Turn 2
Calla"I am going to go talk to the one person here who actually treats me like a person" Calla then turns in the right direction and heads upstairs, not caring whether or not Sophie is there yet, the arrogance of these people, you don't care how well prepared someone is, this is NOT something to be looking forward to
You ignore both Milic and Stirling and march promptly up the stairs, your eyes taking a few moments to adjust to the sunlight.
The top deck of the oil rig-slash-Fellowship base of operations looks fairly innocent from the air. Aside from a few easily-missed symbols and insignia, there's nothing that would give the impression that it's anything else than one of the many rigs in the region. A blocky, multi-level structure with a pair of large towers, a few landing pads, workers milling around, antennaes and communications relays. A more thorough look might reveal the dozens of ships and boats hidden below, including the submarine
Tarkhos, as well as the military make and model of the helicopters and the discreet anti-air and sea defenses gradually added to the structure. Of course, the Fellowship pays good money to make sure nobody gets a thorough look at the platform.
Nobody pays you much mind as you come onto the platform. The sky is clear, though a curtain of black clouds is approaching threateningly, the sun warm on your back. Looking around, it seems that the majority of the station's three hundred population is gathered, some still wandering around, but most of them gathered in a thick human half-circle by the foot of the towers. Reasoning it's probably where Sophie is, you head there.
The half-circle breaks respectfully in your path, conversations dying down to murmur. You can feel their stares at your back as you walk. You can never tell what they're thinking of you. Atleast with the old men it's obvious they only see you as a tool, to be used and discarded at will. Not irreplaceable, not even important in their plans.
You can see a line of candles leading through the small door into the tower, and through the corridor to a larger chamber. You don't ponder their significance for long, marching straight in. A heavy scent of incense and oils rolls to you from the chamber, filling your senses.
The chamber is a simple industrial-grey cube. Fellowship insignia and banners hang from the walls, and candles of curious make burn a dull red, giving the room an odd unearthly look. Doctor Murdoch and a robed acolyte stand at the far wall, reading from a thick black-hide tome, while a second acolyte moves around Sophie, sitting with her hands on her legs with an impossibly calm expression. Her eyes are closed, and her skin glows with oil of some kind. Purple paint has been applied on her face, more-or-less following the cheekbones, and onto her forehead. Reaching with your mind to her with ease of familiarity, you are surprised to find a mental wall shielding her thoughts. Usually, you have nothing to hide from eachother.
Sophie opens her eyes at your approach, gesturing the acolyte away. Then she turns to Doctor Murdoch and the other one.
'Doctor, this will only take a moment. Could you please give us some privacy?' she asks. After a few moments of indecision, the scientist nods cautiously and leads his cadre out of the room. Sophie gestures you to sit down. You take a place directly facing her, and wait for her to speak.
'You are the only family I have,' she says, staring off into the distance. 'And will ever have. Which is why what I have to do hurts so much.'
She closes her eyes again and smiles, but not with joy.
'I promised to never cry again after they cut off my hair. Remember that? Stupid, stupid thing to do. But I'll stand by it.'
She looks very much in pain out a sudden. You can feel the cracks in her mental barrier, see the nubs of fleshy proto-hair on her skull pulse. Fear and concern for her wellbeing wells up in you, a terrible suspicion rising its ugly head.
'Calla, listen to me. You
cannot trust the Fellowship. Once this is done, they will have no use to you. You're too.. unpredictable, uncontrollable. I've always loved those traits in you...'
Her voice breaks with the last sentence, and so do her mental barriers. Reaching in without thinking, you feel the weight of what she says next before she says it.
'Sister, in the next few hours, I will die. The Doom of Atlantis will awaken and rise where the fabled land once stood, and be repulsed by the sacrifice of the soul of mankind. So have the prophecies foretold, and so must it... be,' she says, knowing very well what you felt. 'I am to be the sacrifice. They have always known. Always... prepared.'
'I have no choice. It must be done. It is the only way we can save mankind.'
Sophie's mind is a vortex of seething emotions, a raging storm somehow contained within. But in the very heart of that vortex, you can hear a broken, distant voice, a voice suppressed and smothered by all her might.
I don't want to die, big sister.Calla - Abyssal Hybrid
Health: Unharmed
Inventory: Empty
Traits and Powers:
*Beyond Human (As an Abyssal half-breed, you possess incredible physical and mental capability. You are capable of mental 'psychic' warfare and considerable thought suggestion, and of easy genetic manipulation by touch on-the-fly, even to fatal extremes. +1 to mental power, +2 to mutation and genetic alteration)
*Aura of Terror - INACTIVE (You share the Deep Ones' incapaciting presence, which causes deep fear and anxiety in the mortal psyche. You are currently suppressing your aura.)
Current Effects: None
Location: Ritual Preparation Chamber, Fellowship HQ
Alex yells at Theo, "We've got company,the...people in those helos are not human, well, mostly not human. Imma yell at the Titain and seeif it can bugger off or something. If that doesn't work we need to book it!" Alex scrambles to the front of the boat, fighting agianst the waves. He taps into the Fae to try to be able to to use the speech of the Titians he yells at the monster. "Hey! Hey you! If you could take out those helicopters and then go to sleep agian that would be awesome. If you don't want to go back to bed can you at least bugger off and have sex with a coral reef or something?"
[5-1=4] - Moving quickly, you tap into the Fae, ignoring its feeble half-conscious protests. You have little experience with the primordial tongue, barely resembling human languages or even thought patterns, and without giving in to the thing you have little hope of ever becoming more fluent - but despite all this, sometimes you get lucky.
Your head swims when you speak the words, [4] and one of the agents nearly collapses. But in a second, an ageless thunder is racing across the waves, the ancient words flashing past the first helicopter (which wobbles visibly) and stopping the Titan in its tracks when it hears them.
There's a sound like a nuclear detonation underwater, and the reply slams into your mind like a freight train, sending you toppling over backwards. An imcomprehensibly vast and ancient mind touches yours for a moment - and you barely take it in with your connection to the Fae, converting it to something understandable.
DEFILER. YOUR EVERY WORD IS A TRANSGRESSION. THE EARTH CRIES OUT AT THIS INJUSTICE. YOUR TIME IS AT AN END.You flinch back, Theo shaking you by the shoulders, shouting something. When your senses return, you realize the boat is moving rapidly away, with the second helicopter roaring closer by the second. The hostile presence inside it cannot be denied now. Lucia is screaming, pathetic.
You cast a panicked glance in the direction of the vengeful Titan - did it sense the Fae inside you? - hearing more reveberating thunder. You're strangely grateful to see the other helicopter above it, its doors open. You can make out a human silhouette with two large spheres on its shoulders standing there.
[4][Dodges:2-1=1/1-1=1] You see the human slam the spheres down with surprising force - or not, if he's not human as well, [BPs:2/3] both impacting against its back. After a split-second, there's a deafening boom and two fireballs rise high into the air... [Damages:2+1-3=1/4+1-3=2] for absolutely zero noticeable effect on the ancient creature.
'Alex! Get down!' you hear Theo shout and glance right to see the helicopter beside the boat, its door seeming to slide open in slow motion. You see the figures of two men in plainsclothes with heavy automatics before the agent tackles you down.
[5, 5] Then both men point down their rifles and fire, the burst of white fire and staccato hiss-crack sounds of it rising even above the scream of the chopper. [3][3] Agent Deronda [Dodges:4+1=5/4+1=5] hits the boat floor as two salvos of heavy-caliber bullets roar past overhead. [1+2=3, 6, 6] All three Foundation agents immediately return fire, working in perfect silence and unison. [2][1][1] Theo targets the man on the left in the chopper doorway, while the two junior agents open up at the second.
[Dodges:5-1=4/1-1=1/6-1=5] Three booms are heard from your bodyguards' heavy pistols, but only one of them finds its mark. [Damage:5-3+3+1=6] The attacker on the right screams and falls out of the chopper gushing blood, splashing into the waters and quickly left behind the moving battle. The first man gives a shout, glancing back, and you spot a third, younger man sitting calmly in the back of the helicopter.
'Evasive manouevers, for fuck's sake!' Theo shouts to your driver, who responds by taking the boat into a half-hearted zig-zag path. [2] The helicopter follows with ease, and is soon inching back for your side.
The Titan is being left quickly behind, and hopefully it's also preoccupied with the other helicopter. You're following the coast now, tropical forest and beach flashing past.
CombatantsFirst Cultist
*Unharmed
*Assault Rifle [24/30 - 1] (Fires six shots per turn, -2 to Damage)
*Squishy Mortal (+3 to taken Damage, -3 to physical Damage)
Sol Hybrid
*In the back of the helicopter.
*Unharmed
*Beyond Human (As a weak lab-born Star God hybrid, possesses crude understanding of his Nexus Field and possesses the superior strenght and toughness of all hybrids.)
*Nexus Field - OFFENSIVE MODE (+1 to Damage. Incapable of using alternative modes.)
Theo
*Unharmed
*Heavy Pistol [4/5 - 2] (Fires one shot per turn, -3 to Damage)
*Veteran Agent (+2 to Combat Rolls, +1 to Dodge, -1 to Enemy Dodge)
*Squishy Mortal (+3 to all taken Damage, -3 to physical Damage)
Agent Rodriguez
*Unharmed
*Heavy Pistol [4/5 - 1] (Fires one shot per turn, -3 to Damage)
*Trained Agent (+1 to Dodge, -1 to Enemy Dodge)
*Squishy Mortal (+3 to all taken Damage, -3 to physical Damage)
Agent Deronda
*Unharmed
*Heavy Pistol [4/5 - 1] (Fires one shot per turn, -3 to Damage)
*Trained Agent (+1 to Dodge, -1 to Enemy Dodge)
*Squishy Mortal (+3 to all taken Damage, -3 to physical Damage)
---
Alex Vondgas - Imprisoned TitanHealth: Unharmed
Inventory: Empty
Traits and Powers: *
Immortal Prisoner (In the back of your mind, ever-raging, ever-moving, lays 'the Fae', a Titan from before the dawn of history. By tapping into its power, you can take on incredible physical and mental capability. The more of yourself you give in, the more powerful you become, but the higher the risk of losing control is. Your current control level is High. +1 to physical damage, -1 to all taken damage)
*
Slow Regeneration (Your control over the Titan grants you slow wound regeneration. Heal all wounds by 1 on a 3-6.)
Current Effects: None
Location: Floor of a luxury yacht, just off the coast of Thailand
Turiel picked up the transceiver again while holding the throttle, desperate to stabilize the Jet and return to safe cruising speed. He then tries to issue a Mayday signal back to the base, describing in brief what he's seeing.
If, for whatever reason, I cannot gain control of the plane. Hit the Eject button.
If there is no eject button, Activate Field Booster and switch Nexus Field to Regenerative.
Examine Titan while I fly downwards.
[1] - Your mayday signal and sitrep is met only with ominous static, but you have other things to worry about. [3] You hammer your fist against the engine ignition, trying desperately to stabilize and control the jet's landing with your other hand. The landscape flashes past amazingly quickly, trees and plains spinning in your view. You flare your Field back up, straining to push away the rushing wind.
And then you're already just above the ground, skimming the tops of trees. You shout at the damn machine to start working, [2] and simultaneously fall into the woods. [Dodge:5-2+1=4] There's a blessed moment of sheer joy as you feel the stubborn jet engines reactivate at last, filling the cockpit with their roar. You wrench the controls back with all your might, nearly breaking it in half, and feel the trees bend under the will of a defensive Nexus Field. KOSCHEI shoots back into the air, and you let out a long sigh of relief.
[6] Back in the air, atleast momentarily, you take the chance to look at the awakened Titan, bending its knees with unbelievably vast, slow moves, its arms supporting it and swiping aside entire forests as they slide along the ground. Slowly but surely, the cyclopean monstrosity stands up, and takes its first, wavering step after a near-eternity of sleep and dreams. It pays you no attention, probably because it can hardly make out the tiny speck you are in its view. You'd estimate it's size at atleast six hundred meters, a humanoid body formed out of solidifed soil, rock and scattered vegetation.
'...come in, please come in immediately,' the static-filled voice crackles.
'I'm here and intact,' you quickly reply, having trouble believing your own eyes. The earth shakes visibly as the Titan walks, crushing the steppe underneath.
'Operative Turiel, what... what the fuck is going on?' Ark Command simply asks. You repeat your report, feeling strangely calm despite the adrenaline pumping through your veins now.
'Yes, we're seeing this, but... this can't be real,' the voice replies, after a while. 'We are getting reports from everywhere. It looks like this is...' he trails off. It takes several minutes for it to return, which you use to circle around the Titan, making its way east. There are several villages near its path, you realize.
'Operative? Tyumen Airbase is scrambling fighters. Move to the distance of atleast five hundred meters from your current location and wait and observe. You are not, I repeat, not authorized to engage in combat. Please leave the area and proceed to observe the capabilities of the... target against unmodified fighters.'
---
Status: Unharmed
Location: Russian Airspace, Western Siberia
Equipment: *
30mm GSH-30 Cannon [-] (Fires three shots per turn. -3 to Damage)
*
RUS Guided Missiles [4] (-2 to Damage, -1 to Enemy Dodge)
Special Traits: * Field Booster (Capable of co-opting and considerably enlarging a pilot's Nexus Field.)
Turiel - Star God HybridHealth: Unharmed
Inventory: Empty
Traits and Powers: *
Beyond Human (As a Star God half-breed, you carry within your veins incredible physical and mental capability, but more importantly, innate knowledge of Star God technology and powers, including rudimentary control of your Nexus Field.)
*
Nexus Field - DEFENSIVE MODE (You have the power to control a personal force field that can be used to redirect and turn away attacks, supercharge fired projectiles, energy weapons and physical attacks, or knit together wounds or mechanical damage. Only one mode can be active at once. Defensive: +1 to dodge. Offensive: +1 to damage. Regenerative: Heals all wounds/damage by 2 on a 3-6.)
Current Effects: None
Location: Inside the cockpit of the KOSCHEI Modified Jet Fighter, Western Siberia
"Alright, i'm going first. Cover me." Erik rushes through the door before the agents and gives up on suppressing his aura as soon as he's inside.
Alexei dashes to the corner, throws the flashbang around it and shoots if any hostiles are encountered.
((Can I have the "trained agent" perk?)) - Nope, you've already got half of what it gives from G-sculpted S-human anyhow.)
[5] - Rushing through the open cargo door, Erik Tourigny runs into a long room packed full of assorted storage, with a cargo elevator and stairway door on the far end, and a small control room immediately to the left. While he's running, the hybrid cuts loose and stops the constant subconscious suppression of his innate ability, feeling a rush of euphoria as his being fills with dark energy. His agents run inside after him, and [6-2=4][4-2=2] the latter lets out a wail of sheer, crushing terror, immediately turning tail and running back into the darkness outside, his pistol dropping and clanging on the metal floor. Erik shouts after him, but there's no response.
The other agent swallows audibly, trying to look elsewhere. Cold sweat runs down his face and he breathes slowly, in and out, trying to calm himself.
'He... hey, boss. C...can we get going, already? This is... it's fucked up,' he says in heavily-accented English.
Well, atleast it seems he has been briefed on your talents. You wonder if the other one wasn't, or if he just couldn't take the strain. The exits from the room are the cargo elevator and the stairway door.
[1] Out on the other side of the warehouse complex, Alexei Zielkov is seized by uncharacteric indecision, and before he can even reach for his flashbang the two cultists appear from around the corner, brandishing improvised melee weapons.
[1, 2, 3, 2, 6] Agents Kaminski and Mihailov keep up the fire while the others move back, [2][2] both firing at the first of the new arrivals. [Dodges:1-1-1=1/2-1-1=1] Both shots slam into his skull and [Damages:5-3+3+1=6/6-3+3+1=6] scattering its contents all over the walls. His body stumbles back from the impacts and collapses.
[5-2=3] The wounded cultist, screaming obscenities, pulls up his sidearm and [1] takes a wavering shot at Alexei. [Dodge:5+1+1=6/4+1+1=6/5+1+1=6] The giant doesn't even have to move - he sees that the angle is all wrong, and is right when the shots punch into the ceiling instead.
[3] The badly-armed fanatic, unfazed by the death of his companion, charges forward at [1] Alexei again. [Dodge: 3+1+1=5] He moves faster than should be possible,
surging away from the cultist's path and to the side, raising his weapon at the side of his head.
Combatants (The Offices)Pistol Cultist
*Right Arm: Moderately Wounded
*Right Leg: Moderately Wounded
*Automatic Pistol [3/9 - 0] (Fires three shots per turn, -3 to Damage)
*Untrained Fanatic (-1 to Dodge, +1 to Enemy Dodge)
*Squishy Mortal (+3 to all taken Damage, -3 to physical Damage)
Melee Cultist
*Unharmed
*Wrench
*Untrained Fanatic (-1 to Dodge, +1 to Enemy Dodge)
*Squishy Mortal (+3 to all taken Damage, -3 to physical Damage)
Agent Zelenko
*Unharmed
*Heavy Pistol [4/5 - 1] (Fires one shot per turn, -3 to Damage)
*Trained Agent (+1 to Dodge, -1 to Enemy Dodge)
*Squishy Mortal (+3 to all taken Damage, -3 to physical Damage)
Agent Kaminski
*Unharmed
*Heavy Pistol [3/5 - 1] (Fires one shot per turn, -3 to Damage)
*Trained Agent (+1 to Dodge, -1 to Enemy Dodge)
*Squishy Mortal (+3 to all taken Damage, -3 to physical Damage)
Agent Darkin
*Unharmed
*Heavy Pistol [5/5 - 2] (Fires one shot per turn, -3 to Damage)
*Trained Agent (+1 to Dodge, -1 to Enemy Dodge)
*Squishy Mortal (+3 to all taken Damage, -3 to physical Damage)
Agent Mihailov
*Unharmed
*Heavy Pistol [4/5 - 1] (Fires one shot per turn, -3 to Damage)
*Trained Agent (+1 to Dodge, -1 to Enemy Dodge)
*Squishy Mortal (+3 to all taken Damage, -3 to physical Damage)
---
Alexei Zielkov - Experimental Superman
Health: Unharmed
Inventory: Compact SMG [18/18 - 2] (Fires six shots per turn, -3 to Damage), Heavy Pistol [5/5 - 0] (Fires one shot per turn, -3 to Damage), Flashbang [1]
Traits and Powers:
*Genesculpted Superhuman (Your extensive genetic modification and training have made you superior both physically and mentally to any other human being alive. The Shackled, on the other hand, are another matter entirely. +1 to all Damage taken, -2 to physical Damage, +1 to Dodge.)
Current Effects: None
Location: In the offices, Warehouse 59, Vladivostok
Erik Tourigny - Abyssal Hybrid
Health: Unharmed
Inventory: Empty
Traits and Powers:
* Beyond Human (As an Abyssal half-breed, you possess incredible physical and mental capability. You are capable of mental 'psychic' warfare and considerable thought suggestion, and of easy genetic manipulation by touch on-the-fly, even to fatal extremes. +2 to mental power, +1 to mutation and genetic alteration)
*Aura of Terror - ACTIVE (You share the Deep Ones' incapaciting presence, which causes deep fear and anxiety in the mortal psyche. You are currently not suppressing your aura. -3 to Combat Rolls around you, fear checks every turn)
Current Effects: None
Location: Inside the cargo space, Warehouse 59, Vladivostok
Use my life force to improve my speed, and make my way outside to fend off the Great Mother until help arrives.
[1] - You begin feeding life force into your body, but it ends up drawing more than you intended. [5] Fortunately, it also heals your lesser wounds in the process, leaving you only with the hard, aching pain your chest. You think you may have broken a few bones.
[5+1=6] You break off into a sprint, and are glad to find yourself speeding across the crumbling runway like a flash of white lightning, feeling the wind hammer your skin, the world turning into a blur.
Of course, mid-way across the runway to the Deep One's massive claws, you smash into a [1] gigantic, towering deepspawn mutation form for [BP:2][Damage:3+1=4] a wet crack of bone and tearing of changed flesh. Suddenly robbed from your momentum, you struggle to find your balance and topple over.
Raising your head, you see the mutation form land a small distance from you. A three-metre giant with dead-grey, pulsing flesh, muscle-like sinuous skin, four bloated, ever-shifting arms that look like nests of snakes, and a low-hanging twisted ape-like face, glowing with an unearthly blue light. It lets out a sound like a combination of a shriek and whistle, fixing you with a lifeless gaze.
[2] You can see others somewhat resembling it and hundreds of even more bizarre mutation forms rolling forth from beyond the Great Mother's claws, not only towards you, but across the lake towards everywhere in the city. The air is growing thick with flyers, both sleek creatures that seem to be modelled after insects and hovering bags of pulsing rock-like tissue, like organic balloons, that the Ancient is releasing into the skies.
CombatantsHeavy Mutation Form
*Torso: Moderately Wounded
*Multi-armed (Extra attack in unarmed melee)
*Towering Brute (+1 to Enemy Dodge, +1 to Combat Rolls)
Approaching Mutation Forms
*Several dozen, varied speeds and times of arrival?
*Multiple types?
---
Alfonz Wulfric - Imprisoned ReaperHealth: Torso:
Moderately Wounded!Inventory: Empty
Traits and Powers: *
Immortal Prisoner (Drawing from the Reaper in you rhead, you are physically and mentally superior to any normal human on the planet. You have innate power over the life forces of living beings, and can draw, give and imbue it at will. Your current level of control is high.)
*
Life Force [3/6] (You can imbue objects and living beings with life force to create more potent weapons and combat constructs. You will regain spent life force automatically over time, and by devouring others - though this bears the risk of harmful energy damaging you. You can also draw the life force of others and imbue it as long as you also include some of your own.)
Current Effects: Strenghtened Physique (+1 to speed and charge rolls, 3 turns remaining)
Location: Middle of the Runway, Lakefront Airport
---
Gee, Caellath, you're a very poor supersoldier. I might end up giving you that trait after all if you keep on performing so atrociously. (Ahh, just kidding, you, uhh, dodge well!)
I think you people are doing rather well so far. Of course, wolfchild hasn't even hit Awakening yet, mcclay pissed off a Titan, Tiruin only barely saved his fighter, Tourigny scared off one of his agents for shits and giggles and probably traumatized the other for years, Alexei has the above, and then they haven't hit Awakening yet either, and adwarf is no doubt looking forward to taking on everything the Great Mother can spawn on his own.
...wait, I take that back. You people are doing extremely well!
Author
Topic: Their Coming Is At Hand - an Eldritch Horror RTD (Turn 10! Spots open!) (Read 33661 times)