Sleeping Above a Stolen Crown (Inactive)

Game Master CrusaderWolf

It's the work of perhaps half an hour to find a small herd of snjórnaut and cull half a dozen of them, gathering up the freshly slain snow ox as an offering. Garuda selects a small hillock and as Cobalt Team retreats from the mauler's assumed territory, you pause to deposit the carcasses atop the frozen stones.

As you turn to go, your motion sensors light up a fraction of a second before a roar makes your blood go cold. You turn, bringing the barrels of your weapons to bear as a fully grown glacial mauler prowls out from the treeline, armored plates flared in a clear threat display.

Imagine a wolverine with armor plates & claws like a pangolin, the size of a garbage truck (Size 2), and its skin has active camouflage on top of that. That's a glacial mauler!

INITIATIVE
Cascade
Garuda
Thunder-Walker
Wrench Witch
Glacial Mauler

Darn, I was hoping we could lead it away.

Hostile Witness immediately steps into a wider, more stable stance, bracing against the expected recoil of its massive anti-materiel rifle. Rather than firing immediately, however, Cascade waits for a proper targeting solution. Come on, you big bastard.

Protocol: Stable, Steady for +1 Accuracy with Rifles and Immobilized

Hostile Witness adopts a wide stance, massive rifle trained and ready. With a snarl, the glacial mauler breaks the stand-off and tears out of the treeline at a dead sprint, reactive scales making it a vague blur on scanners and visuals alike. With startling speed it heads for a patch of cover closer to your group, but its path takes it into range of the readied chassis, and Mallory takes her shot.

It's active camouflage ability gives improves its level of cover by 1 step at all times, so even out in the open it has Soft Cover which applies a penalty die. BUT Mallory's shot still hits!

The mauler roars in pain and fury, living spots of blood staining the snow as it skids into cover. The growl that rumbles out of from behind a pile of rocks holds a promise of bloody vengeance.

-INITIATIVE
Cascade
Garuda
Thunder-Walker
Wrench Witch
Glacial Mauler

"Hit, please hit this time." Wrench Wraith says as she draws and fires are largest gun.

Skirmish
Anti-material Rifle Attack: 1d20 + 1d6 ⇒ (20) + (3) = 23
Damage: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 3) = 7 - Kinetic damage, Armor Piercing

Moving around to keep her range good, Wrench Wraith spends a moment to lock-onto the Mauler.

Move, then Quick Tech to Lock-On

Make sure you're applying your Cover malus to the roll. Right now you have a 23 which is a crit, but the malus may bump that down to a regular hit.

Cover: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 6) = 10 The -6 makes it a 17 which is still a hit, but not a critical one.

Onward repositions, Wrench Witch waiting until she's spies movement before putting a heavy rifle round into its center mass. A roar of pain lets her know that she's hit the mark.

-INITIATIVE-
Cascade
Garuda
Thunder-Walker
Wrench Witch
Glacial Mauler (-12hp after Armor soak)

"Ah, s#&*," Garuda mutters. "So much for the peace offering.

The Way She Goes steps into the gap between the mechs of Wrench Witch and Cascade. She deploys one of her turret drones, small rockets propelling it from her mech's back and onto a rocky promenade between the creature and her team.

"Don't let up, Cobalt! This thing picked the wrong people to f#%$ with!"

She opens fire with her main cannon, not really trying to hit the beast as much as she was trying to pin it down.

Move two hexes. Quick Action to deploy a drone. Quick Action to use the Covering Fire action from the Heavy Gunner talent (pg. 97).

Sonya guides her chassis into a new position, bringing The Way She Goes's autocannon to bear and laying down a series of suppressive bursts, but the mauler has no intention of shirking the challenge. With a roar that rattles the gear netted to your chassis the massive beast breaks from cover and leaps headlong into Onward, crashing into the mech and twisting like a professional brawler to try and bringing its prey down, its rear claws raking again and again.

Melodee manages to keep her frame upright and on its feet, but klaxons blare and system readouts let her know about multiple system failures as armor buckles and is torn away, exposing the sensitive cabling beneath.

Claws Attack: 1d20 + 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (16) + 2 + (3) = 21 Oh no! 6 Kinetic damage, plus 5 Kinetic damage from its Hunt ability, and then +1d6 Kinetic damage because unlike regular enemies Ultras can get critical hits!
Critical Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Onward suffers a devastating 15 Kinetic damage! This takes out a structure right away...

Paint Job Roll: 1d6 ⇒ 6 Wow, it worked.

The creatures claws skitter along Onward, but thanks to the modifications Melodee had made to the frame, the machine stands frim; but it isn't going to be able to take another blow that way.

As soon as the mauler breaks cover, Garuda swings her cannon along its path towards Wrench Witch.

Covering Fire Attack: 1d20 - 2d6 ⇒ (19) - (2, 6) = 11
Covering Fire Damage: 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (1, 3) + 4 = 8

Rolled a 19 plus two Difficulty, one for Inaccurate and one for Soft Cover. 13 to hit. Covering Fire attacks do half damage, so 4 damage.

Not wanting to be left out of the fun, Baywulf charges in with his greatblade at the ready.

Heavy Melee Attack: 1d20 ⇒ 18
Damage: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (3, 1) + 1 = 5

Slicing into the mauler, he lashes out with his survival knife too. With the beasts of Sparr, any damage was good damage.

Knife Attack: 1d20 ⇒ 16
Damage: 1d3 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

The warnings and flashing indicators looked worse than it was--luckily for Melodee and Onward much of the damage was cosmetic pieces, their loss more frustrating than potentially lethal.

As the mauler turns to continue its assault God-Bearer charges into the breach, blades flashing. Camouflaged armor plates crack and blood flows as the mech's massive sword severs the beast's leg!

Glacial Mauler takes another 4dmg after armor soak, which is still enough to take off a Structure! The table is slightly different for biological enemies though.
Monstrosity Structure Table: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Dismemberment. The attack blows a limb or chunk off the Monstrosity; it takes 1d6 Kinetic damage and becomes Slowed for the rest of the scene.
Severed Limb Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5

-INITIATIVE-
Cascade (-3hp; 3/4 Structure)
Garuda
Thunder-Walker
Wrench Witch
Glacial Mauler (-6hp; 3/4 Structure; Slowed)

Heavy Weapon: 1d20 ⇒ 15
Damage: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (4, 2) + 1 = 7

Knife: 1d20 ⇒ 11
Damage: 1d3 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

With another barrage of blades, Baywulf pushes God-Bearer to try and finish off the mauler.

Soft Cover vs Heavy: 1d6 ⇒ 4 Total of 11 vs Evade: hit!
Soft Cover vs Knife: 1d6 ⇒ 1 Total of 10 vs Evade: hit!

Ruthless and deadly, God-Bearer doesn't give the mauler even a second to recover, blades flashing and leaving still more fresh blood staining the snow. Total of 8 Kinetic damage after armor.

Snarling, the mauler backs away from the mech that has injured it so. Suddenly, it spins and pounces on Hostile Witness! Despite its wounds and missing limb, its enormous size and remaining claws are still sufficient to badly, ahem, maul Cascade's chassis.
Claws: 1d20 + 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (20) + 2 + (6) = 28 Critical Hit: 1d6 ⇒ 2
Yikes! That's 13 Kinetic damage from a critical hit to Hostile Witness, which also strips off a Structure!

As an Ultra, at the end of this turn it loses its Slowed condition.

-INITIATIVE-
Cascade (-3HP; 3/4 Structure)
Garuda
Thunder-Walker
Wrench Witch (-3hp; 3/4 Structure)
Glacial Mauler (-14hp; 3/4 Structure)

I thought my paint ate the attack, preventing the structure lost.

”Switching to melee attacks.”

Charge Blade Attack: 1d20 ⇒ 16
Damage: 1d3 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4 - Energy damage

.Followed up with a lock-on

Structure damage check: 1d6 ⇒ 4 System Trauma
System Trauma: 1d6 ⇒ 4 Jump Jet System destroyed

Wrench Witch activates the charge blade on Onward and plows forward, carving a slash into the mauler's flank. It snarls and leaps away from Hostile Witness, tearing loose the mech's secondary arms, and taking the assault rifle* with it!

Claws Skirmish: 1d20 + 2 + 1d6 ⇒ (15) + 2 + (4) = 21 Another critical hit, yikes! That's another 15 Kinetic damage which structures Hostile Witness again! That's going to lose another Structure but luckily is just shy of 2 structure.
Critical Dmg: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Structure Damage: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 2) = 8 2, System Trauma
System Trauma: 1d6 ⇒ 3
Free Attack: 1d20 - 1d6 ⇒ (7) - (6) = 1 Damage: 1d3 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Since their player messaged me to let me know they're ill and have finals, I'm going to bot them.
"Falling back!" Mellodee shouts as Hostile Witness lurches through the snow before turning back to face the mauler. Cursing, she sets to getting her chassis back in the frame--greywash repair nanites set to work, and the mech loads another 60mm sabot into the anti-material rifle, racking the slide.
I feel bad using player resources, but I also want to make the optimal play, which I think is: use Initiative for a free Quick move behind the group, then use Stabilize reloading the AMR and spending 1RP to get her from 1hp to 10hp on this Structure.

-INITIATIVE-
Cascade (10/10HP; 2/4 Structure)
Garuda
Thunder-Walker
Wrench Witch (1/10hp; 4/4 Structure)
Glacial Mauler (-14hp; 3/4 Structure)

Now the the glacial mauler is in Soft Cover it imposes -2 Accuracy instead of -1

This is bad, Duncan says.

"Not now, Dunk," Sonya replies, quickly reviewing her options. Cascade and Wrench Witch had both taken significant damage and the mauler showed little sign of slowing down. Without any real hope of retreating now that they'd angered it, there was only one move.

"Activating Hyperspec Fuel Injector," she informs the rest of Cobalt. "Spread out, divide its attention. Thunder-Walker, if you engage, choose your moment wisely."

Activating Core Power as Protocol. Granting Baywulf a Leadership die as a free action.

Sonya thumbs open the safety mechanism for the fuel injector and presses the button. The Way She Goes reacts immediately as its reactor spins up, pushing more energy to all of its systems. Sonya throws the mech in reverse, moving back and firing with her main cannon.

Moving two hexes back to stand beside Hostile Witness. Skirmish as Quick Action to shoot HMG. Consuming Lock On, plus Melodee's Spotter talent.

HMG + Lock On + HSFI - x2 Soft Cover - Innacurate: 1d20 ⇒ 9
HMG + Lock On + HSFI - x2 Soft Cover - Innacurate: 1d20 ⇒ 13
1d6 ⇒ 5 Total to hit roll comes to 8. I don't think that hits.
Damage: 2d6 + 4 ⇒ (1, 3) + 4 = 8

Sonya keeps her mech moving, having Duncan lock on to preserve any advantage they might have.

Move and free boost, plus Quick Tech to Lock On.

Coming to a stop at the Mauler's 11 o'clock, she unloads with her cannon again in an attempt to slow the beast down.

Using Initiative to use Covering Fire on the Mauler as a Free Action.

Ouch, but they were good calls.