Badger snaps a shell back into his single shotgun and waits for the next gecko to get close.
Agility:
Ace:
Guns (w/multi-action, 2 wounds and close range):
Edit: I know Kris will take an AoO...he's tough he'll live.
= Raise
The gecko bites savagely into Kristophe, leaving massive teeth marks into his armor, but the metal protects him before he blasts the reptile into pieces. He can feel where the teeth tore through the metal and ripped his shirt underneath, barely grazing his skin.
|
Warhammer analyses the onrushing lizards and confirms an attack solution.
He floats a bit south and, the bird to his back, takes a quick range-picture of the landscape. The ally confirmed, he lets loose.
"You will be looked on with favor by those who are served your lightly seared hindquarters! You would be most excellent with a dark Merlot, or perhaps even a dessert wine, such as a Lambrusco from California!"
Such biting wit delivered, he sets loose his first blaze from...the flamethrower!
suck. still = 9
= 15
Both Thomas and Jimmy hold their actions, aiming down range, waiting for a clear shot.
The gecko manages to press on through the acrid smoke.
Badger moves quickly, bringing his weapon to bare against a gecko charging straight at it, putting it down with just enough force to kill it.
The smell of gecko meat as Warhammer torches them is, frankly, delicious and he torches them to a juicy, flaky, crisp. One slips around the fire, however, and charges straight for the humans.
Perhaps it's the confusion of the fire, but they're moving far too fast for Jimmy and Thomas to keep up, and then...the remnants of the horde descend.
The gecko that dodged the flames leaps at Thomas, biting and clawing.
= Total 9 = Raise
=Total 10 = Hit (shaken)
Thomas manages to dodge the creatures claws, but it's bite cleaves through the armor, though it is thick enough to prevent him doing much more than stunning Thomas.
Kristophe swats aside a Gecko(s16) with his Discipliner
The creature goes flying and crumples lifeless...
Kris then in full berzerker fury charges ahead at another Gecko (u14) and tries to stomp his head.
Kris squishes the Gecko's brains with his booted heel.
Badger jams another shell into the single shotgun, wishing he had a better gun that wouldn't break his shoulder with the recoil. He fires at the gecko on Kris' flank.
Guns w/multiaction, wounds and +2 shotgun close range:
But he misses completely.
Timmy moves up and assists Kris by swinging his baton at a Gecko (t13)
Timmy misses horribly
Sorry Kris! he stammers, blushing with shame at his horrible attack.
Moving to hopefully distract the gecko with her presence, Aeryicka tried to figure out a good way to give the others a good shot at getting rid of the hoard. Somehow, though, she just knew that something had would happen if she were to actively join the fight
Cray, meanwhile, had no such qualms about the fight. With a piercing shriek, he dove at the gecko between Aeryicka and Thomas, talons poised for the eyes.
Unfortunately the birds talons just can't pierce the lizard thing's thick skin.
|
|
Warhammer glides closer to the lizard attacking his master prime director, and comes down with the ripper.
Though the robot strikes a hit, a palpable hit, it does not yet serve the lizard into bite-sized cutlets.
Thomas tries to keep on fighting, despite the onslaught of the way-overly-friendly lizard.
He finds the strength within him to keep going...but with the long days in dirty beds not fit for rags wears on him, the constant attacks, the endurance of murdering men he swore to protect just for political expediency...all of it. His eyes turn red with rage and focus on the barely hurt gecko in front of him...and he just starts screaming.
Jimmy senses that the time might be right to rejoin the fight, so he stalks forward. Seeing a lizard just south of Kris seem distracted, he lines up a bead on it.
The gecko in front of Thomas has a chunk cut out of him, and just as it turns to attack Thomas, is presented with him screaming it it's face. This is too much for the poor animal and it dies from an adrenaline overload, falling dead in front of him.
Only three geckos remain, and one steps up to Thomas, biting and clawing.
The other two, already in position to gang up on Kristophe, do so.
None of the pathetic creatures can land a hit.
Kris swats a Gecko [t13] total=9
The Gecko is splattered all over the pavement.
Kris then attempts to punt a different Gecko[u15] into next week
but his attack is erratic and the creature dodges the kick.
Timmy moves up to help Kris, attacking the Gecko Kris tried to kick [u15]
Raise
Ok I'll stop now
Timmy brains the lizard with his baton
Kris did ya see that!
Yeah kid, that's great you killed a lizard.
Aeryicka, feeling that this battle was already won, ran over to Thomas and pulled out one of her stimpaks. "Hold still, won't hurt a bit," she said before jabbing the hypo into his thigh.
Cray, meanwhile, let out another shriek and hit the lizard, his talons raking the creature's eyes.
Cray straight pulls the eyes straight out of the gecko, and the blood loss and system shock, frankly, drops the thing dead.
Between that, and Kristophe, there are about 18 dead geckos lying about, three cooked to a delicious-smelling crisp.
Clubs—Tragedy: Describe a tale of tragedy or misfortune
from your hero’s past, featuring one of his Hindrances
if possible. If the teller has a dark secret of some kind,
hint strongly at it, drop clues, or otherwise give the rest
of the group a glimpse into your hero’s dark side during
your narrative.
Diamonds—Desire: Tell a tale about something your
hero wants (or already has). It might be a material
possession, recognition, a political goal, or even a trip
he wishes to take to some amazing destination.
Hearts—Love: Speak fondly of the character’s greatest
love—lost, found, or waiting on him back home. What
is her name? Where does she live? Why is the traveler
not with her now?
Spades—Victory: Tell the group about a great victory or personal triumph in your adventurer’s past. How did
it affect him afterward? Was there a reward
nah
Smells delicious. ALmost like... Kristophe thinks back to his best days in the Vault, his mornings with Gloria
Almost like, Artificial Bacon. Man, I miss that stuff. Gloria made a mean Cram and ArtiBacon loaf. With some Smeggs it was just..just perfect. I guess some other a&~~!$& is eating those Smeggs. F~+~ing Overseer, g&&~~&n a%!&~+! piece of s+~+. I'd f@&@ing kick his ass if he was here right now. Kick him square in his motherf#~~ing coccyx. You can't tell if Kris is crying, or if he's just allergic to the smoke from the crispy fried Gecko.
C'mon Timmy, lets make sure no more f~$@ing lizards are coming. What the f%*% are you looking at? Mind your damn business.
Timmy looks around like What the f&!@ is this guy's deal?
Kris picks up his shotgun and stands alone with his thoughts.
"S#&~, I'm beat. Aeryicka, you got any more stimpaks?"
Survival:
1 Ace:
|
|
Thomas receives the stimpack and it seems to revitalize him more than some mere medicine has any right to. He stands tall and proud amongst the smoking wreckage of those that came to kill him and his group. He breaths deep the air infused with blood and the feint wiff of seasoned meat. "Y'know, it does kinda smell like victory."
"Y'know what I miss? Money. And somewhere to spend it. Oh, sure, barter is fine in a pinch, but you can't get fair value, and you can't have a stable system without a common form of exchange. If I sweat and labor and make a fine knife, and the chicken farmer gives me one chicken for it, what would he be expected to pay his neighbor in exchange for a used knife? The knife isn't worth as much as a new one, but if all he has are chickens, how can he pay fairly? It's not worth a whole chicken, and if the neighbor isn't a butcher, what use would he have for a half a chicken that still needs to be cleaned, feathered, gutted, and grilled? But with a common medium, such inaccuracies can be mitigated!
Maybe...maybe we could do that out here. Set a up a new medium. It seems that bottle-caps are used right now, but that won't do for the long run. How would you make more? Unless a bottling plant not only survived but was even still in use. But what then? You never could put a cap on a bottle, since there's be no point--the bottles would just be looted for currency.
Maybe...maybe we could set up a printing press and issue new tender. We could call them Vault Dollars! Okay, no, that's a dumb idea, but still, the idea is still good. Something intrinsically worthless, but with the power of the issuing state behind it. Yeah...that'd be cool."
Excuse me a moment, won't you."
Thomas gets up and goes to get a drink from the toilet.
He also reads Harper's note. Somehow he always knew. He hopes she's okay.
Dear Tom...
Wow. I don't really know how to say this, so I guess I'll spill it. Estelle told me she was going to leave. She said Miles was right, and we don't have unity, and she wasn't about to wait around to find it. She's a doctor, and she wanted to find people, and a home to survive, and figured a couple people would be easier to hide than a whole mess of a group. I didn't want to leave you, but she said the "all the men seemed to be going crazy, and Aeyricka seemed to be acting like an animal, and I was the only one with any sense at the moment." When Badger and Kristophe killed Miles you did nothing. You acted like he was a tool to be used. Yes, he was scary, and he wasn't human, but, he was sentient and you watched Kristophe slaughter him like one of those crazed mindless nuns, all you did was slap his wrist with a "shame shame" comment, and talked about not that it was wrong to kill him, but that it was wrong to kill him YET, and using him as fodder for slavers in battle. I just don't know if I could trust any of you after that. Maybe this world is too cruel for me, or maybe it's just all of you. I'm sorry. She told me where to meet her. If I run into all of you again, don't hate me.
Harper
Badger is splashed to his elbows in gecko gore, skinning and cleaning the geckos with varying degrees of success.
Thomas and Aeryicka:
"So, they had to eat some of the folks that died of the cold, though I think the grown-ups mostly didn't. I think they just fed the young kids to try and keep them alive. No one was happy about it, that's for sure. I hear you get pretty sick if you try it, with like greasy skin and stuff. Hasn't come to that, thank God."
Bloom points to the combat knife Aeryicka has lashed to her hockey stick.
"That used to be my great-grandfather's, back when he was in the Army- think this was before we all had to pack it into the Vault. He always said it should go to the oldest boy passed down- so my brother Mitch wound up with it. Mitch is a good guy and all, but I think both of us knew I was the better person to get the knife. He had a good head for figures and recipes, which was why he did real well with my family's moonshine business- the Overseer didn't always like it, since once in a while a still would blow and it would be a hazard to everybody but I bet he still drank the stuff like everyone else."
"So Mitch was great at brewing it; we would take the old potatoes from the kitchen and other stuff and he would throw in orange peels and stuff like that to make it taste less like medicine. But besides peeling a damn potato, what's he gonna use a knife for right? And I was dead set on going to the surface, even if the Overseer wouldn't let me right? But Ma and Pa had said it was tradition and I'd have to deal with it- and he rubbed it in as much as he could, being an older brother and all."
"So one of the old stills- Uncle Blake's, he's the guy that started calling me Badger- blows up a little. Uncle Blake was getting up there and my aunt had left him, so he wasn't paying attention. But we got the fire under control, it was really just my Uncle's stuff that went up, the fool. Lost his eyebrows too. But that means VaultSec was coming to bust up the stills, so we couldn't make any more. Which would ruin the family, that's how we got favors and stuff from everybody. So Mitch, he's trying to take the whole thing apart with the mash and everything and I'm just like- 'Listen, we don't have time, cool it off enough and I got a plan.' So I put on all the metal stuff from the still- it was still hot, too, and it smelled like the rotting potatoes and stuff- and then I have my brother pour the mash on me. VaultSec comes in and they're like, 'The Hell are you doin' Badger?!' and I'm like, 'What? This is my Halloween costume! I'm a hillbilly robot!'"
"I looked dumb and they laughed at me and I got a few little burns, but we could put the still back together and keep the moonshine going. So my brother and my folks gave me that knife 'cause my dumb plan worked and they could keep earning for the family."
With some of her story told, she started gathering up the bits and pieces of the lizards she could salvage.
The time of the battle, the skinning, and the amount of time you spent before that finding the clinic and walking down the road has passed several hours. As Warhammer said before, you're about 14 hours or so walk from the hospital, probably four hours from the school.
It's close to noon, and normally by now you'd be expecting some intense heat, but you feel a strong wind is blowing from the east, and it's gray in the sky in that direction as far as the eye can see.
Some rain is misting on you, and there is a distant thundering, but the wind...well...the wind is surprisingly strong, and you can see the rain in the distance is pretty torrential...
Survival:
"Huh. So... the wind is picking up... uh... I think I read about this. I think it's called a 'hurricane'. Let's see if there's any shelter around, maybe..."
Badger looks around the ruins near the clinic, hoping to find an enclosed space of some sort.
Notice:
Using the animal instincts that humans have spent generations trying to suppress, Aeryicka perked up and looked around. "Really bad weather coming," she said. "Not seem that way now, but get much worse soon. Should find good den to hide in, somewhere very sturdy." With that thought in mind, both Aeryicka and Cray start look around at their surroundings, Cray flying high to find appropriate shelther from the coming storm.
It's just some f@@$ing rain. Kris mutters We should be in f$##ing Dome by now, not wandering around with our peckers in our hands...
Timmy says Kris, the weather can be really bad. We better find someplace quick
Yeah kid. Whatever.
Hey, Overseer Tom. We walking this road for you. What should us uneducated a$+&#+~s be doing right now? Kris calls out sarcastically
The bird starts circling around in one particular direction, and when Warhammer sloooooowly flies up high enough to see in the distance, he lowers back down.
"There seems to be a squat brick building over in that direction which the bird has found. It appears to be a library. The sign says Indian River County. Wait, that doesn't make sense..."
"Let's hit the library before this wind picks up more!", Badger exclaims, stuffing his backpack with lizard skins and the remaining eggs.
As you approach the building, you notice it is indeed an entirely brick and mortar building, and it seems to have really held up over the years. Not entirely huge, it seems maybe the size of a moderate ranch style home; this is clearly just a local branch building. The building's windows are all boarded up with plywood which seems to have rotted some over the years, but the structure is solid.
"Mac, why are we wasting our time in this burnt out pile of crap. The computers are all burned out, and there's no way there's any weaponry in here worth speaking of."
"G&&~!&nit, James, this is why all the scribes think we're idiots. Books can have information about weaponry and technology. The scribes will s*** a brick if we bring them back something about how to build a fusion core, or whatever."
"Yeah, but in a public library in the middle of the sticks?"
"You never know, J, you never know...wait...what the hell was that? I hear something at the door..."
It then sounds strangely like something fusion powered charging up.
Notice:
Ace:
Badger flattens himself against the wall next to the door and motions the others into cover.
"Hey, Tom? Now's a good time to loudly discuss how peaceful we are and your dreams of a better tomorrow after we wait out the hurricane inside this library building. And how much we don't want to be shot with some kind of energy weapon, if you can work that in."
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Thomas yells back at Kris. "Really? Truly? Really and truly? You do what I say now? That's awesome. I've got a special mission for you. Only someone of your unique experience and expertise can carry this off. Are you ready? Are you really ready? Alright, I need you to really concentrate/ Dig down, real, real deep, and, for the good of all humanity, you need to shut the f%%+ up. Alright? Got it? Think you can pull that off for five f*$#ing minutes? Excellent."
Later, at the library....
= success
Jimmy grabs Badger and stops. He whispers to the others. "Pssst. Um, heh, ah, hey guys. I, ah, I here voices inside. It, uh, sound like they both have weapons and are talking about weapons. I only hear two, but the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
Kris just snorts in response to Tom's outburst.
Timmy hears it too and turns to Kris...
Kris says loudly Hey a%%+~+~s. We hear you in there. Don't make a f$&*ing mistake and think your gonna whack us and take our s*&&. If you think we're easy meat, I've got some f+%$ing Discipline for you.
Badger shakes his head, turning his eyes to the heavens in frustration.
"There's six of us out here, we're looking to ride out the storm in this library, don't want any trouble... well, *one of us* might want trouble, the rest of us are fine with just hanging out until this hurricane blows over.", Badger says loudly.
"Missile?"
"Really? You want to open with a missile? I mean...it just makes such a mess."
"Well, I mean, it really ups the intimidation factor."
"Yeah, but they do have a point. There's supposed to be a 'cane blowing in tonight, James. It would be nice to keep the walls here. Plus, at least one of them seems to have half a brain."
"Fine, fine, but it I see a weapon in someone's hand, I'm turning them to a pile of body parts."
"You out there...open the door, and hands where we can see them. I've got a Q32 Plasma Rifle ready to turn someone into a pile of green goo if I see a weapon drawn on us. We ain't heartless monsters, so you can come in, but I want big mouth pointed out, and he's to stand against the wall and face the corner when he gets in."
You hear snickering from one of the paladins. "Seriously, Mac? Facing the corner? Oh, man, you're awesome!"
When you open the door you see it's pretty dark inside due to all the boarded up windows, and two people covered head to toe in what you recognize from old pre-war vids as power armor have a missile launcher and a plasma rifle trained on the entrance. The library smells of must and old paper, but seems otherwise pretty clean and in good shape.
Go f%#& yourself, you put your weapons down! Kristophe shouts as he draws his .44
Timmy...the pulse grenade. Kris whispers and he holds his hand out.
Timmy snatches the Pulse Grenade and hands it over to Kris and grabs a Flashbang for good measure.
Kris motions for Badger to go around the building.
"Dude, put your weapons away. Second group of actual humans that might not want to kill us, I don't want to see this get f**+ed up. So give it back to Timmy, put your gun away and let's be civilized for a little bit."
"Just so you know, one of us has a buzzard- pretty sure it's not tame to anyone but my friend here.", Badger calls inside.
"Put your s#$! away, man. We're playing it cool."