[Recruitment] Cthulhutech: The Borderlines of the World

[Academia Nut]

I like to think of this as an example of how even though the occult destroys your mind it helps keep your body intact as even before I pointed out my warding I had the second lowest damage out of the group with a 4.

Also, even though trying to help the wounded would be a good idea, anyone who tries to stop Alex from getting in his armour will get lashed out at.

[EarthScorpion]

Also, fear checks for the trauma of the crash, Target Number = 14.

Alex (AN)
Fear Roll - Tenacity Feat Adept (3 dice)
9, 8, 1 = Highest = 9
Tenacity 7
Total = 16
Passed

Tyche (Kurald Galain)
Fear Roll - Tenacity Feat Expert (4 dice)
3, 4, 5, 8 = 3 in a sequence = 12
Tenacity = 9
Total = 21
Passed. Very much so.

Erik (LT)
Fear Roll - Tenacity Feat Novice (2 dice)
5, 5 = Double = 10
Tenacity = 4
Total = 14
Passed. Just squeaked it.

Bertram (Hotfoot)
Fear Roll - Tenacity Feat Expert (4 dice)
3, 3, 5, 6 = Highest/Double = 6
Tenacity = 8
Total = 14
Passed. Just.

Aiguo (frigidmagi)
Fear Roll - Tenacity Feat Adept (3 dice)
10, 2, 9 = Highest = 10
Tenacity = 6
Total = 16
Passed

Dovara (Marcao)
Fear Roll - Tenacity Feat Expert (4 dice)
6, 7, 1, 6 = Double = 12
Tenacity = 8
Total = 20
Passed

And thus, luckily, none of you wet yourselves or panic. Even Erik manages to hold himself together, although it was almost very embarrassing for Bertram.

And 4 dice seems to be pretty good at getting doubles, although I must admit that I seem to be rolling well.

[frigidmagi]

I knew Tenacity was a good buy. While I am here allow me to apologize for the absence of a few days. Had a move and other bits to take care of. I should be good now.

[frigidmagi]

How many shooters do I have?

[Kurald Galain]

So my labtop just died queitly in its sleep. This means three things.

1. I don't have the books at the moment. For instance, I think I'm injured enough that I have a penalty on my actions, but I have no way of cheeking this.

2. My posts may be shorter and more error proned. I don't have as much time to look things over before I post.

3. My posting will be more sparactic. Righ now, for instance, I'm posting from my mothers house - I'll either have to barrow acsess to a system, or use a public system for the next while.

In light of these facts, I'm formally giving Earthscorpion permission to control my character if he needs to, to keep the game runing quickly. I intend to get a new system as quickly as possible, but that's no excuss to slow the game down. With any luck they will be able to save my hardrive so that I don't lose the books.

I'm sorry for any inconvenece this causes anyone.

[Losonti Tokash]

I can still send you the books if all else fails.

And no, it looks like you've still got 1 vitality point remaining before your wounded status changes.

[Kurald Galain]

Thanks, though if I grabbed them here, my mom would kill me. She always waiting for AVI and PDF files to fill her computer with viruses.

[Academia Nut]

So now that everyone has posted about how much more time must pass before Alex is fully suited up and can go on prepare to lay down suppressive fire on anything that might crawl out of the Irish Sea? Or potentially help push the AAFV out of any dents it might have left in the ground.

[frigidmagi]

I was about to write a post about Aigou snapping at Hotfoot about how the heat, noise and so on from the APC would only attract more anti weapon fire and kill us all. Then I realized that was a reflex from a life time of gas engines and training for war with them (which wasn't a lifetime, just felt like one).

Do D-engines create heat and noise? The werewolf did so I'm ready to assume so but I would like a GM call, since this is something I think my character would know even if I don't.

Also, how many shooters do I have?

[Hotfoot]

Right now we're on land, and the Order of Dagon is in the ocean, we've got time before they catch up to us, but not much. Being mobile beats the hell out of sitting still in a steel coffin. It's a little harder to shoot at an APC in hilly terrain than a dropship flying in a straight line over the ocean.

Also, without the APC, the only thing that can take a hit from those anti-tank guns is Alex's powered armor. The rest of us are decidedly less durable.

Don't know about D-Engines making noise or heat. I do know that working on them can drive you insane if you're not careful, but that's about it. It could have been, however, that most of the noise from the Wolverine came from the A-pods, which are basically the engines keeping it up in the air, but that's up to the GM.

[Academia Nut]

The original description of the A-Pods in action was a 'hum', so this is probably the case of your typical sci-fi 'buzzing repulsor' sort of thing. From the fluff, I'm guessing that the D-Engines and A-Pods probably don't get all that hot as they aren't dependent upon standard physics. The D-Engines don't seem to require a temperature gradient to run (or at least they don't require a temperature gradient within the confines of our universe) so from the fluff I'm pretty sure the only heat produced would be waste heat from inefficiencies in the electronics. A-Pods are similar in that they seem to generate force independent of actually reacting against anything, like a tire on the ground or a jet engine throwing exhaust out the back.

I could be wrong, but I'm guessing that D-Engines and A-Pods don't have much more thermal signature than overclocked computers. Still the GM's call, but I'm pretty sure the sensor gear is good enough that if we're out in the open we'll be seen anyway.

[frigidmagi]

Expect for the fact they shot us down Hotfoot, meaning they are already well set up to control the turf.

Also that APC won't take an anti-tank hit well and neither will we if we happen to be in it.

Plus I'm more interested in calling for evac. Which means we need to stay in position for lift unless ordered different.

[Hotfoot]

Not necessarily. They're not here now, and I would point out that our cover will not hold up against repeat firings. We don't have anything to stop those guns, period, which means we need to get out of their way. The only facility we know in the area has gone dark. We are the advance team, there's no way evac will reach us in any sort of a reasonable time.

[Academia Nut]

To add to that, I wouldn't take a bet on us having an intact radio with enough power to call for help. Also, remember that the reason our team is so dysfunctional is because they threw us out there early, because all the other teams were busy. We are the back-up. Oh sure, us dropping out of contact will get noticed right quick, but they probably don't know where we crashed, while our enemy does. We also have wounded in need of transport. If necessary we can ditch the APC once we find a safer place, but we're basically in the middle of a field right now sitting on top of a giant 'Bomb Here' sign. We need to find somewhere more defensible to wait for help to arrive.

That said, hands up everyone who would rather not hide in the facility containing the second worst things for the mind that the NEG could get their hands on? Especially one where contact was lost and the enemy is likely to already be there?

[Kurald Galain]

I'll toss my hat in with the Nutcase :thumbsup.

The idea of being stuck in a inclosed facility with the Raptine Storm outside and either Alma (or a similar psionic horror) or a Shoggoth (or a similar unstoppible horror) lacks something of appeal. Expessally without backup, out of contact, and lacking context about what was being attempted there.

Still, we do need to get away from the downed plane as soon as possible.

[Hotfoot]

If the option is a quick death outside with the Dagonites, I'll take the facility that can be locked down hardcore. Ideal? No, but a chance of survival beats certain death.

[Marcao]

I am with the cripple on this one. The facility offers us some options, staying in the APC for the short term to get a message out is ok, but much longer than that and it starts seeming like a tomb from where I am standing.

[Academia Nut]

Pros of the facility:

1) Better chance of finding medical supplies
2) Better chance of finding a radio
3) Possibly defensible

Cons:

1) The enemy may already have it in their control
2) Things that were in containment and should remain in containment may have escaped
3) Does anyone know where it is, or how to get there by land?
4) It's probably a good ways away, definitely too far to walk. Shortly before he died Jonipula reported that we were 40 minutes out. Now the last leg we were going to go in slow, but even if its half an hour at an average speed of 50 miles an hour, that's still probably over 25 miles away. It looks like we have several wounded members of the team.

Thus, anyway we slice it, we're going to have to use the APC somehow, even if we argue on where exactly it is we're going.

[frigidmagi]

Huh... No. Evac=/= Backup. In a mission that has been this FUBARed you call for Evac. All you need for evac is a working way out. In this case a couple jets and a transport (or even a bunch of trucks and some troops to cover the exit). Let's see if we can find a radio and then make our drastic calls.

[EarthScorpion]

I was about to write a post about Aigou snapping at Hotfoot about how the heat, noise and so on from the APC would only attract more anti weapon fire and kill us all. Then I realized that was a reflex from a life time of gas engines and training for war with them (which wasn't a lifetime, just felt like one).

Ah, that typical bane of the GM. Darths and Droids covers it quite well. See, this isn't the thing that I'd ever thought would come up.

*flips through core book looking for anything that indicates that the writers had thought about it either*

Evidently not, from that flick through.

Hmm.

Yeah, upon reflection, I think I agree with the Academia Nut interpretation. They will be warmer than their surrounding environment, but more from the electronics and the friction in their moving parts. After all, a normal real-life engine relies upon combustion (or heat generated from radioactive decay), while a D-Engine does it by violating reality until it gives in. An A-Pod, likewise, seems to covert the energy directly into force, given that all a vehicle needs to be able to move in space is void-proofing.

Also, you're forgetting/don't know, depending on how much you read the core, that the Ranger APC (p231) has a built in Stealth system, which requires visual confirmation/rare X-ray equipped units to detect, which the military characters would know that the EOoD appears to have a real shortage of dedicated recon units, which are the only ones that mount the gear. Actually, they don't have any mecha with X-ray vision at all. That will be remedied in this game, but they're very rare, and they're more reliant on stolen NEG mechs/ outfitted, disguised fishing boats and other botch jobs.

The idea of being stuck in a inclosed facility with the Raptine Storm outside and either Alma (or a similar psionic horror) or a Shoggoth (or a similar unstoppible horror) lacks something of appeal. Expessally without backup, out of contact, and lacking context about what was being attempted there.

Don't be silly. Alma isn't here.

She's in the Class A facility in Chicago.

In more seriousness, the facility is in the Balleydehob Enclave, which is basically a town, armoured and armed to the level that it can survive while not having the defences that an Arcology would have. It's not free-standing in the middle of the countryside.

And, yes, you do know how to get there. The location of the Enclave is on any military map.

I'm still waiting for agreement on whether to activate the APC before I detail that in a post, though.

[Losonti Tokash]

I say turn it on.

[frigidmagi]

Hold up. ES, you haven't told me how many shooters I got nor do we know the numbers of the injured. We need to know this stuff before we can do anything.

[EarthScorpion]

Hold up. ES, you haven't told me how many shooters I got nor do we know the numbers of the injured. We need to know this stuff before we can do anything.

I did, just only in a narrative form. Here it is, more formally.

The injured
- Co-Pilot has both legs broken, but is conscious, although he absolutely doped himself up on painkillers (Essentially incapacitated for the rest of the mission)
- Mala (the anti-armour guy) has internal bleeding and is unconscious (Requires immediate treatment to stabilise)
- The Nazzadi soldier is unconscious, but appears to have nothing wrong with him (Probably will wake up in time)
- The Woman in the light armour with the bleeding nose has very weak vitals (Undiagnosed as yet, may just be that she's a fragile sort (as she's one of the specialists, not a member of the military), may be something more severe)

The "shooters" by which I think you mean people who can handle a gun and aren't busy with the medicine
- Alex (in the powered armour) (Only source of Anti-Armour firepower, until someone gets the IFV running/ if anyone uses Mala's anti-armour rifle)
- Aigou (Soldier) (good)
- Tyche Forman (Parapsychic) (Low Perception, but well trained
- Bertram (Occult Investigator) (Not that good with guns, but good perception)
- The as-yet-unnamed female Soldier who just woke up (probably quite good, as a member of the military)

Occupied with Medicine
-Erik
-Salky (the nervous human-looking Nazzadi)
- Dovara (is only stabilising the people, and with only 1 dot in medicine can easily, should you wish, to be moved to fighting instead.

KIA
- Joniplula (team leader) (Hit by Anti-Air railgun slug which passed through the hull)
- Pilot (died in crash)

[Academia Nut]

Ahem. So everyone has the information they need now. Don't leave us hanging here!

[Losonti Tokash]

Pretty sure we're waiting on Frigid.