Chapter 3: The Path of the Righteous Man

[jemmus]

Marshals, it seems best that we rest and heal up before undertaking a new venture, Taavi says. Let's regroup with the others at the truck. On the way to it he stops at the bar and and collects what water, juice, or soft drinks for the group he can find.

[redwarrior]

Hanselfollows Taavi's lead, first stopping to figure out how to turn off (preferable) or destroy the portal (Notice roll). If he's successful in that, as he goes through the storeroom, he will feed a few loose rounds into his magazine to top it off, and will grab anything light that might be useful to the group in the storeroom, kitchen, and bar.


Notice [3d6c1+2]=8+2=10

[cybersavant]

Báleygr Gangleri studies the portal via the drone.
fix 2, cast magic 0, notice 0:
"What about the four demon women down there? Grab the stuff they collected from their victims."

[Marullus]

Hansel is able to flip the marked switches to power down this end of the portal easily enough. Disabling it such that someone won't be able to just easily power it on will require a skilled Fix roll or the application of significant brute force. The blue cube is happy to advise on the proper use of excessive explosive force.

The bar proffers up plenty of liquor and seltzer water according to your tastes. You can rough it in bedrolls on the bed of the flatbed truck or outside on the ground, or you can sweep enough broken glass to sleep inside on the bar room floor, or you could shift the rubble of the collapsed room and exploded VIP area to reach the now-blocked hallway that advertised available motel rooms with beds in the strip mall section between the bar and the mechanics bay at the far end.

Assuming you take a nights rest, what do you do to protect yourselves from the remaining people you believe are downstairs? Then, in the morning do you intend to go through the portal or continue driving deeper into the badlands in the truck?

[Enoch]

Shadrach stands and wordlessly begins dragging boxes and crates to pile in front of the doorway.

Exert (-1 skill, +1 STR): [2d6]=2

[jemmus]

Taavi
Baleygr, can your drone stand guard while we rest? Maybe from inside the building, so we can have an early warning?

[greyarea]

Emile says, I think the truck is good for spending the night. Once we’ve recovered a bit, I think we should take care of the rest of them downstairs. Then we take off: portal or truck works for me, especially if we can return to the truck from the other side once we’ve completed our business.

[cybersavant]

Taavi
Baleygr, can your drone stand guard while we rest? Maybe from inside the building, so we can have an early warning?

Báleygr Gangleri "I can do that, if that's what everyone wants. What if Petr digs his way out?"

[jemmus]

Petr is in pieces, Taavi says. I think he needed a functional body with intact limbs to get around. Remember how at the farm he used Oliver as a kind of crutch?

[Enoch]

Shadrach nods. "His kind of necromancy, he does. Different wizards, they specialize in different things. Petyr seems to have specialized in the more physical aspects."

[Marullus]

Ambiance: Oh Darlin' What Have I Done

The group decides to hunker down and rest for the night on or around the truck. Nora looks exhausted and hollow, the adrenaline waned and her arms locked around Oliver. Oliver stares blankly at the smears of gore on the bar floor, illuminated by the truck's headlights. "Oliver and I will sleep in the cab," she announces perfunctorily, not as a question. She leads Oliver off the truck bed and to the passenger door, closing it behind them. Kimberly clears her throat and looks at the men awkwardly as she is left alone on the flatbed while they stand looking at it, and her. "Well..." she trails off, smiling lamely, "I don't mind sharing the bed, if you don't," she pats the planking underneath her as acknowledgement of her jest. There's room for everyone if you crowd on, but the ground might be more comfortable than the crowded wooden planks. There's also still seven cars that remain outside the bar, their owners probably among the dismembered on the baroom floor. Without searching the bodyparts for keys, you'd need to pick or break a lock, but it might be a better night's sleep in an upholstered back seat.

Shadrach wordlessly piles crates in front of the basement doorway after Hansel powers down the portal gate. Taavi offers bottles of seltzer and liquor to each of you, placing the extras on the back end of the truck. Balygyr turns over the drones to Heavy the blue cube, which establishes automated hover routines that repeat every few minutes in an endlessly repeating pattern. One drone pans its spotlight over the interior bar - half a face here, a severed arm there, an inky stain of otherworldly residue - amidst the overturned and broken chairs and round tables. There is a moment of consternation that Petyr might emerge from under the rubble again, but the reminder of Taavi's violent hurling of sections of collapsed roof and Shadrach's knowledge of the arcane mollify the concerns, even if they don't bring comfort. The other drone moves a slow semi-circle in the darkness beyond the truck, shining its light on the cracked concrete of the parking lot, pausing when it finds a struggling sapling, staying far from the stripped-out fuel station that marks the paved road. The lights of the drone wobble as erratic-winged bats do fly-bys of it close enough to affect its stabilizers. Kimberly looks up apprehensively at the squeaking of the airborne rodents.

Narrate how you choose to sleep and if you have any further interaction with each other. Though the scene is justifiably worrisome, no encounters happen through the night.

Healing Rules: Everyone gains your level (+3) hit points and recovers one system strain overnight. If you're not healed, then Nora will change your bandages in the morning and you can roll an additional 1d6 hp.

Hit Points:
Báleygr Gangleri (AC 13) 6 / 6
Shadrach (AC 16, 17 Shadows) 10 / 15 (+3 overnight)
Hansel Shatner (AC 15) 17 / 26 (+3 overnight)
Emile (AC 15) 10 / 10 (+3 overnight)
Taavi Perttu (AC 14) 12 / 14 (+3 overnight)
Nora (AC 13) 12 / 16 (+3 overnight)
Oliver (AC 10) 3 / 3
Kimberly Brown (AC 14) 3 / 3

The morning light wakes those sleeping on the truck bed first, shining bright and unrelenting as the wastelands begin to warm quickly back to the swelter you've become accustomed to. Though the bar remains without electricity, the hole blown in the roof now admits plenty of light to show the carnage all together at once. The acrid smell of blood mingles with the onset of rotting corpse within, adding an olofactory component to the visual horror.

A careful sweep of the bar and lower level by the martial Marshalls shows that whatever remained (presumed to be at least one shotgun-wielding bouncer and four of the glamoured strippers) must have fled in the night. Reaching the garage at the lower-rear, one of the bay doors is open and it appears that a wheeled vehicle is gone, the bay now empty. A half-dozen wheeled cruiser motorcycles are parked in the remaining two bays. The portal remains powered off as Hansel left it. A cursory check of the mechanic's garage at the far end of the strip mall shows it is unoccupied as well, with muddy tire prints leading to the highway and all the tools left behind.

Nora emerges from the truck cab, Oliver a little more himself though still quieter and less exhuberant than he was. He avoids looking at the interior of the building at all, pulling his goggles down over his eyes and wiping the dust from them as he fixes his attention in the opposite direction, towards the highway. Nora makes the rounds, checking wounds and changing bandages, rolling gauze from her satchel wherever needed.

"Well, thanks for the snuggles, gentlemen..." trails off Kimberly, again smiling awkwardly. "If there's keys to a car here, then I guess that's it for me..." She again trails off, leaving it more of a question. "You going through that portal after all, or you driving to your next destination? Where you heading, anyway?"

[redwarrior]

Hansel Once the goods are shifted to the truck, soaks a handkerchief in some bottom shelf booze to deaden the smells and searches random body parts in the bar, looking for keys to vehicles. Notice [3d6c1+2]=11+2=13

If he finds some keys, he will offer to platonically share the car's seats with Kimberly. If not, he'll unroll his bedroll on the hood of a vehicle and pass the night in relative comfort, with hopefully a little residual heat.

After a good night's sleep, Hansel is still in pretty sad shape. After Nora tends his wounds, he's still tender an sore, but doing much better. He averts his eyes from Nora, feeling guilty for Oliver's wounds.
bandaging healing [1d6]=6 Bringing him to 23/26

Hansel points out that the mechanic's shop is empty to Báleygr, in case there are useful tools or repair parts there.

When Kimberly mentions leaving, Hansel will hand her the vehicle's keys (assuming he found them) and ask her if she has somewhere in particular that she is headed. After a moment, he will look to Taavi and pitch his voice a bit so it will carry Or would you prefer to travel with us? You seem to know how to stay calm handle yourself around danger.

Hansel thinks that this portal should be disabled/made inoperative from this side, so it can't be reactivated easily. Going through the portal without knowing what's on the other side seems unwise. But Hansel will roll with whatever the group wants to do.

[greyarea]

Emile finds a less rocky spot, unrolls his bedroll, puts down his bag and uses it as a pillow as he eases back. He tilts his hat over his eyes and sleeps with one hand on the hilt of his SunShooter. Hell of an evening. Maybe morning will be better. 'Night.

Upon waking he repacks and attends to his morning routine, which consists, among other things, of a fast draw kata with his pistol.

Then he joins the others, much refreshed. After some thought, I think that portal might be how we should head next. That might lead us right to the nest of those Sons of Vukodlak. That said, don't mind hunting them in the truck neither, if that's what the rest of you prefer.

[cybersavant]

Báleygr Gangleri sleeps on the flatbed. "In the morning, I'd like to scavenge parts, maybe arm the drones too. Oliver can help me with that while you double check the bodies inside and the vehicles out here.

In the morning

"I'd like to check the portal - but i want to boost the drones a bit first, if i can. If/when we leave via truck, we should take some of those other vehicles too." Báleygr checks with the AI about upgrading the drones, supplies needed, timeframe, etc.

[jemmus]

Taavi reloads his rifle and lie it on the ground. He sleeps next to it, the heat of the hot concrete keeping him warm during the night.

In the morning, he says, I agree, it would be wise to learn more about the portal before moving on. The site is a place of interest, to say the least.
It's probably best to leave no stone unturned.

[greyarea]

Emile asks Báleygr, Can one of your drones be of use exploring the portal? Potentially better than sending us through, especially if the destination is hot.

[Marullus]

Steeling himself against horror and muffling the pungent rot of decay with a booze-soaked rag, Hansel searches the the interior of the bar by the light of the drone. Ever observant, he collects five sets of keys from exterior pockets with minimal mucking through unpleasant messes. All seven vehicles are ground-based wheeled cars and trucks, dusty and showing evidence of frequent repair against the marks of Badland use. The five with keys each have a few days travel supplies in them, their owners clearly not having intended to die over their beers.
I'll let you have some latitude in describing the used vehicles.

With the suggestion that the portal might be used, Báleygr and Heavy spend the morning and give it an initial investigation. Balygyr determines that it is in good repair and operational, unless you break it, and shouldn't have any hardware issue. It has only the reserve battery, however, so is likely to be able to powered on and used once. With the solar arrays destroyed, it would need some other method to recharge after which is not currently extant. The Heavy pokes through its programming and software, finding more intriguing results. "This portal is indeed connected to a primary alternate location, which by my triangulation appears to be two days further vehicular-travel west at the approximate site of the Sons of Vokodlak. The woman was not dishonest in this. However, it does appear that it has a secondary location established in override programming... and that portal is in highly-eliptical orbit around this planet." The blue cube pulses for three seconds, then continues in its placid monotone. "Logs show that the last use was 22 hours ago to the surface location and passed through a large object with radical energy signatures, matching the power-core taken from the farm. Two individuals came through, obtained it, and returned through the portal with it."

A quick look at the mechanics bay shows it is solidly-equipped as a TL3 workshop for vehicle repairs and the light manufacturing / 3D printing required to do so. A rare thing, outside the cities and here in the Badlands. There's no TL4 spare parts here for rigging things more advanced (but those would be priceless and worth taking with them when they left), so Báleygr will need to rely on the parts he has scavenged and with him for such needs. It will take time, but this is a good place to handle the upgrades he desires.

Time, however, is the question at hand...

Upgrades: They bay counts as a TL3 workshop and Báleygr has the Heavy and Oliver to help, and assumes they're dedicated to working quickly and not doing other things. I'll allow that this cuts a 1-week mod to 1 day and a fabrication and installation of something new to 2-days. Báleygr can use the Mod rules and Tinker focus to mod gear or vehicles with weeks converted to days and my house rule is to ignore credit cost. He can manufacture and install drone suites (which aren't technically mods and don't suffer maintenance burdens) at two-days each. The workshop provides what you need for any TL3 mod. You must use your TL4 spare parts (or Sense the Need ability) to meet the salvage requirements normally for any TL4 mod.

Holding the invitation to Kim for comments from others and from Taavi.

[jemmus]

Taavi his assent to Taavi and Kimberly and looks around to see the other marshals' reactions. Ms. Kimberly, where we're going likely won't be very nice, or safe. Maybe even worse than it was here yesterday.

[Marullus]

...I don't understand.

[cybersavant]

Upgrades: They bay counts as a TL3 workshop and Báleygr has the Heavy and Oliver to help, and assumes they're dedicated to working quickly and not doing other things. I'll allow that this cuts a 1-week mod to 1 day and a fabrication and installation of something new to 2-days. Báleygr can use the Mod rules and Tinker focus to mod gear or vehicles with weeks converted to days and my house rule is to ignore credit cost. He can manufacture and install drone suites (which aren't technically mods and don't suffer maintenance burdens) at two-days each. The workshop provides what you need for any TL3 mod. You must use your TL4 spare parts (or Sense the Need ability) to meet the salvage requirements normally for any TL4 mod.

Báleygr Gangleri stands in the garage and looks around. "This place seems to be just regular stuff. I can use some of it. Though, if they have more advanced tech, i wouldn't expect it to be lying out in the open. There could be some hidden storage areas. I wonder ... ." Báleygr wanders in a bit further, a drone providing his eyesight as he scans the walls and floors for possibilities.

By triggering this power as an Instant action and Committing Effort for the day, the psychic can retroactively declare that they brought along any one object that they could have reasonably acquired and carried to this point.