Chapter 2: Have Gun, Will Travel

[Enoch]

Initiative: [1d8]=8
Burst-fire: [1d20+3]=6+3=9, [1d20+3]=3+3=6, damage [1d12+3]=11+3=14
(These actually come out to 10 and 7, as I assume Petr counts as a cultist, but I doubt that's enough to matter.)
Saving Throw: [1d20]=12
This comes out to a 14 with his ST bonus vs. cultists.

Wow, even Twitchlock Actuators are no proof against strong emotion.

Firing his rifle one-handed from the hip, Shadrach darts in to grab Oliver's collar and pull him back toward the stairs.

[Marullus]

Emile?

[greyarea]

Emile, seeing that the main level is quiet, slips downstairs to join the others. He holds his weapon warily.

Move downstairs. Fire at any enemy he sees.
Emile Initiative [1d8+2]=5+2=7
SunShooter [1d20+4]=19+4=23 Damage: [2d6+3]=11+3=14 Range: 50m Magazine: Unlimited
Saving throw [1d20]=9

[Marullus]

Ambiance: All Along the Watchtower

Within the holes on Petr's body, his flesh doesn't bleed, and the wound visibly closes to new, clear skin within. "You have no idea what you're playing at," he says in a sinister tone. In his hand, the cylinder beeps a repeated warning.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRBBT! The moment of silence is shattered as Shadrach fires a string of burst-fire from his his combat rifle, one-handed from the hip, bullets ricocheting as they shatter viewscreens and punch through metal on the strafe across the sensitive laboratory equipment and nuclear systems behind Petr. Shadrach darts in to grab Oliver's collar and pull him back toward the stairs, the limp child offering no resistance. "System reliability of the nuclear containment measures reduced to 83% of optimal," states the glowing AI cube at Báleygr's side, "rerouting power from damaged sub-systems - I recommend no more randomized fire in the laboratory."

Taavi feels it may be futile, but all he can think to do is keep shooting Petr. Perhaps all of them together can damage him faster than he can heal. He aims his semi-automatic rifle and fires (-11), blowing a new hole through the man's black suit jacket, eliciting little to no reaction from him otherwise.

Emile rounds the corner from the stairs, his large bore pistols in hand - he also opens two holes center mass on the man's black button-down shirt. (-14) Petr laughs, a belly laugh that makes your hair stand up on your arms. "As I said... you have no idea," he retorts again, wiggling his fingers through the hole in his shirt, the gaping hole in his bloodless, morbid flesh behind it leaving him unbothered. He pulls his hand up in a deliberate motion and jerks his fingers. A look of abject horror comes unbidden to Emile's face as his body turns, pointing the large bore guns at the others. "Take care of these distractions, there, that's a good lad," he says to Emile in an overly-genteel tone continuing to stand openly in front of you with no concern. Instead, he carries the cylinder with the nuclear warning labels over to the side of the laboratory next to a massive ring-shaped device roughly ten feet in diameter.

Báleygr' Gangleri blinks his frog eyes, currently only slightly distended in his current human guise, noting that Petr lacks most signs of warmth - he is barely above room temperature and doesn't pulse from the circulation of life-giving blood within him. The room is otherwise a confusing symphony of emissions with radio waves, wireless signals, and more irradiating everything and the nuclear radiation now increasing around the cylinder in Petyr's hands. He kneels at the foot of the stairs, where Shadrach pulled Oliver to safety, and says aloud, "He's only a child. You truly are a monster." Looking down and focusing on the boy, he traces symbols on the boy's clothes, moving his hands as if feeling the boy's chakra. (+6)

Oliver sits upright abruptly, inhaling deeply with a gasp, eyes wide, glancing around at the chaos around him.

With the boy now clear, Hansel clicks his rifle over to burst fire and puts multiple energy pulses through Peytr's back (-11), searing smoking holes that the man still ignores.

Emile:

Your body is being externally controlled: your mind and voice are still your own, but your body is compelled to attack another PC with your guns. That's a failed save, so you are compelled this round and you take 5hp damage as you resist your body's actions with your will. Make one attack against a PC of your choice. Afterwards, you can suffer another 5hp damage to attempt another save. If you succeed, you regain control the next round, if you fail, you shoot your target a second time.

OOC:

Initiative:
8 - Shadrach
7 - Emile
7 - Taavi
6 - AI
4 - Petr
3 - Báleygr
2 - Hansel

Petr Initiative [1d8]=4
AI Initiative [1d8]=6

Next round!

[cybersavant]

Báleygr' Gangleri speaks after healing Oliver. "He doesn't give off any heat, and the radiation is rising. Oliver, get upstairs."

[greyarea]

Emile struggles and says, Forgive me friend, for I have no control... firing at Hansel.

Emile Initiative [1d8+2]=8+2=10
SunShooter [1d20+4]=17+4=21 Damage: [2d6+3]=6+3=9 Range: 50m Magazine: Unlimited

He will take the 5 damage to try to win back control...
saving throw [1d20]=15

[jemmus]

Taavi tested well on school IQ and achievement tests, but at the moment he feels quite dense. He can think of no way to defeat this thing that has no body heat and that bullets don't hurt. Physical force isn't working, so all he can think to do is to try the metaphysical. He lowers his rifle and his eyes go into an unblinking, unfocused gaze.

Committing Effort for Transmit Thought.
Effort = 3 (base of 1 + 2 for Constitution.

Transmit Thought (Level-1). The telepath can send thoughts and images over a Telepathic Contact, allowing two-way communication with a willing target as an Instant action when desired. (The target must be visible or otherwise perceptible to the telepath’s unaided senses. Opening a contact requires the telepath to Commit Effort for the day as a Main Action, and the contact lasts for a scene.)

[Marullus]

Taavi:

Okay - clever! There's a wrinkle that Trasmit Thought specifically can only be used with a "willing subject." The core ability - which allows you to read intense emotions and the focus of those feelings and to use their language center to understand any language the target is speaking - doesn't require consent or allow a savings throw. Spending a single point of effort makes the connection to allow all of this simultaniously for the duration of one scene.

In this case, I think Petr is overconfident and intrigued and would willingly allow mental communication. What that means is:

• You have the opportunity to communicate directly, mind-to-mind, such that no one else in the room is aware of it. Please roleplay this out and simply put it in italics to distinguish it. I encourage creativity and you can speak in dialog or in pushed mental imagery at your discretion.
• This allows you to effectively attempt to roll a social action on Petr. Lead or Connect is appropriate, as is Int, Cha, or Wis, depending on the approach you take. State what you're hoping to achieve with this communication and I'll set the difficulty of the roll according to that.
• You can also still act in the room, even speaking aloud as a normal free action, in conjunction (or contradiction) to this mental convincing.
• Confirm your character sheet is actually updated correctly to level 2 before you do any of this. That's what I'm relying on for reference here. (You can't have Terminal Reflection without first buying Precognition skill to 1, for example, and you can't aggressively read Petr's thoughts until you get to Telepathy 2. If you are getting to Telepathy 2, you can choose Suppress Cognition with it, which is a close to offensive-telepathy as you could have. It looks like you spent both foci (gained at level 1 and level 2) to get both tiers of Psychic Training - because this awards points towards a level of psychic discipline retroactively, I will allow you to apply them to get Telepathy-2 as long as you spend the 1 other skill point needed with it... this also lets you pick Suppress Cognition with it.)
• Repeating for emphasis - before this action is your last chance to fix and finalize your level 2 level-up.

Thanks.

[Marullus]

*bump*
Emile acted (to shoot Hansel).
Balygyr spoke but can still act.
Taavi needs more post to finish his action.
Still looking for Hansel (reacting to getting shot) and Shadrach.

[redwarrior]

Oh... that's weird. I thought I answered it. But it appears I did not. Should have it up again within 30.

[redwarrior]

Hansel decides that this scenario isn't moving in the right direction, so it's time to change it... Peytr seems to be doing something with that cylinder.... Switching from burst fire back to semi-, He takes a solid rifle range sling supported shooting stance and targets the cylinder in Peytr's hand while muttering at least the bad guys didn't so much as muss my hair! Not dead yet... 'tis merely a flesh wound! I hope he doesn't do that again!

Laser Rifle [1d20+3]=20+3=23 Damage [1d12+1]=2+1=3 Plus several thousand for shot placement, hopefully it's fragile and explod-ey...in a very constrained radius. I couldn't find rules for called shots in my quick review of the book, so I dropped the burst mods, as burst and aim are contradictory. Hopefully a 23 is good enough for a called shot after minuses.

[Marullus]

[cybersavant]

Báleygr' Gangleri runs into the room with all the high tech.

[jemmus]

Taavi continues to stand with rifle barrel lowered, eyes unfocused as he goes deeper into the metaphysical.

Commit Effort to open Suppress Cognition.

[Marullus]

Taavi:

You need to specify what you're doing with Supress Cognition. It blocks him from thinking about a specific thing - what specific thing do you want him to not do, notice, or think about?

Also, are you engaging him telepathically in any social roll to convince him of something? If so, roleplay it and include the [2d6] roll.

[jemmus]

Taavi achieves the necessary mental state and attempts to invade Petr's thoughts. "You cannot do anything to harm these people in any way. It is impossible for you to commit an act of violence. You cannot even think of it, cannot even conceive of it."

Suppress Cognition
Through intense focus, the telepath can make the target of a Telepathic Contact simply not think about something, whether that’s the presence of the telepath, the possibility of committing violence.... The target gets a Mental saving throw to resist this power and become immune to it for the scene.

I could be wrong, but the way I see it this action doesn't actually use words and language to communicate with the target, the way the Telepathic Contact (Core) skill does. Instead, it's mentally blocking the target's mind from thinking about something. But if a roll for a Social skill, is needed, here it is.
Talk [2d6]=5

[Marullus]

...Shadrach?

[Enoch]

Shadrach's eyes widen in horror as Emile raises his pistol. He lets his rifle drop to hang from his shoulder by the sling and lunges- too late- for Emile. A moment after the echoing roar, he smashes the butt of his rifle down at the gunsliger's wrist.


Move Action: Club up a weapon (rifle).
Main Action: Disarm a Foe. Melee Attack: [1d20]=16
Emile has to make an attack roll (with a +3 bonus). If he beats a 16, I fail; if he matches it, we both lose our grip on our weapons.

[greyarea]

Emile has to make an attack roll (with a +3 bonus). If he beats a 16, I fail; if he matches it, we both lose our grip on our weapons.

Emile
Attack [1d20+3]=19+3=22

[jemmus]

Emile is a deadeye crack shot when it comes to shooting that canister thing! That's two in a row.