Rifts Adventure IC

[Psychie]

Pausing in her prep work, Terra will gladly take a sip of the offered drink. "My thanks, Snowfall. An excellent toast, and may I add my own thoughts of victory to this? Come, my friends! Tonight, the ranks of the underworld will swell with the souls of those we dispatch in our righteous mission! Let us go!"

 

[Sherwood]

D. Rex Rykon Silanon You guys still with us?

 

[D. Rex]

D. Rex Rykon Silanon You guys still with us?

I am. How much silver and wood ammo was Daisy able to make?

 

[Sherwood]

At this time, you can have 100 rounds of each.

 

[Rykon]

I am as well, I don't know of any preparations Zeph would need before heading out as long as ISP and PPE are recharged.

 

[Sherwood]

At the moment, everyone is at full strength.

 

[Sherwood]

With drinks being had, and motivational speeches being made, the party is moving out towards the underground river access to sneak into the pyramid. The scenery looks undisturbed, just the same as when Snowfall first made his way through here into the pyramid on his scouting mission. The water is moving at a brisk pace, but that won't be any issue for most of you to deal with, especially for Terra and Daisy. Eron might wish to snag a ride on one of Terra's unoccupied Automations to avoid any issues with the current, and Snowfall has his spirit-form that he can take to just shoot his way through the river, and Zephiron can simply metamorph into any form he wants to be able to deal with the current.

Eric politely asks if he can take one of the available seats on Terra's Earth Thunderer Automations, so he won't have to worry about trying to swim his way through the rushing waters. Assuming that there is no objections from Terra, your party is ready to set out.

From Snowfall's explorations, you know that you are going to have to find some means of breathing underwater for at least five minutes, possibly as long as six, with either technology or magic. There are a few spots that may be a bit tight for Tiny to maneuver through, but Terra shouldn't have any issues with all of her Automations getting into the heart of the pyramid.

At this point, you are all on a Ley Line Nexus point, so spellcasters get an additional 20 PPE per melee round that you can use to fuel your magic effects.

 

[Silanon]

The toast - the Crazy nods and quietly joins in the effort to empty the cup. No further profound words from him, however - only the determination in his eyes, and the approval as the epic-speech challenge is accomplished not once, but twice. Good, that. Right way to do it, and short enough to not waste too much time. Then it's just the task ahead, and the chosen ones to do the deed. First, he rides Hooves, until there's no point any longer. Leaving the trusty horse alive does hurt - but if things go wrong, it'll be waiting for him here, no doubt. Things won't go wrong, though. They can't. He won't allow it.

If Terra approves, he'll take a seat on one of the automatons instead, unless someone else needs the help more than him. He's strong, after all, and will do fine by himself if required. The breathing - that's a problem, though. The first one to cast a spell to deal with it will quickly be asked to cast it twice.

 

[D. Rex]

Ready and waiting, Daisy loads up the silver slugs. "If breathing is a problem, that other glitterboy can be used to cross the secret passage. I would recommend using one if you don't know how, but you should be able tk manage to walk in it. There are other mecha, but I'd have to check if they are waterproof." She suggested

 

[Rykon]

Zephiron offers casts of Breathe Without Air for those that may need it. He metamorphs into a form similar to an alligator or crocodile to make his way through the underwater passage.

OOC: Other spells and powers will be readied prior to engaging the enemy. Just want to make sure to note there will be a moment taken prior to deliberately entering combat.

Spoiler: Sarcosuchus Form

 

[Sherwood]

With the various spellcasters in the party that possess the Breathe Without Air spell, and the bonus energy being given to you by your presence at the Ley Line Nexus, everyone that needs it is now capable of surviving underwater for the next twenty one minutes; more than enough time to get through the length of the river.

Thanks to Snowfall's exploration, you know that the cavern that you'll be exiting the river is off to the side from the main chamber with the Vampire Intelligence and the two Maggots that are its guards, so you'll be able to step out into the dry air and cast whatever spells or activate your psi abilities you wish just before you enter into the expected combat.

Stepping into the water, it is a cool relief from the humid heat of the jungle. Once you get a short distance into the water, you are now in need of some source of light or the ability to see in the dark, because you are in pitch black as you get further underground.

 

[Purr]

Snowfall raised his human hand to receive a Breathe Without Air spell. "Because I wouldn't put it past these jokers to try and use some kind of gas on us!"

"You guys want me to sneak ahead and see what I can find?" His question was mostly directed toward Terra but he was open to viewpoints from all around.

 

[Psychie]

Relying upon her link with her Automations to see in the dark, Terra is not concerned with the utter lack of any light. As they advance closer to the cavern, she uses her mystic tattoo of Invulnerability to add to the level of protection she has, then adds to that the force field from the Splurgoth talisman.

Once out of the water and able to speak once more, Terra looks over at Snowfall and nods, whispering, "Use extreme caution. Any trouble, or any sign of those Maggots, let us know right away."

Spoiler

Hit Points: 48
SDC: 135
PPE: 126 / 106
PPE Battery: 50
PPE Battery: 50

MDC: 525 from Invulnerability
100 from talisman

Bonus Points: 9

Number of Attacks: 7
Strike: +11
Parry: +10
Dodge: +10
Roll: +10
Initiative: +4
Perception: +5, +1 vs Vampires and the Undead
Horror Factor: +5 to Save, +2 vs dragons
Critical Strike on a natural 19-20
Critical Strike from behind
Damage: +2
Death Blow on a natural 19-20

When Piloting Automations
Number of Attacks: 10 / 4 / 1
Strike: +5 (+7 with Sword)
Parry: +6 (+8 with Sword)
Dodge: +2
Roll: +2
Initiative: +5
Damage: +1
Critical Strike on a 19-20
Critical Strike from behind
Death Blow on a natural 19-20

 

[Rykon]

"Hmm... well we know a decent bit about the kind of things down here. With Daisy in her gleaming shell, perhaps we should just discuss formation and tactics? I don't know if we'll have much room to make really fancy or subtle maneuvers with just how many hands we have to throw at these pests." The hatchling says while maintaining the borderline dinosaur form. "I'd like to be upfront, casting globe of daylight and carpet of adhesion as openers. Once we get these scum suckers stunned and glued in place, we should be able to just stake them down like tents, convince their heads and necks to get a divorce, and enjoy a nice campfire."

Zephiron paused for a moment. "Though, you've seen the interior yourself. You tell me, how much room do we have to fit everything we brought with us?" The hatchling asks, making an awkwardly vague gesture at the party with his tree-trunk of a tail.

 

[Purr]

Having carefully reviewed his own recordings, Snowfall answers Zeph by giving him the dimensions of the rooms ahead as best as his memory allows.

 

[Sherwood]

The main cavern that the Vampire Intelligence is in is well over the size of a couple of football fields, with a ceiling of 100 feet high. About a quarter of the room is filled with the twisted, bloated form of the Intelligence, since it is a semi-circular mass 200 feet across. The smaller tunnels leading to the main chamber are still large, easily big enough to fit Zephiron in his true form, or Terra's Automation Tiny walking upright.

 

[Psychie]

Before they head into the fight, Terra will tell everyone, "I plan on triple teaming one of the Maggots with my Automations, giving it everything I've got to bring it down. If you guys can tangle with the second one, I'm pretty sure I can keep the one occupied. Then, once we've got that done, we turn our attention to the Vampire Intelligence and rip it a new one. Thoughts on that?"

 

[Purr]

Snowfall scratched the back of his neck and frowned. "Er, Miss Terra? Perhaps you have forgotten my earlier observations about the Maggots?" He repeated exactly what he had seen and learned.

It is a large thing, twenty feet long, with three large eyestalks protruding from its twisted head. It is sniffing about, slowly heading your direction. Soon, its actions draw the attention of a second one of these things, and even as you are gripped in fear, you recognize what they are. Maggots. Supernatural monsters from Hades, they travel in packs, and are very strong and resistant to damage. A single one stands a good chance of tearing apart all three of Ms. Terra's Automations, and there are at least two of these here, with probably more hiding somewhere out of sight. What makes them even more formidable is the fact that they are highly intelligent, and can perform works of magic in addition to their physical powers.

The first one of the things that is sniffing at the air speaks, "I smell something, and I can feel its fear. We are not alone down here." It is slowly heading in your direction.

At this point, you are suffering from the effects of its Horror Factor. As such, you are temporarily stunned by the monstrosity before you, -1 attack per melee, and you are unable to defend yourself against the first attack from the Maggot, assuming you let it get close enough to do so. Doing anything besides backing away and getting the hell out of there will take a serious act of willpower.

"A single one stands a good chance of tearing apart all three of your big kiddos, Miss Terra. I highly recommend we focus on killing one at a time, preferably at range."

 

[Rykon]

"These maggots... are they similar to the man-squitos? Same vulnerabilities and resistances? It'd be a shame to waste specialty attacks on them that aren't particularly effective. As for fighting at range... how many strong attacks do we have at ranged? Now take away those that are likely to destroy the pyramid we were asked to preserve and how many do we really have left? I don't mean to sound disrespectful, there are just so many new faces here, and I'd been very tired when they arrived..." Zephiron tilted his head to the side puzzled. He shifted back to child form and began to pace around the team to get a sense of what he should expect.

"Also, I mostly just hit things or manifest various royal powers. I'm not really suited to playing artillery. So, I'd like to volunteer to be at the front of the formation to take most of the hits. Any damage I take I will regenerate over the course of the skirmish. Can we say the same for a Chrome-turtle suit and Terra's children? Best to save on the upkeep, yes?" The hatchling smiled before stopping himself from patting the Glittering armor and decided against letting a loud echoing CLANG give away their location.

Spoiler: OOC

Just to make sure it doesn't get lost in general strategizing... We should clarify if silver/wood/water/sunlight will do anything to Maggots like they will to vampires so we aren't wasting the good ammo on a damage sponge.

 

[Sherwood]

Just to make sure it doesn't get lost in general strategizing... We should clarify if silver/wood/water/sunlight will do anything to Maggots like they will to vampires so we aren't wasting the good ammo on a damage sponge.

From what you guys know of these monsters, normal silver weapons do their equivalent damage in MDC to the Maggots, and silver MDC weapons do double damage. Other MDC weapons do normal damage except for fire or plasma, as the Maggots are immune to fire attacks. Other attacks such as spells and psionics do normal damage.

Mirgris What are you doing during all of this?

 

[Mirgris]

What are you doing during all of this?

The Doctor is only vaguely aware of what is happening around him.

As they talk to the were Jaguars he is working, the first of many of his so called -Sun Bangs-.
He is unsure of what they will do to a vampire or supernatural creature weak to the sun.
He is sure they will explode in sunlight as bright and powerful as a flash-bang so it won't be good for them.

As they talk the first one is completed, he takes him with the first learning how to make it referencing a few scant notes he put together in the last day as he has been aware of the vampire problem.

This isn't the solution he wanted and for a brief moment he frowns maybe one of them would be worthy of that weapon....

He shakes his head clearing his mind, the task is so unbearably simple in some ways. The spell is one of the weakest he knows, notable only for creating true sunlight, and consumable devices are trivially easy requiring so much less in the way of resources and time, after all most of the work in a techno-wizardry device comes in it being reusable.

It's rather like building a bomb instead of a gun, gunpowder in a bag with a fuse is a bomb, but a gun requires moving components, reloading, firing, aiming and a thousand other considerations. This, this is a joke for his skills.

When the others start preparing a final check over gear and equipment he does no such thing, far to OCD to worry about his equipment, instead he is on his fourth, fifth? Twelfth? -Sun Bang- He has lost count focused on the work. He takes a seat in one of the automatic robots, he has little room but it hardly matters he has a bag of flash bangs and gems, and being on a ley line he could not spend that much power in crafting if he wanted to.

They are underwater, it's a pretty sight, he notices it only for a second as he places the next sun-bang in the bag and grabs the next rather normal flash bang.

"How many could I possibly need, well it's a vampire who has been around for decades or centuries so how many undead vampire servants could he have made" he does a quick bit of mental math assuming he averages once a week, that's 52 a year, and thus 520 per decade, so you could say 1000 vampires per 2 decades, with a rate of death fairly high, assuming he losses say 35% to keeping control of his territory he could still easily have hundreds upon hundreds in that pyramid.

With a sigh the doctor starts working on another Sun-Bang as the robot does the walking for him so he can focus on his craft.

"These better not disappoint" he mutters lightly to himself.

 

[Sherwood]

The Doctor is only vaguely aware of what is happening around him.

As they talk to the were Jaguars he is working, the first of many of his so called -Sun Bangs-.
He is unsure of what they will do to a vampire or supernatural creature weak to the sun.
He is sure they will explode in sunlight as bright and powerful as a flash-bang so it won't be good for them.

As they talk the first one is completed, he takes him with the first learning how to make it referencing a few scant notes he put together in the last day as he has been aware of the vampire problem.

This isn't the solution he wanted and for a brief moment he frowns maybe one of them would be worthy of that weapon....

He shakes his head clearing his mind, the task is so unbearably simple in some ways. The spell is one of the weakest he knows, notable only for creating true sunlight, and consumable devices are trivially easy requiring so much less in the way of resources and time, after all most of the work in a techno-wizardry device comes in it being reusable.

It's rather like building a bomb instead of a gun, gunpowder in a bag with a fuse is a bomb, but a gun requires moving components, reloading, firing, aiming and a thousand other considerations. This, this is a joke for his skills.

When the others start preparing a final check over gear and equipment he does no such thing, far to OCD to worry about his equipment, instead he is on his fourth, fifth? Twelfth? -Sun Bang- He has lost count focused on the work. He takes a seat in one of the automatic robots, he has little room but it hardly matters he has a bag of flash bangs and gems, and being on a ley line he could not spend that much power in crafting if he wanted to.

They are underwater, it's a pretty sight, he notices it only for a second as he places the next sun-bang in the bag and grabs the next rather normal flash bang.

"How many could I possibly need, well it's a vampire who has been around for decades or centuries so how many undead vampire servants could he have made" he does a quick bit of mental math assuming he averages once a week, that's 52 a year, and thus 520 per decade, so you could say 1000 vampires per 2 decades, with a rate of death fairly high, assuming he losses say 35% to keeping control of his territory he could still easily have hundreds upon hundreds in that pyramid.

With a sigh the doctor starts working on another Sun-Bang as the robot does the walking for him so he can focus on his craft.

"These better not disappoint" he mutters lightly to himself.

I will say that you have made up a full dozen of your Sun-Bang grenades. You can distribute them as you wish.

Also, if the Doc wants it, you can get one of the Atlantian force field talismans. It provides 100 MDC points for ten minutes, and can cast the effect three times in twenty four hours.

 

[Psychie]

Terra looks around the dark cavern and is thankful that so far, things are proceeding as planned. In a quiet voice, she says, "Snowfall, can you zip up to the room with all the staked vampires in it and disable the rope system? I don't think we'll be down here long enough to worry about them, but why take the chance with hundreds of vamps coming down all at once as the sun goes down? Just be careful!"

Purr

 

[Purr]

"Keep your Atlantean Communications Crystal handy and don't worry, Terra-sama!" he quietly but fervently addressed the leader of the team while performing a flurry of dramatic martial arts blocks and punches.

"I'll be back before any of you can say... Tiki-tiki-tembo-no-sa-rembo-chari-chari-ruchi-pip-peri-pembo!"

With that, Snowfall assumed a martial stance, jumped towards Daisy, transformed into a cloud, flew through her armor and her body, and soared toward the stinky dwelling of the evil, sleeping vampires! Hai!

 

[Sherwood]

Zipping through the innards of the pyramid again, Snowfall makes his way to the large room filled with the staked vampires. Everything is just as you remember it from your last time here, everything except for the Brodkil demon that is lounging on a seat there, playing cards with what appears to be a normal human. At this point, they don't appear to have noticed you.

What do you do?
Purr