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Turn 133 ------------
I try to move the pain to my left earlobe. If I succeed I then move closer to the clanner, but not too close.
| You focus on the annoying pain to make it move, but it's firmly lodged in your left side and doesn't budge.
I dig Zako out of the hole in the ground.
| A sudden sound of a high-velocity projectile crashing into the ground attacts your attention. You turn around and notice a familiar snakelike shape glowing at you from several meters under the surface. With haste, you run over to what you guess to be Zako's location and begin digging. It's easy enough with your steel hands, and you quickly shovel away the soil until you reach Zako. He's confused and gasping for breath, but very much alive. You're surprised to gain some insight into barehanded digging.
I guess I'll help in digging Zako out.
| You approach Kashyyk as he digs a large hole in the ground with his hands. You lean over the edge to look in, just as he emerges from the hole along with Zako. They climb out and you stomp your right front hoof in frustration. The edge of the hole gives in under your weight! You yell, startled, and fall in! As you struggle to climb out, the rest of the walls collapse and bury you.
I reply to the clanner's query "We resurrected you.". Then I put the flechette launcher in my backpack and practice my aim with the laser pistol.
| | The clanner's nonplussed by your remark. He turns to you, his face is twisted with rage. "
YOU WHAT?!" You ignore him for the moment and swap your flechette gun for the laser pistol. You don't quite have time to practice with it though.
I heal myself.
| You attempt to focus and heal yourself, but it just doesn't work. The pain makes it difficult to concentrate on the right things, and when you try to activate your powers, you instead make an ugly blister on your right shoulder.
I further train my speed.
| You think that since you're already running, you might as well put some effort into it and improve your sprinting. The night is relatively peaceful, the ground is firm and running along is generally pleasant. But you decide to push yourself to the limit, and charge forward like someone was giving away free Rolls-Royces a few kilometers ahead.
| The first few hundred meters flew past you in but a moment, and you feel yourself capable of doing more, when suddenly...
HRRRCK! An overstrained muscle in your right leg is torn apart! Pain strikes you like a sledgehammer in the chest, you almost instantly trip, fall, and tumble along the ground as your momentum carries you down a gentle slope. When you've cleared the tears and clay out of your eyes, and overcame the pain enough to focus on anything, you look at your leg. It's not broken, but the torn muscle renders it completely useless. You suddenly hear a startled yell, quickly turn your head and realise you're not far from the truck. Well, where it used to be anyway - it's missing for some reason.
I move to area 3.
| You feel a sudden and irresistible urge to travel to the crash site. Giving in to the urge, you run to the truck, leap into the cabin, jump-tackle LASD out of the driver seat and start the truck up.
| The engine roars into life, and you blast off into the night, disregarding the state of the truck and the lack of lights (though you navigate with your panel-vision easily enough). Before long, you arrive at the scene, but something is wrong! You frantically push the pedal, but the brakes are not working! The gas pedal got stuck! You spend a few crucial seconds understanding your situation, and when your attention returns to the windshield and the space in front of it, you see that you're heading straight for the parked trucks of the convoy!
| Things seem to be going in a particularly bad direction, but you manage to keep your head and take a hard left, barely missing the convoy! Several medics and wounded watch with horror as the Phoenix almost turns over from such a manuever, and you're still not safe yet! The truck is out of control, and you're rapidly running out of options. You give the wheel a healthy rightwards spin, and jump out of the cabin as the truck completely loses balance, flips over, and goes crash'n'burn all over the landscape.
| You are completely unscathed, but the truck is completely ruined. Something catches fire in it, and it's a smoldering wreck within a minute.
I keep living I suppose, not much else there is to do.
| (you know, doing actions that result in your
death upon failure is probably not too smart. Luckily, this is no ordinary RTD, and you have failguard
) You remain suspended among your ocean of darkness, completely separated from everything. Not even your mental images care to barge in and upset the nothingness. It's a rather unsettling experience.
I blast a space for me to breathe using my powers!
| Focusing yourself in such a condition is rather difficult. You attempt to create some air for yourself, but for some brain fluke makes your ability go in reverse! You feel very cold and whatever air was still left around you or dispersed in the ground is rapidly disappearing in an unknown direction. Thankfully, you are rescued before you suffocate.
I rest, restoring my body's energy and putting me into a lighter stage of sleep.
| You relax and do nothing, letting the subconscious streams carry you wherever they please within your mind. You've restored your mental capacity and are now ready to do anything… you're still unconscious though.
(RTTAI:{5}) I try to improve my capability for interfacing with the Rad-Man.
| After you get up and brush yourself off, you sit down and concentrate on your top hat tranciever thing. You focus your mind and try to syncronize your thought processes with the subtle electron waves that oscillate within the device. After some time spent doing this, you learn how to practically dive into the Rad-Man's operation process and interface with it as if it was an extension of your body. It doesn't let you do any more than you previously could, but now you can understand any output the Rad-Man may have deciphered, not just primitive vibration-based audiowaves. Unfortunately, doing so results in you falling into a light trance, so you can't easily interact with the outer world until after you are done interfacing.
<Travel Mode: Clan Smoke Jaguar Base>
| 5 minutes pass by uneventfully.
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NPC Actions:
Allied: The dwarf moves closer to the clanner so that he can protect anyone if he attacks.
| He runs up to the clanner, and strikes a combat stance right in front of him.
| The clanner backs away a few steps, visibly confused.
The bats stay where they are and do nothing. (2 of them are still unconscious)
Neutral: The soldiers slowly form into packs and carefully approach the scene, aiming weapons at the clanner.
| While the soldiers approach in organized assault formations, the dustcloud right behind the clanner is suddenly dispersed by the jumpjet exhaust of one of the light mechs! The mech, an unusual armless figure with a flat cockpit in front of its torso, looms menacingly above the clanner, its weapons aimed and ready to fire.
| The clanner snaps. "
YOU SHALL NOT TAKE ME ALIVE!!!" are his words, screamed as he leaps upwards with stunning alacrity, and lands on the armored glass of the mech's cockpit.
| He bashes on the glass with all his strength, but it's not enough to even make a crack. The flat cockpit suddenly swivels rightward like a turret, throwing the clanner off! Even before he hits the ground, the mech's frame turns on the spot, and its massive metal leg delivers a precision
kick to the clanner's body!
| But nothing happens. No flying body, no shower of gore, no scream of pain, nothing! Everyone is shocked by this, much more than by the mechwarrior's display of piloting skill.
Enemy: The clanner attempts to take down the mech!
| As the mech stops moving, the clanner takes advantage of the darkness and jumps off from the leg he's been clinging to, unseen. Neo sees this, but cannot react before the clanner's next move. The clanner strikes a fearsome pose, as if finally realising his strength, and then
punches the leg of the mech with his bare hand!
| The leg breaks! The pilot is taken by complete surprise, and cannot do anything to prevent his mech from falling!
| The rugged construction of the mech prevents serious damage, but as soon as it hits the ground, raising another cloud of dust, it becomes pretty clear that this is not going to be a walk in the park.
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Background: [2+2] Chaoticag looks at the truck's wreckage. It seems that hardly anything can be recovered. The Ashcraver, at least, is unscathed - it's protruding out of the landscape a few meters in front of Chaoticag. Neo notices the mech's cockpit opening, but doesn't see anyone get out.
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Environment: Night. (-1 sight, accuracy, dodge, and movement to everyone who depends on light to see) The air is cold. (statistic penalties to constitution)
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Free items: Light infantry armor vest: Somewhere in the LV area 2. Can protect upper body. +1 against pierce damage.
Various assorted rocks and small leftover debris from the truck in LV area 2.
A gunmetal crate, and a pile of assorted melee, light and medium handheld weaponry. Near some rocks in LV area 3.
Unidentified yellowish box embedded in a hillside in LV area 3.
Various assorted rocks, several pieces of underwear, and JK's former purple shorts in LV area 3.
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Artifacts: "A massive, massive, MASSIVE sword. It is three meters long, 1'3'' (~40cm) wide, and dazzingly bright. Its fine steel has been polished to reflect light like a mirror. Its one edge is curved, jagged at the hilt, the other is straight and so sharp it could probably slice adamantine blocks like salami. Down the center of the sword, which is at least 2'' thick, runs a hollow slit 3'' wide, in which yeat another, smaller and straighter sword is concealed. The entire surface of both swords, except of course the sharp cutting edges, is finely engraved with uncountable images, among which the launching of the Challenger, world war II, a nuclear explosion, a trainwreck, and a rotary excavator. The hilt itself (being at the same time the hilt of the smaller sword) is decorated with gold and emeralds you can only assume you've taken from someone, arranged in beautiful patterns, and the handle is woven with three lines - one is a scaly snake with two small rubies in the eyes, and two seem awfully like DNA strands. You get a feeling you could decipher the human genome if you looked closely enough. The guard of the hilt is exquisitely detailed as well, but right down the senter of it, spanning the breadth of the sword, is a solid rectangular golden plate, with the single word: ""ASHCRAVER"" deeply embossed onto it. The entire thing is so immeasurably brilliant, you almost don't want to touch it fearing it'll stick to your hand and corrupt you like some magic ring. Overcoming this fear, you pick it up. Despite its size, it is relatively lightweight, relatively, of course, to anything else so large and made of steel. (+2 to damage, +1 to attack, -1 agility)
The second form is a smaller (comparatively) blade, that together with the folding hilt guard looks like an overgrown sai. It's also exquisitely detailed, but lighter. (+1 to damage).
The Ashcraver seems to accumulate the energy released by the deaths it causes. The process is admittedly rather slow, but has good uses."
"The ring consists of a toroidal adamantine core surrounded by a shell of tempered steel with thin bands of gold along the rims of the ring. Set into an adamantine frame on its top is a Star Sapphire imbued with the dark soul of a Greater Demon, under absolute control of the wearer. The steel surface of the ring is covered by three hundred tiny tiles of granite, engraved with images of various creatures, all being dead.
The wearer of the ring may call onto the soul of the demon, which can manipulate darkness and fire - anything from direct projection to creating sentient forms to giving protection against.
The wearer can also give an order to summon a creature mad with rage (any creature from the DF world you have seen), which will use up one or several of the stone tiles, depending on the power of the creature. The tiles may be restored, but only through personally killing sentient creatures with bare hands and absorbing their essence with the ring, which also adds that creature to the ""summonable creatures"" list.
The price to pay for all this power is a constant aura of darkness that any living being will feel (and will react accordingly), and the wearer may, under critical stress, give in and become controlled by the trapped demon soul.
(No passive bonuses. In a single turn, you can either perform an act of darkness/fire manipulation (including creating a prolonged effect), or summon a creature/creatures, but not both. The magnitude and potential of both depend on your skill - the ring grants ""basic level"" only. You can only absorb the essence of a creature you killed with your own bare hands, and only if it died last turn, at most.)
Currently applied effects: (-1 to relevant ability for every active effect)
Darkfire halberd - haft of materialized darkness.
Shadow Warp - Boksi's shadow invisibility."
An odd-looking gnarly stick made of iron and steel. The many wrinkles and crevices on its surface are ever so slightly glowing. The staff feels special, capable of doing wonrous things. Some of those things include: summoning a small lightning that seems to charge the staff, when being hit against the ground; launching a spark of electricity that explodes in a sparkling firework-like burst, on giving a generic mental command.
(Universal Radiowave Manipulator) A hexagonal reflective box, rougly a foot across and 10cm thick. It can receive, process, transmit, focus, and disperse energy waves over a rather wide electromagnetic spectrum. Can work as a radio or a mini-microwave. Contains a battery that can be recharged by applying any electricity to the surface.
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Locations: Planet Wayside V: The planet seems to be barren as a whole. The sky is green here, and the air is cold. Or maybe it's just autumn here.
Large Valley: A rather dull and barren, though very large, rocky valley covered by reddish clay soil with patches of some unknown weeds or moss. Filled with broken rock and debris. Sloping mountains or plateaus many kilometers tall seem to surround it.
Sub-area 1: The place you initially appeared at.
Sub-area 2: Where your truck was destroyed by an aerospace fighter (and later rebuilt). Mostly everyone is here.
Sub-area 3: Somewhere far north of Area 2 - the fighter crashlanded there. And subsequently exploded, leaving a large crater and killing the crew of the two scout buggies sent by Fusiliers. Gantolandon, Frelock, Neo, Zako, JK, andrea, and the dwarf are here, as well as a convoy of trucks, light mechs, and infantry.
Vast plain: An enormous plain connected to the large valley by a relatively narrow passage. Its ground is different from that of the valley, but you don't know what it is yet. Korora is travelling along it.
Fusiliers' main camp: A small military camp set up amidst the hills in the large valley. Mechs patrol its perimeter. All of you are at a spot some distace away from it.
"Overlord"-class Dropship "Bullrun": A big egglike spaceship designed to go to and from a planet's surface. Armed with several turrets and protected by thick armor. It's been attacked on its descent and is undergoing repairs.
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Vehicles: Battlemech. Lying on its back in the LV area 2.
Type: Medium-class, 45 tons. Capabilities: Jump Jets (piloting skill check required for every use) Armament: Imperator Code Red LB 10-X AC(30/30), two Victory 23R Medium Lasers(inoperable), one Shigunga LRM-10 rack(1x10/0x10). Protection: Ablative ferro-fibrous plating. State: Heavy damage on left torso, moderate armor damage to center torso, left arm destroyed, medium lasers destroyed, LRM ammo detonated, significant damage on left leg, armor destroyed on right leg. Resurrected only to die again, this truck is now a pile of smoldering wreckage, with hardly anything salvageable from it.
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Poll
32 (37.2%)
Author
Topic: RTD - Multiworld Madness! Final Update: Parts 1 and 2, out of ~4. (Read 409507 times)