CST!
I've said this in other threads that I know you see, MCKhaos, but what I said there applies to this game too. I feel badly that I've been so quiet this past week. I'll be back soon, promise.
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Sounds fun! I can't because I have my baby son on weekends and I need to sleep when he sleeps at night so I can keep up with him during the day! If you do any sessions that fall after 5:30 PM Mondays thru Thursdays I would be so in.
Oh crapola, I had used my jetpack as an offensive tool previously! whoops, totally had forgotten about it. Guess that's gone! I'll be slamming my body against the walls to crush the robots instead.
I'm pretty sure I recovered my jetpack! It's my most valued piece of equipment - I don't strictly remember getting separated from it. If I did, I will just slam my body against a nearby wall instead of the ceiling.
Even with Dexter's attempts to aid him, BoT is rapidly becoming overwhelmed. In his command chair back at the ship, Jamee is pelted on all sides by alarm klaxons blaring at him. A particularly significant number of them are focusing their plasma drills on the back of the RAB's chassis and on the head. With a growl of rage, Jamee flips on the jetpack's thrusters and rams his own body into the ceiling! Hopefully, a few of the blasted things are crushed in the process.
Flags: Ignorant/Gullible: Cause/encourage me to fight someone for your own gain. Chaotic: Allow me to cause undue harm for your own benefit. Daredevil: Offer me a high-risk, high-reward plan that I can't resist. Criminal: Seek my help in infiltrating a highly-defended building or compound.
After repairing his BoT's injuries by injecting the nano-machines directly into his biofeedback harness, Jamee makes his robot snap his fingers in a remembering gesture. "That beamsword I took off Captain Huxton! I still have it!" relieved that he actually still has a weapon on him after his Vibrospear was taken, the elf boy taps his own thigh wearing his control gloves, and on the RAB, a compartment opens up to reveal the beamsword inside. He pulls it out just as the party is attacked by a swarm of bug-robots! He had doubts as to how effective it would be, but he brandished the sword anyway, thankful to have something instead of nothing.
Definitely taking Sir Scamalot. Free money at the expense of my reputation! Easy!
End of Session When you reach the end of a session, choose one of your bonds that you feel is resolved (completely explored, no longer relevant, or otherwise). Ask the player of the character you have the bond with if they agree. If they do, mark XP and write a new bond with whomever you wish. Once bonds have been updated look at your alignment. If you fulfilled that alignment at least once this session, mark XP. Then answer these three questions as a group: Did we learn something new and important about the world?
1) Alignment/Drive: This session I put myself in danger to save my friends, but the threat I was protecting them from wasn't "unnatural" in any way. No XP here. 2) Updated bond with Bunkr-Bustr : It's easier than I thought it would be to guide Toober to destroy what we need to destroy. I want to make sure he can't be turned against us so easily. +1
3a) Vampires - honest to goodness Vampires - still exist. I didn't know that before, thought they were myth. +1
+3 total brings me to 14 XP, which allows me to level from 4 to 5 and brings my XP down to 2. I will pick: Viper’s Strike When you strike an enemy with two weapons at once, add an extra 1d4 damage for your off-hand strike. Now, I just need to find some melee weapons. Currently I have no weapons and no ammo for my blaster pack. I need to forage for some offensive options ASAP. Why am I not surprised that Sona's a fan of the Kushiel's Dart series of books? As for that explosion that I almost got caught up in, I'll Aww yeah. Scot-free! Or mostly scot free, up to you GM.
I hate to ask, but what is the consequence of my failed H&S roll? :X
Lacking any other offensive options with his blaster pack drained and his spear thrown away, Jamee gulps in his command chair, back on the Sixes. This is going to take some extensive repairs... he thinks to himself, as he jams both flight-sticks forward directly at the spear-wielding elf battlemaster. However, his attack is deflected easily by the skilled elf.
If I were to prepare my ship for e-attacks like the kind that she is currently performing, I would have two layers of defense - passive, and active. The passive kind of defense would be like trap nodes, walls of code that block her progress, reactionary stuff that would trip up a hacker trying to gain control of the ship's systems. Meanwhile, the active defenses would be like electronic white blood cells, actively seeking out invasive hacking protocols where they are detected and hunting them down. Does this ship have anything like that?
Are there any further countermeasures in the ship's systems or does she have complete and total access to the shipwide network?
The mace guy definitely. Ideally the blade guy will take out Retzack in the meantime; guy creeps me out.
First things first - Jamee pilots his RAB over to RAE, scooping the mechanical bird tenderly off the floor, tucking her into traveling configuration with his RAB's fingers, and sliding her back into his safe deployment chamber within his chassis. Without ammo, he's limited to his vibrospear. He looks critically over at the mace-wielding elf squaring off with Retzack, and scans the distance between him and the elf. He hefts the vibrospear, checking its weight.
MCKhaos, sorry it took me so long to reply! It runs on a portable internal cold fusion nuclear reactor, of course! What else would I feel comfortable enough strapping to my RAB's chassis?
Warning lights flash on Jamee's command console as the mage grips BoT's head. The elf releases his grip a moment later, but the damage was done, and the bastard's hands are glowing again now. Time for a change of tactics, the elf-boy thinks to himself. Moving quickly, Blast-O-Tron attempts to maneuver behind the elf mage and grab him to hold him still.
If he succeeds, he intends to strip off his backpack jetpack, attach it to the rear of the elf's armor, and activate its full output thrusters externally - thereby controlling the mage by sending him on a chaotic and uncontrollable flight until he collides with a bulkhead. Should I roll something for that? :)
Seeing the hands glowing brightly spurs the RAB into action. In his control room, Jamee pushes both joysticks straight ahead, activating his bot's jetpack and sending him charging at the elf with his vibrospear whining.
At the end of his volley, BoT's blaster pack lets out a low-pitched warning tone. "Damn!" he curses, examining the readout. "Out of ammo!" Reaching behind his back, the ranger-bot draws the extendable vibrospear he looted from the commando in the street battle, and pops off the safety, causing it to extend to full length. He grasps it in both hands as his blaster cannon attachment withdraws into his forearm, and prepares to dive-bomb!
"RAE, GUARD!" shouts the elf-boy over his RAB's vocoder box. Reacting to the verbal command, RAE the android avian dive-bombs the elf that is concentrating on me!
I'll dodge the fire, but I also choose put myself in a spot!
While the new elf is pirouetting, Blast-O-Tron is lining up a shot with his arm cannon. With a high-pitched whine that sharpens to a crescendo, he fires a red laser blast at his position! RAE is close behind, trying to grab and pull the elf's long hair in her android talons.
If any of the security team below try to blast him, Jamee will attempt evasive maneuvers.
BoT steps inside the elevator and looks for some way to get outside of the elevator car itself. His goal is to use his jetpack to fly down the elevator shaft itself, prying open the doors on the bottom and taking the defenders by surprise, since they'll be expecting the elevator to be coming down first.
"Don't worry about those," the RAB says, turning to the human. "Let Sona do her thing. She's quite good at her job. Those defenses are as good as hacked."
"Confirmed, that wailing sound is a lure. The captain's aware of our presence on this ship." he scoops up the ID cards from the unconscious crew members, reprogramming them with swift taps of his remote fingertips:
"Full access granted. Easy-mode," Jamee comments through his RAB's vox, right before facepalming in his cabin. Remember, you're pretending you're not a kid, damnit! his thoughts are self-recriminating. "Easy-mode"? They're going to think you're 13! And they won't be far off!
BoT had powered down his arm-cannon and was watching Dexter work. Not for the first time, he was relieved to be safe aboard the Sixes and able to watch this standoff from a position of personal safety. Too, he was glad that the others couldn't see his face; he didn't want them to see his open admiration of the way that the three of them peacefully resolved the situation. He had to admit that his first instinct was simply to dive for cover and start blasting at them. Their way involved a lot less risk for personal damage. I could learn from studying this crew, he thinks to himself, not for the first time. His face goes slightly green when Retzack does his thing. We have strange bedfellows... he double checks the locks on his cabin door. Speaking up for the first time, Jamee addresses his animal companion bot, R.A.E. The bot's arm telescopes out and the animal companion emerges from its folded-up traveling configuration. "Engage scouting protocols," Jamee orders, and transmits data from the avian robot's visual processors directly to his HUD. The robotic hawk's eyes begin flashing between green and red rapidly as it takes off and flies ahead of the party.
What is about to happen? What here is useful to me? What should I be on the lookout for?
Jamee projects his face holographically to Sona and Retzack just so they can see his wry expression. Blast-O-Tron hooks his thumb at the retreating human. "He's got a commanding mein about him, hasn't he? Still, worth following!" and with that, the robot engages his jetpack and flies down the hallway after Dexter.
We landed on top of a hatch because I'm such a good pilot. :D So we're essentially breaking into an airlock at this point. Hopefully Sona's eye beams reveal the opening mechanism within.
With Sona's eye-beams illuminating the way, Blast-O-Tron takes point. His attention is somewhat divided, being that Jamee still has to engage point defenses on the Sixes, but he's able to pilot the RAB well enough despite all that. Jamee's mind is efficient at multitasking. Stepping cautiously over the airlock threshold, Blast-O-Tron sweeps the room from corner to corner with his blaster-arm.
Apologies for not updating last Friday, had a big slamma jamma of a day at work. I'm getting on top of it just now by today and I'll be posting an update later on in the day.
As soon as the station starts to rumble, I set Blast-O-Tron into auto-follower mode to keep pace with Sona and check my status within the ship. My fingertips fly over the command console in front of me as I bring up long-range scanners, trying to determine what the capital ship's lasers are firing at, exactly.
What is about to happen, DM? :)
Jamee pilots his RAB to the doorway and gestures an "after-you" to Sona. "Let's move out then," the elf-boy comments, "I've searched the local area, there's nothing useful in the immediate proximity. Lead on, I'll follow."
BoT waves when he determines that Sona's active sensors are back within her primary chassis matrix. "What did you find?" his modulated voice asks through the squawk box.
While he's waiting for Sona to do her thing in cyberspace, Jamee busies himself with real-world scans of his environment.
What here is useful to me?
"When the machines are smarter than you are, you needn't worry about interfacing with them properly. She'll figure it out," he comments as he exits, gesturing with a nod of his head at Sona.
BoT's visual interface holographic emitter, located in the center of his chest, flickers to life, projecting a (false) image of a matured-looking elf male wearing a transparent glass dome helmet. The flatscreen holo-image solidifies a few inches out and upward from the RAB's chassis. The made-up face is comprised of highly advanced facial mimicking software, and matches facial expressions perfectly to Jamee's actual face, but is visually altered to hide the fact that he's a youth. Speaking in a similarly altered voice, he says, "This robot's merely my remote avatar. This is the real me - my name's Jamee Lestrade. Nice to meet you." The elf hologram waves, and the RAB's same arm waves at the same time. The elf hologram's expression grows serious. "Tell us about the situation your girlfriend is in."
BoT approaches Dexter and holds up one fist to the human's face. Then, the middle finger extends upward. Just as the human is about to get offended, the tip of the middle finger slides to the side, revealing that the finger itself is hollow. The RAB points to the finger with his other hand. "M&M container," he explains. "Fill 'er up."
BoT nudges Bone'ead and mutters "C'mon, he's going. Wolf down that last bite." Back in the control room, the elf-boy's stomach rumbles and he nibbles on some snacks from the ship's canteen, staring enviously at the pizza through his viewport. Making sure the ogre follows him, he lays in a course to follow Retzack. Not too closely though. He gave him the creeps.
"Thanks Urista!" the elf-boy says through his voice-modulated RAB speakers, as the kobold lady walks away. BoT has a special, unobtrusive slot in his torso specifically designed for flatbread pizza, and right now he's focused on slipping the pizza slices inside his chassis for later consumption on the ship. It takes a minuscule amount of power to keep the compartment slightly warmed for the pizza's longevity. "Looks delicious," he comments to Bone'ead. "Can't wait to eat it later. We're going to have to remember...Barnabus Barclay was on C level. C level - marked. I have a note of it written down now. So, what's the story with that duck?" as he speaks, he grabs another slice of pizza and puts it through the slot.
BoT glances over at Retzack's mesmerizing display before responding to Sona. "Let's give him a minute to see what he does with their rapt attention, then check out that room."
BoT nudges Bone'ead with a metallic elbow. "This one says that you guys serve pizza flatbreads. I heard they're good here. We'll take a double order."
Blast-O-Tron accompanies Bone'ead on his way toward the bar as Retzack and Sona take care of the information-gathering. #1 best interstellar tip for finding a good seat at the bar...go to the bar with an ogre. Jamee can't derive any pleasure from Blast-O-Tron drinking, obviously, but the oral port for the RAB leads directly to an internal, refrigerated decanter that Jamee will empty out for his own use later on.
"For the record guys, let's avoid antagonizing the local authorities for now. Just had a feeling I should mention it! No real reason!" the intercom inside the Sixes clicks off, cutting off the older psuedo-voice that Jamee talks through. He pilots the Sixes to its designated port calmly and legally, making no sudden movements. "I vote we go with Bone'ead's suggestion, and start at the brothel. Shall we?" the voice asks out of Blast-O-Tron's mouthpiece when they've all disembarked at port.
Hi Mindlessjoker :) Welcome to the group, Dexter!
Jamee has a basic molecular scanner in his room that he uses to determine the quality of the mysterious herbs he found. It was a wonder that they could be discovered on this cosmopolitan, urban world, but Jamee didn't challenge his own good luck. Satisfied with the results of his findings and resolving to use the herbs extensively later, Jamee resolves that it's time to join the conversation with the rest of the crew. He pilots his RAB to the part of the ship where everyone has congregated and uses a voice modulator to conceal his youthful-sounding voice, making it sound older and more experienced. "Hello Sona," he responds to her query over the shipwide comms. "I suggest we give him the audience he seeks. If he's mad, I can deal with him for the Captain."
BoT tries to yank Huxton out of the way of Toober's blast to save him, but fails.
BoT turns off his holoemitter and returns his flashing red lights to normal, chuckling through the speakers. Launching his jetpack and landing behind Huxton, gracefully, he reaches out and plucks the beamsword from the merc, pocketing it immediately. Extending his spool of utility rope from a chest compartment and slicing off a good length of it, he begins to tie Huxton's hands together at the wrists. Then, he begins to pat the merc down. "It was a good idea to surrender to us," he offers to the man cheerfully. "I couldnt've taken much more punishment! But don't worry, we won't mistreat you or feed you to the Ogre. Good thing the ol' Self Destruct Sequence Initialized trick worked. Is there anything in your pockets that is dangerous?" he asks as his hands pat the outside of Huxton's clothes.
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