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Graceful as ever, Never leaps, rolls and dashes toward the guards.
Seeing Never approaching, the driver calls out to his fellows. They stop poling the craft away from the boulder and reverse their rifles, ready to shoot. The hover craft slowly bumps along the boulder.
Spinjack was only waiting for you to come out of the cab, even just to expose a hand or arm. He fires on Sparky and the ysoki cries out in pain.
Jaeric speeds along Lorne and Sparky's trail. Trees close in along the path. There's a slight turn and you see Lorne and Sparky's snow dragon. The pair is besieged by Farvenzi and the jetpack wearing Spinjack hovering above them and hosing the snowdragon with gunfire. The ground between you and them is spotted with huge muddy clods -- and an enormous ditch.
[ooc] Neil, you need a pilot check. 10 or lower and you crash into the ditch and stop. 10-15 nets you damage to your dragon. (7) You end your turn 6 squares past the ditch.
Or you could stop on the west side of the ditch.
Zephyr, still trying to disable their pursuit without killing them, fires another pair of blasts at the hovercraft.
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Never had anticipated the sled would move toward her, giving her the jump on the guys, but instead it moved away, around the south of the hillock, forcing her to move again. If it continued to accelerate away from her they would roast her with their automatic rifles. She had to get on that sled.
Not breaking stride, she runs up to the top of the small hill, turns, and leaps at the moving vehicle.
She crashes against it, failing completely. But she still has a chance to do... something. Like try again.
Jaeric rumbles past Zephyr in his snow dragon, noticing Never has jumped out to race towards the guards in their hovercraft. As he presses on, he muses to himself, 'Desna have pity on whatever pain she's about to mete out on those Frozen Trove guys.'
He pushes down the trail Lorne and Sparky left, weaving among various trees until he finally catches sight of them beyond some kind of ditch. Their vehicle seems in trouble, especially with two flying attackers firing down on it. So, rather than barrel in directly, he calls back the situation to Zephyr and Never. "Looks like Farvenzi and Spinjack have Lorne and Sparky pinned down. Not sure they'll be able to reach the ship for backup. As soon as you two can leave those guards behind, close on our position. We're going to need all the firepower we can get for these two."
Jaeric pulls up short of the ditch and opens his window to reach out a hand to call upon his mystic power.
Despite his normal careful enunciation, Sparky squeaks as Spinjack shoots him.
"Let's stay on target. Don't do us no good ta swap back 'n' forth as they annoy us." Lorne reminds the Yasoki.
"Ain't pinned, they shot uh tread clean off. Can't move t'e crawler!" he calls out over the open comm channel.
While talking, Lorne also marks Farvenzi as his selected target, and both try again to hurt the dragonborn.
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Never's bold tactics seem to take the guards by surprise. She leaps onto the bed of the hovercraft unopposed. Her shoulder hits a guard, knocking his rifle to the deck. The hovercraft lurches as Zephyr punches another hole in the skirt. A low frequency grinding sound from under the craft adds bass to the whine of the turbines. The rifle slides away. Both guards on deck draw taclashes and swing them at Never. The one on her right slashes into her arm back while the other brings his lash down only on the deck.
The driver meanwhile starts a slow right turn and pushes his throttles full forward. The grinding sound stops, but there's a long furrowed wake in the soil behind the hovercraft now.
Farvenzi folds his wings and drops under Lorne and Sparky's fire. The dragonkin then replies with two shots of his own that ping and spark off the snowdragon.
Spinjack also drops toward the ground, but it's not a defensive stratagem. He momentarily lost control of the jetpack during Jaeric's mental assault. The ryphorian recovers, rotates in mid-air, and shoots toward the half-elf. The laser lances right through the windscreen and burns into Jaeric's shoulder.
...
...
...
...
...
Spinjack 20 damage
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When the guard hits Never, her electrostatic field sends a charge back into him.
"Why can't you buttheads ever mind your own business?" Never shouts. She speaks as if these are the same lockstep, jack-boot, mouth-breathing brainlets that have harassed her for her entire life.
She takes out some of that frustration on the hovercraft driver.
Starting Entropic Pool: 3
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Never's lash shatters the rear window of the cab, but doesn't quite reach the driver. He looks around just in time for her next strike to snake past the broken glass and cut deep into the face of his armored helmet. The tip of the lash drips blood as it recoils back toward her.
Driver 16 damage
Green 6 damage
Jaeric guns his snow-dragon forward, trying to clear the ditch.
"Zephyr? We've got serious damage to the third snow-dragon. They're taking coordinated fire from Farvenzi and Spinjack. I'm doing what I can to hinder them, but leave those guards behind, if you can. All we've got to do is get the head of security to surrender and maybe we can get this sorted out without anyone else getting hurt."
With that Jaeric tries to maintain his grasp on Spinjack's mind. 'I never really liked you anyway...' he mutters to himself, and sends another pulse of psychic energy lancing outward.
”You copy that, Never? The others need us. Get back to the dragon and we’ll leave the hovercraft boys in our snow spray!” Zephyr clicks into the comms.
Zephyr whips the snow dragon around to get it closer to the hovercraft, then shoots out of the passenger window at the vehicle. ”Ride’s leaving, Never. Let’s move!”
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Spinjack clutches at his head and drifts sideways.
Zephyr pulls the snowdragon around and stops in front of the hovercraft. It makes for a big, easy target and the android drills another shot into the lift-skirt. A large rent opens from hole to hole to hole and the vessel drops onto the ground. Amazingly all three combatants on the bed of the hovercraft keep their feet.
The two guards on the bed try to double team Never. Left side misses again. The tip of the other's taclash finds a gap at the vanguard's elbow. It stings, but not enough even to make her flinch.
Their failure and Never's belligerent attitude encourage them to jump off the rear of the truck. Inside the cab, the driver twists out of their seat and presses against the forward wind-screen, practically sitting on the dash, and raises their hands.
...
...
Spinjack 31 dam
Green 6 damage
Driver 16 damage
As the fight continues to go against them, Lorne shakes his head, but doesn't yield. "Jest gotta take one o' t'em outta t'e fight!" The two continue shooting at Farvenzi
Their shots remain mostly ineffective, however.
As soon as Never is in, Zephyr guns the engine of the snowdragon, hurtling towards the rest of the party apparently engaged with the leaders. ”Hold on captain, we’re on the way!”
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Lorne and Sparky's gunfire is completely ineffective. Jaeric pushes forward and redoubles the mental assault on Spinjack.
She and Spinjack zoom toward Jaeric and set up a cross fire on the mystic's snowdragon. Farvenzi's heavy rounds crunch into the engine block and Spinjack's laser slices a gash across the control panel. Sparks fly and the panel goes dead.
...
...
Spinjack 31 dam
Green 6 damage
Driver 16 damage
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Never leaps to the snowdragon and Zephyr guns it into a tight turn. The guards leap to the side to get out of the way. The android steers expertly, cleaving a clean path of travel around and through the minor dips, bumps, stones and ledges. They round a bend and can see Farvenzi and Spinjack firing down, presumably at their companions.
Never screams her challenge over the engine's roar.
Lorne
Jaeric
Sparky
Farvenzi
Spinjack
Zephyr
Never
"We're all pinned down and running out of options here!" Jaeric calls across the comm to Zephyr and the rest of the team as he takes cover within the ruined snow-dragon. He peers thru the window and tracks Spinjack's movement before reaching out once more to afflict the security chief's mind.
'We really need our ship in the air...' he grouses to himself, worried that the team may be outgunned and outmaneuvered.
"Hold still ya blasted lizard!"
This time the two seem to have more luck with their aim.
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Spinjack drops a little from loss of control, but recovers more quickly than before. "You're weakening, elf."
"Got 'em!" Lorne and Sparky have a celebratory moment, but Farvenzi hardly notices. She remains focused on Spinjack and her common target.
Ryphorian and dragonkin concentrate fire at Jaeric, but only succeed in further damaging the half-elf's snow dragon. The two suddenly break off and fly south toward the new challengers. They stay low over the forest to take advantage of any cover it might offer.
Farvenzi
Spinjack
Spinjack 39 dam
Farvenzi 13 dam
Green 0 damage (after ) 7 rounds
Driver 13 damage (after )
...
...
Zephyr continues his piloting of the snow dragon over as close to his friends as he can get, doing his best to avoid the mined trench.
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When the snowdragon piloted by Zephyr gets close to where Farvenzi is hovering, Never executes her now-famous Stormfox Maneuver, where she leaps out of the speeding vehicle and tumbles to her feet, breaking into a run and never losing momentum.
Move 25'
"Come get me you worthless coward!" she hurls at Farvenzi.
Then seeing that the dragonkin has so far ignored her taunts, she puts her taclash between her teeth and jumps at the closest tree and climbs to where she has a shot at engaging him in close range with her weapons.
Entropic Pool: 3
"Just fall down, ya 'nooyin' 'squito!"
"She is too far away to hear your taunts. Perhaps if you focused more on aiming?" The Yasoki earned a quick glare. At least partially because Lorne knows he isn't wrong.
Lorne and Sparky both miss. Maybe the ysoki should also focus more on aiming.
Seeing Farvenzi and Spinjack split up, Jaeric leaves the dragonkin to Never so he can help Zephyr fend off the ryphorian security chief. He exits the damaged snow-dragon and hurries across the icy terrain, skirting the ditch as he enters the trees to the north.
"You might want to bail on the vehicle, Lorne. Go help Never! Sparky? You think you can run for the ship and get it in the air? We could really use the fire support..."
He then raises his slugthrower and fires off a shot at Spinjack.
The bullet from his auto-pistol spaaks off a tree, but he hopes it gives their opponent something else to worry about...
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Farvenzi attaches her rifle to her chest harness while she circles Never. Then she darts in and a stream of fire erupts from her mouth at the vanguard. The leaves and branches around her begin to smoke and kindle.
Spinjack glances down at Jaeric, then flies south east. Getting behind Zephyr's snowdragon he fires at the vehicle. Fire erupts under the aft cowling and smoke pours from under the fairing.
Spinjack 39 dam
Farvenzi 13 dam
Green 0 damage (after heal serum: 1d8 ⇒ 7 ) 6 rounds
Driver 13 damage (after heal serum: 1d8 ⇒ 3 )
F, squad machine gun v Jaeric KAC, cover : 1d20 + 11 - 4 ⇒ (8) + 11 - 4 = 15 ... damage: 1d10 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7
...
Hopping out of the disabled Snowdragon, Zephyr attempts to use it for cover against Spinjack. ”You bring this on yourself,” he intones sadly as he fires on Spinjack, hoping to take him down before he kills someone…
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From her perch near the top of the tree, Never is dangerously vulnerable to Farvenzi's fiery breath attack. She can do little but try to shield her face as the intense blast of flame washes over her.
Entropy Points: 4
"Is that all you got?!" she snarls back at the winged menace as it drifts nearby.
She adjusts her weight on the high branch and looks at the next tree closer to the dragonkin. Tidbit chirps a dire warning at her from a pocket in her armor. Not now! She takes a step, pushes off and leaps into the air toward the other trunk, arms outstretched to catch it against her breast.
She steadies herself, finds her footing amongst the charred branches, and climbs to the top of the tree and activates her vanguard riot shield.
"Here I am you b#+$$! Come and kill me if you can!"
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Zephyr misses sadly.
Never uses the tree trunk as a shield against the flame, then leaps to the next tree top.
Sparky gives Jaeric a little half-salute, then unbuckles his harness and leaps from the cab. He turns east, throws his rifle strap over his head and shoulder and starts running toward the trees.
"Frickin' cold snow gonna git down muh pants and inta muh socks . . .." Lorne grumbles as he follows the captain's orders, scrambling out of the crawler but keeping it for cover as he tries to shoot Farvenzi again.
Jaeric skirts the ditch and enters the treeline, hugging it as he continues to close on Spinjack. As he searches for an opening to shoot again, he addresses Zephyr in the snow-dragon. "Hang in there, buddy! I'm in the trees across from you. Let's see if we can get him in a crossfire. We need to ground him, if we can. Flying around like that, he's got the advantage. Never's dealing with the same circumstances with that dragonkin. Lorne's on his way to help her. I've got Sparky making an end-run for the Pegasus. If he's successful, we've just got to hold on until he can bring the ship around. But, if we can take Spinjack, maybe we can get him to call off this entire attack..."
Finally seeing an opening, he aims upwards at Spinjack and fires another shot.
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Lorne and Jaeric both miss.
Spinjack veers and flies at full speed E by NE.
Farvenzi pulls a heavy broad-bladed spear from her back and twirls it nimbly over her head. Sparks fly along its slashing edge when she swings it at Never. It bites deeply into the tree trunk with a loud crack that's more than just impact. Never smells ozone.
Spinjack 39 dam
Farvenzi 13 dam
Green 0 damage (after heal serum: 1d8 ⇒ 7 ) 5 rounds
Driver 13 damage (after heal serum: 1d8 ⇒ 3 )
S, laser rifle v Zephyr's snowdragon EAC: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (16) + 12 = 28 ... damage: 2d6 + 5 ⇒ (4, 6) + 5 = 15
F, squad machine gun v Jaeric KAC, cover : 1d20 + 11 - 4 ⇒ (8) + 11 - 4 = 15 ... damage: 1d10 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7
... S & E)
bite +17 (1d6+12 P)
With Spinjack’s abrupt departure, Zephyr focuses on the glaive-wielding Farvenzi, loosing two laser bolts from his shoulder-mounted heavy weapon at the foe currently trying to skewer Never.
Zephyr maintains his cover behind the smoking Snowdragon and scans the skies for other threats.
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Tidbit goes nuts when Farvenzi pulls out the massive shocking blade and only narrowly misses taking Never's head off.
"I got this," Never replies, swallowing bile and fear.
She dismisses her riot shield and grips her taclash, then snaps the whip cord at the dragonkin's menacing weapon.
The glaive springs free into the air. Never has only a split second to decide what to do next. She lets go of the trunk of the tree and steps out onto the branch, hand reaching for the weapon as it begins to fall. Somehow she is able to grab it, but now she has another very serious problem: she doesn't have wings.
Ecstatic with the turn of events in her favor, Never cheers on Zephyr's clean hit against Farvenzi. "That's the ticket, baby! Light her up, Z!"
Entropic Pool: 4
Jaeric curses as Spinjack jets off back the way he'd sent Sparky. "Lorne? The ryphorian is headed your way again. Never's got the dragonkin engaged and Zephyr's on fire support, but all three vehicles are down. Take cover as best you can and harry Spinjack. I'm on my way."
He then sprints from one treeline to the other, passing by Zephyr's snow-dragon as he parallels the ditch. Looking to the northeast, he can see Spinjack still hovering in the distance, so he snaps off a quick shot at the enemy.
"Right? So, where's he at? How cin I shoot sumthin' I don't . . .. Oh. There."
Lorne locks onto Spinjack before taking a shot at him.
Lorne obviously has other talents than ranged combat.
Lorne obviously has other talents than ranged combat.
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Spinjack swings his rifle barrel in line with Sparky and opens fire with his heavy laser. The laser cuts into the ysoki's armor and Sparky yelps with pain.
Farvenzi flaps backward to give Never some repectful distance. Then raises her machine gun to shoot the human in the face. Again the tree saves Never, but this time splinters fly and cut into her face. [b]"Think you've scored, human? I'll just kill you and take it back."[b]
Sparky dodges to the left and returns fire on the run, but his shot is well wide of the mark.
Initiative, you're all up.
Zephyr
Never (31 damage)
Lorne
Jaeric
Sparky (11 damage)
Farvenzi
Spinjack
... non-lethal Electricity, 50ft range
Spinjack 39 dam
Farvenzi 39 dam
Green 0 damage (after heal serum: 1d8 ⇒ 7 ) 4 rounds
Driver 13 damage (after heal serum: 1d8 ⇒ 3 )
...
...
thunderhead dragonglaive v Never KAC: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (4) + 17 = 21 ... damage: 2d8 + 14 ⇒ (3, 6) + 14 = 23 S & E)
bite +17 (1d6+12 P)
Still taking cover behind the smoking Snowdragon, Zephyr continues his barrage of laser fire at Farvenzi.
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Entropic Pool = 5
The glaive is a hefty prize, but the dragonkin is right, and at this point Never has no more tricks to play in the trees. She stows the taclash and secures the glaive by whatever force she can then begins to descend from her treetop battlefield.
While she focuses on the task of not falling, she hurls a hasty retort at Farvenzi.
"You know what, lizard breath? That's pretty much the same thing the Hell Knight said before I cut him to ribbons. If you're not a total yellow-bellied coward, come fight me on the ground. I'll give you this thing if you stand toe-to-toe with me."
Antagonize as standard action.
"This ain't workin' fer nuthin'. You want diff'rent results ya do sumthin' diff'rent."
Lorne continues to shoot at Spinjack, but he's no longer trying to hit the target, he is attempting harrying fire, trying to get Spinjack to be an easier target for one of the others.
Jaeric moves back out of the treeline and skirts around his disabled snowdragon until he comes near enough to see Lorne shooting at Spinjack. He then waits for an opening of his own before firing another shot. "He's taken a lot of punishment," Jaeric calls across to Lorne, "We may be close to getting him down, and if we do, we need to capture him quickly so we can force him to call off this attack..."
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Zephyr expertly puts his shots between boughs and tree-tops to tag the dragon-kin. Never taunts her and prepares to climb down.
Farvenzi roars with rage and opens up on Never with the machine gun again in a long burst of sustained fire. Miraculously, she is unharmed.
Threatened by Lorne's firing, Spinjack swerves back. Jaeric thinks he has a clear shot but just misses. The ryphorian unleashes a series of shots at Sparky, who cries out in pain.
The ysoki is still game to fight. He raises his rifle again and electricity lances into Spinjack.
Spinjack 52 dam
Farvenzi 26 dam
Green 0 damage (after heal serum: 1d8 ⇒ 7 ) 3 rounds
Driver 13 damage (after heal serum: 1d8 ⇒ 3 )
... F; critical burn 1d6
... F; critical burn 1d6
Melee LFD pulse gauntlet +13 (2d6+7 B & So; critical
knockdown)
... damage: 1d12 + 7 [/dice]
... damage: 1d12 + 7 [/dice]
Melee thunderhead dragonglaive +17 (2d8+14 S & E) or
bite +17 (1d6+12 P)
cryo grenade I +14 (explode [10 ft., 1d8 C plus staggered, DC 15)
... non-lethal Electricity, 50ft range
"Get yer butt back over ta . . . 'bout there works."
Lorne continues harrying Spinjack