You drop the carbine and grab the pistol as the one you shot is leaping at you; the other is leaping at Derek, who is brandishing his knife in anticipation.
These are the only ones left, right? Get the one going after me first, then the one attacking Derek, if he hasn't yet dispatched it by then.
(Doing Therapy)
Two
After we dispatch these two, if these are the only two left, tell Derek to get Lauren on the horn. If they fixed the gravity, then they aren't in any immediate danger. Let's get back to the station and destroy this thing by remote. There's no survivors here that need our attention, the cargo can't be that important, or else someone else would have done something. Let's get back to the station and call a fireball down on this ship. Just destroy it by remote. We know what happened, we know there's no survivors, we can destroy it from a safe distance, and that's good enough for me.
If Derek verses out here (which sounds possible) head in Lauren and CW's direction. I want off this thing, back to the station, and destroy it by remote.
As the beast opens its jaws to bite you, you put a bullet down its throat and out its tail, tearing it apart from inside.
Derek fends off the other with the knife, avoiding a near bite while giving it a minor wound. You swing the pistol that direction and finish that one with a single shot. You realize just how much faster you are with the pistol than with the rifle, and also more accurate at least at close range.
As noted, they are all dead, the bodies scattered on the floor.
You tell Derek what you want as he collapses on the floor, still bleeding from his wound.
"Lauren and CW are a bit busy at the moment," Derek says, "and she says she'll get back to us as soon as she can. She suggests we keep heading for the bridge if you don't have another suggestion."
You mention that you want to destroy the ship remotely.
"And do you have a way to do this? Lauren doesn't. If you think you can destroy the ship, by all means, do it now. I don't mind leaving through the back door."
--M. J. Young
As the beast opens its jaws to bite you, you put a bullet down its throat and out its tail, tearing it apart from inside.
They call that a Texas Heart Shot. Except for a true Texas Heart Shot, you're supposed to shoot it in the rectum to come out the mouth.
You tell Derek what you want as he collapses on the floor, still bleeding from his wound.
Get out the first aid kit and tend to Derek. There's even aspirin and whatnot for his pain. I've also got some cloth bedsheets I would tear into strips for bandages if I need to. That was kind of why I was carrying them. That is, unless he has some magical or psionic means of healing himself. Keep both the pistol and the rifle at the ready, in case another wave of those things shows up. I might be the only protection we have. Also, with the gravity back on, there's no need for us to be tied together, so untie us and put the rope and carabiner away.
"And do you have a way to do this? Lauren doesn't. If you think you can destroy the ship, by all means, do it now. I don't mind leaving through the back door."
"Well, I caused an explosion on a botch when I versed out of my last world. There's gotta be a magical way to do that on purpose. Ya know what? All we need is for the damn thing to miss the station. Why doesn't Lauren open up that portal which brought us here and send the ship to the other side of the galaxy? Open it up in front of the ship, the ship goes through, we take the portal back to the station. We would be done in 10 minutes."
If I wanted to purposefully cause an explosion right here and now, does that botch count as an example? Causing an explosion right where you're standing might sound stupid to you, but to me, it sounds like a last-ditch suicide weapon.
13 bullets in the pistol
9mm carbine reloaded with a 30 round magazine
Single shot shotgun loaded with a flare. Reptiles, at least in our world, are attracted to heat. Firing a flare off into the distance might pull these things off of us. Even if it only gets the attention of one, that's one less we have to deal with.
I'm over my encumbered weight since picking up those laser pistols. With the gravity back on, that counts now. I figured the gravity would be off for a while longer. Your call if you want to roll the strength check. I certainly want it to count in the next world, but if you're willing to let it slide for now, so am I. I'll probably use enough ammo here that it won't count in the next world.
Two
MJ, would it be OK with you if we took this to a different thread? I'm just kind of superstitious about having six hundred sixty six posts. See? I can't even use the numbers.
Is the gravity definitely, 100% back on for good? Could it perhaps be an intermittent problem? I'd kind of like the zero g new use on as many guns as I can get it on. That is, if it's OK with you. You could have a lot of fun turning gravity on and off at inopportune moments, I'm sure. Whaddayasay MJ?
Oh and MJ, while blowing up the ship IS something I'm seriously considering, that is kind of a last-ditch, everything else has failed scenario. I do want to play this, it's been fun. My character is thinking the same way, I'm sure. However, if we get cornered, I am going to try to purposefully cause an explosion.
I've also got an example of throwing psionic shockwaves. Perhaps their nervous system is less advanced, and it would do more damage to them.
Could I throw psionic shockwaves out of my hands, I wonder. Perhaps the penalty is that I can only do it once in a while with each hand, and have to wait for my nervous system to come back to normal. I could think of all kinds of uses for being able to do that. A stunning/crippling effect being the most obvious. Deadly to lower life forms, not to humans. Body involvement, because I would have to point at the target. I wonder if psionic shockwaves (affecting the nervous system) would be more effective against creatures with a lower-developed nervous system. Not trying it just yet, just trying to get some kind of feedback first. Use that with boxing? I'd be the king of one-hit knockouts.
Hey MJ, I should have probably mentioned that, on the 357 speed-loaders, one of them is 6 silver bullets, and another is 6 gold bullets. These are in the backpack. They would be my last-resort ammo, and who knows? I could very likely run into something which requires a gold or silver bullet, or I could even sell them if I had to. The other 7 speed-loaders have standard 357 rounds in them. Is too late to mention that?
(Doing Therapy)
You do your best with Derek's wounds, but they are beyond your skill here.
Botches are examples that prove something is possible, somewhere, but they do not show you how to do it and do not guarantee that you can do in a controlled manner what you did in an uncontrolled manner.
We are only at 646 with this post, and it's not certain you will live twenty more posts, so don't worry about it.
You previously mentioned loading the speed loaders with silver and gold bullets.
"Well," Derek says, "shall we find that ladder? Or has the plan changed?"
--M. J. Young
We are only at 646 with this post, and it's not certain you will live twenty more posts, so don't worry about it.
Aren't we ALWAYS not certain to live 20 more posts? We're always just one botched roll away from versing out. Fair enough, what you said, but if it gets to 665, I'm starting another thread. Just please, don't intentionally verse me out before then. I'm sure you have your own superstitions you're afraid of for no reason.
"All we need is for the damn thing to miss the station. Why doesn't Lauren open up that portal which brought us here and send the ship to the other side of the galaxy? Open it up in front of the ship, the ship goes through, we take the portal back to the station. We would be done in 10 minutes. Just send it out into the middle of nowhere, and be done with it?"
"Well," Derek says, "shall we find that ladder? Or has the plan changed?"
"If you're feeling well enough to move, sure. I'll take point."
Walking with the pistol in the holster, and the rifle at the ready, still on triburst. climbing ladders with the 9mm pistol in my hand, and the rifle slung over my shoulder.
Two
"Derek, where is the nearest star relative to us? Send the ship through the portal and on a collision course with that. Do you think she can pull that off? I versed once with a van. Could we verse out with it if we were at the helm? That would solve a lot of problems. Would the dragons come with it, or would they stay here? I don't know, do you Derek? Just wondering out loud. If they stay here, then they will still be flying towards the station at mach 10. What's the last thing to go through a lizard's mind when it hits a space station at mach 10?"
I know that latter would work. He would have a good reason to think it would.
"Come on Derek, let's walk and talk. Brainstorm, what else could we do to prevent this thing from hitting the station? The sooner we can do it, the better. Can these lizards survive in no atmosphere, I wonder? If we could find some spacesuits, we could blow a hole in the wall, and decompress the entire ship. Take out the air, they die, we stop the ship whilst wearing spacesuits. If they're all dead, it would be SOOO much easier to do that. Think Derek, think!!!"
(Doing Therapy)
Three
"Derek, as soon as Lauren contacts you to let us know she's OK, ask her what she thinks of that portal idea. Either it will work and solve the problem, it won't work, and we're no worse off, or she botches, and that might very well solve the problem in itself. What does Lauren think?"
(Doing Therapy)
"We don't know if the lizards can survive outside the ship. We don't know how they got on the ship. But I would say that if we took away the ship they would not survive impact with the station--or with the station's defenses, as they couldn't avoid the anti-debris field."
"Lauren says the only way she knows to open the portal to the twilight is to walk into it, so she'd have to be standing on some solid object in front of the ship and able to walk. She's also not sure whether the portal would be large enough. She says it's not a bad idea, though, if you can think of a way to do it."
Derek suddenly stops.
"They're not there."
It seems that Lauren and CW are no longer part of the equation here. They must have encountered more than they could handle.
--M. J. Young
"They're not there."
"They're not there? They versed out? Oh man, this is bad."
Of all the things you could have done with that roll, you had to do that one, didn't you?
"OK, screw this, game over."
I'm praying. Hitting my knees.
"God, I want this ship to explode. Do you think you could do that for me? I want an explosion mighty enough to put this ship in so many tiny pieces that there's no way it will hurt anyone. Derek and I are ready to go onto the next world, let's just end it here and now."
This shouldn't require any more explanation. I want God to duplicate my versing out Dancing Princess botch of a nice-sized explosion. Enough to engulf the ship and turn it into particulate. A bunch of metal filings is all that should be left. I don't know about the time, he's in a rage and hoping God does it instantly. He's probably praying until it happens, and hoping Derek can keep him safe whilst he's doing it.
Don't forget, you promised to explain the how's and why's of Lauren's Disaster after I versed out. Well, here it comes.
Two
If more of those dragons show up, whilst praying, try to raise a psionic bell jar force shield around myself and Derek. Maybe if I botch, I'll get my desired explosion faster. New Use?
(Doing Therapy)
You hit the floor with your knees and start praying, and in minutes a single very large beast lumbers into view at the end of the hall.
You attempt to raise your shield, but it doesn't come into focus.
"I'll keep him back," Derek says, sticking a clip in his laser rifle and then walking slowly toward the beast with knife and frying pan.
I can't adjudicate a prayer with open-ended time frame. You have to tell me how long you will pray. I then can determine whether you have time for that prayer and how much that bonuses your chance of success.
Also, the baseline for what you want to do would do less damage inside a ten foot radius than would be needed to destroy the floors, and progressively less damage beyond that. You'll need to figure out how large and how powerful an explosion you want, all of which comes off your chance of success. Getting an obliterative explosion equal in size to the ship is about -85, if I'm thumbnailing aright.
--M. J. Young
Well, really, all I need is for the explosion to be large enough to rip the ship in half. That would deflect it from its original course and the bulk of it would miss the station. It would also completely negate whatever these creatures are doing to keep it on course with the station. An uncorrectable variation of only one degree in course, over so many thousands of miles, it would miss the station, and the people on the station would never even see it passing. That's all I need. I can't give you a better time frame than pray until it happens. That's what he's doing. Until either the ship explodes, or he can't pray anymore, whichever comes first.
Are the any bonuses for praying for something you want with every fiber of your being? He's furious over the loss of Lauren and CW. He wants this ship to explode more than anything he's ever wanted in his life. His way of avenging their deaths, if you will. I'm sorry I can't be more specific than that, but that's the way he's thinking.
You pray as Derek fights the lizard. The knife flashes and there is blood, but the beast engages; Derek blocks. Your attention is focused on your prayer, though, so you can't catch the details.
Then you become aware that Derek is gone; he held the beast for a bit over a minute, but it is now charging at you. You have been praying almost three minutes, but you end your prayer to prepare to meet the charge.
As you do, you feel an energy building up inside you. It is becoming painful, pushing outward from inside.
And suddenly you explode, as if you were a small nuclear device. You see the creature ripped apart by the blast as it tears your body to bits; you catch a glimpse of walls tearing apart around you. That, though, is all you know. You are gone.
I'll be back to post a link to a new thread.
--M. J. Young
The new thread is named John 2 John.
I'll want you to list any equipment you have with you, anything you intended to keep that is back on the station, and any new skills or skill improvements I might have missed. We'll get you a completed character sheet as soon as we can.
--M. J. Young
You are supposed to explain the Hows and Whys of Lauren's Disaster now.
I'm not sure what you don't understand.
--M. J. Young
Didn't you tell me that bringing Lauren into the scenario automatically caused something bad to happen, and that there was a reason for that? That's why I kept calling it Lauren's Disaster. If I hadn't brought her in, the ship would have never been on collision course with the station. You promised to explain that.
(Doing Therapy)
Oh, that.
It's simple. Lauren really is moving from universe to universe because God has something for her to do in each world. This world runs fine as a sci fi near utopia, but for Lauren to come to it means that the reason for Lauren to be here runs--and the scenario you faced was the one in Old Verses New that wraps up the story (and she doesn't get out of that one alive, either).
So when you summoned Lauren to this world, you summoned Lauren's story to this world, because she can only go where her story takes her. Her story always means that she has something to do, and it usually gets her killed, and it almost always gets someone killed.
So that's why calling Lauren brought the disaster: when Lauren comes to TerraNova, it's because that disaster is coming and she has to take steps to prevent it.
--M. J. Young
So did I save the station? Yeah, I couldn't possibly know that, but it's just a GE roll, come on!!!
(Doing Therapy)
It's not a GE roll, and of course you couldn't know it.
However, you did 43 intensities of damage to everything in that ship from hull to shining hull across the middle, and that's going to destroy circuits and control systems, knock out safeties, compromise hull integrity, and killing any creature with less than a 2@2 damage value, which is most of the monsters not in the bow or stern sections. What's left of the ship will either destroy itself or be easily destroyed by the station defenses.
--M. J. Young
MJ, you said that you were play testing that world. I would assume that means you want some feedback from the player about it. Honestly, I thought it was kind of boring, and would have remained so unless Lauren had come in. It's a candy store world for people who want to augment their gear with high-tech stuff, and I could see the appeal it would have to some players. If Lauren hadn't come in, I probably would have insisted on skipping along like a young girl on a school yard, and I'd probably be a 3@5 in OkyDoky Smokey by now. I just thought you might be interested. And since it is getting dangerously close to the six hundred sixty six post mark, I'm going to stop posting here.