The Long Night Ends (A Traveller T20 Game) (Inactive)

Game Master mdt

Ziirkaa starts brainstorming alternative strategies with the captain.

Vathan steps up and puts the black (red) laser dot on a creature. He flips his selector to full auto and fires his accelerator rifle.

Can't remember the rules of autofire. I only remember that it targets a 2x2 square are. I'm going to roll to hit. Please advise, so I can learn for next time.

Masterwork Accelerator Rifle: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 7 + 2 = 29
confirm threat: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 7 + 2 = 26
if hit, damage: 1d12 ⇒ 6

I think that you're thinking of suppressive fire, but here are the rules for burst fire.

--Holt Round 5--

Holt watches in surprise as the mylthani tear into the beast. When she hears Ceres voice she comes back to reality saying "Montinegro is down with a massive chest wound. If she's alive, she needs immediate medical attention.".

Emboldened by the creatures retreat, Holt moves forward and takes aim at the fleeing creature and unleashing another shot.

Assault Rifle to hit (single shot): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9
Assault Rifle damage (single shot): 1d12 ⇒ 3

Yes, if you're using suppression fire, you'll need to make 3 additional to-hits on the lizards, and also three on the Mylthani. I assume you don't want to hit your allies. So burst fire at one lizard is probably better. BTW: burst fire on one of them tears it to bloody ribbons.

Round 5

"Roger that." Ceres replies over the radio. After a moments hesitation she makes a snap decision. I think I almost can see her! "Ziirkaa! Holt's group is just down the alley - run! Vathan! Finish these critters and get the mylthani over to Holts group, we'll rendezvous there. I'll be back asap."

She snapfires another burst towards the attacking beasts before heading down the alley with the doctor in tow.

To Hit: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9

Damage, 4 round burst: 3d10 ⇒ (10, 3, 10) = 23

I moved Ziirkaa for round 5. Ceres will escort him about halfway then double back

Actions: Fire gun, move south

OK Let's go with Burst Fire and move to the next round where I'll get the game mechanics more correct. Cheers

@Vathan - Burst Fire with 3 rounds adds one damage dice - and they double on crit. So you have 2d12 extra damage to roll if you want :)

damage but MDT already said it was pulp: 4d12 ⇒ (1, 7, 5, 9) = 22

The last of the lizards in the north turn and flee.

Ziirkaa runs to the south, and goes to his knees in the crimson snow, his hands moving as he pulls his first aid kit to work on the female marine.

Out of combat, unless you want to start attacking each other.

The northern and southern Mylthani all look around, ears twitching, and then the northern group begins moving again, the wounded one between the other two, as if being protected.

To the south, the three Mylthani silently look at the downed marine, then each head bobs in unison four times, before they move back to the warehouse door. The one with the torch begins cutting, while the other two keep watch.

Not sure what to do yet - thoughts?

It seems as if the northern group of Mylthani is determined to carry on, so either we follow them or we'll have to think of a way to halt them

I think that first, we see if we can save the marine. Then we can all head north or try to communicate the plan about the APC.

Holt, still looking back where the huge creature retreated, tried to calm herself and to steady her ragged breaths. Seeing Ziirkaa, Holt drops a hand from her weapon and reaches into one of the pockets on her utility belt, retrieving a small vial and holding it towards the doctor. ”Here, take this. And w-what can I do to help?” she says with a desperate look in her eyes.

A dose of ‘medical drugs’. I have no medical skills…

Ziirkaa ignores the drugs, his own field kit far more well stocked than Holt's vial of emergency stabilization drugs. "Make sure nothing bites me in the ass... again..." He says distractedly.

T/Medical: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (10) + 13 = 23

Ziirkaa get's the bleeding stopped, and then the marine gets to her feat, retrieving her gun. "Thanks, not sure why that took me down so fast..." She says, her voice strained.

"The creature injected you with some poison when it's beak got in. Not sure what it does to the locals, but in a human, it interfered with the blood's ability to bind oxygen. Captain, I'd like samples from the juvenile birds, if you don't mind. Hopefully they'll have a sample of the poison. Could be useful to study."

Holt nods at Ziirkaa and takes up her weapon again, watching the skies.

Please be ok... please be ok... please be ok...

Holt is surprised at how quickly Montinegro stands, considering how hard she went down, but she's not arguing with the results.

Are the northern aliens moving on without us? Or joining the southern group?

Vathan follows the captain to the southern group. His eyes surveying the alien city for more danger. He arrives as Montinegro stands seeing his other marine down covered in blood. Behind Ceres, Vathan asks, "Doctor, what's the status?" His heart sticks in his throat knowing that he asked the captain to order the away team to stay together. The only reason his marines were apart was that they were following Holt who struck out on her own.

They are moving on toward the nuclear facility

"She'll live, as long as she doesn't get any more of that garbage in her bloodstream. Stopped the blood binding with oxygen, which stopped her blood from coagulating, also robbed her body of the ability to convert oxygen to energy, that's why she hit the ground like a sack of bricks. Very deadly to humans. Probably just a minor inconvenience to the locals, given they got wounded and kept going."

Decapitated? Missed that

Vathan grimly asks, "Holt, why did you lead my marines away from the main group?"

He got decapitated...

Yep, critical hit, enough to kill him in one hit, so figured decapitation made sense.

Holt looks at Vathan confused. "What? I didn't... I saw the other Mylthani head off that way and I thought we were splitting up. They came with me and I just thought..."

Vathan steps forward with his arms crossed and asks the living marine, "Montinegro, why didn't you two stay with me as I and the captain ordered?"

He keeps the hard emotions of anger, grief, and guilt of getting half of his marines killed in check by focusing on asking questions.

"Sir, standing regulation 84, section B. Command personnel are not to be allowed to enter unknown dangerous situations without security. Captain Viktoria did not object when Officer Holt accompanied the aliens. You did not object when we accompanied her, per regulations, Sir." The sir has a bit of spit behind it, although that could be attributed to the blood on her lips.

"Object? Object? I was not even aware that there were two groups after the captain specifically ordered us to stay together!" Vathan explodes.

He tries to calm down breathing hard while staring Holt. The accusation of so Holt, this marine's death is all on you sticks right behind his gritted teeth.

"Sir, are you saying that as the senior marine on duty, you neglected to keep track of a command officer?" The marine says, sounding surprised.

Vathan turns his glare to the marine with slight doubt in his eyes, "Montinegro, don't go there. I had point. My marines had flank. Orders were clear to stay together."

"Sir, yes sir." She responds, but it's very obvious that she resents being made the butt of the issue. And she's not going to take a dive to cover Vathan's butt.

Holt is lost in thought again as the two marines get into it.

Is it my fault?... I need to focus more... I keep forgetting my rank and who I am supposed to be on these expeditions...

Holt holds back the feelings of disappointment in herself, trying to present a strong face as she says "Ok, that's enough. I'm the one who split off, and the one who didn't announce it. Throwing blame around isn't going to help anyone."

Holt faces Vathan to say "I'm sorry this happened. But there is nothing that we can do about it now and we still have a mission to complete. Fill out a report and I'll gladly serve whatever punishment our superiors decide that I deserve."

Ceres kept looking at the dead marine as the scene played out around her. It felt surreal, like one of the old war drama movies she'd seen when she was younger. With a sad shake of her head she blinked another tear away and looked up and around. Now was not the time to be lost in thought. It never really is, is it? With a practised steady voice she gathered her crew around her.

"All right. As commanding officer, the responsibility for any and all mistakes are mine. Including the failure of the chain of command or communication. For now, that is the end of it." She took a moment to let it sink in, and looked around to make sure they understood. "Now, we must do what we came for. Focus on the mission. Montinegro, I want you to set up a defensive perimeter around the Mylthani here. Ziirka, stay with her and watch her vitals. I don't want a relapse and I certainly don't want her to get another dose of that. At the first sign of hostiles, call in the APC for fire support. Holt, Vathan - you are on me. It seems as if our other mark has already decided to keep moving and we'll have to keep up. So, move it!"

So that all the NPCs are gathered somewhat safe in one place, and we can keep the PC (that are present) together!

I hope no-one minds : )

Vathan nods to Ceres and readies his weapon with a audible sliding click. He stares at the dead marine for a few heartbeats and then Montinegro for a few more. As they move out, he avoids looking in Holt's direction for as long as possible keeping her in his peripheral vision. he does not trust his face to mask his emotions.

Catching up with the Northern Mylthani, the group finds them using a cutting torch on a lock that's holding a door closed on the side of one of the buildings attached to the nuclear stack.

It doesn't take long for the torch to cut it's way through the door, and then the Mylthani are leapfrogging into the building.

The group would have trouble following, as the hallways are 3 ft high and wide.

The radio crackles. "HAH! Smart buggers! Whoever closed up the warehouse left an all terrain forklift in here, with the battery out and all the supplies to get it put back together again. Looks like they knew what was coming. One thing I noticed, I've not seen any bodies. It feels just like our own dead colony, like everyone knew it was coming, and got together somewhere. I'm getting a very unnerving sense of deja vu here. I hope we aren't seeing a pattern we'll be following for a long time, finding dead worlds." In the background of his voice, there's a sudden roar of an engine. "Be damned, fast buggers they are, they're loading up crates of frozen food and driving them out to the APC. May be a tight ride back. Montinegro's recovering nicely." Ziirkaa keeps the Captain informed of the southern progress.

Meanwhile, a nearby door begins to roll up, and there's a roar as a vehicle starts up. The Mylthani appear, driving a four wheel vehicle (well one is driving, two are riding with guns ready). On the back of it is a dozen large metal cannisters with lurid green symbols plastered all over them.

Ceres was used to crawling trough tight tunnels as it was frequently needed to service the space station back home. However, seeing as they would most certainly only slow the Mylthani down she elected to keep her group waiting outside.

Seeing the Mylthani return Ceres needed only to take a quick look at the symbols on the cannisters to see that they were successful. Yep - Not going to touch those... Picking up her radio she replies to the other group -

"Roger. We are making some progress here too."

Then she quickly switches channels and hails Annara.

"Can you ask if the Mylthani intends to make multiple runs between the power plant and the APC or if they got everything already?"

I assume the vehicle of theirs is not equipped to carry us too?

Not really, you could jump on the sides and hold on though, there's a running board. It looks powerful enough to handle the mass. Just no where to sit on it.

Holt tries to avoid looking at anyone as they continue with the mission. She does her best to push things out of her mind, to concentrate on the mission. Keeping her rifle steady, she watches as the Mythani gather their materials.

Finally, as the Mythani load into their vehicles, Holt keeps her eyes out amongst the sky, ever watchful of more threats from more threats, watching with an almost hyper-alertness..

I can't let another instance like that happen... I'm second in command, one of the ones looked up to for stability... I HAVE to be dependable...Z I can't keep letting them down like that.

The Mylthani drive the vehicle back to the APC, and drive it up the loading ramp, which looks overly large for their vehicle. There are already frost covered crates in the hold, dropped off by the southern group.

The group very carefully unloads the luridly labeled containers and stacks them up. Then they cover the containers with a thick heavy blanket that looks like it weighs more than the mylthani do. Even in a heavy wind, it doesn't flutter.

Then the vehicle is started back up, and it begins to head off toward the nuclear facility again.

The southern group, meanwhile, unloads their vehicle again, and takes off for the warehouse, again.

"Fast little buggers, Captain. Looks like whoever closed up shop here did so in a very organized way, all the food looks like it's been stacked up in mixed pallats, rather than by type like I'd expect, as if someone expected it to be retrieved in a hurry and need to be mixed. Anyone else find it odd we haven't seen any Mylthani corpses? I keep expecting to see dead mylthani, frozen in place, but nothing..." Ziirkaa asks, sounding distracted.

Going with the hang around tactic I think. We are not of much use if we can't follow and protect the Mylthani

"Better not ask what's in their ration bar then ..." Ceres replies in jest to the Doctor.

T\Engineering: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (16) + 15 = 31

"Bring out a Geiger counter and check those fuel canisters. Just a precaution, our definition of acceptable dose may vary greatly from theirs ..." she continues.

There is a slight release from the cannisters, but the blanket is halting it. You'll want to avoid having them sit for too long, and you'll want to scrub it down with anti-rad foam when you get back to the ship, but it shouldn't be dangerous as long as you don't sit on them the entire trip.

T/Engineering Take 10: 10 + 12 = 23

Holt smiles faintly at Ziirkaa's commentary. Trying to focus, she begins to think about the missing corpses.

"Maybe the local wildlife took care of them? I would still think we'd find bones though... Or maybe they retreated early enough that they didn't leave anyone behind and have buried or cremated all of their dead. That whole psychic link thing has to help them know when others are in trouble, and would have probably given them a huge heads up that their environment was becoming too deadly."

"My dear, please look at the size of the city. Even as small as they are, it must have held a half a million or so, probably a million. We counted less than a thousand survivors with sensors..."

Holt nods, still looking out at the sky around the APC.

"Point noted... Maybe they evacuated, but couldn't evacuate everyone and what we found were the ones left behind?"

With a nod Ceres rejoined the conversation again. At the very least, it kept her thoughts occupied. Away from radioactive cannisters and dead marines. Dam! I don't want to think about that ... Shaking her head to get the persistent and annoying thoughts out, she gives her own theory - "I don't think they would be capable of evacuating given their displayed tech-level and what Annara saw. Unless they hid something from her, now that is another disturbing thought ... Perhaps some retreated downwards, counting on geothermal heat and vast food supplies to keep a select few alive until the temperature rises again?" Or maybe they just stayed in their homes until they died ...

Holt nods at Ceres and says "I thought about that. Remember how Annara spoke of their group consciousness thing? They could have potentially become less... intelligent? creative?... I mean, yeah, we would hope to see evidence of such devices if they had them in the past... Yeah, it's a longshot, but I'm just thinking out loud..."

"It's possible that there could be lots of little settlements... but I would think if that were the case then they wouldn't be worried about sudden extinction... unless they are one of the few such bases left..."

Holt begins to think about the stadium full of bones, and briefly wonders if pockets of Mylthani suffered the same fate... or worse.

No, not right now. Focus Ophelia... now is not the time for daydreaming...

To calm herself Holt retrieves her pistol and begins checking the mechanisms for proper function, making sure that all of the cold and moisture wasn't affecting its operation.

Vathan continues to brood over the dead marine and can't contribute the on-going scientific speculation.

The Mylthani are very industrious once things get going.

They load another pile of radioactives on the ship, then put some more lead blankets over them. THree or four layers.

The rest of the cargo hold is filled up with food.

When they finish, the six look at each other in a circle, whiskers twitching and ears flickering.

When they finally move, all 6 move to draw in the snow. Three of them move to draw a picture in the snow of the continent. They draw in the stacks of the nuclear facility you are all near, and the warehouse. Then they draw in the main city you landed at with little eared faces. Then they draw the APC half-way between.

The three on the first picture draw one line between the city, the apc, and the landing town.

The three on the second picture draw three lines between the city and the apc, and another three between the apc and the landing town.

Then they look to the group, all standing in a line, three behind each drawing, and look expectant.

"I think they want us to make three loading trips with the APC. Though, I'm certainly not the scientific one of the crew." Vathan offers. "Either way, the way the APC is full. We have to return to Anara and unload anyway. Maybe she can confirm, or we can call her. Since they're all connected, she would be able to confirm real time, right?"

From what you got before, they are too far away from each other to communicate right now. The locals can't communicate with the other group over this distance, thus why they haven't just requested translation.

The six look at each other, ears twitch, and then three dig into the packs and pull out small bits of tools and such, so they each have a tool in each hand. Then the other three walk up to the three holding bits, and one takes the thing from the left paw. The second takes the thing from the right paw. The third pushes both paws away.

Then the two who chose things put the things on the two drawings, and both hold up their paws in tandem, raising first the left, palm up, then the right, palm up.

Then all six move back again to look at the group expectantly. (those who had things in their hands put them in their pouches).

"All right. Your idea seams reasonable, and confirming via Annara will be easy. Let's get a move-on and ... try to make the next trip smoother."

Ceres motions for everyone to return to the APC so that they can deliver their first shipment. During the trip back she is tight lipped as she mules over the recent events in her mind - and trying to figure out how to prevent further casualties due to hostile wildlife.

The Mylthani don't load into the APC, instead they point to the two drawings, three pointing to the single line drawing, three pointing to the three line drawing, and keep waiting.

They look mildly agitated (not hostile, just lost).

"Maybe the critters want to stay and pile up stuff here at the load site?" Vathan stops short of asking the smart guys to figure this out.

How long did it take the APC to travel here from there? Times two plus a bit for unloading, would be how long it would take the APC to go and return?

How long did it take the aliens to load the APC?

If those times align, I understand their plan. If not, I don't. Because Vathan wouldn't want to leave anyone here alone without the APC unprotected from the wildlife.

Ophelia looks for a moment, trying to puzzle this out, before saying "I think they want us to pick one. Either we all stay together to gather things and unload them back at the clan, or we split up and let them collect things. Maybe we just select which one we want to agree with? Captain?"

It took about 90 minutes flight time, and about two hours to load up the APC.

Vathan suggested that earlier. I was leaning that way as well before the whole tool ritual thing... We'll see how this goes.

Holt continues to look and says "Vathan, I think you were right the first time. Start simple, you know? Captain, how many times are we going to make this trip, if that is correct?"

Assuming that an answer is given...

Holt moves towards the creatures and points at the picture of the little colony, arcs her finger over to the picture of the plant, and arcs it back. She then looks back at the Mylthani and scratches one tick mark in the snow. She repeats this and makes a second tick mark.

Finally, looking into their faces she exaggerates a questioning or confused look while repeatedly shifting her arm back and forth from colony to facility, and then waving them over while gesturing at a clean spot in the snow.

Yep, sorry Vathan, I was more pointing out to Holt that she was getting the feeling you were correct, not that you weren't correct the first time.