GM: At the end of turn 0, phase 12, several more buggems ran through the intersection in the direction of the egg chamber.
PHASE 3
Dex 26 - Rosin
Dex 23 - Drone [rolled 53]
Dex 23 - Rock [rolled 41]
Ego 23 - Peter [rolled 25]
Ego 23 - Marko [rolled 13]
Dex 20 - Shooter
Dex 20 - Cal
Dex 18 - Erict
DEX 26
ROSIN: Bugs scampering past wasn't part of the plan. She wasn't so vain that she didn't realize Shooter and Rock were the most effective in killing Buggems, that left it up to her to keep them from getting past. After all, they killed their targets, she didn't kill hers. So instead of attacking she concentrated on keeping any buggems on getting by her.
ROSIN Tech: Save phase for Martial Throw of any buggem trying to get past, throwing them at a buggem in front of her or Rock. She'll take a step if she needs to to protect the other side of the tunnel. Overall and all combat skill levels in DCV, HTH levels in OCV for DCV 16, OCV 11 [rolled 11], damage is 8d6 + v/5 [rolled 6 6 2 4 1 2 2 5 - Total: 28, Body: 9], they can end up in a any hex adjacent to Rosin, so she put them in front of her or Rock. If she can hit another buggem with the one she's throwing, great! But the important part is to keep Buggems from getting past. Hopefully this will make it less likely to get by and only go off when one otherwise would. If they don't get past her and she doesn't need the throw, can she switch to a martial Kick on phase 4 after the buggems move?
GM: Basically she is holding her action. The buggems don't actually go until phase 4, dex 18. If none of them try to get by, then Rosin can do a martial kick.
DEX 23
DRONE: With three buggems in the tunnel, the drone is unable to move in to attack. He holds his action until one of the buggems is able to get past the two humans. Meanwhile, the gas continues to hurt Rock, [rolled 16].
GM: Rock takes another 8 points of gas damage.
ROCK: Rock will not stop attacking in order to block the tunnel. He will make it as difficult as he can to block them while still firing on them. I'd suggest that Cal move forward to do the same just before the gas cloud so he can help protect Peter and Marko from melee attacks. It might not be a bad idea to let one of the buggems get past to let Cal attack him.
ROCK (GM): Does the gas attack include the tunnel's ceiling? So would climbing up to the top of the tunnel move Rock out of the gas field? I'm guessing not but figured I'd ask, in case the tunnel is really 2" high and thus the AOE would not be tall enough to cover the extra inch.
GM: The gas goes from floor to ceiling, which is approximately 2.5 meters high.
ROCK: Rock targets one of the buggems that just attacked him.
TECH: Firing 3 round burst with HAR on Buggem 5, OCV 10, DCV 6 [rolled 8]
Rnd 1 - Damage 3d6K [rolled 10], Stun [rolled 1], KNB [rolled 8]
Rnd 2 - Damage 3d6K [rolled 13], Stun [rolled 2], KNB [rolled 14]
Rnd 3 - Damage 3d6K [rolled 12], Stun [rolled 4], KNB [rolled 11]
Maintain Clinging, END: 1
Clip1: 17 of 32 rounds
Clip2-4: full
BODY: 16/17 STUN: 42/53 END: 49/50
GM: This is the same buggem that Marko hit with the Ego Attack. The impact of the rounds knocks the creature back where it falls to the ground barely conscious.
MARCO: Hopes that it's not too late to prevent too much damage from the Drone attempts to pry into the mind of the gaseous offender using thoughts of asphyxiation and paralyze him. (Ok, this is my first EVER mentalist and role-playing one is new for me!)
TECH: Mental Paralysis attack on Drone [rolled 12], no damage. Not sure what to roll for length of paralysis.
BOD: 10/10, STUN: 32/32, END: 32/48
GM: You roll 3d6 for paralysis strength, counting only the BODY of the attack (i.e., 1 = 0, 2-5 = 1, 6 = 2). However, before rolling strength, you need to make sure the power worked. All of Marco's MP powers require a Mind Powers roll. He has Mind Powers skill on a 21-, but the roll is at -1 per 10 active points in the power. That means he needs to roll a 13- for the power to work.
Mental Paralysis (13-) [rolled 12]
Effect [rolled 1 5 1 - Total: 7, Body: 1]
GM: Ouch! Only a 1 BODY entangle! Nevertheless, the drone is held at least until his next action.
MARCO (OOC): We've now seen 4 Drones and killed 2. Didn't the Massive Buggem say that there were 5-6?
GM: Yes, the MMBB said there were probably 5 to 6 drones in the hive.
MARCO (GM): Can I make some sort of Mind Powers roll (or INT roll) to guage how effective that I think Mind Wall or Mental Barrier might be as a buffer to the Queen's ability to communicate with a Drone? I'm thinking that it might give the LT some bonuses to his attacks if we can sever their link to her and thereby do more damage with some of his illusions.
GM: You don't need to roll. Marco thinks it would be pretty effective if he could completely enclose a buggem within the mental barrier.
MARCO (ooc): Anyone else interested in exploring this idea of cutting off the Drone from the Queen and then letting the LT attempt to manipulate his mind into joining us?
ROCK (OOC): If you can cut off or dampen his connection to the queen (or any of the other buggems) it's worth it. First, it will make Peter and your attacks more effective. Second, it will eliminate an advantage for the buggems which is communication/coordination. I'm doubtful that you can persuade the drone to join us but I'm sure getting him to backstab a rival prince is more probable.
ERICT (OOC): The problem I see with it is that you would have to maintain the mental barrier around the drone for some time to get him to do anything useful against other buggems like that. As soon as the mental barrier was gone the queen would immediately re-assert control. Sending him against another prince is a great idea, except that it would require Marko to travel with this prince, presumably alone, to maintain the mental barrier, if not the mental suggestion. Also, didn't the drones have decent mental defenses outside the hive? Or was that just invisibility to mind scan/mental awareness?
ERICT (OOC): All that said, if you could turn the drone and use him to help us keep the hordes of small buggems from swarming over our positions and even do some damage to them as long as possible, that sounds great. The problem becomes that the drone's chief weapon, the gas, won't hurt the small ones at all anyway. Still, another melee attacker holding the line can't hurt, and his physical attacks will hurt the small ones at least a little.
ERICT (OOC): I think Rock would have loved it if you could have held your action to paralyze the first drone that came toward us on the attack, to prevent the release of the gas. Unfortunately that ship has sailed :( I'm not going to be able to cleanse him of the gas any time soon if he needs to stay up at the front lines to hold them against the swarm, either.
MARCO (OOC): Agree on all points...I just mis-read the arrival of the buggems. I thought we had only seen 1 instead of 2. I don't think that this is a long-term "solution" I just think that we can use this to our advantage. Especially since we do want to save Marco's talents for Drones.
PETER: Once more Peter focuses on the closest buggem still standing, and once more Peter assaults it's mind with a devatating mental attack. With all his strength he tries to set off all of the pain receptors in the buggem's body.
TECH: Ego Attack, Haymaker. OECV 8 vs. DECV ? [rolled 12]. Damage: 5.5d6 + 1.5d6 for Haymaker [rolled 6 1 3 2 4 1 5 - Total: 22, Body: 6]
BODY: 12/12 STUN: 30/30 END: 27/30
GM: Peter hits the buggem (BTW, they have a DECV of 7 in the hive if not cut off from the hive queen). Here is activation roll to see if all mental defense activates, needs 11- [rolled 12]. Some damage will get through regardless of whether the MD activates but if it doesn't activate, then more damage will get through.
GM: Peter hits the one on Rosin causing significant STUN, but it is still up.
DEX 20
SHOOTER: Shooter fires at the paralyzed drone. He maintains all levels of his force field, as well as the life bubble on Rosin.
TECH: OCV 14/DCV 7, needs 19- [rolled 13], Damage 4d6K AP, [rolled 10], Stun [rolled 5], KNB [rolled 13], Drone armor activation, needs 14- [rolled 11]
BODY 12/12, STUN 32/32, 28/40
Clip 1 - empty
Clip 2 - 3 fired, 3 remaining
Clip 3 -2 fired, 4 remaining (active clip)
Clips 4-8 - Full
GM: No BODY gets through, but a goodly amount of STUN penetrates his defenses.
PHASE 4
Ego 29 - Queen
Dex 18 - Buggems
Dex 11 - ?????
DEX 29
QUEEN - Attempts to break the mental paralysis on the drone using Ego Attack, [rolled 2 2 5 4 2 2 - Total: 17, Body: 6]
GM: The queen smashes the mental paralysis on the drone.
DEX 18
On Phase 4, DEX 18, more buggems go through the intersection heading in the direction of the egg chamber. Some of them turn down this tunnel to attack the group.
BUGGEM 1 - DEAD
BUGGEM 2 - DEAD
BUGGEM 3 - Attacks Rosin, OCV 8, DCV 6, needs 3-, [rolled 6], Damage 3d6k [rolled 13], Stun [rolled 3]
GM: Missed.
BUGGEM 4 - Takes a recovery. After doing so, he is still barely conscious.
BUGGEM 5 - Moves up and attacks Rock, OCV 8, DCV 6, needs 13- [rolled 9], Damage 3d6k [rolled 14], Stun [rolled 1]
GM: Hit but did no damage.
BUGGEM 6 - Moves up and attempts to scurry past Rock and Rosin along the ceiling. Rosin, however, is ready for this and does a martial maneuver that stops the buggem cold and deposits him on the floor in front of Rosin, while causing 32 STUN and 10 BODY. 11 STUN and 0 BODY penetrates his hard shell.
BUGGEM 7 - Moves up along the ceiling and attacks Rock, OCV 8, DCV 6, needs 13- [rolled 17], Damage 3d6k [rolled 11], Stun [rolled 1]
GM: Missed.
BUGGEM 8 - Hangs back ready to move up when needed (held half action).
DEX 11
?????: A loud explosion shakes the hive. Everyone except Rock and the buggems must make DEX (or Breakfall if that is better) rolls to stay on their feet. The explosion sounds like it came from the south (i.e., the direction that the other buggems were running when they ran through the intersection).
SHOOTER: Needs 13-, [rolled 12]
MARKO: Needs 13-, [rolled 9]
ROSIN: Breakfall 14- [rolled 8]
CAL: Dex Roll (13-): [rolled 13]
ERICT TECH: Needs 13-, [rolled 11]
PETER (TECH): DEX Roll (13-) [rolled 7]
ROSIN: {Sounds like maybe the big buggem was using us as a distraction.}
CAL:(OOC) Ooo! Points for being very perceptive!
CAL: Cal is hanging back and watching the back, sides and roof (held action). He'll go after any buggem that comes through the walls and any that make it past the "front lines".
ERICT: If the explosion knocked me off my feet I will get up and hold again, since the buggems just moved and I should get another action before they do. Otherwise I'll cheer on the home team and hope Rock gets a chance to get clear of that gas field soon. Wait, no, the home team would be the buggems, it's their hive ;P
ROSIN: {Do you think he's trying to steal eggs to start his own hive?}
MARCO (OOC): My bet is that he's trying to force the evolution of the species somehow by making an independet branch of Drone buggems who live and breed independently. Basically, Sentient Ants...which is kind of like my wife's Aunt (pronounced: Ant) ...but without the "sentient" part...man, she is buggy! |