Not wanting to be surprised by a buggem counter-attack while freeing the captives, the team moves back to the drone quarters and goes through the other concealed opening using the same precautions as before. After breaking down the opening, Rock and Rosin can see that the now exposed tunnel goes about 3 meters before it is blocked by a massive buggem. The buggem looks very similar to the Massive Mutant Builder Buggem that the team talked to before attacking the hive. The buggem doesn't move and simply watches the group with it's multifaceted eyes. Its body completely fills the tunnel leaving no room to get by, even if the group were to kill it.
ERICT: {It would seem this is one of the queen's loyal Builder Buggems, we hadn't run into any of those yet, and we knew she had at least one. The MMBB said they were almost impossible to kill too. Maybe Rock can drag it out of the way somehow? Not sure how any of the rest of us could help, but we could try...}
ROSIN: {Can you teleport it out of our way? Maybe back into the Drone room? Maybe it would help if Marco and Peter knock it out first?}
ERICT (OOC): It does look as though the access to the queen's chamber is now blocked from both ends, though this blockage is under her control. We could post watch on this big boy and set to work on our rescue efforts while waiting for something to change, but I'd definitely rather stay on the offensive than play the waiting game. I wonder if I could teleport past the MBB? Can I sense beyond it with spatial awareness?
GM: These are the creatures who carve out the hive tunnels and line them with the material that blocks your senses. As such, sensing through them is extremely difficult (-5 to PER rolls). It's kind of like trying to sense through a wall of thick snow.
ERICT (GM): Sorry, I'm a little confused, did you already make the PER roll for me, hidden, or should I be making one? Just in case, I guess I'll roll, even though the diebot hates me. Do I believe that I could potentially teleport past the MBB, possibly with some extra effort if necessary since it 'jams' my senses?
TECH: PER roll, +2 vs range, base 15-, -5 for 'jamming' from the MBB, should need a base 12-. [rolled 9]
GM: Actually you needed a 10 or less. The +2 is only vs. range. It would not offset the penalty. In any case, you made the roll and can discern that the tunnel continues on past the MBB. You are not certain if your teleport would work to get you past the MBB.
ROCK (OOC): So all those other tunnels are dead-ends then? As for the MBB, I'd try the mental route first. First, I suspect that he'll have defenses against teleportation much like I do. Second, he'll probably be as strong as I am and might have more powerful clinging abilities so I wouldn't be too confident on my ability to move him out of the way. So by going the mental route we should isolate it from the queen, then try to talk to it via telepathy. Who knows it might be willing to help us out with some mental nudging.
GM: The MBB also has very large, sharp pincers that look like they could easily cut a man in half. They do not seem particularly fast so it might be easy to avoid the pincers, but you are not sure.
GM: All of the tunnels except for the ones that I mentioned as leading out, are dead ends.
ROCK (GM): Did we investigate the cave-in much? Is it made of material that I can tunnel through? If we haven't that's fine I just want to know if I have that information yet.
GM: You did not thoroughly investigate the cave-in but did take a look at it. You could use your tunneling on parts of the cave in, but would have to manually shift other parts that were once the hive lining.
PETER: {Do we have a count on the people? By that I mean, do we have all or most acocunted for? If so, it may be more prudent to get them out while we can and try and send a follow-up team here. If we've scared the buggems by our attack, it might be just the distraction to pull the villalgers out. That, or we can see if some destruction of the hive might draw them out.}
ERICT: {To me it seems like the queen is trying to stonewall us, force us to leave without killing her so that she can rebuild the best she can. That is of course unacceptable to me, since she apparently requires live humans as incubators for her eggs. If nothing else we should return to the caved in section, destroy the eggs in the egg chamber, and start clearing the cave-in. Rock should be well-suited to that task, and I may be able to help with my teleportation abilities as well, it's hard to say.}
GM: Between the infected, sluggish men in the room beyond the fire channel, and those in hibernation that you just found, you believe that you have accounted for most, if not all of the humans that were missing.
PETER: {I don't for a minute think we should let the queen go. But we have to think of the people we're charged with saving. If we stay here too long, the buggems may have a chance to rally. In that case, we might not be able to get the villagers out safely. Now you've said that their situations are grave and that you may or may not be able to help them. I can't imagine that their status will do anything but deteriorate over time. Now you're our expert, but if they have a chance of being saved, I'm betting it has to be taken soon.}
PETER: {I can say that if we do withdraw, it won't be for good, and it won't be without doing whatever damage we can to the hive and its occupants. We'll destroy the eggs and collapse what tunnels we can. And then we'll be back as soon as possible with reinforcements. I know that opens the risk that the queen will get away. We may not be able to help it.}
PETER: {That having been said, I'm willing to give this a little bit of time to check out a few options. I'm open to any suggestions for how to strike at the queen. She's lost most of her defenders and, as Erict's said, likely wants us to leave her alone so she can rebuild. I doubt we'll catch her this badly defended again. So if we can strike, now's the time while she's reeling. But it's not our only chance. She may be better defended later on, but we'll have more people and more incesticide greanades.}
PETER: {So let's hear any ideas people have. Can we have Shooter snipe at the massive buggem from afar, trying to take it out - at least that'll keep the queen stuck in her hole. Can we lure it out? Teleport it? We need a plan, and we need it fast.}
PETER: {And Erict, I need you to make an honest assessment of the villagers. If you think they might be saved, give some thought to when the point of no return might be. Succeed or fail in killing the queen, we need to get them out before then.}
ROSIN: {You could give me one of the bug sprays and Shooter could protect me with his environmental shield. Then I can try to teleport past the buggem and make my way to the queen, set off the bug spray there, then come back. I wouldn't be fighting any buggems, just doing my best to stay away from concentrations of them.}
ROSIN (OOC): Not that that's the best plan...
ROCK (OOC): A while back I had posted that maybe going the mental route is the best. Did you all get that? Essentially, I'd have Marko extend his mental blocking field over the MBB and then have Peter attempt to read its mind and then do some mental control if necessary. If that doesn't work, we can either try to kill it or go the cave-in route. Killing it is probably feasible for our group but we may still have issues getting its body out of the way. Mental domination seems preferable. The cave-in may be what we want but then again it will probably take the longest time and might not be fruitful. I would say that I'm not concerned about the humans stuck in statis. We should do our best to succeed while we're here and then rescue them after all options are exhausted.
PETER (OOC): I thought I'd said something about that, but I guess I didn't. :-( I see two problems with the mental approach. First, neither Marko nor Peter have Mind Control. Second, and more important, anything we do can be countered by the queen (since all the buggems are in mindlink). We've seen it happen already. She'sstrong enough to counter anything we do the round after we do it.
ROSIN (OOC): Marco's mental shield would prevent the queen from being able to reach the big buggem mentally. Perhaps Peter could create an illusion of the queen telling it to move.
ROCK (OOC): Agreed. You could put up the mental shield. Probe the buggem's mind first to glean a few things then create an illusion to get it to move. Learning maybe some of the queen's fears or it's fears should give you enough insight to make a powerful illusion. It's probably worth a shot given how much risk/time would be involved in any other approach.
MARCO(OOC): Is it worth mentioning that I have the Mental Nudge power. It's not quite "Mind Control" but it may get the job done.
PETER (OOC): I'm not familiar with that power. What does it do?
ROSIN(OOC): Can Marco do that at the same time as the mind shield?
PETER (OOC): Can Marco put a mental shield up that would: (a) fully enclose the buggem; (b) fully enclose Peter; and (c) allow Peter to be far enough from the buggem that it wouldn't squash him like the proverbial bug? Unfortunately If Marco can't fully enclose *both* of them inside it, the plan won't work. And I didn't think Marco could cover *that* many hexes. Marco?
ROSIN (OOC): His shield is 6" wide and 2" tall. The question is if it needs to completely surround everyone (can't do), or just be between buggem and queen (easy). In any case, Rock and perhaps Rosin should be between the Buggem and Peter.
ROCK (OOC): I'm not sure from a game mechanics where this is coming from. AFAIK, it would only need to enclose the buggem to sever the link. Why would Peter need to be within it? If the queen can't mentally get to the buggem the only option she would have is to target you, right? So unless she interrupts you when you plant the illusion she couldn't stop it. Given that she has yet to do anything mentally to the group from her remote location I'm guessing she can't. She probably relies on her inherent mind link with her buggems for her 'connection' through out the hive. There's all kinds of ways to construction a power, such as clairsentience, where she could mentally monitor you wherever you go in the hive but normally that wouldn't be the case. IC, we can be paranoid for sure but we have yet to feel the queen's mental presence, right?
GM: If Peter is outside of the mental shield, then his attacks on the MBB would go through the shield and the MBB would get the benefit of the protection. Also, the way force wall works (which is what Marco's mental shield is built on), an attack that penetrates the wall will destroy the wall (I believe that is true for mental attacks as well but someone with a book handy can look it up).
ROCK (OOC): Ah, I understand now, it's designed as a force wall. Okay, how close does Peter have to be to the MBB with both within the shield?
PETER (OOC): It depends on how many points Marko has in the power. It's, what, one hex side per five points? That means to enclose one hex is 8 hex sides, meaning (8x5=) 40 points. That'll get the MBB. Two hexes - the minimum for Peter to be in front of the MBB and inside the FW - would be 14 hex sides, meaning (14x5=) 70 points. Three hexes - allowing Peter to have some distance between him and the MBB - would be 20 hex sides, meaning (20x5=) 100 points.
PETER (OOC): I know he can definitely cover one hex, and it's possible he might be able to cover two. But he doesn't have the 100 points in FW needed to cover three. I think it's possible for him to extend the coverage by spending points specifically to do that, but I'll bet he hasn't. Of course, given how we've used the FW for this several times, he might consider buying the FW up to allow that.
MARCO (OOC): I'll have to cede to someone with an actual rule book for a full description of Mental Nudge, but it seems to be a limited form of Mind Control.
ROCK (OOC): Maybe Steve can post on the mechanics of the power. But it might be a good alternative after Peter uses his telepathy and mental illusion first. I personally don't see much risk in reading the buggems mind first. It will not only give us a sense of what he might know but should also gauge how easily we can mentally affect it. If the queen is in its mind while the shield is up then we'll know that further mental attacks won't be feasible. And yes, Rock and Rosin should be in between though Rock alone should be able to take its charge. If it's able to knock Rock over then no one else would be able to stop it. :)
GM: Marco's Mental Nudge is an 8d6 Mind Control (telepathic) that affects human, animal and alien class of minds.
MARCO (GM) Also, wouldn't the impenetrable walls help the effectiveness of the Mental Shield? I seem to recall that they block many of our mental powers which is why LOS was required for most actions.
ROCK (OOC): I'd say not. My understanding of the Queen's power is that she has a mind link with her buggems while in the hive and that it's designed to work within the hive specifically. Mind link needs no LOS to work between the target and the queen once established and I bet it's a psychic bond meaning that she never needs LOS to bring it up.
ROCK (OOC): All other mental powers need LOS to function so whether the walls are special like these or just normal walls it's all the same to your mental powers. Mind Scan would not be limited by LOS and that's how most mentalists find a target they don't have LOS on and then affect them mentally.
ROCK (OOC): However, if your mental shield is able to break her connection with the buggems that should be good enough.
GM: The walls of the hive did not block mental abilities.
MARCO: {LT, Primary goal was to rescue the captives and we are within reach of that goal. Let's get them out of here, destroy the egg chamber and return later if we deem it necessary. At this point, the townspeople will be able to handle this threat themselves.}
ROSIN: {I'll go for that,} agreed Rosin, who really didn't like risking her life more than she needed to. {Perhaps the queen will leave here as soon as she can. After all, she doesn't know that we don't live here or that we're not going to come back with more insecticide.}
ROCK (OOC): I'll have to go through the older emails but the sense I got from our original mission was the town's safety due to the buggem infestation was a greater threat than just rescuing the captives. What good is rescuing the captives if the queen returns to capturing more humans in the near future? Since it seems we have the perfect opportunity to actually achieve destroying the queen we should do our best and not take the quick exit. Of course, this is OOC since Rock wouldn't speak out like that. ;)
PETER (OOC): I agree with both sides to some extent. Our primary mission is to rescue the villagers. But our secondary mission is to detroy the buggems to protect the villagers. (The main reason rescue is primary is that it's the time-sensitive mission.) We have a partial success on the primary mission right now, though that could change if we dawdle. But we also have an good opportunity to accomplish the secondary mission. The hive is severely understrength, the queen is on the defensive, and we have one more insecticide grenade left. I don't want to take crazy risks. But it does seem wise to see if there's a relatively easy way to try and take out the queen. That having been said, despite the fact that we're officially a command structure, if the majority of people want to bug out, I'll have Peter give that order.
MARCO (OOC): I'm not sure how the game mechanics work for this type of aciton, so I'll cede to you guys. I'm all for using it, in conjunction with the LT, to see what info we can glean from the MBB. I haven't seen any other recommended courses of action, so Pete, let's get it started.
Marco uses his Mental Shield to enclose the massive buggem in an effort to cut the connection to the queen. She might be able to reconnect quickly and easily but it is worth a try. Then Peter and Marco hit it with mental attacks. Peter attempts to delve into its mind with telepathy while Marco attempts to mind control it to move forward and unblock the tunnel.
Marco's actions meet with no success. The creature seems to have strong mental defenses that Marco's power is unable to penetrate.
Peter's stronger telepathy has a bit more success and Peter is able to delve around in its very simple mind for a bit. He learns that the creature is not very intelligent and acts mostly on instinct and on orders from the buggem queen. Peter uses this information to "shape change" his mind to appear as a buggem queen. The ruse works on the creature and it obey's Peter's order to move forward out of the tunnel.
The tunnel is now unblocked. The massive buggem could probably be killed, but it would almost certainly put up a fight, slow as it is, that might easily kill someone if it managed to hit them with its mandibles. A better solution is to kill the queen. Without the queen giving it orders, the massive buggem will probably starve to death within a few days.
The tunnel beyond the buggem goes a short distance and opens to the queen's chamber. At first it appears to be a dead end but your knowledge of the hive tells you that a more thorough search is in order. Sure enough, you find another thin section of wall concealing a passage. You break down the passage with care and find a tunnel on the other side. The tunnel goes for about 30 meters. It continues beyond that but is no longer coated with the substance of the hive walls. It appears to be another exit from the hive. |