Gummitch watches and waits.
A sudden burst of light and sound occupies the cab of the truck, but the soldiers quickly look away and cover their eyes as it passes. It seems they are used to magic and its effects. The vehicle starts to pull out of the cave and towards Barbara’s freshly fixed Glitter Girl as the three remaining soldiers on the ground fight their way out of the crowd of slaves. Gummitch notices one of them is starting to get out from underneath the truck, another is fighting with Bart and the last is trying to get as many slaves as he can into the truck before it leaves.
If Gummitch does not have a clear breath attack at anyone, he'll fly at the leader and attack with his bite and claw.
Modifiers: -2 (MAP)
AP: 3
Modifiers: -2 (MAP)
AP: 3
No sooner the henchman under the truck gets up, Gummitch is already on his case. Try as he might, the man cannot hold off a dragon. His armor, however, can. Gummitch tears great gouges into the man’s green Bushman armor, making a terrible rending sound, it takes some time for the man to realize he is in over his head. He cowers as the great beast floats above him.
As Gummitch deals with one of the henchman, Bart is in a fight with another one. The man draws a bigger blade and its vibrating field hums to life. He flips it around in his hand a couple of times before making a swing at Bart, but he telegraphed his intentions too much and Bart is able to easily move out of the way.
The slaves prove to be empowered with their recent reversal of fortune and the goons are unable to get them to do anything but fight back against their captors.
= 29
= 27
Burgurk focuses his psycho kinetic might at the truck and its occupants, the blast should have vaporized most of the people there, but Burgurk’s control of his abilities is without peer. The slaves are unharmed, but the henchman accosting them is not so lucky. The one fighting trying to fight Bart is also grabbed by the blast. Both of their armor is shattered into pieces and what was inside is unrecognizable. The remaining two guards in the truck seeing the carnage around them and the massive Glitter Girl standing right in front of their them, along with a massive Rift beast, decide that this is fight they can not win, truck or not. Their hands reach for the roof of the cab and they call out, ”We’re done! We surrender!”
The slaves still attempt to open the truck’s doors and get to them. Now you have to decide to either let them, stop them, or something in between.
Bart gives Burgurk a thumbs up as he rushes to try to get between the crowd and the truck.
Whoa! Hold up. The last two surrendered. Be better than them! They'll face justice in a legal trial. Now we need to make sure all of YOU are safe and get YOU to safety."
While he's not actively trying to persuade them, as he's not that good it is, if no one better steps in soon he'll give it a try.
The slaves barely register that Bart is speaking to them, as they have been given over to their rage at being enslaved and are attempting to kill every last one of the slavers. If they figure out how to get into the truck, there will be few left to question.
Terry turns up the volume onn his suit, and then steps through the crowd.
Move back, we need to be able to talk to these people.
= 9, 1 raise
Looming from above, Barbara simply tears the top off the truck's cab and pulls the two surrendering troops out by their collars and hauls them over to the group's transport, gently but firmly pushing her way through the crowd.
Ounce lends her support to placating the slaves, explaining the need for information about their organization and plans.
Modifier: +1 (attractive)
Free Reroll (Charismatic)
Modifier: +1 (attractive)
The slaves recoil as Barbara's Glitter Girl rips off the top of the truck and pulls the two men out. The slaves begin to panic, but luckily Ounce's honeyed words and the presence of a cyber-knight quickly calms them down. A handful of them step forward, mostly Faelerin. The one who looks more elderly, with a hunched back and faded blue skin, speaks first. "We thank you for your rescue of our people. If not for you, we would have been given over to our deaths. We.."
"Hold on there, Elder. We don't know if these people are any more worse than the ones who captured us. Maybe these are slavers too." A younger Faelerin, bright blue-skinned with darker blue stripes and a black mane of hair in a topknot steps forward. He looks at each of you warily. "Ever since we came here, all we have met have lied to us." he then looks at Terry. "You look like one of those cyber-knights we have heard some things about. We have heard that they are all forthright, honest and brave. If that is the case, tell me Cyber-Knight, are we safe now?"
Meanwhile, the two men in Barbara's grasp struggle and squirm. Their speakers on their helmets crackling with the fear in their voices. "Please don't feed us to the creature!"
Bart will check the other goons, firmly tying up/ zip tying any alive and administering basic first aid if needed.
(That's assuming someone with better than a D6 healing will help the Faelerin...)
As he is starting on his work he does say "Well. This is how we treat our enemies once they've surrendered. Hopefully that tells you something about us. Plus, we've already rescued a good number of your people from slavers like this."
Well, you are as safe as anywhere else in the world. But on my honour, you are not going to be harmed by any of us
If you want to leave, by all means, go ahead. We will not stop you. But we do not suggest it, as we will be taking you to others that we rescued
Ounce is tempted to have fun with the slavers in Barbara's grasp, but she doesn't want to have them soil themselves if they have not done so already (for the comfort of those who will have to be transported with them), so she makes the illusion gradually morph into a small swarm of puppies and kittens before letting them fade away.
Barbara lifts the slavers and cradles them in her power arms so that she can carry them safely to the transport.
"We have rules regarding the treatment of prisoners. May be safer for you to remain in our care for now."
Burgurk's ears prick up and he asks the one who mentioned a creature "Creature? What creature? Where is it right now?"
"Wait. Creature? I missed that. What does this creature look like?"
The two men look past the Glitter Girl in the direction of where Ounce had summoned an image of a giant creature made of lighting. As they point, ”Th..that one!”, the image suddenly blurs and shifts and a horde of young canines and felines swarm out of the area before disappearing into the surrounding area. ”Umm.. nevermind.”, one of them says as Barbara puts them into the back of the truck.
Meanwhile, the elder Faelerin says, ”If you know where more of our kind are, we would be in your debt further if you take us to them.” He then looks at the younger firebrand. ”We can trust these people. They will not harm us.”
As Bart is tying up the living slavers. He notes that the leader is slowly starting to crawl away.
"Oh no you don't."
As he jumps on him.
The leader is no match for Bart at this point, with a broken ankle and smashed armor. He simply grunts under the weight of the warrior. "You.. you don't know what.. what you've done.."
As he makes sure the man is properly secured and putting a quick splint on his broken ankle, "That happens a lot. So tell me what we've done."
There is a long pause and then a sigh that crackles through the man's helmet. The wind almost drowns out what he says. "You've disrupted an important shipment. Something that is going to change the world and bring back the age of mankind. When my boss figures out who you are, she will come after you."
Meanwhile, the slaves mill about, trying to huddle near the truck for warmth as the blizzard swirls around them.
Ounce, any way you could block the cold for these folk. Now to figure out transport for these folk
He mutters last statement to himself as he is looking around for lift.
Bart stands up. "Oh, is that all? Hell, we call that a Tuesday."
"I can help them with the cold but not all of them. If there are any especially vulnerable who are not able to travel in a vehicle, I can help them."
I agree, its not the best solution, but until we get them in some sort of shelter, or vehicle, it will have to work. Can we find a vehicle for them
Ounce gets out her survival pack and shares the insullated sleeping bag with the least prepared individual and encourages others to do the same.
"Gummitch, check out that cave while we're organizing people here."
Gummitch changes into snow leopard form and prowls into the cave to see what's there.
The team notes that the cave will provide some shelter for a while, at least from the wind and the vehicle in the cave can hold them all in the back, but the cage is open to the elements, so there would need to be some way to protect all of them from the cold as you traveled back to the Captain Tiller and his flying machine. It could hold all of the slaves, but none of you would be able to fit in with them.
You lament at the reassignment of Josie and Bertha, but these goons won't be using this truck any time soon. You briefly ponder simply calling Tiller on comms, but do not see a suitable landing zone nearby.
Gummitch paws at the various crates stacked in the cave near the truck. Most of them appear to be full of food packets and binders. He does find one that contains several thick pieces of cloth that could be used for blankets.
Bart looks over the Mammoth and lets out a low whistle.
"Damned fine vehicle. I don't think we're fitting everyone inside of it that needs protection though... OK, what's the fastest way to get help for these people?"
How about we get the cave warmed up for them and make a couple of trips to bring everyone to the helo.
Terry also starts an inspection of the cave
"I'll see about foraging for firewood. In these conditions it won't be dry, but I can at least bring back a fallen tree and break it into manageable chunks, if the magicians can figure out a way to get it burning and to ventilate the cave so everyone doesn't suffocate."
Barbara heads out cautiously to break up a few trees for firewood. In this weather it's impossible to find anything dry, so she settles for simply using the power of the Glitter Boy armor to uproot an entire sapling and carry it back, then she strips the bark to reach a dry layer underneath and breaks it into chunks of varying sizes.
"Bart, what else can we do to improve our habitability out here? You're our resident expert!"
Bart joins Barbara in selecting trees, considering their options while doing so..
"Well,let's run the numbers, see how many we can get into the Beast. Once we get back to base we'll probably be able to get transport for the rest sent back here but then we'd need to split up, some go, some stay to guard. Hmmm. As for the cave, not a lot more we can do. Warm it up, check those containers on the Beast for food and any more blankets or survival gear and block off the entrance of the cave as much as possible. Maybe we could rig the bark and bits together to keep the cold and wind out."
"Could we call Tiller on comms and ask him to send us enough ground transport to hold all these people? Then it just becomes a matter of keeping the cave warm enough until they arrive. We could stack trees in front of the entrance like a fence, leaving only a 3 foot gap for people to pass thru."
Terry doesnt see anything wrong with the cave.
You attempt to call Tiller on comms, but only receive static in return.
"Well, if we can't raise Tiller here the fastest way would be for a few to head his way until we could raise him. Too bad there's not room for an extra person or two in the Glitter Girl!"
Burgurk tries to move some whole cut trees (maybe by Barbara and Bart?) in place in front of the cave entrance as a barrier to the cold :
= Raise
"Now if someone would slap some mud on the slight gaps between the trees, we can keep the warmth in."
Ounce casts Environmental protection on as many of the people in the cave as she can.
Gummitch flies in dragon form to gather pine branches to add insulation to the barrier.
Modifier: -1 (Clueless)
Modifier: -1 (Clueless)
Terry starts a fire at the mouth of the cave, using the barrier as a reflector.
Look, i will wait here with them while you take the first group to Tiller.
The team works to put up a barrier to keep the wind and snow out, with Terry building a fire and Burgurk helping with the small trees for the makeshift wall against the wind. Ounce begins to cast a spell as Gummitch tries to gather insulating materials.
Bart smiles at Burgurk. "Not gonna find any mud out there but the snow will work just as easily."
All right people, lets get you into the cave and out of the weather
Terry mentally notes how many people are moving into the cave to get out of the weather.
He then steps out and using his psi sword cuts up a lot of firewood to bring into the cave. (spending at least an hour chopping wood)
Ounce tries to summon the spirits she spoke with before, but whatever is driving this storm seems too strong. You create as much shelter in the cave as you can, trying to prevent the cold from getting to the slaves awaiting rescue while the first group is taken back to Captain Tiller. Tiller makes room in the ship for all the slaves, but sadly, a few from the second group are unable to handle the cold and when it comes time for them to be picked up, you find a few of them have passed away.
The elder speaks to you on the way back. ”Perhaps it is not such a bad thing. They died as they wanted to be, free.”
Tiller takes off with the remaining slaves. When you get back, your prisoners are neatly huddled together next to the fire. The blizzard starts to let up as you discuss what to do with them. Their leader keeps looking back and forth between you and his soldiers. ”What do you plan on doing with us?”, he says.