant green blade of energy out of nowhere and cuts most of the rounds out of the air. The ones that do hit her armor seem to bounce right off, though the look on her face shows that she may have at least felt the impact.
"Shakti - can you boost my Psionics abilities real quick?"
Whether or not she does, he adds :
"Shakti - you're probably best to help Jalera, altho we may need all the firepower we can get against Grayspear..."
Shakti jumps into action as well, first boosting her speed, and then unleashing a tactic she has been holding in reserve for a more significant adversary.
Two mirror images of Shakti appear, both exact enough to be indistinguishable from the original.
As the clones appear each instantly starts weaving magic. Shakti herself, being more mystically capable than her copies, joins Jakara in working the ritual, while her one of her clones moves to attack, while the other works to enhance her allies.
Clone 1
Clone 2
The other Shakti disappears from the large vault door chamber, to be replaced with the form of a full grown Flame Wind Dragon.
Edit:
Shakti Prime
Dragon Shakti
The massive beast bursts into flame as this breed of wyrm to apt to do, and rushes in at Greyspear, trying to rend her with flaming claws.
Feeling energized in multiple ways from Shatki's boosts, Burgurk proceeds to attack Grayspear :
And hits with a Raise, doing
And again
And again
On his second action, he repeats :
Shakti flexes her full divine power, splitting herself into multiple versions and altering the whole of reality to her favor. As she does so, the new dragon and the new psychokinetecist lay into Grayspear with all their combined might. The dragon's claw tears apart the armor Grayspear is wearing and the impact leaves her gasping for air. She doesn't have time to react as the second claw rips into her now bare stomach, rending it open and causing her to stumble back. As she attempts to recover, Burgurk's blasts hammer into her over and over again. She starts to collapse when a green vine-like tendril appears out of the Rift and drags her into it. She vanishes into the blue light. Before you can figure out what happened, Jalera yells.
"Hurry! Focus on closing that Rift!
Battered, Vigor down to d6
DM SBM - if the penalty is only -4, then my 2nd and 5th attacks would have hit (without a Raise) :
= 26
Could these have killed her before the vine snatched her?
Dragon Shakti snaps at the body held by the tendrils, attempting to pull it back before it is yanked through the Rift.
Shakti prime continues to work the spell to close the rift altogether.
The Draconic Shakti takes a last snap at the disappearing CyberKnight, but only tastes empty air. With a last great push of her might, Shakti herself manages to close off the Rift, but it saps some if her energy.
Jalera falls to the ground, unconscious as her own energies are depleted. Atlas watches as the gathered group slowly starts to come to their senses. After a few seconds, one of them speaks. "Who...who are you? Where are we?" Others begin to repeat similar questions.
Burgurk immediately goes on the defensive, marshaling his psionic powers for an attack if any of them make any threatening movements. "Please stand still. What is the last thing any of you remember?"
One of them stands forward from the rest, a human male dressed in blue coveralls. "Last thing I recall was a bunch of creatures that looked very similar to you attacked our camp one night and took some of us. After that we woke up to this. Your turn. Who are you?"
"I had nothing to do with your abduction. We just defeated the person who was holding you here, asleep, and after that, you all just woke up."
Shakti sweeps her penetrating gaze over the group of survivors, looking for any that might harbour any scrap or seed of the darkness they were exposed to. The creature might have chosen to plant a spark of itself within one in order to maintain a foothold in this world. She also takes a moment to look at the necklaces they wear, to see if they retain any shred of the creature's influence.
"Your minds were enslaved by a being from beyond this realm. The necklaces you wear were the device that allowed it to maintain control over you. I suggest you remove them now. Give them to me, and I will see to their destruction."
"We are soldiers of the Tomorrow Legion. You may direct you thanks to Castle Refuge."
"You are now free. I suggest you return to your dwellings and villages. If you have any concerns or wounds, you may make them known. If you bear any residue of the creature's magic, I suggest you make it known, lest it grow unfettered."
After looking at the rest of you and deciding that aggression is not in his best interest, the speaker backs down a bit. "We have not heard of this 'Tomorrow Legion', but if they are here to help, we could certainly use it. Mind, we don't know exactly where we are, but if you could guide us back home, it would be most appreciated." He collects the necklaces and hands them over to Shakti, though he seems unnerved by her many arms.
Other than some mental anguish and probably nightmares for weeks, these people are relatively unharmed, but none of them seem to have any means to simply walk home.
Burgurk says to the group "How many of you are familiar with ? If we took you there, could you find your ways home?"
"Most of us are from or work in Pux. A few of us live just outside of there, but I reckon we could find work in Pux for the time being. If you could just get us there, that is. I don't want to stay here any longer. What if whoever did this comes back?"
Burgurk looks at the rest of the team and says "Is there any reason to stay here? Grayspear has been defeated if not killed, and in either case is no longer in this universe. Is there anything left to do here?"
"It would likely be prudent for us to make certain the rift is closed for good. When Jelera regains consciousness, we can look for any residues it might have left. Perhaps in the meantime, we could scout for spoils? Greyspear had numerous minions under her control, and they had equipment. Weapons, energy cells, explosives, medical supplies, and even food would be useful for the return journey."
The Rift, for all intents and purposes, is closed. Could it be opened again? Maybe, but unless Jalera wakes up or Shakti decides to try, the point is probably moot.
"We didn't have much with us when we were brought here," the man says. "We would be happy to help you look for supplies though."
|
|
In a mockery of breathing Atlas lets out an audible sigh and turns to the speaker. "The possibility of returning to this place, now that it is no longer an enemy base, is low.
If we are going to police it of useable goods, now is the time. Indeed, it seems to be falling into disrepair, and it is unclear if it will maintain structural integrity.
Let us take what we can and go."
Atlas begins an in-depth evaluation of the machinery and technological gew-gads that compose the underground base, evaluating each for the possibility of dissembling it and carrying it above-ground where it might find a more...benevolent use.
= eleventy billion
DM SBM - I searched both SWD and RIFTS for "quick encounter" , and couldn't find anything. So with no other knowledge, I'm going to use my Notice to look for things...
= 11, a Raise
You spend an hour or so ransacking the facility in order to find supplies that you can use to help you make the journey with these civilians, taking them back to their homes. You find enough foodstuffs, that if rationed properly, will feed the group for at least a week. It shouldn't take you more than a day to get where you are going, so you could probably sell off the excess. You also find a not well hidden cache of pre-Rifts weapons. Atlas's historical files identify them as M16A4 assault rifles along with about 10000 rounds of ammunition. While this weapon has little hope against modern armor, it is certainly a deterrent to those without it. It is also worth money to the right buyer. Now, to convince the people to help carry all of it out.
With all that, the amount of pre-Rifts intelligence here could be worth quite a bit, again, to the right buyer. Then again, the Tomorrow Legion would probably want it and you would probably get paid little other than recognition for it. Either way, it is an amazing find and with Alana out of the way, it's open for the next claimant.
The civilians, for their part, just want to go home.
"We will take you safely back to Pux, guarding you from any threats, with food enough to keep you well-fed along the journey, if you will do something for us : carry these weapons and ammo along with us. We don't expect you to use them. Deal?"
The speaker for the rest of the civilians nods his head. "We can do that. None of us are really warriors, but we will help where we can, of course." He stops briefly, looking at the others. "We don't usually trust outsiders, but we don't have much choice, do we?"
It takes a little over a hour to gather what you can and begin your journey back to Pux. With the map you have and Atlas's impeccable knack fro remembering things, it isn't too difficult to navigate the few miles back to the logging town. Jalera, for her part, is still unconscious and has to be helped back to the Mountaineer. It is difficult to tell how long it will be until she regains her senses.
You spend the next few hours making your way through tough terrain and what roads you can find to get back to Pux. Once there, you are greeted with a crowd of people, many of whom are holding their arms out for loved ones returned to them. One of the crowd walks up and holds out his hand. "Jared Flannigan. I was gone when you guys arrived, but the folks here caught me up to speed. I appreciate what you and the Tomorrow Legion have done for us. You are welcome to stay a while, but I suspect your duties might take you elsewhere."
Burgurk says to his comrades "I would like to sell the weapons and ammo on the "open market" rather than take them back to the TL. Does anyone object?"
"Not at all. These antiquated weapons would likely bring more in trade value then they would have utility if used directly."
"Whykin is close to here, is it not?"
The older logger, overhearing your conversation, says, "Yes, Whykin is about 20 miles or so southwest of here, but it may as well be 200 miles with all that wilderness between here and there. Your vehicle up to the task?"
"There are no roads or even trails from here to Whykin? Your two towns don't do any trade at all? What kind of wilderness - light forests, dense forests - what?"
"Our vehicle is capable, after all, that is the route we used to come hither. If anyone wishes to make the journey alongside us, you would not be a burden. Jalera will be continuing on with us to Castle Refuge, as per our agreement."