Boston Theoretical PbP

Game Master Tarren Dei

Since we're resting, I'll deal with Kai's Engineering checks. Kai didn't need to rest, as Kai didn't take any damage, right? Theo and Charles need some bandages though.

Zellgato also is fine

Remaining in his mecha--as the number of combat ready pilots are relatively light in the group as far as he is aware. But contributes what he can from the mecha systems.

[ooc] Should I roll? I don't think I can fail the dc10 aid another. Unless nat1s are crit fails on skill checks? nat1?: 1d20 ⇒ 7

With Kai's rolls, I wasn't going to hold anything back, but considering the kind of information I gave Kai it makes perfect sense for Zellgato to have been helping scan the infosphere for 20th century technology facts. Your worlds were fairly identical until the 1980s.

Charles takes some time to just rest while the others study their finds. He wonders if there will be any clues as to the other ship, or if the two objects are unrelated. It seemed unlikely, but they were dealing with pretty weird stuff here...

"Well, this is... unexpected." Kai double checks the readings, then turns to the others. "Some of you are more versed with time travel and transdimensional stuff, so let me know what you make of this."

Kai points to the strange-but-familiar device that was in the diving bell. "The submerging device was likely built by our Earth, historical Nazis in the 1940s. So was this device, which is a T-Rad detector by all appearances. How did they know about it, how did they know how to build it? They had the technology and the materials, but the knowledge is... it's something we have just figured out, or so we thought."

Kai turns to Zellgato and Gristlethorn. "Is it possible that someone from your world contacted them in our past?"

Nissa would prefer to have the mods reinstalled in case Kai needs Legion.

Theo tries to patch up Charles as best he can.

Who did take hit point damage? Theo? Charles? You'll need a full night's rest to regain 1 hp per level.

I don't mean you need that full night's rest now. I don't even know if you'll be in combat soon. I just am noting that any hp damage should be kept unhealed for now.

Well, I know Theo got messed up while fighting that shark, lost at least a dozen hit points.

Charles lost stamina but didn't get down to HP

Maybe Charles should be patching up Theo then; Charles does have Life Science and has treated (animal) wounds before. Theo can decide whether to brave the depths again after a rest and after we discuss Kai (and Zellgato)'s findings.

Nissa gives L.C. a call to report what’s been found, and yeah, it’s also an excuse to talk to her.

And since she does have a scientific mind, Nissa tells her of the submersible that seems to be paused in time. “There’s a field, and if you drop a rock on it, the rock bounces off.” Nissa tries her best to describe it, but after her attempt, she says, “You want me to put someone waaaay smarter on the line?”

Nissa wouldn’t be at all offended if L.C. asked for Charles, Kai, or Zellgato to give a ‘more scientific’ description. If she asks for Theo, welllll…

The more Kai examines the device, the more similarities with Kai's own design become apparent. "This is not just them discovering something ahead of us... this is my design. But I don't know how this would be possible." Kai looks at Zellgato and Gristlethorn in particular. "Could this Miss Gray person have spied on us and then given the design to people in our past?"

Nissa replies, “Maybe the spying hasn’t happened yet. That’s why this version looks cool—it’s been marketed.

“Just a guess.” Nissa crosses her arms. “If these jerks marketed my tenth-grade persuasive essay on time travel…” She doesn’t even bother finishing the sentence. In her senior year, papers she wrote for school became part of a fall-fashion photo-shoot. But anything she did in school prior to that was private, as required by contract. “Well I got a 97 on it—but the points-off were grammatical errors—my argument was flawless! Marty McFly has no idea what he destroyed!” Her eyes fall to the floor as she mutters, “People. People erased, and for what? Cool parents and a truck.”

Pausing momentarily in thought, "Well, I don't know about Gray, but if it is your design-were you intending to share it public soon in general? Otherwise, I'm more inclined to assume a breach at home base;" switching briefly to a channel for the core team-and not the starfish full of civvies who he doesn't care to share time travel talks with. " or, we'll poke that ship and one or more of us gets sent back in time-where we're trying to get back to now, and then die in a diving bell. So, lets not go with that possiblity. but getting Time-napped is very real."

Half following Nissa, "That was a movie reference again, yeah. Gonna need to borrow that if I'm with you and time travel comes up."

Out of curiousity, what little is left of biomatter in the ship would be pretty degraded? Zellgato is mildly curious if he could pick up anything left over "not normal" for the time period. Medical proccedures, remnants of drugs or something else that doesn't exist ~yet~ or genetically dissimilar to the inhabitants. Leap of train of thought off an edge due to movie talk~
medicine: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (11) + 15 = 26
life sci or phys sci; same: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (17) + 14 = 31
threw rolls that might be related, if its possible. I can't remember how much of the corpses were left given scavanger creatures.

Zellgato's medical scans of the remains tells him they were probably eaten by sharks, possibly the ancestors of the ones he just saw. There is more remaining of the corpses than one would normally expect when eaten by sharks, so it might be more accurate to say they were attacked by sharks not eaten by them.

Analysis of the bones is possible. Z can look at contaminants particular to different time periods, something that becomes increasingly effective the worst the world gets. Everything Z can throw at the problem suggests these remains belonged to people who were raised in the 20th century.

In her senior year, papers she wrote for school became part of a fall-fashion photo-shoot. But anything she did in school prior to that was private, as required by contract.

Even in Nissa's senior year, hundreds of years after the last essay was actually written on paper for anything other than experiments in anachronism, teachers still asked students to upload 'papers' to the 'file folders' on their class's 'site'. No papers, trees, file folders, or actual sites were involved.

Even in Nissa's senior year, hundreds of years after the last essay was actually written on paper for anything other than experiments in anachronism, teachers still asked students to upload 'papers' to the 'file folders' on their class's 'site'. No papers, trees, file folders, or actual sites were involved.

Oh yes. It was imagery of leaf-shaped screenshots of Nissa’s junior-year presentations and the screenshot of the math problem she is working on in the photo is a retake of a test she failed which she was actually retaking during the shoot. She was on number 5 in the image they used for the billboard. The camera man gave Nissa the correct answer so she wouldn’t portray an outdated bad-at-math stereotype.

"Hum, near as I can tell. not time lost corpses at least. So that does leave time-shanangans. Or lost info; I don't know how often leaps in science get scrounched by war, or politics here. --Though with how secretive things seem so far; fair chance of possible."

It is apparent to everyone that the remains had been there as long as the diving bell had and the diving bell had been there since before 1945 both by appearances and by all the evidence.

All the evidence other than the 23rd Century science packed into 20th Century tubes and wires.

Time Shenanigans, indeed!

"So... question is, does this mean someone goes back in time on our world, or someone went back in time on one of the other worlds?" Charles sighs. "You know, taking care of animals was so much simpler..."

"Anyway, question is, what now? It feels like that other ship must be another piece of the puzzle, but how are we going to get to it with a bunch of sharks and that field in the way?"

Nissa asks, “Can we get the octopus after them? I’m not sure how fast these mechs can swim in comparison, so that could just be a really bad idea. But I think octopi and sharks taste better than robots.”

She just throws that extremely risky plan out there as (she presumes) mods are being reinstalled so she can be among those who take that risk.

She casually says to Zellgato, “Great movie! And of course the movie assumes no one got erased. I just, y’know, had to take a position for the essay. I was a teen model, so if the writing was a little agnsty it’s ’cause writing was the only way I could be angsty. Always had to mind my manners. Be the face…”

Aaaand it occurs to her that she didn’t grow up in a post-apocalyptic hell and most kids her age would have gladly traded lives with her.

“Oh! Not like I’m complaining. Anyway, it’s not just one movie, but three. Real cute in Part II how 1900s people thought the early-2000s would be.”

Don’t know about you, GM, but my daughters use the term ‘1900s’ where I would say ‘80s.’ If not for my kids, I might have had Nissa say ‘1980s.’

It's possible for Nissa to put the supports back in for the mecha. Boston Theoretical had the mechas modified as soon as they saw them. The mechas now take a variety of assistive devices including the adjustments needed for Nissa; they snap right in now.

It sounds like the ship at the bottom of the crevice with its complement of sharks has gotten your attention. How do you approach it?

"You.. represssed a lot in highschool and maybe now with shiny speaking didn't you? Life's too short, too easy to end. Just enjoy the ride and cling to it, even if that means screaming at the vo....well right now screaming at the ocean. Not something I thought I'd get to do. So hey, enjoying the ride."

I can reload my injection, right? I just have to hop out and do so once everyones rested up. Sadly just no 2 for 1 debuff

"Well, my poison in the Octo-lunch has long run its course, if the ships controlling sharks, I don't really see why it couldn't an aoctopus--I can't say I looked up how their brain complexity compared between those two. I don't suppose anyone brought explosives with them? I didn't."

Nissa replies, “We’re surrounded by gazillions of explosives! Get me in a fight, and I’ll split an atom. It’s a thing I do.”

Since were knowingly heading into danger, I can start the encounter with ☀️. By round 2, I would have ☀️☀️☀️. But because fire doesn’t work under water, that will be 24 holy light damage with my ♠️, a.k.a. half of 47 fire damage. I should be able to hit every shark depending on their movement. (Regardless of my Init roll, sharks will get at least one round to move.)

Nissa, would you need to abandon the mech in order to do your supercharge thing?

Mechanically, no. She’s projecting the supernova up to 40ft from her center, which keeps the mech out of the blast. If the sharks surround the mech, she’ll project the blast 5ft away and take the hit (I’m okay with a no reflex save call either because the ♠️ guarantees 1.5x max or because Nissa can’t Pilot while Supernova-ing). To Supernova inside the mech would means the full 47 damage (just hits the mech while the sharks take 24!—and since the attack is from within, that damage should probably go straight to HP).
_
Thus, the plan would be to explode in the center of the sharks, while 10-40 feet away. If sharks encircle her, the mech will make a 5ft ‘step’ and Supernova the center of the sharks (when the mech ‘stepped’ away from). Former: 0 damage to mech; latter: 24 damage to mech.
_
We may want to coordinate this before attempting!

We may want to coordinate this before attempting!

Do as much planning as you need. Tell me when you're ready to launch the mecha back into the crevice.

Zellgato can reload as needed. Or, if he doesn't have a suit on, someone with a suit can help.

"Are you guys really going to dive into a group of sharks guns blazing?" chirps Easily Ignorable Girl over the comms, presumably from the yacht above. "This is going to be amazing!"

After a pause Mackie asks, "Who was that?" but he doesn't follow up.

Will: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
Nissa ignores Easily Ignorable Girl so easily, she doesn’t even feel guilty about it. She is as oblivious to the girl’s presence as can be, and can’t even imagine who Mackie is talking about.

Of the plan, Nissa says, “Okay… here’s the thing. Get me hot and bothered enough, I’ll burst. The only catch is that if the sharks surround me, they might damage my shield. And then I’ll blow up my own mech.

“So either we need bait, or we need a means of firing my guns at the sharks—so if hurting them snaps them out of their hypnosis, at least I’m far away when I make them mad.”

She isn’t sure how the shark-murder thing is going over with the rest of the team.

“If they swim away from the red ship, the explosion might not be necessary. But no matter what, it’s hardly a mercy to leave the sharks circling until they die.”

Will save: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

Kai is still quite engrossed in the revelations of the vintage T-Rad detector, so at first misses that anyone said anything. Wait, did someone on the yacht use the comms?

"Well, not all of us, I think I will stay behind and study this a little more. Nissa can make better use of the mech than I can. But hey, surface team, if you have ideas let us hear them!"

Kai would rather not have the entire group of sharks killed, but it felt really important to get at what they were guarding.

"Well," responds Easily Ignorable Girl to Kai's request for suggestions, "I remember my super-hot high school biology teacher telling us that sharks had more light sensitivity than other fish. Maybe the flash alone will blind them."

After a pause, Mackie says, "Hey, don't sharks have greater light sensitivity? Maybe you'd be able to blind them?"

"I give up," says a small, frustrated, easily-ignored voice.

“Perfect! I just gotta get all worked up and blind ’em! Way less risky than what I had in mind. Thanks—”

Will: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20

“—EIG!” Nissa’s shocked to find out the kid traveled all this way. “Wha—? How many missions have we taken you on? Did your mother sign a permission slip?”

"Nissa! But, for real, like I need a permission slip. I can go anywhere I want. You're all just lucky I'm Natural Good and not Lawful Evil. I could walk off with the Crayon Jewels or something," EIG says.

Will: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

"Wait... have I been ignoring you this whole time?" He grimmaces, realizes she can't see it, and adds, "I'm sorry about that, but... well, you're probably more used to this than I can understand. And I complain about having four arms and a fox head!"

"Bright light would definitely be a shock to anything that lives this deep. But we don't know what that... voice is doing, so we can't count on just that driving them off. I'd really rather we didn't kill them, though, so it's worth a try. How much range have we got? It'd be better if we can fire at them from extreme range, give ourselves more time to injure them, hopefully scare them enough to break whatever's going on. Animals aren't exactly interested in dying for the kinds of things humans do, so their nature's probably going to start fighting whatever hold that thing has on them as soon as they're up against something that's hurting them."

Nissa asks, “Can we rig my mercy pistols to the mech so I can fire them?”

Technically, the nonlethal damage is fire, so all that works underwater is holy light, which is lethal. But we’re talking 1-4 damage so it won’t kill. Shooting the sharks would build up my photon attunement (the sunshine things: ☀️).
_
If we’re not trying to kill the sharks, I won’t use the ♠️, so damage from that will be ~10.

Will save: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22
Theo, still wrapping his arm in bandages, notices everyo0ne seems to be talking at some distant point in the room. Slowly, the godling follows everyone's gaze to..
"Hey! EIG! When did [u]you[/u] get here?"

"Nissa! But, for real, like I need a permission slip. I can go anywhere I want. You're all just lucky I'm Natural Good and not Lawful Evil. I could walk off with the Crayon Jewels or something," EIG says.

“There’s nothing lawful about stealing crayons!” Nissa replies in mock indignation.

"Charles! Theo!" EIG squeals over the comms. She switches to an overly-dramatic voice "Oh, myyy. I've never been the center of attention before. You sure know how to make a girl feel welcome. I better not let it go to my head."

She laughs.

"But seriously, when haven't I been here?"

"Excuse me, Iggy," says Ian to EIG taking over the comms from EIG. "You should be able to hook up your pistols to the mecha, no problem. They've got a slot for any standard handheld weapon."

Nissa does so. “Well, that was easy. Like shooting fish in barrel—or fish in an ocean!” She straps in and says twirls the mecha arms. “Bay twelve, please!”

Does Zellgato notice the apparently perception filter girl: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14
"..I"m confused. Are you all being horrible people to her? If you are, that would be disappointing. Unless she's someone horrible. Are you someone horrible? Is that some sort of bonding thing? She's been around, just quiet. Oh. Or is this another movie reference yours Nissa?"

Getting back into his mecha, Zellgato tries to realign after reloading; "As for bait. That would be me I assume. Mecha is more bite resistant than Theo or you. Just don't blow me up. I've managed for not be exploded yet. I'd rather keeep at that record."[/b]

"Ummmm... how to explain this... Zellgato, the voice on the comm is Easily Ignorable Girl, who's... well, her superpower is making people not notice she's around, and I don't think she can turn it off?" Charles explains, a bit uncomfortably. "So chances are we all actually saw her earlier today and just didn't notice until she spoke up on the comms now and we lucked out and noticed her voice."

Nissa chimes in, “She’s got a power that’s better than invisibility—especially now that multispectral goggles rendered that superpower obsolete. EIG can hide in plain sight!

“Oh, but you might not need to be shark-bait if I can shoot ’em without making them scatter.”

Nissa’s ready to move.

She asks Zellgato, “Once the sharks are gone we lift the ship right away. That the plan?”

If yes, Nissa intends to start swimming.

"....useful but also dangerous if she gets hurt right? Don't you guys have like... a buzzer or something for her? Also. That woudlnt' work on motion sensors and cameras or ID cards and such right? "

Standing his mecha up, after Nissa's show of readiness "Uh. I do not beleive we've come up with an effective plan for the ....temporal shield? I guess? Whatever effect is going on with it. We won't be able to just pick it up right?
That said, if we do have a method; I would suggest not explosions near the alien ship that may have called sharks to defend itself. That likely would not be a good sign of friendship-when we're already intending to kidnap it." Zellgato tries to frame his question in a way that doesn't give him flashbacks to one horribly failed infiltration mission where one bad phrase sent off full chaos with no one really knowing whose helping and whose hurting.

if we have a method i missed for retriving the ship. i'm all for it. Zellgato isn't stopping the trip; but he does want the consideration of the show of force for an alien ship that can summon creatures

Ride of the Valkyries starts playing over the comms. Buried beneath the music is Mackie's confused voice as he tries to figure out who started the music.

The two mechas lead the way into the trench. Who else is swimming down there with them? Hitching a ride on the mecha Theo? Charles?

☀️
“Classic!”

Nissa gets into position as quickly as she can, feeling the photons charging as she begins to feel the danger!

She says warns Zellgato, “The Nazi octopus might pull outta the alley—er, cave—and follow us.”

Heeding the warning, "In the case it does and wants a word with us... We book it. Or failing that. I'm on octo, you're on sharks? I got nothing for multiple fast moving targets... but I might be able to wrestle a octo." Pausing a moment, perhaps a bit too overly relaxed-its not the most dangerous thing he's done in the last year at least, "Also, I kind of want to eat it still. Giant probably old octopus, hell of a way to try seafood for the first time."

"I'll try to figure out a way to lift the ship if you scatter the sharks," Kai promises, then gets to work.

Engineering: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (14) + 15 = 29