SavageRifts.com

Conditions
The swamp remains hot. The bugs remain annoying. The humidity remains oppressive.

It is late afternoon, just after a torrential downpour. Your vehicles are driving through knee-deep water, and anyone walking is wading through the same. Everything counts as difficult ground.

A Haunting Melody

You have been traversing the swamp for days, heading generally in the correct direction, and avoiding or overcoming most of the challenges the unforgiving landscape has thrown your way. All in all, the 32nd has made fantastically good time through a difficult area.

As the afternoon drives on, you come across more and more buildings jutting out from the swamp, but whether they are remnants of pre-Rifts architecture or more recent structures, you cannot tell without closer examination. Whatever their origins, the buildings are currently in terrible disrepair, with trees, vines, and other vegetation growing on, around, and through them, and thick, muddy water lapping gently against their walls.

Anyone who makes a notice roll (only a simple success required) hears the faint sounds of a nursery rhyme as you pass one particular brick building, set back from the path you've generally been traveling by a couple hundred feet. The building sits on a rise, so very little of it is actually affected by the water, and it is mostly taken over by vegetation.

Your path towards the jungle castle leads you away from the building, but...
What's Back Here?

Any who venture up the path to the building and around back will find the remains of a perfectly ordinary playground, inhabited by around 20 children of varying races and ages, ranging from toddlers to as old as ten or eleven. The children almost universally wear tattered clothing, and several of them are singing the haunting melody you heard.

If you approach to within 50 feet or so, the children will take notice of you and pause in their playing, but will not move towards you.

Anyone who makes a notice roll will see that two of the children, both Psi-Stalkers (one boy of around six, and one girl of perhaps four), are wearing clothes in much better repair than the others. Their movements are also significantly slower than those of the other children, as if they are more tired than their companions. These two take no notice of you whatsoever, and keep playing, stumbling occasionally.
Prepare Yourselves!

Because you amassed all of the success tokens on your way through the swamp, you each get the equivalent of a prep round, here. Narrate your characters' responses and any preparatory actions they take for whatever comes next.

After your prep round, you can choose to go closer to the playground, thus entering into a tactical, round-by-round scenario, or you can choose to mind your own business and keep going towards the castle.

Jareb looked down at Gift. It was not fair to keep the child in the heat. Plus the melody was intoxicating her like when she wanted to play. Its not good. ” Sorry folks, Gift comes first, I’ll need to find her a set of those child headphones the old earthers used to put on their kids. I’ll be back when I can.” He flaps away heading back to town in search of an old bestbuy.

Children?

Seeing the children nerves Norona. They just seem so out of place in the heart of the swamp and he had no warning from his genius loci of their presence. The void where they should be is even more unnerving.

Carefully, he lowers his goggles over his eyes and activates them. Cautiously he scans the children, and the area, for any supernatural effects.

GM Mini Post: In Anticipation of Norona Using Extra Effort and Getting a Raise, Per Hangouts

@Norona easily identifies the types of beings in front of him: these children are actually Haunting Entities from another plane, brimming with psionic might. Each “child” on the playground is a powerful supernatural entity, roughly on par ISP-wise with a Mind Melter.

His goggles tell him that these beings are resistant to most non-arcane attacks (magical and psionic attacks affect them normally, but mundane attacks cause half damage), and that they feed off of the life energy of their victims. Mechanically, this follows the draining PPE rules in the TLPG, except that they cause a level of Fatigue with a success and two with a raise (instead of taking Power Points). This effect works within 8” and takes an action.

Interestingly, the two Psi-Stalker children are not Haunting Entities, but appear to be normal children under some kind of psionic influence.

Castle begins reviewing notes from other locations where he has traversed. Searching data files about the past in order to more accurately understand the current situation. Following after @Norona, Castle is completely at home letting his Curiosity Hindrance get the better of him.

His History search parameters on his personal computer spit out a few similar occurences, all with the warning *Major Psychic Activity*. Castle grabs Norona's right arm. "Not sure what you know, but these creatures are real bad. We can walk away now and they will just stay here. They are kind of bound to a location. Sad it had to be a child's playground."

GM Mini Post for Castle’s K/History

@White Castle remembers having read about so-called Haunting Children, odd entities that live in playgrounds, schools, parks, shopping centers, and other places once regularly frequented by pre-Rifts families with children.

Haunting Children tend to stay in one place, rarely doing harm to passers by unless travelers enter into their chosen territory and begin taking things from the ruins.

They are known, however, to lure live children in by some arcane means to come and play with them. Any child caught up in the spell of the Haunting Children will typically be too weak to break out on their own, and will eventually find themselves turned into a Haunting Child (usually within a couple of days).

They can be very dangerous if disturbed, and they will typically kill anyone who tries to take a living “playmate” away. To make things worse, even hardened adventurers often have trouble fighting children, even haunted-looking ones (mechanically, this is handled as a Fear Check when you first engage a Haunting Child), and defeated Haunting Children tend to reform within a day or two of being “killed.”

Mini GM Post in Response to Norona's K/Arcana

@Norona knows more or less the same things as @White Castle about the Haunting Children, with this one additional nugget: children taken by Haunting Children typically die within 48 hours or so, as the Huanting Children continually feed off of their life force and (being unliving themselves) have no concept of how to keep a living playmate alive. The Huanting Children don't worry overmuch about it, however, as their playmates will just come back as Haunting Children themselves and keep on playing.

Most Haunting Entities take the form of glowing magical shapes; it is unknown why Haunting Children choose to take the form of children, but it is terribly creepy.

A look of determination comes across Kuikku's face. ”They may come back after being defeated but we can at least prevent their numbers from growing. We need to get those two out of there.” He points to the two Psi-Stalkers that have not taken notice of the party. ”Quickly make your preparations, we have no idea how much longer those kids have.” With that he manifests his matched Psy-Swords and his billowing black cloak.

"Ghost babies," Deezy breathes, "Uh...huh...well that's a new one. I don't think I have anything specifically for ghost babies, but...ah yeah! I have something that should help with ghosts in general. Gimme a second here..."

She takes a couple of metal cylinders out of her pouch and telescopes them out to be much longer, then affixes them to something that looks kind of like an old style camera with parts of it ripped out and replaced by crystals and rough wiring and rune-encrusted plates.

"Alright, I can use this to push a weapon slightly out of phase. Should give these guys something to think about!"

Toshiro frowns at the mention that these....haunting children.... are resilient to attacks from anything non-arcane. But then again... He is resilient to all things arcane, so maybe that balances things out.

Kuikku wrote: ↑Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:38 am A look of determination comes across Kuikku's face. ”They may come back after being defeated but we can at least prevent their numbers from growing. We need to get those two out of there.” He points to the two Psi-Stalkers that have not taken notice of the party. ”Quickly make your preparations, we have no idea how much longer those kids have.” With that he manifests his matched Psy-Swords and his billowing black cloak.

Toshiro shrugs. And order is an order. He opens the latch on the scabbard that holds Retribution and draws the sword.

Finally! the sword says, as it's power flows through Toshiro. Now let us bring vengeance to the....children? Uh, Toshrio.... Are you sure these children have slighted your honor? Did they kick you in the shins when I wasn't paying attention?

Toshiro mock sighs and is about to pop in his intermediate electronics chip, but sees that Kuikku is already moving forward toward the children. Not wanting to waste time, he pops in his "expert swordmanship mechanics" chip instead, hoping he can fiddle enough with he sword to get it to work. He enters a few commands into Retribution to activate its most unique feature. Remembering the last time he experimented with this particular feature, he hopes he can keep the sword under control. The tip of the blade splits and a small nozzle spurts out a cloud of nanites.

The cloud immediately falls to the ground a disappears. Knowing better than to think something is wrong, Toshiro prepares himself for what is to come. The ground starts to sink in places where the nanites have gathered the material they need and then a slightly robotic looking but otherwise very accurate duplicate of toshiro gets rapidly assemble from starting at his feet and ending at his head.

As soon as the last layer is completed at the top of the contructs head, Toshiro feels Retribution try to assert it's consciousness for control of the duplicate. Toshiro winces as he asserts his own will over the construct, locked momentarily in a battle of wills with the sword.

He sighs in relief as he pushes the swords will down and maintains control.

All his happens in the space of just a few seconds, just a Deezy is putting the finishing touches on her device.

In unison, the two Toshiro's hold out their swords to the texhnowizard, one with Retribution, the other a simple vibro-sword. Oddly, the sword seems incapable of replicating itself. The Toshiro's glance back and forth between their swords and Deezy, then waggle their fingers and their weapons.

Dinosaur Swamp/Jungle Castle
Late afternoon
Hot, humid, buggy, everything difficult terrain (knee deep water)
Round 0

“Ugh. You couldn’t find a parking lot that wasn’t two feet deep in water?” Sierra complained as she slogged through the muck. She was dressed in her armor again, but still carried a bottle of Lincoln’s moonshine.

They rounded the corner of a building up on a hill, and therefore blessedly out of the water. She hated water, anything deep enough to go over her head. She preferred showers to baths. Sierra kicked mud off her shoes and then watched as Jareb just...flew off. “Where the fuck is he going?” Then she saw the kids. “Why are there kids here in the middle of a fucking swamp? Where are their parents?”

Then came the explanation and instructions from Kuikku. “The hell? You want us to murder a bunch of kids? I thought you cyberknights were, like, the good guys or something?” Sierra sighed. “I’m gonna need to be a lot more drunk for this,” she muttered, tossing back her head and guzzling moonshine. She tossed the bottle away and flames started to lick out from her body, her armor turning transparent, before erupting in a blazing inferno. She drew her dragon blade, just in case. “You want me in the air raining fiery death?” she asked as she tossed her empty moonshine bottle away.

[Liquid Courage Edge, Fiery Aura, draw Dragon Blade]
***

Liquid Courage: Vigor d10, Toughness: 14 (6), ignore 1 point of Wounds (1 hour)

Notice [dice:37xwy73l]54932:0[/dice:37xwy73l] -2 danger sense 4
[dice:37xwy73l]54932:1[/dice:37xwy73l]

Knowledge (History) [dice:37xwy73l]54932:2[/dice:37xwy73l]
[dice:37xwy73l]54932:3[/dice:37xwy73l]

Sierra Mackenzie wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2019 12:18 am “Ugh. You couldn’t find a parking lot that wasn’t two feet deep in water?” Sierra complained as she slogged through the muck. She was dressed in her armor again, but still carried a bottle of Lincoln’s moonshine.

"You can always drive yourself chummer and let us know how that goes," Conrad responds. He sounds grumpier than normal.

Kuikku wrote: ↑Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:38 am A look of determination comes across Kuikku's face. ”They may come back after being defeated but we can at least prevent their numbers from growing. We need to get those two out of there.” He points to the two Psi-Stalkers that have not taken notice of the party. ”Quickly make your preparations, we have no idea how much longer those kids have.” With that he manifests his matched Psy-Swords and his billowing black cloak.

There was no way Conrad was going to leave kids there to die, but a little bit of thought and planning would enhance their survival chances.

"My weapons are not going to do much against Ghosts chummers," Conrad explains, playing with his hat, "Keep them off our backs and Jameson and I will grab them. Scoop them up in the ATV and book hopefully faster than they can keep up."

Castle began reviewing information on the trek to this nightmarish playground.

@Pursuit Castle makes checks on the inhabitants of the swamp that they have encountered or passed by, specifically checking for references to any Psi-Stalker communities.

Engaging spirits and such, Castle is right there with @Conrad and Jameson. Nothing really designed to fight against them. He intends to rush in for the Psi Stalker kids as soon as possible.

Your Move, Guys

The team has prepared, and now is ready to make their moves. The Haunting Children are still, all watching you, all waiting to see what you will do.

Initiative

• Kuikku (Quick): 9H
• Deey: 9S
• Norona: 8S
• Conrad: 9C
• White Castle: 2C
• Toshiro: KH
• Sierra: AS
• Haunting Extras: 7C
• Haunting WC1: 2S
• Haunting WC2: 6H
• Haunting WC3: 8C
• Haunting WC4: 6D
• Haunting WC5: Black Joker
• Haunting WC6: KC
• Haunting WC7: KD

Players Go First.... For a Few Days

Because Haunting Children don't attack unless their territory is invaded or they are attacked, they are going on hold. Anyone who wants to post can go ahead and post. In three days, the Haunting Children who can will come off of hold (we'll resolve Agility rolls then, if they're needed).
(The bald children are the Psi-Stalkers)

IMPORTANT NOTE: Everything on the map other than the ground around the playground equipment (which appears as brownish/sandy colored on the map) is difficult ground (each 1" counts as 2" for movement), as it is completely overgrown (I know it doesn't look overgrown on the map, but pretend!).

Dinosaur Swamp/Jungle Castle
Late afternoon
Hot, humid, buggy, everything difficult terrain (knee deep water)
Round 0

“Right, then,” Sierra said. “Let’s get purifying these kiddos, burn the evil out of them.” Sierra’s flaming wings erupted from her back and she launched herself into the air and forward toward the playground, avoiding the overgrown yard.

Pulling up, Sierra extended her hands and blasted the nearest children with a torrent of flames.
***

Liquid Courage: Vigor d10, Toughness: 14 (6), ignore 1 point of Wounds (1 hour)
Fly: Pace 12
Shroud: -1 to be hit by ranged attacks

GM Mini Update:

Please make a Fear check the first time you interact with a Haunting Child (via combat or otherwise).

Thanks!

Another GM Mini Update:

Everyone gets one extra Benny that carries into next quarter.

This is my way of making up for telling you the Haunting Children were about 50 feet away and then putting them farther away than that on the map.

Okay, back to the action!

Norona winces as Sierra flies into action, "Tread lightly," he calls. "Some of the children are not yet possessed." Needing to quickly get the children out of the way Norona draws on his intense connection to the land and calls forth two elemental beings made of stone. The rocky creatures rise up from the ground near the each psi-stalker child and Norona commands them to move the children from harm's way.

"Bring the children to me unharmed."

Note: Spent a benny to allow Burrow to work on the kids.

Seeing that the children are being carried away by Norona's elementals Kuikku slowly walks forward clearing a path with his blades. I am not sure if they will come after us when the kids disappear or not. In either case a clear path will make getting away easier.

GM Mini Post Re: Sierra's Attack:

Three of the Haunting Children manage to unceremoniously throw themselves out of the way of Sierra's wrath and escape unscathed. The fourth, however, is incinerated instantly, along with the playground equipment itself.

@Conrad "You need me to turn the hot rod around? Looks like we will need to be wheels up asap."

Castle pulls up the electronic travel logs from the APC's on board nav computers and begins plotting potential exits from their location. Looking further ahead, Castle looks at potential stop points that @Norona could use to make contact with resident Psi-Stalkers.

The Haunting Children Respond

Almost as one, the Haunting Children jerk into action, their stillness broken by the sizzle and pop of Sierra's fire and the oddly quiet sound of earth forming into humanoid shapes only to bear away the children of the Psi-Stalkers.

Kuikku, as he approaches the playground, swords swinging, hears the discordant sound of a nursery rhyme ringing in his ears, getting louder and louder with each step. The saund is utterly haunting, and it sends involuntary chills down the warrior's spine. Kuikku, make a Fear Check at -4 to resist the Greater Fear power.

Meanwhile, several of the Haunting Children take flight, following along the path that Norona's elementals burrow through the earth, hovering nearby and searching for their lost psi-stalker "friends."

Against Sierra, they turn in force. The nearest begins one of their terrible melodies, the notes seeming to slide greasily into her ears, and she can feel the psionic power seep into her from all angles. Sierra, make a Spirit Roll with a TN of 7 to resist Mind Control.

Heedless of their companion's attempts to bring their fiery attacker under control, several of the Haunting Children lash out at Sierra with concentrated attacks of pure telekinetic force, unleashing an invisible battery of arcane power with horrible effect. Sierra is struck four times for 13, 11, 23 and 53 Mega Damage!

The entities' counterstroke is as brief as it is gut wrenching, and an eerie calm settles over the clearing for just an instant as you all process what you have just seen.

Players' Turn
The rest of the team that hasn't yet gone may now take their turns.

Updated Map:

Dinosaur Swamp/Jungle Castle
Late afternoon
Hot, humid, buggy, everything difficult terrain (knee deep water)
Round 2

Sierra cursed as she only managed to purify one of the children, the rest dodging out of the way. Then she felt a lullaby in her mind, and her mind went blank as she listened to the melody. Then suddenly her body was slammed with raw psychic power and she screamed in pain and terror.

She fell from the sky and hit the ground hard, not moving.
***

Liquid Courage: Vigor d10, Toughness: 14 (6), ignore 1 point of Wounds (1 hour)
Injury: Guts, Broken: Agility reduced to d4

When the haunting children start attacking Toshiro silently curses to himself about having drawn his sword rather than gun at this distance.

What are you...no don't out me away! Retribution protests as Toshrio sheaths the sword and draws his shotgun in stead. Though not yet blessed with any magical properties, he hopes the slugs loaded into the gun will provide some stopping power against the creatures. The duplicate created by the sword, "Twoshiro" as Toshiro likes to think of him, cuts a path forward towards the children, with Toshiro following behind and shooting.

Deezy's jaws fell open in dismay at seeing what happened to Sierra, and she realized belatedly that just phase-shifting people's guns probably wasn't good enough for these guys. This was serious business! Serious business called for serious firepower.

She frowned for a second, then immediately brightened. That thing! The thing from the firehouse in old New York! Did she have that...?

The scimagitist frantically started digging through her satchel until she exclaimed happily and dragged something out. It was a metal box about the size of a shoebox, with a hinged panel on the top surrounded by yellow and black 'hazard' stripes. It trailed a long cable attached to a sort of paddle with a button on it.

"Norona, can you help Sierra?!" she called out, shoving her goggles down over her eyes. "Also, everyone may wanna look away from them for a second!"

Deezy whirled around in a circle and flung out the weird metal box like it was a hammer throw. The device sailed out and landed in the midst of the vengeful, hungry spirits that had gathered around the spot where Norona's elementals had gone underground with their precious cargo. The paddle with the button stayed put near Deezy, still connected via the cable. She grinned and mashed her foot onto the button.

"Guess what I'm not afraid of?"

The box whined, and the hatch popped open. Immediately a cone of light erupted from it, spewing arcs of energy that entangled the nearby spirits and began to drag them, inexorably, into the brilliant vortex that coruscated over the hatch!

Abruptly Deezy realized she was kind of out in the open, and decided to scoot behind the vehicle real quick...seeing as how they'd done such a number on Sierra...

Fear check:
Spirit: [dice:3sggn124]55415:0[/dice:3sggn124]
Wild: [dice:3sggn124]55415:1[/dice:3sggn124]

EE with elan:
[dice:3sggn124]55415:2[/dice:3sggn124]

Net roll: 12-4=8 Pass

Conrad

"Norona, where are you taking them?" Conrad shouts over the radio as he sets off in pursuit in the ATV.

Driving Jameson

As Sierra drops out of the sky, Jameson begins sprinting towards where she fell, pulling the first aid kit out of her back pack

Not losing one of my new friends

"Cover me!" she shouts as she starts applying first aid.

Healing
[dice:7iqaba73]55490:1[/dice:7iqaba73]
[dice:7iqaba73]55490:2[/dice:7iqaba73] [dice:7iqaba73]55490:4[/dice:7iqaba73] [dice:7iqaba73]55490:5[/dice:7iqaba73] [dice:7iqaba73]55490:6[/dice:7iqaba73]

Round Two:
As Deezy's device goes off, two of the Haunting Children are immediately pulled in and disappear from view. Four others, however, manage to resist the pull of her arcane trap, but barely. They are visibly dazed by the attack, and float (and stand) listlessly, staring off into nothing (ooc=2 banished, 4 Shaken).

Jameson's expert ministrations keep Sierra from slipping away. That, and her unusual response to alcohol, which seems to be bolstering her. Miraculously, Sierra is not only still alive, but Jameson's work manages to bring her back to consciousness! Meanwhile, Conrad maneuvers the Mountaineer in pursuit of the Psi-Stalker children, positioning the APC between the two burrows and flattening one of the Haunting Children in the process!

Initiative for Round Two

• Deezy: 7H
• Sierra: QC
• Conrad/Jameson: 5H
• Toshiro: 10S
• Norona: 10D
• Kuikku: 8D
• White Castle: 3D
• WCs: AS
• Extras: AC

Haunting Children Go First

The Haunting Children, now all thoroughly agitated, begin a counter attack on the 32nd.
When the Mountaineer comes roaring on the scene, several of the foes immediately turn their attention that way, focusing on the largest target on the field. The Haunting Children unleash another telekinetic barrage, this time against the three-wheeled vehicle, with visible effects (3 hits for 32, 23 and 28 MD, though Conrad may make Driving rolls to Soak).

Some of the Haunting Children hold still, focusing on some psychic powers or another without any visual effect.

As she works on Sierra, Jameson hears the same haunting melody Sierra heard just before being blasted from the sky. Jameson, make a Spirit roll to resist Mind Control, with a TN of 5.

Meanwhile, other Haunting Children have taken note of Kuikku's approach and of Toshiro's shotgunning, sending more malicious nursery rhymes their way. Kuikku, make a Spirit roll to resist Mind Control with a TN of 9. Toshiro, make a Spirit roll to resist Mind Control with a TN of 8.

A couple more of the Haunting Children take to the sky, moving menacingly toward the rest of the party.

The Party's Turn!

Okay, the players may now post in any order. If you have any questions, let me know!

Updated Map

Dinosaur Swamp/Jungle Castle
Late afternoon
Hot, humid, buggy, everything difficult terrain (knee deep water)
Round 3

Sierra groaned as her black world turned to blazing white pain. Her green eyes blearily blinked open to behold Jameson’s beautiful face. “Is this heaven?” she asked, coughing up blood and clutching her abdomen. “I think I broke something inside.” She rolled over, curled against the pain, but forced herself back to her feet, pushing through the pain with fire-fueled anger.

“Someone’s gonna burn,” she muttered as she reignited the flames around her body, with a little extra oomph for that extra protection and damage.
Sierra stalked up the playground, her fiery steps hissing with steam in the soggy ground, and she released three cones of flame up at two of the children.
***

(3 Wounds, no penalties)
Liquid Courage: Vigor d10, Toughness: 14 (6), ignore 1 point of Wounds (1 hour)
Injury: Guts, Broken: Agility reduced to d4

Kuikku rolls his eyes as the ATV roll into the playground. So much for an escape path. He continues shopping his way forward angling to come out of the undergrowth behind the ATV. He then darts around to the front of the vehicle and silently cusses the flying children. Instead he goes to the only one he can reach and takes a double swing.

His right hand swings in and scores a decent hit. His left hand looked like it was going to hit something vital but instead just skims the kid. Over all his is happy with the result though.

GM Mini Update: The Haunting Children have a Parry of 5.

Unrelated Note: Keep in mind that everything except the area around the playground equipment is difficult ground, as it's overgrown with vegetation (even if it doesn't quite look that way on the map).

Conrad wrote: ↑Sat Jul 06, 2019 12:54 pm Conrad

"Norona, where are you taking them?" Conrad shouts over the radio as he sets off in pursuit in the ATV.

Driving

OOC Comments

[dice:1flktg9i]55490:3[/dice:1flktg9i]
[dice:1flktg9i]55490:0[/dice:1flktg9i]

Jameson

As Sierra drops out of the sky, Jameson begins sprinting towards where she fell, pulling the first aid kit out of her back pack

Not losing one of my new friends

"Cover me!" she shouts as she starts applying first aid.

Healing
[dice:1flktg9i]55490:1[/dice:1flktg9i]
[dice:1flktg9i]55490:2[/dice:1flktg9i] [dice:1flktg9i]55490:4[/dice:1flktg9i] [dice:1flktg9i]55490:5[/dice:1flktg9i] [dice:1flktg9i]55490:6[/dice:1flktg9i]

Over the Mountaineer's comms, " @Conrad This is Castle. I am manning the rail gun turret."

"I have only read about these things in old data files and news plasti sheets. Will rail guns work on them?"

Castle is on hold taking the Aim action and running through system fire checks.

Norona breathes a sigh of relief when his elemental summons emerge with the psi-stalker children.

"Protect the children," he commands them while looking worriedly toward Sierra. Fortunately, the human Jameson manages to stablize the burster allowing Norona to turn his attention to the remaining children. He knwos "killing them" will only cause the beings ti return. Sending them from this plane forever is the best choice. Deezy's device sent many away but more still remained. Calling on the spirit of the swamp Norona walks toward the largest group of them.

Raising his hands high in the air he shouts toward the haunting children with an unnaturally loud voice:

"Exilium!"

Twoshiro continues to drive forward toward the nearest grounded haunting children, vibrosword held high to keep it from dragging in the underbrush. Oddly the synthetic copy of Toshiro seems to share the same proclivity toward silence.

Meanwhile, Toshiro take a few confident steps through the underbrush toward the flying children to get a better angle on shot. He hears an unusual sound, like a soft song. But the sound is static, like something played through a radio just barely in range.

Not this time... he thinks as he pops in his "Firearms are Friends" chip [Free action]. He engages the next chamber of the shotgun magazine [action 1], and raises it to his shoulder, wishing he that thought to load his chip earlier. It still hadn't completely booted up by the time he pulls the trigger, sending a handful of shotgun slugs speeding toward the supernatural kids.

In response to Castle's question, Deezy shouted, "It sure will!"

She triggered her jetpack, and roared into the air on a ballistic arc that carried her onto the top of the mountaineer, clattering a little as she almost stumbled, then caught herself on the railgun turret. From there it was easy to press her improvised phase gadget against the vehicle's weapon and activate it. The turret seemed to shimmer, as if it was covered in heat distortion baking up off desert sands.

"Okay!" she shouted at Castle. "Give it a shot!"

Deezy Klatta wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2019 9:16 am In response to Castle's question, Deezy shouted, "It sure will!"

She triggered her jetpack, and roared into the air on a ballistic arc that carried her onto the top of the mountaineer, clattering a little as she almost stumbled, then caught herself on the railgun turret. From there it was easy to press her improvised phase gadget against the vehicle's weapon and activate it. The turret seemed to shimmer, as if it was covered in heat distortion baking up off desert sands.

"Okay!" she shouted at Castle. "Give it a shot!"

Rolls: Smite on gun 11: Gun gains +8 MD and is magical; gains 'phased' trapping to affect incorporeal or phased beings

TW skill to use Mega Smite gadget on ATV's gun: [dice:3n6oplaw]55683:0[/dice:3n6oplaw] or [dice:3n6oplaw]55683:1[/dice:3n6oplaw]
Gadget uses 4 of 15 PPE

Not one to complain, Castle lines up on a Haunting Child ( ).

GM Mini Reply: Rolling
The two Haunting Children targeted by @Sierra Mackenzie are entirely consumed by flame before they can so much as move, their melodies dying with them.

The one struck by @Kuikku fares no better, as it is quartered by the Cyber-Knight's blades.

When @Norona finishes his spell, 4 of the Haunting Children are simply gone. The fifth falls from the air, landing on its back and going suddenly silent. (OOC= WC 6 takes a Wound, is Shaken, and falls prone for its critical failure)

@Toshiro 'Cybermonk' sees the various Haunting Children disappearing or being vaporized, and he brings his shotgun around to bear. The first enemy in his sights takes a nasty hit, screaming as part of its midsection explodes into scattering blue light. (OOC= WC takes a Wound and is Shaken). The other entity appears unfazed by the hit.

Notice
[dice:3rjxs800]55752:4[/dice:3rjxs800]
[dice:3rjxs800]55752:5[/dice:3rjxs800]
Conrad veers the ATV this way and that as the attacks come in. He manages to position the ATV in such a way that the attacks are absorbed by the vehicle armour, escaping any damage to the ATV.

White Castle wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2019 7:55 am Over the Mountaineer's comms, " @Conrad This is Castle. I am manning the rail gun turret."

"I have only read about these things in old data files and news plasti sheets. Will rail guns work on them?"

Castle is on hold taking the Aim action and running through system fire checks.

"Got me chummer, right now I don't even know that whatever grabbed the kids is even on our side."

He keeps the ATV going, preparing to scoop up the kids and get them out of range.
Driving

[dice:3rjxs800]55752:6[/dice:3rjxs800] Ace [dice:3rjxs800]55752:10[/dice:3rjxs800]
[dice:3rjxs800]55752:7[/dice:3rjxs800]

Jameson felt something crawling around in her head, her thoughts becoming foggy and something speaking to her, a child's voice

No, not again. never again Jameson fought back violently in her head, the idea of being controlled again both angering and frightening her.


Presuming test of will - forgot on dice to include bonus for strong willed
[dice:3rjxs800]55752:8[/dice:3rjxs800]
[dice:3rjxs800]55752:9[/dice:3rjxs800] ace [dice:3rjxs800]55752:11[/dice:3rjxs800]

She brings up her rifle and opens fire at the nearest spirit left after the others decimated their numbers.

Shooting
[dice:3rjxs800]55752:12[/dice:3rjxs800]
[dice:3rjxs800]55752:13[/dice:3rjxs800]
damage [dice:3rjxs800]55752:14[/dice:3rjxs800] AP2

Round Three
The battle has turned in a big way. With Conrad scooping up the children and getting them out of the line of fire in the Mountaineer, the party has flipped the field on the Haunting Children. Norona's banishment and Sierra's fire attacks are super effective, and the 32nd finds itself facing far fewer foes than it did only moments ago.

Norona's elementals, having handed off their Psi-Stalker charges to Conrad, are now free to join the fray as well.

Initiative

• Norona: 4H
• Toshiro: 8S
• Deezy: 8C
• Kuikku (Quick): JH
• White Castle: AH
• Conrad/Jameson: QS
• Bad Guys: all less than AH

Players go first, in any order.

Notes About Terrain, Etc.
Keep in mind:

• The terrain around the playground equipment is normal ground. Everything else is difficult ground (even if it doesn't look like difficult ground on the map)
• Airborne Haunting Children are 2" in the air. Anyone who wants to try and make a leaping attack at them can do so provided they have a little room to maneuver and make a successful Agility roll for the leap (which imposes a -2 multi-action penalty, as usual for any action)

Dinosaur Swamp/Jungle Castle
Late afternoon
Hot, humid, buggy, everything difficult terrain (knee deep water)
Round 3

“See, this is why I hate kids,” Sierra grunted, hobbling forward holding her stomach. Fuck, she must have broken something! It hurt so much! “They never let me babysit. I always taught them to play with matches. A little marijuana brownie and tequila in their juice can really chill a crabby kid out.”

Sierra’s eyes flared with fire and she dropped three more roaring infernos onto the playground.
***

(3 Wounds, no penalties)
Liquid Courage: Vigor d10, Toughness: 14 (6), ignore 1 point of Wounds (1 hour)
Injury: Guts, Broken: Agility reduced to d4 (goes away when healed)

GM Update:
Sierra's pyrokinetic fires wash over the playground, consuming four more of the Haunting Children and leaving nothing behind in their wake.

Deezy's Magic

Mounted Medium Railgun

Castle decides to unload on the aerial Hauntings with the modified railgun. "Everyone stay to the ground."

GM Update:

As the deafening sound of the rail gun fades, the party finds itself in an eerily quiet clearing, the sizzling and popping of melting playground equipment the dominant sound.

You now have two Psi-Stalker children and a battlefield free from foes. What do you do next?

Castle throws the activator switch into the off position and climbs out through the hatch. Sliding down the backside of the Mouantaineer, he leaps at the last minute before reaching the edge. This vaults him over the heads of the psi-stalker children. Landing he approaches the children.

"I am not a medical professional, but these children are starving."

"A real scary place to die of starvation. Not only that but a real good way to recruit more Hauntlings."

Castle calls over @Norona, "Maybe you know something more about their situation than I do."

After Norona is engaged with the children, Castle excuses himself. "I need to make my contribution to Nature."

Castle takes a long walk to get to the woods, bypassing the smouldering playground equipment and the lingering vaporized particles of Hauntlings. Heading due east, he enters the treeline and scrub to relieve himself. Gone for maybe fifteen or twenty minutes, he reappears where he had originally entered the treeline and scrub.

"I think I found the other psi-stalkers."

Dinosaur Swamp/Jungle Castle
Late afternoon
Hot, humid, buggy, everything difficult terrain (knee deep water)
Round 0

With the ghost children dead, Sierra lets her fires die. She trudged back toward the team’s vehicle, holding her stomach. Now the adrenaline was fading and the pain was starting.

“Oh, fuck,” Sierra groaned. “I think...I need...help…”

Sierra pitched forward onto the grass.
***

(3 Wounds, no penalties)
Liquid Courage: Vigor d10, Toughness: 14 (6), ignore 1 point of Wounds (1 hour)
Injury: Guts, Broken: Agility reduced to d4 (goes away when healed)

As the battle wanes, Norona turns his attention to Sierra. The haunting children proved particularly vicious for the brash burster. As he looks he notices the stalker children feeding lustily on her psychic energies.

Shaking his head the the scene, Norona shoos the gorged children away. Leaning over Sierra he breathes in deeply, drawing in the humid air of the as well as a healthy measure of its very essence. The swap terms with life, with growth, with healing plants, and vibrant animals. It is teeming with life.

Borrowing some of that life force he exhaled and breathes it onto Sierra.

As Sierra stabilizes and the children fade into an exhausted sleep Norona tries to recall what tribes are active in this area. He knows he has moved out of the territory of the previous tribe that gave him aid, and taking these children back that far was not an option.

Fortunately, his newfound connection with the land helps him determine that there is someone who can help nearby.

"There is a tribe of stalkers nearby. Perhaps we can reach them and arrange to return the children."

Setting a small fire Norona let's it burn down before gathering some rather pungent moss. The burning fungus smells terrible but sends thick smoke into the air. Using a large front of palm, Norona manipulates the smoke into a primitive signal. Hopefully, it only draws the right kind of attention.

As Sierra's fires wash over the grounded hauntlings Kuikku looks up judging distances and preparing to leap into an attack. Suddenly the air is filled with streams of hot metal and the flying kids are shredded. Uncoiling Kuikku looks around for the two psi-stalker kids. Seeing them feeding on the fallen Sierra he starts in that direction when Norona sends them towards the APC and kneels next to the fallen comrade.

Sure that Sierra is in good hands Kuikku scans the area. Eventually he finds the bodies of the apparent parents of the now unconscious psi-kids. Shaking his head he continues his search but finds nothing else of any interest in the immediate area. He then climbs on the APC and looks toward the distant castle. Granted those kids were tough but if they were able to take one of us down I worry about what we will find there.

Immediately after the battle, Toshiro reloads his shotgun with new slugs. There is no telling what might be drawn by the commotion of the fight, and it is best to be prepared.

As he does he catches the look of worry on Kuikku face as he glances between Sierra and the direction of the jungle castle. He catches the cyber-knights eye just as he finished loading the last slug. Holding his gaze firmly, he pumps the shotgun to load the first shell and nods in understanding with Kuikku's concern.

Toshiro then uses Twoshiro's help to dig a few shallow Graves for psi-stalker adults.

Hopefully this is the proper way to handle the dead in their culture

Dinosaur Swamp/Jungle Castle
Late afternoon
Hot, humid, buggy, everything difficult terrain (knee deep water)
Round 0

Sierra stirred as Norona healed her. She still hurt, but it was less now.

“Thanks, elf,” she muttered, forcing herself up, still clutching her busted guts.
***

(1 Wound, no penalties)
Liquid Courage: Vigor d10, Toughness: 14 (6), ignore 1 point of Wounds (1 hour)
Injury: Guts, Broken: Agility reduced to d4 (goes away when healed)

notice
[dice:11ixagyy]56362:0[/dice:11ixagyy]
[dice:11ixagyy]56362:1[/dice:11ixagyy]

Conrad stops and lets the kids out. As they rush over to feed on Sierra, he does not immediately notice this, but when he does, he sees Norona shoo them away from her.

"Somebody is going to need to feed them and I ain't an option chummers."

Deezy frowned uncertainly, scratching at her head...fruitlessly, since she had a helmet on.

"I could maybe charge something up for them from the ley line?" she offered. "Can they eat like that? I mean...I guess they could take some power from me. Just let me know first so I can make a few things first, just in case."

Deezy Klatta wrote: ↑Sat Aug 03, 2019 9:45 pm Deezy frowned uncertainly, scratching at her head...fruitlessly, since she had a helmet on.

"I could maybe charge something up for them from the ley line?" she offered. "Can they eat like that? I mean...I guess they could take some power from me. Just let me know first so I can make a few things first, just in case."

"Sadly, they are vampires of a sort Deezy. They draw the ISP from and during a wounding. Guess the rapture of blood and pain, makes the stomaching of ISP/PPE that much easier."

All this is said in passing as Castle heads towards the abandoned school. I bet you have a story to tell don't you?

As Castle approached the school, he marveled at how this particular building had survived for so many years. The former state of Florida was one giant sandbar that had blocked the Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico. After the Great Cataclysm it was reported that the Everglades expanded to cover nearly the entire state.

By his analysis, Castle guessed that the Dinosuars found the expanded Everglades to their liking and took up residence there. Florida's highest points were less than 400 feet above sea level, barely enough to be considered hills. The state had also been riddled with collapsing limestone caves or sinkholes which numbers likely increased with the flooding due to sea levels rising several hundred feet.

Placing his hand on the doorjam of the school house, Castle once again marveled at how well the building seemed to be. Maybe this was a Fade Zone. Castle had heard of some places being preserved in that manner. Everything stopped and frozen in time. Fade Zones. That would be something to add to his bucket list of places to find.

Stepping inside it was eerily quiet. Castle thought to himself, Guess when school is out so is everything else.

He went left first and checked through the classrooms, just peering in to see if anything caught his interest. Most of the rooms were empty. The few that had anything of interest, only had broken furniture and thoroughly decayed wooden somethings or others.

Finding himself back at the entrance he took the right hallway and proceeded to investigate. These rooms were in a simalar condition to the left hallway. In one room he did find a nest of sorts for something he could not quickly identify. Castle did not bother to investigate further as the nest was quite old and obviously out of use.

Finding himself back at the entrance he went down the center hallway. Still amazed that a building this old was standing and had not been looted, Castle caught himself. How long had the hauntlings been here? That could have prevented most looters. Castle suddenly felt bad for having dealt the final death to the hauntlings, but he was grateful to be alive and not dead.

The center wing had an office, a library, gymnasium, a cafeteria, and an auditorium. Castle realized that he was short on time and that the others of the 32nd would be anxious to leave, so he tried his luck with the library. Entering through the non functioning doors required Castle to pull them from their hinges.

In the darkened room, he flipped on the light on his body armor. The shelves were empty and Castle's heart sank. There was not a single book anywhere, though the shelves were marked with a filing system. The libarian's desk and checkout zone were likewise empty. Castle stood in the middle of an empty library realizing he was going back empty handed and he was not happy.

Walking to the far end of the library away from the doors, the check out zone, and the libarian's desk, Castle began walking past shelves. When he got to the last one he walked down the isles, certain that there was something that had been missed.

Still on the far wall away from everything else that seemed important, Castle was searching. He noticed that there was a particular shelf that was broken at the bottom. An entire section of the lower shelf had been forced from its anchors on the concrete brick wall. Now that is something interesting, Castle thought as he got down to invetigate.

Several concrete blocks had been pushed forward by something behind them. Castle was careful in the remvoing of the blocks. Removing two did not seem to cause any further problems with the wall. Shining his flashlight into the hole he had created, Castle saw a metal box that appeared to have been compressed by falling bricks that had since become rubble. Quickly clearing the rubble castle was able to collect the metal box.

Figuring that he had found the only thing of interest and that his time was running out, Castle took the metal box and qickly exited the elementary school, rejoining the 32nd as they were preparing to pull out and leave the area.

---

---

Inside the smashed box, Castle found a book with covers made of rosewood. The rosewood case, not covers, sealed the contents from at least moisture and decay. The title page of the book, written in very crude handwriting said, "The Facts of Rosewood, Levy County, Florida." dated January 31st 1923.