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Ambiance: Radioactive

Petyr 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.

Nora leaps down the stairs two at a time, throwing herself bodily around the now upright Oliver, where he sits at the bottom of the steps next to Báleygr. "He doesn't give off any heat, and the radiation is rising. Oliver, get upstairs," says Báleygr before he rises and runs into the laboratory towards Petyr. Torn between the fierce anger in her eyes towards Petyr and the fear for Oliver, Nora does as he suggests and gets Oliver onto his feet.

Taavi stands alone, watching Petyr and events unfold. He quietly lowers his rifle, letting his eyes go unfocused, his body still. Things are happening quickly, everything seemingly at once.

Petyr furrows his brow, a look of concern replacing the look of self-assured and cocky amusement. He shakes his head and reaches down to press buttons on the control panel at the giant ring-shaped machine in front of him. The space within the ring swirls, then congeals, like looking through a thick liquid, to reveal another dark room with dim emergency lighting beyond.

Next to the house-stairs, Emile struggles physically against the movement of his own limbs, saying, "Forgive me friend, for I have no control...". His massive pistol comes up, levels at Hansel, and fires with a deafening roar, blowing a hole in his side. (-9)

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, but misses as Emile shifts instinctively out of the way.

"...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!" mutters Hansel as he rocks backwards, gritting his teeth through the bullet wound from Emile and, instead, turning his attention to Petyr. He takes a solid rifle range, sling-supported shooting stance and targets the cylinder in Peytr's hand... "...non-randomized fire is also not recommended," says the glowing cube sitting on the bottom step in a placid tone.

BZZZRT! A single, charged blast of laser fire comes from Hansel's rifle, hitting the cannister with the nuclear radiation warnings in Petyr's hand.

KA-BOOM.

For a moment, it seems like things are in slow motion as the world literally explodes before your eyes.

Sickly-blue radiation bursts forth as the protective housing of the cannister is ruptured, an energy blast-sphere rushing outward. The ceiling above bends then shatters outward as the sphere blows through the house above. The metal ring-gate, tables, cabinets, and equipment of the laboratory are all now flying objects, smashing themselves against the concrete laboratory walls. A red spinning light and klaxon begin as the housing of the nuclear generator in the center of the room is shattered, multiplying the sickly-blue glow -- you feel the compounded radiation of the now-exposed reactor core aching in your very bones and worsening each moment. Each of you is likewise tossed backwards, flotsam on the blast wave, and pummeled by other debris.

"What have you done?!?" screams the skeletal face of Petyr, all clothing, flesh, and sinew melted off of the front side of his body. He touches his exposed white rib bones in disbelief as he lies amidst the mangled metal of the destroyed ring-gate.

Okay!

• Roll 2d6 damage for the immediate blast wave.
• Roll 1d20 for a Physical Save. If you fail, lose a 1d4 points from your Constitution score for radiation poisoning.
• Keep track of permanent and current CON score - if you lose 1/3 of your permanent score, tell me.

...then Round 3. That round is everyone describing surviving the blast (if they did) - it takes a Main Action to recover yourself.

...then Round 4. You can state a normal action.

Emile is free of influence. Peytr is unable to think of harming you "unless he perceives physical danger" and seems unphased by losing the majority of his flesh. He is against the opposite wall. You are still in two groups (one at the house stairs, one at the outside stairs hallway).

Wow! That was a dramatic turn.
Damage [2d6]=10
HP: 3 / 13
Constitution ST [1d20]=17
Saved

Taavi's eyelids reflexively closed just before the explosion's blast hit his whole body like a massive violent slap. He was blown off of his feet and down to the end of the hallway at who knows how many miles per hour. His shoulder and back struck the ladder leading up to the hatch in the back yard. He lay on the floor limp as a rag doll. The only thought his brain could manage was to acknowledge a ringing at painful volume in his ears. His face hurt, his shoulder hurt, his chest hurt, his legs hurt. Everywhere hurt.

For efficiency, you can post Round 3 and Round 4 at the same time.

Round 4
Taavi opened his eyes. He was close to dead, but not quite dead, which was surprising. He rolled over onto his stomach, got a knee under him and used the ladder to help pull himself upright. He turned around and couldn't believe his eyes. Petr stood there, his front half a bloody skeleton. But he still stood and moved. "How can we ever kill this thing?" he thought. "It's a demon, it can only be exorcised." He held onto the ladder to steady himself. No one physically attack Petr, he called out. He... it can't harm us. It doesn't have the mental capability to do so. But it can still do other things. He painfully limped forward to see if he could give aid to anyone who might still be alive.

Emile
Blast [2d6]=12 The blast blows the Mystic Knight of the Chun Kuk to his death.
PS [1d20]=12 Con dmg [1d4]=3 His limp, lifeless body loses 3 Con permanently.

Marullus wrote: ↑Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:03 pm Nora leaps down the stairs two at a time, throwing herself bodily around the now upright Oliver, where he sits at the bottom of the steps next to Báleygr. "He doesn't give off any heat, and the radiation is rising. Oliver, get upstairs," says Báleygr before he rises and runs into the laboratory towards Petyr.
KA-BOOM.
Sickly-blue radiation bursts forth as the protective housing of the cannister is ruptured, an energy blast-sphere rushing outward. The ceiling above bends then shatters outward as the sphere blows through the house above. The metal ring-gate, tables, cabinets, and equipment of the laboratory are all now flying objects, smashing themselves against the concrete laboratory walls. A red spinning light and klaxon begin as the housing of the nuclear generator in the center of the room is shattered, multiplying the sickly-blue glow -- you feel the compounded radiation of the now-exposed reactor core aching in your very bones and worsening each moment. Each of you is likewise tossed backwards, flotsam on the blast wave, and pummeled by other debris.
Okay!

• Roll 2d6 damage for the immediate blast wave.
• Roll 1d20 for a Physical Save. If you fail, lose a 1d4 points from your Constitution score for radiation poisoning.
• Keep track of permanent and current CON score - if you lose 1/3 of your permanent score, tell me.

...then Round 3. That round is everyone describing surviving the blast (if they did) - it takes a Main Action to recover yourself.
...then Round 4. You can state a normal action.

Báleygr Gangleri flies against the laboratory wall among the debris, unconscious again.

CON 11 (+0) / 8
hp 5/-2

Hansel takes the full brunt of the blast (-8, on top of the 9 already taken, now at -2). He manages to fall behind some debris, shielding from the worst of the radiation. I'm a little unclear on the death rules, and not sure if I'm mortally wounded, or just dead since I'm negative. In either way, T'was a blaze of glory!

Round 3... . Bleeds and dreams of Zoe!
Round 4 ... . Bleeds.

blast wave [2d6]=8
Physical save [1d20]=16

Blast: [2d6]=8
Physical save: 13 [1d20]=20

He made the save like a champ, but the damage leaves him barely standing drops him to -1.

Shadrach bounces hard off a rack of equipment, keeping his rifle only by dint of the sling tangling on his arm. He wobbles on his feet like a punch-drunk bare-knuckles fighter, blinking slowly as he takes in the forms of his companions splayed about the chamber. Then his legs give out, and he slides down the equipment to slump, unconscious.[/b]

Round 4:

Will use Psychic Succor (Biopsion-0) as a Main Action to stabilize.
+2 System Strain
I believe we decided that all psionics use by non-psions required Torching:
Torching: [1d6]=1. Shadrach permanently loses a point of Wisdom.

Ambiance: Hurt

Taavi's eyelids reflexively closed just before the explosion's blast hit his whole body like a massive violent slap. He was blown off of his feet and down to the end of the hallway at who knows how many miles per hour. His shoulder and back struck the ladder leading up to the hatch in the back yard. He lay on the floor limp as a rag doll. The only thought his brain could manage was to acknowledge a ringing at painful volume in his ears. His face hurt, his shoulder hurt, his chest hurt, his legs hurt. Everywhere hurt.

"What have you done?!?" screams the skeletal face of Petyr, all clothing, flesh, and sinew melted off of the front side of his body. He touches his exposed white rib bones in disbelief as he lies amidst the mangled metal of the destroyed ring-gate.

Nora reappears at the stairs, already pulling her shoulder-bag around as she reaches the bottom step. She glances at the fleshless Petyr with narrow-eyed hostility, then calls back at the steps with a fierce tone - "You stay right there, Oliver. Don't you dare come down here." Oliver pauses on the steps, a few feet above where the glowing AI cube landed, an uncertain expression on his face.

Taavi rolls over onto his stomach, gets a knee under him and uses the ladder to help pull himself upright. "No one physically attack Petr," he calls out. "He... it can't harm us. It doesn't have the mental capability to do so. But it can still do other things." He sees Hansel incapacitated and bleeding in the short hallway nearest him. Beyond him, he can see everything in the now-ruined laboratory, and realizes that, while Petyr still stands, none of his teammates do.

"Nuclear containment no longer is possible," the glowing cube states with a languid calm, "radiation hazard is at extreme levels. Atmospheric nanites also present in the area in significant concentration."

Nora kneels briefly at Shadrach, surprised to see him stable, if not hale, all things considered. She injects him with a hypodermic - the needle tears a hole, an old, familiar sting. Then she turns to Báleygr even as his clothes meld into his spongey, scale-like flesh, his face broadening into fish-like features. She pauses. "He's the one that saved me, mom! He's magic!" calls Oliver from the stairs. It breaks Nora's reverie and she skillfully applies a Lazarus Patch to his worst laceration, then a dermal spray over the others. "You better be magic, and fast," she mutters quietly as her deft hands work. Nearby them, against the wall, Emile lies prostrate on the floor. His eyes roll back and he gasps, violently choking on something. Through the tatters of his clothing it looks like the sickly blue radiation has attached to his flesh, but... then its moving. The sickly blue radiation organizes itself into glowing lines and patterns on his flesh as his body convulses uncontrollably. He feels himself changing inside.

Petyr makes a strangled noise from his shredded throat - you think it might be laughter - and pulls himself back to his feet. He pauses as his torso gets stuck on a piece of serrated rebar jutting through his chest cavity and it takes him a moment to extract himself from it and stand up-right - something his bones and charred shreds of flesh should not be able to do, anyway.

"Nora, my sweet," the smoke-tinged skull rasps, "It is so... bitter, to see you. To think you hid him all this time. Oh, yes... I smell it on him, my heritage." He tries to step towards the steps, but his leg buckles with the attempt. Petyr grasps the mangled ring-gate frame to steady himself. "Beneath the stains of time the feelings disappear," he continues, feigning a rueful tone, "You are someone else, but I'm still right here."

"Don't you dare. Not even one step," seethes Nora. Heedless of Taavi's warning, she reaches out and grasps a long metal pipe, perhaps it was a table leg, from next to where she kneels by Báleygr. "You try to kill it all away... but I remember. I remember everything."

"Don't worry, my love," rasps the skeleton, wrapping shreds of his once-fine suit to help stabilize his knee joint, "I wouldn't even think of hurting him. He is, after all, my blood."

Okay, that's round 3. Given the new information, Taavi needs to state a Round 4 Main and Move action. Everyone else can roleplay freely from their incapacitated positions.

Taavi
Nora! Do not physically attack him! He can't hurt you or Oliver unless you attack him! He sees Nora tend to Shadrach and Baleygr but not Hansel or Emile. He hurriedly searches the debris and spots the corner of a medical pack projecting from under a twisted metal surface, perhaps formerly a tabletop. He quickly tries to assess whether to Emile or Hansel needs help first. Hansel looks the worse of the two, and is actually a pretty ghastly sight to look at. The lawyer hurries over to him, opens the pack, and tries to imitate what he saw Nora do with the other two deputies.

He then hurried to Emile's unconscious body. It seemed that something strange was going on internally with him. But the lawyer again tried the same technique.

Main - Heal. Not sure if can do that for both Emile and Hansel this turn.
Move - Move looking for medical supplies, move to Hansel and Emile.
Instant Action - Yell to Nora.
Find [2d6]=6 I missed adding +1 for WIS, but the result is the same (6-7, find a medical pack).
Heal [2d6+1]=11+1=12 Hansel
Heal [2d6+1]=10+1=11 Emile
Got some good rolls when we needed them.

Nora kneels briefly at Shadrach, surprised to see him stable, if not hale, all things considered. She injects him with a hypodermic - the needle tears a hole, an old, familiar sting. Then she turns to Báleygr even as his clothes meld into his spongey, scale-like flesh, his face broadening into fish-like features. She pauses. "He's the one that saved me, mom! He's magic!" calls Oliver from the stairs. It breaks Nora's reverie and she skillfully applies a Lazarus Patch to his worst laceration, then a dermal spray over the others. "You better be magic, and fast," she mutters quietly as her deft hands work.

Báleygr Gangleri blinks his eyes open. "Thanks." He looks around at the carnage. "Crap. We need to seal this room."Then he sees the skeleton. As he stands he asks, "What if we decapitate that thing? AI, any idea of what we're dealing with?" He looks at Emile, to see what he can make out about the blue light.

Emile wipes at the glow but he can't seem to make it stop. His eyes widen with horror as he begins to change...

Hansel Editing re: OCC discussion.

Round 3: Hansel, thrown against a wall by the explosion, provided at least temporary protection from the hard radiation by some mechanical debris looks to use his rifle to lever himself up. Only to find himself too weak, and his hands too slippery with his own blood, will weakly call out "Get the kid to safety! Petr may not be dead yet!"

Round 4: Seeing that Petr is not attacking anyone, Hansel feels a surge of hope and yells out I, also, am not quite dead yet!! Over here if anyone can hear me!! but stops as he is racked by a coughing fit.

Ambiance: Bury Me Face Down

"Don't you dare. Not even one step," seethes Nora. Heedless of Taavi's warning, she reaches out and grasps a long metal pipe, perhaps it was a table leg, from next to where she kneels by Báleygr. "You try to kill it all away... but I remember. I remember everything."

"Don't worry, my love," rasps the skeleton, wrapping shreds of his once-fine suit to help stabilize his knee joint, "I wouldn't even think of hurting him. He is, after all, my blood."

"Nora! Do not physically attack him! He can't hurt you or Oliver unless you attack him!" yells Taavi as he hurriedly searches the debris. He spots the corner of a medical pack projecting from under a twisted metal surface, perhaps formerly a tabletop, pulling it free.

Nora looks apprehensive. The skeletal figure that was Petyr whispers dark words in an archaic tongue and, behind her, Oliver gasps. "Come boy, come to your father. Help me walk."

...and Oliver's feet move. Down the stairs, crossing the room between Nora and Shadrach. His eyes are wide and terrified, darting about as his body moves. "N...No... No! Mom! I don't... I don't... help Mom..." the frightened boy stammers.

"No!" The word catches in Nora's throat, her ferocity sapping away as the boy's terror mirrors on her face. She lunges for Oliver and grabs his leg to prevent him from passing her.

Oliver's fist crunches her nose, knocking Nora back. "I'm... I'm sorry! I can't help it, ma! I'm sorry!" Rocked back on her heels, past trauma reliving itself on her face, Nora wipes a rivulet of blood from her nose, her hands shaking.

Hansel, thrown against a wall by the explosion, provided at least temporary protection from the hard radiation by some mechanical debris looks to use his rifle to lever himself up. Only to find himself too weak, and his hands too slippery with his own blood, will weakly call out "Get the kid to safety! Petr may not be dead yet!"

Taavi reaches Hansel and initially despairs at the comprehensiveness of the man's burns and lacerations. The medical kit, however, has triage instructions that fold out of it and if there's one thing Taavi can do, it is read. He calms his nerves and soon finds that the med scanner in the kit is beeping comfortingly, indicating Hansel is stabilizing.

Emile wipes at the glow but he can't seem to make it stop. His eyes widen with horror as he begins to change... "AI, any idea of what we're dealing with?" asks the weakened Báleygr as he looks at Emile, to see what he can make out about the blue light. "The offworlders are particularly susceptible to the atmospheric nanites, having never been exposed." states the glowing cube in a laconic tone, it alone calm in the chaos. "Though their program has decayed since the Wars, they still serve their function of stabilizing and preserving injured humans, particularly with radioactive fallout... mostly. It is not uncommon for them to carry their DNA recoding too far and result in mutations, as you know too well. If you could document his pain levels, it would help for research posterity."

The frozen skull rictus of Petyr nonetheless seems to smile as Oliver reaches him. The boy's face is frozen in a mask of terror as his arms reach up to provide support, the skeleton leaning on the boy for support. The pair crosses the room towards Hansel and Taavi and the exit to the rear of the house. Nora is frozen, a choked sob catches in her throat.

Taavi's eyes again unfocus into a thousand-yard stare. He non-verbally suggests to Petr's mind, "You cannot take the boy with you. You cannot control Oliver's body against his will. You cannot take him from his mother. That isn't possible."

Emile listens to the glowing cube, eyebrow cocked. Not much can be done about that, I suppose, he mumbles and he casts his eyes about looking for his sunshooter, not quite realizing with the extent of his injuries that he still holds it in one hand...

Ambiance: Soul of a Man

The frozen skull rictus of Petyr nonetheless seems to smile as Oliver reaches him. The boy's face is frozen in a mask of terror as his arms reach up to provide support, the skeleton leaning on the boy for support. The pair crosses the room towards Hansel and Taavi and the exit to the rear of the house. Nora is frozen, a choked sob catches in her throat.

Taavi stands impassive by the wall, arms crossed as Petyr approaches. His intense gaze stares at the skeletal Petyr... through Petyr. Unflinching.

Petyr pauses. He locks eyes with Taavi, his fleshless visage provides no hint of what is going on behind the dull red glow of his skull's eye sockets. "Well," he says at Taavi, breaking eye contact at last. He leans out to grasp the railing on the wall of the hallway instead of the boy, Oliver forgotten. Petyr seems disappointed as he looks around at all the incapacitated yet not-dying people in the room. "Until next time, I suppose." smirks Petyr. The charred corpse limps past Taavi, who continues his unnerving stare. Using the railing to keep his knees from buckling, Petyr pulls himself up the ladder to the back yard.

"...The hells was that?!?" slurs Hansel from his position slumped against the wall at Taavi's feet.

Oliver breaks into a sob and flings himself at Nora, who wraps him in her arms; the pair falls to the floor together, both weeping for different reasons, neither letting go.

...

The loud clamor of the radiation klaxon continues, the red light rotating on top of the destroyed reactor shielding splashing the ruins of the room with its ruddy glow over and over, the sickly blue light of the exposed reactor core below the floor-level otherwise providing faint illumination with the overhead lighting shattered by the explosion. The room reeks of burned flesh and ozone.

Taavi blinks, taking in the abrupt stillness in the room, his mental exertions complete. Nora rocks on the floor, her face buried in Oliver's shoulder, his whole body ensconced in her arms.

After a few minutes (five), Shadrach and Báleygr, benefitting from the stimulants that Nora injected into their bloodstream, are finally able to push themselves to their feet. Hansel is stable but still weakened, he'll need more time (5 more minutes) before he can move of his own accord.

Emile, meanwhile, stops convulsing and also is able to regain his feet. He sees the inky black nanite tattoos pulse with a blue glow sporadically across his hands and arms; the others can see they spread up his neck and across his face as well, covering all his flesh. With his cybernetic vision, the gunslinger can see that the pulse of the blue glow is a reaction to the waves of radioactive energy coming off the exposed reactor core.

Everyone make a Physical Save. If you fail, you lose another 1 point of CON. You will repeat this every five additional minutes in this room.

Emile: OOC:

Well crap, Taavi mumbles. The thing just walked out of here under its own power. He still can't think of anything else they could have done to kill it. But he knows that they all missed something. He runs over to Hansel and tries to drags him out of the room. Everyone, we have to get out of here. Someone help me with Hansel.

Constitution 12 ST [1d20]=16

Báleygr Gangleri "I can try to heal him. Then i need to grab what i can from the lab." Báleygr wallks over to cast reinforce tissue .


save

Hansel mutters A nuke exploded in his hand and he walked away... How .... as he attempts to stumble along with Taavi's help, using the rifle as a makeshift crutch and nodding his apprication too Báleygr. He takes note of the mind trick Taavi seems to have played. But that's for another day... right now, he's all for getting away from here as fast as he can stumble.

Save made!
con save 12 target [1d20]=17