Run #2: The Flash and The Furious

[Stephen]

Tianwe laughs raucously into his commlink at the cripple's audacity. Who knows... the quality might come in useful, but so far it seems be more of an annoyance than anything else.

{{ If you able to think beyond your chambered round... well, forget. Move the van. }}

[GM Nick]

Little Hawk - Demolitions (2) Test

[Demolitions (1) + LOG (6) = 2]
5 4 1 1 3 6 1

Despite the slight tremor in his hands, the team's decker manages to properly place and wire all of the explosives.

[GM Nick]

[ 01:47 AM, Barrens Highway Juncture ]

The team lays low in the bitter cold as winds whip across the cracked tarmac, making small dervishes of dust and refuse. The wait for the convoy has been a long and excruciating one, fueled only by dangerous levels of adrenaline and the daydream of a decent payout. Oily clouds wrap the moon, refracting the light eerily so that it elongates shadows to near infinite stature. The Banshee has been steered off the road a short distance from the ambush spot and the Bulldog is parked in the alcove formed by the rising overpass.

After what seems like an eternity, a trio of headlights packed closely together appear in the distance.

[Drew Buddy]

Anon glances toward the crouching spirit hiding silently behind the van. It had been a gamble trying to pull one so... Substantial into this world. The stony figure emanates a prickly otherness that Anon can feel in his fingertips and on the back of his neck like static electricity. He almost feels guilty asking it to help them with their petty theft.

He nods at it, giving it his assent to begin the first stage of the evening's festivities. (( Spirit casts and sustains TriD Phantasm F4 ))
An overturned tanker truck materializes across the lanes of the road just beyond the road cones and blinking markers that have already been placed, which in turn lie just beyond a certain rusty manhole cover. Skid marks appear on the ground leading up to the truck, and the ground is littered with ferrocrete debris fanning out from a nasty impact crater that has appeared in the jersey barriers lining the road.

Stray turns his attention to Loki. "We are up," he says simply, standing and walking out into the middle of the road in front of the spectacle. He turns on the glowing orange signal flashlight in preparation for the convoy's arrival. His face is already a mask of a roadworker's irritation and impatience at being interrupted.

(( This is how I understand the plan. If people had different interpretations of how this was going to start, I can edit this. ))

[Conway]

Biting at the corner of his thumbnail, Loki's stony countenance is held in the approaching headlights for a few moments. Closing his eyes, Loki..feels. The dry air is distinctly colder by night, and seems to vibrate with emotional intensity in these last minutes before the convoy arrives. As Loki mentally attunes and filters the raw human energy around him, chemical portraits, like bits and pieces of the runners themselves- fear, anticipation, anxiety, dread, terror and doubt- appear as fixed and tangible assets in his minds eye. His fingers begin to twitch and dance, twin spiders threading arcane filaments in broad arcs around himself. Within their web he tethers the raw biological pheromones, weaving a cloud of human emotional chaos into a broad, geodesic dome before the crash site.


The flickering yellow bulbs atop the pop-up road stands reflect in deep amber pools within Loki's eyes, like dosed droppers of liquid mania. He grunts euphorically before blinking rapidly, the lollipop lustre of his pupils fading as he steps waving into the street after Anon.


(Chaotic World- Force 4, sustained. Target is centered on the lead truck)

[GM Nick]

An overturned fuel tanker materializes in the center of the dilapidated highway, smoking and leaking fluids on to the broken tarmac. The team converges quickly in front of the illusion, bathed in a lonely island of crimson light from the sputtering road flares. All collective eyes turn on the fast approaching caravan of headlights.

(( Tom, what was your target for chaotic world and at what point did you want to cast it? ))

[Drew Buddy]

(( We should probably get them to stop first, then unleash the madness ))

[GM Nick]

At approximately 20 meters out, the three transport vehicles come to a rumbling halt. A tense silence descends, punctuated only by the idling of the distant vehicles and the manufactured sounds of the tanker's specter.

[Drew Buddy]

As the vehicles grind to a halt, the hairs on the back of Stray's neck pick up as energy begins to build around the mage next to him. It's time.

Anon gathers energy for his own spell. Images of bugs, spiders, centipedes dance through his head, crawling, jumping, and slithering out of the air vents of the stopped truck. There's a subtle snap in the air next to him as Loki releases his spell on the unsuspecting drivers and guards. Anon directs his magic to the same spot and fires the spell.

(( TriD Phantasm F3 and sustain ))

[GM Nick]

Loki - Spellcasting Test

[Spellcasting (6) + MAG (6) = 3]
6 2 1 6 2 1 2 2 1 5 4 3
[WIL (5) = 2]
3 5 2 5 3
[WIL (5) = 1]
5 1 3 2 4

Loki - Resist Drain Test

[CHA (5) + WIL (6) = 4]
1 5 4 6 6 6 2 4 3 4 2

Anon - Spellcasting Test

[Spellcasting (6) + MAG (6) = 5]
5 1 6 2 6 2 4 1 1 2 6 5
[WIL (5) = 1]
1 2 6 3 4
[WIL (5) = 2]
5 3 2 6 3

Anon - Resist Drain Test

[CHA (8) + WIL (5) = 3]
4 2 3 1 3 5 6 2 2 2 3 4 6

The team's two mages step forward, both concentrating their respective wills on disturbing the mental energy in the cabin of the first truck. The combination of astral energies makes the air between them crackle and pop, producing the faintest trace of ozone.

Movement inside the convoy frontrunner makes the vehicle rock slightly. Both the driver and passenger door are flung open and two armored men dive to the pavement, swatting and flailing wildly at giant insects only they can see.

[Drew Buddy]

Stray points to the guard that fell out of the driver's seat, an nods to Loki. He then turns his attention to the guard that fell out of the passenger seat. The bugs continue to flood the cab, falling out onto the pavement and the fallen guards in large clumps that explode into multi-legged creatures. Amid the strain of the spell, Anon gathers his energy once again. He thinks thoughts of safety and refuge, all centered around the back of the truck; The vault. He infuses it with a strong desire to make way to that refuge. The bugs surely can't follow there?

(( Cast Influence F4 on the passenger. It's a permanent spell, so it should only have to be sustained for a few seconds. ))

{{ Bradbury, if you are wanting grab cargo, squawk once on radio. Will have spirit cloak you, and can get in truck when scaredy cats open back door. }}

[Conway]

Acknowledging Anon's signal, Loki prepares a second incantation amid the maelstrom of sustained arcane energy. His teeth are bared in a wolffish grin, still able to enjoy the taunting effects of their combined magics despite the level of concentration required to momentarily split his talents and redouble his magical output. Circling a finger around the writhing driver, Loki massages the panic deeper into the mans cortex, manipulating his instinct for survival and encouraging him to escape from the surrounding terror. Bugs....everywhere....shelter.....shelter in the truck vault...

((Influence F4...don't forget the bonus dice for Raven!))

[GM Nick]

Anon - Spellcasting Test

[Spellcasting (6) + MAG (6) + Sustaining (-2) = 2]
2 2 3 4 3 2 6 1 3 6
[WIL (5) + Chaotic World (-1) = 1]
4 3 4 5

Anon - Resist Drain Test

[CHA (8) + WIL (5) + Sustaining (-2) = 6]
4 5 2 5 5 6 1 1 5 4 5

Loki - Spellcasting Test

[Spellcasting (6) + MAG (6) = 2]
3 4 4 6 2 4 6 2 1 1 3 4
[WIL (5) + Chaotic World (-2) = 0]
2 3 3

Loki - Resist Drain Test

[CHA (5) + WIL (6) = 4]
6 3 1 3 1 2 3 4 6 6 5

The two convoy guards stagger to their feet, grunting and yelping whilst scrabbling wildly at the imaginary insects trying to wriggle inside their armor. They both shuffle to the back of the truck and disappear from view.

As this occurs, the other two trucks in the convoy sputter to life and roll up to each flank of the truck.

[John]

Bradbury takes in the scene with a sick sense of satisfaction that he doesn't expect. There's something innately satisfying about watching corpo thugs swatting at imaginary creepy-crawlies, it would seem. The ork turns to Anon, the heaviness of the task before him painted on his face, and says, "I'm trusting you, elf."

[Drew Buddy]

Stray gives a curt nod as Bradbury signals his intent.

Hide the dockworker, he thinks to the spirit listening in. Conceal him and keep him hidden.

The bugs continue along the ground, skittering about the feet of the retreating guards in a writhing black mass.

[Elliott]

Aremys watches the magical chaos with a twisted grin. Sweat starts to drop down his forehead as even in the night air the inside of this infernal warms to unconfortable tempuratures just from his rapid heartbeat. One hand comes up quickly to wipe away the offending droplet, while his eyes remain focused down the gunsights at the action in front of him. At if any fighting starts he will get some fresh air.

{"Good job on the first cab! Can you get the other drivers out? I doubt the vaults will open up for them but if we can subdue them we will at least have some time to work on opening those doors."}

[GM Nick]

Bradbury races towards the activity behind the Bulldog. As he runs, bits of bubbling tarmac leap on to him and melt into his physical form. After a few seconds of this strange absorption, the ork bruiser is completely invisible to the naked eye.

Bradbury - Sneak Test

[Stealth (2) + AGI (5) = 3]
2 1 5 6 5 3 2
[Perception (4) + INT (5) + Concealed (-7) = 1]
1 6 **Glitch!**
[Perception (4) + INT (5) + Concealed (-7) = 0]
1 4 **Critical Glitch!**

As he rounds the corner, Bradbury slows and hunkers down against the rear corner of the truck.

The two hapless guards are still shrieking and swatting at something the adept can't see. They both move towards the mag-lock on the rear door and collide, falling to the tarmac and cursing each other, the world, and the insects trying to wiggle inside their armored vests. Eventually, the driver rises shakily to his feet and jams a few numbers on the mag-lock. He yanks furtively on the release bar and a jettison of atmosphere blasts out of the corners of the giant, reinforced door. The driver tugs and then slips inside the dark crack, whimpering wildly.

[Drew Buddy]

The swarm of bugs leap fruitlessly after the feet of the retreating guards. They're safe in the vault from the swarm. The swarm splits into two, and starts making its way toward the other two trucks climbing up into the wheel wells and through the grilles. Anon mutters quietly to Loki, "Okay, now we are having four to work with. Let us be making it snappy."

Anon gathers up another surge of magical energy, and releases it upon the driver of the left truck, just as the swarm bursts through the air vents.

(( Influence F4, same as before. Cast it again on the other occupant of that truck as soon as it takes hold. ))

[Conway]

Loki lashes out at the mind of the third convoy truck driver, focusing his arcane manipulations into a single thought: Abandon this vehicle!


((influence F4, repeat on other occupant when able))