Farm of DEATH, part 2. Also, death.
Mar. 27th, 2004 01:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight we had another session of the sci fi shadake game I'm running. It was all fun and games until somebody got killed, then it was mostly moping about trying to figure out how best to raise him as undead.
And at the end, incompetent ninjas.
The party decided to flee from the Farm of Death -- it was too dangerous. Adam and Jackie and Karada were inside the clinging cloud of crop-duster smoke, but chatted with each other on their cell phones to coordinate. Karada tried to call the Miracle Foundation, who had responsibility for the section of the planet the farm was on, to report the situation in the town, but was put on hold.
They all decided to head back to the van and meet up once they were out of the smoke, but as they emerged Adam saw the cropduster swerving around to attack them again, and told Jackie and Karada he'd fly up and use Jackie's dispel-magic bubble-gun on it.
Adam gracefully dodged around the cropduster as it swerved to try to hit him, but his first shot failed to dispel it -- and there was 'his' car, coming up to join the party. The second and third shots were aimed at the car, which he matched speed with flying through the air, and dodged as it spun to try to hit him. The third shot ejected the black spider spirit from the car just as the cropduster finally finished turning around for another pass... and hit, sending Adam flying across the sky. "Aiiieeeeeee.... *bing!*"
The cropduster also hit the now out-of-control car, destroying both vehicles in a massive explosion, which also damaged the ejected black spider. The spider tried to chase Adam as he rushed across the fields to rejoin the group, but Adam turned right around and shot at it with his Quilta, and it fled.
Out in the fields, Hesperius tried blowing up the massive 50-meter-across thresher with one of the sulfur missiles, but while it punched through the thing's armor, it didn't actually hurt it much. So instead, Hespy decided to make it spin in circles chasing him until he got dizzy, at which point he was planning to make a run for the van.
Jackie arrived first, though, and while it was distracted he managed to dart into the cab and light an 'Exorcism' candle, hoping it would be more reliable than the bubbles in ejecting the spiders.
The candle would take a while to work, however, and while it burned Karada and Hesperius cooperated to blow up the smaller tractor-like animated bits of farm machinery. They were really stupid in 'animated object' mode, and Karada got the two to collide with each other... at which point Hesperius blew both up with a missle, effectively taking both out, as the one which wasn't destroyed was too slowed by its damage to keep up with the flying belts Hesperius had passed around.
Just as Adam joined them, Jackie's candle took effect. The spirit was, indeed, ejected from the thresher -- and from the evil animated toothbrush that Jackie had pulled out just for the hell of it. It was then given flesh. Massive, blubbery, bloblike flesh -- a very strong, very tough 20 meter blob with very fast reflexes.
So of course, Adam decided to attack it. This pissed it off, and since Adam (and Karada, and Hesperius) were up out of reach, it threw the heavily damaged, burning tractor at them, but missed. Hesperius ran for the van while Karada and Adam cooperated to slowly chip away at the thing's health. It sucked up a bunch of corn from the field it was in for use as missiles...
But before it could fire, Jackie, who'd finally freed himself from out from under the *other* blob, threw the rest of his 'set things on fire' bombs at it. They had a wild radius, and one of them in particular ignited the entire blob, damaging it enough to feel it, unlike the piddly plinks of Jackie's Quilta. It responded by thwacking at Jackie with a massive pseudopod -- flattening him like a tortilla.
That alone would have killed him, but it also broke all his 'attack' bottles, which were out in easy reach. Piles of rubble and household items, burning sulfur taken from the heart of a volcano, and other nastiness Jackie had been saving up was all released, doing almost nothing to the blob but making sure that Jackie was very very dead.
After suffering one more attack (from a flaming corn-stalk barrage) Hesperius drove up in the van, and the survivors fled back to the hospital. On the way, Adam called the Miracle Foundation to ask for assistance, and was put on hold. The drive was long enough that he eventually got *off* hold, though, and the foundation (after seeing the pictures he'd taken) agreed to send a Ronin by to take care of the blobs, at least. "Currently, our conventional military forces are busy, so we'll have to leave the rest of the farm as it is for now."
They dropped off the rescued old man (later, ID'd as a 7-year-old) and headed back to get Jackie's remains. Not much remained. The hospital explained to them that what they needed was a priest, basically. Or at least a spirit-mage who could summon Jackie's spirit back, and maybe attach it to something, or have it animate a new body (ie, make him into an undead).
Of course, to do that legally they needed Jackie's permission in writing. Checking his last will and testament, he'd left all his money, and his power of attorney, with Kirin, his 'sister', the paralyzed Illiski. She was in a prosthetic-fitting plant, getting an exoskeleton she could control with her datajack.
Kirin was horrified to hear that Jackie was dead, but even MORE horrified to hear that Adam was planning to have her 'brother's' soul wrenched from the wheel of life and chained to an undead body. She refused to give permission, but vowed to search the net until she could track down someone who would do a true resurrection, rather than a mere binding to undeath. Such people tended to be bitter, burned out recluses, for obvious reasons.
Eventually, they reached a compromise -- Adam would have himself bound as Jackie's familiar. That would keep his soul handy for when or if they found someone to bring him back to life.
"Um, wait, doesn't he already *have* a familiar?"
"Meepas is a squirrel. He can't even *talk*, let alone do alchemy."
The ceremony was performed, and Jackie immediately took over Adam's body reflexively -- in a contest of wills, Adam was weak indeed. Jackie told how he'd been given a rather crappy robot body by his old friend and old enemy, Stanislaw Lemper, who was (a) working for whoever'd been down in the mine, since the robot was styled to look like an actual martian, (b) working for the Murrikai aka Miracle Foundation, and (c) keeping Jackie a secert so that he could steal his work, instead of turning him over to be rewarded or punished or whatever the Murrikai wanted with him.
The Miracle Foundation mage who'd done the binding recommended Adam and Jackie take it outside, at that point, having heard enough. A few minutes (hours) later, the party was assaulted by incompetent ninjas.
The ninjas appeared out of nowhere, backed up by some tiny hovering human-style robots with clamps, and started out by throwing electric ninja stars at their enemies, which carried a powerful stun charge. They quickly stunned Hesperius and Adam, and unplugged Kirin, after which all three were clamped by one or more robots. Meepas managed to dodge all the stars, and his PPF deflected the swords, and he went to work destroying robots and annoying ninjas with his claws.
After a few rounds, though (during which Jackie and Adam, both paralyzed, nevertheless managed to make several purely mental attacks, which turned one ninja intangible sort of by accident), the robots opened portals, and Adam and Jackie vanished! Karada, who'd been summoned at the outset, appeared with EMP in time to save Kirin, and the ninja ran off and turned invisible again, considering the main part of their job done.
What they didn't know was that the robots were essentially defective -- made with Stanislaw's Wild Magitech (which Jackie had recognized immediately) they merely deluded their users into thinking that they worked. So Adam and Hesperius were still around, unmoved.
Jackie was annoyed with Hesperius, now even more than previously, and went back to the robot body in the lab and built a giant alchemical bomb, using the most expensive and dangerous ingredients. He ended up with invisible flames that consumed everything and continued to spread after the initial burst. After having Stanislaw join him in the lab to show him his success, Jackie set off the bombs, killing them both (how thoroughly, Jackie didn't last long enough to see). Except that Jackie was already dead, so it didn't matter as much to him.
last week next week
I wasn't of a mind to bend the rules to let Jackie survive the monster that HE CREATED and that Adam provoked into attacking for basically no reason, especially since death isn't really the end of the character in the society in question. At least not if you have interesting friends or enemies.
Lazar said he wanted to let Jackie sort of semi-retire and start a new character, though... based on the premise (hinted at in the disclaimers the mage made Adam sign) that spending too much time seeing through the eyes of another living creature (that you're linked to) tends to lead to blending your spirits and personalities. I like a squirrels, so I'll probably let him.
And at the end, incompetent ninjas.
The party decided to flee from the Farm of Death -- it was too dangerous. Adam and Jackie and Karada were inside the clinging cloud of crop-duster smoke, but chatted with each other on their cell phones to coordinate. Karada tried to call the Miracle Foundation, who had responsibility for the section of the planet the farm was on, to report the situation in the town, but was put on hold.
They all decided to head back to the van and meet up once they were out of the smoke, but as they emerged Adam saw the cropduster swerving around to attack them again, and told Jackie and Karada he'd fly up and use Jackie's dispel-magic bubble-gun on it.
Adam gracefully dodged around the cropduster as it swerved to try to hit him, but his first shot failed to dispel it -- and there was 'his' car, coming up to join the party. The second and third shots were aimed at the car, which he matched speed with flying through the air, and dodged as it spun to try to hit him. The third shot ejected the black spider spirit from the car just as the cropduster finally finished turning around for another pass... and hit, sending Adam flying across the sky. "Aiiieeeeeee.... *bing!*"
The cropduster also hit the now out-of-control car, destroying both vehicles in a massive explosion, which also damaged the ejected black spider. The spider tried to chase Adam as he rushed across the fields to rejoin the group, but Adam turned right around and shot at it with his Quilta, and it fled.
Out in the fields, Hesperius tried blowing up the massive 50-meter-across thresher with one of the sulfur missiles, but while it punched through the thing's armor, it didn't actually hurt it much. So instead, Hespy decided to make it spin in circles chasing him until he got dizzy, at which point he was planning to make a run for the van.
Jackie arrived first, though, and while it was distracted he managed to dart into the cab and light an 'Exorcism' candle, hoping it would be more reliable than the bubbles in ejecting the spiders.
The candle would take a while to work, however, and while it burned Karada and Hesperius cooperated to blow up the smaller tractor-like animated bits of farm machinery. They were really stupid in 'animated object' mode, and Karada got the two to collide with each other... at which point Hesperius blew both up with a missle, effectively taking both out, as the one which wasn't destroyed was too slowed by its damage to keep up with the flying belts Hesperius had passed around.
Just as Adam joined them, Jackie's candle took effect. The spirit was, indeed, ejected from the thresher -- and from the evil animated toothbrush that Jackie had pulled out just for the hell of it. It was then given flesh. Massive, blubbery, bloblike flesh -- a very strong, very tough 20 meter blob with very fast reflexes.
So of course, Adam decided to attack it. This pissed it off, and since Adam (and Karada, and Hesperius) were up out of reach, it threw the heavily damaged, burning tractor at them, but missed. Hesperius ran for the van while Karada and Adam cooperated to slowly chip away at the thing's health. It sucked up a bunch of corn from the field it was in for use as missiles...
But before it could fire, Jackie, who'd finally freed himself from out from under the *other* blob, threw the rest of his 'set things on fire' bombs at it. They had a wild radius, and one of them in particular ignited the entire blob, damaging it enough to feel it, unlike the piddly plinks of Jackie's Quilta. It responded by thwacking at Jackie with a massive pseudopod -- flattening him like a tortilla.
That alone would have killed him, but it also broke all his 'attack' bottles, which were out in easy reach. Piles of rubble and household items, burning sulfur taken from the heart of a volcano, and other nastiness Jackie had been saving up was all released, doing almost nothing to the blob but making sure that Jackie was very very dead.
After suffering one more attack (from a flaming corn-stalk barrage) Hesperius drove up in the van, and the survivors fled back to the hospital. On the way, Adam called the Miracle Foundation to ask for assistance, and was put on hold. The drive was long enough that he eventually got *off* hold, though, and the foundation (after seeing the pictures he'd taken) agreed to send a Ronin by to take care of the blobs, at least. "Currently, our conventional military forces are busy, so we'll have to leave the rest of the farm as it is for now."
They dropped off the rescued old man (later, ID'd as a 7-year-old) and headed back to get Jackie's remains. Not much remained. The hospital explained to them that what they needed was a priest, basically. Or at least a spirit-mage who could summon Jackie's spirit back, and maybe attach it to something, or have it animate a new body (ie, make him into an undead).
Of course, to do that legally they needed Jackie's permission in writing. Checking his last will and testament, he'd left all his money, and his power of attorney, with Kirin, his 'sister', the paralyzed Illiski. She was in a prosthetic-fitting plant, getting an exoskeleton she could control with her datajack.
Kirin was horrified to hear that Jackie was dead, but even MORE horrified to hear that Adam was planning to have her 'brother's' soul wrenched from the wheel of life and chained to an undead body. She refused to give permission, but vowed to search the net until she could track down someone who would do a true resurrection, rather than a mere binding to undeath. Such people tended to be bitter, burned out recluses, for obvious reasons.
Eventually, they reached a compromise -- Adam would have himself bound as Jackie's familiar. That would keep his soul handy for when or if they found someone to bring him back to life.
"Um, wait, doesn't he already *have* a familiar?"
"Meepas is a squirrel. He can't even *talk*, let alone do alchemy."
The ceremony was performed, and Jackie immediately took over Adam's body reflexively -- in a contest of wills, Adam was weak indeed. Jackie told how he'd been given a rather crappy robot body by his old friend and old enemy, Stanislaw Lemper, who was (a) working for whoever'd been down in the mine, since the robot was styled to look like an actual martian, (b) working for the Murrikai aka Miracle Foundation, and (c) keeping Jackie a secert so that he could steal his work, instead of turning him over to be rewarded or punished or whatever the Murrikai wanted with him.
The Miracle Foundation mage who'd done the binding recommended Adam and Jackie take it outside, at that point, having heard enough. A few minutes (hours) later, the party was assaulted by incompetent ninjas.
The ninjas appeared out of nowhere, backed up by some tiny hovering human-style robots with clamps, and started out by throwing electric ninja stars at their enemies, which carried a powerful stun charge. They quickly stunned Hesperius and Adam, and unplugged Kirin, after which all three were clamped by one or more robots. Meepas managed to dodge all the stars, and his PPF deflected the swords, and he went to work destroying robots and annoying ninjas with his claws.
After a few rounds, though (during which Jackie and Adam, both paralyzed, nevertheless managed to make several purely mental attacks, which turned one ninja intangible sort of by accident), the robots opened portals, and Adam and Jackie vanished! Karada, who'd been summoned at the outset, appeared with EMP in time to save Kirin, and the ninja ran off and turned invisible again, considering the main part of their job done.
What they didn't know was that the robots were essentially defective -- made with Stanislaw's Wild Magitech (which Jackie had recognized immediately) they merely deluded their users into thinking that they worked. So Adam and Hesperius were still around, unmoved.
Jackie was annoyed with Hesperius, now even more than previously, and went back to the robot body in the lab and built a giant alchemical bomb, using the most expensive and dangerous ingredients. He ended up with invisible flames that consumed everything and continued to spread after the initial burst. After having Stanislaw join him in the lab to show him his success, Jackie set off the bombs, killing them both (how thoroughly, Jackie didn't last long enough to see). Except that Jackie was already dead, so it didn't matter as much to him.
last week next week
I wasn't of a mind to bend the rules to let Jackie survive the monster that HE CREATED and that Adam provoked into attacking for basically no reason, especially since death isn't really the end of the character in the society in question. At least not if you have interesting friends or enemies.
Lazar said he wanted to let Jackie sort of semi-retire and start a new character, though... based on the premise (hinted at in the disclaimers the mage made Adam sign) that spending too much time seeing through the eyes of another living creature (that you're linked to) tends to lead to blending your spirits and personalities. I like a squirrels, so I'll probably let him.
