2017-02-19: Investigating Lahan
- Log: Investigating Lahan
- Cast:Kent Hauch Kahm Yugh Kahran Ramses
- Where: Ruins of Lahan
- Date: February 19, 2017
- Summary: After establishing what they thought was a secure perimeter, Commander Kahran Ramses leads a small expedition for an initial probe into Lahan. They are immediately beset by unexpected visitors.
<Digger Challenge: Military Checkpoint> The damage that has been done to the town of Lahan has attracted a number of unscrupulous types, and as a result Adelhyde has set up a military checkpoint to try and keep looters from wandering up and tearing apart what's left of the village. The checkpoint is currently manned and the sergeant in charge looks less than amused with any disturbances. The party will need to find a way past, either via convincing the sergeant or finding a way around the rocky hills nearby.
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.
The deeper expedition begins! Kent Hauch and Kahm E. Yugh are the most qualified hands available to Solaris at the Lahan theater, and as such the duty of scouting the more dangerous portion of the ruins fell to them.
Kahran Ramses likely realizes about five seconds after they're out the door of the dropship that, if not supervised, they are GOING to kill each other.
Kent steamed on ahead, eager to get a few moments to light something on fire before Kahm could come around and make it hard for him to light something on fire. He got all of fifty feet away from the dropship - Adelhyde troops have wandered in, and Kahm and Kahran walk up to find that Kent and all three of his lieutenants have weapons drawn and he and the troops are immediately in a standoff.
Kent is waving Red River and shouting something like, "GERROUT OF MY FOOKIN' WAY OR I'LL MAKE A WAY OUTTA YER ASHES!" and the head of the troops is shouting something like "HOLY MOTHER EVERYONE PUT YOUR GUNS AWAY THIS IS WAY MORE ESCALATION THAN ANY OF US WERE EXPECTING"
DG: Kent Hauch has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Military Checkpoint.
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
Myyah would probably like to watch Kent and Kahm kill each other. Which means that Kahran should probably prevent them from doing that when she isn't around to see it.
Well, and he also has to be a good Gebler Commander. That's important, too.
Kahran walks out of the ramp, and is immediately annoyed. He sees shouting and weapons drawn, but he's come to expect that by now. No, the annoyance is that some other country is moving in on Solaris turf. Or at least, Kahr is considering it Solaris turf since they parked nearby. They could have at least waited for Solaris to leave. The nerve.
Kahran walks up to this situation as if he isn't bothered at all by the fact that there are ARMs drawn and people shouting. This is probably just a fact of life for him at this point. He looks over the Adelhyde's leader, coolly sizing him up as his eyes scan from head to toe, and gives him a friendly smile.
"Gentlemen, this is surely a misunderstanding. We're on a rescue and recovery mission. We simply want to look for a few of our own who may have been forced down here. Surely that isn't too much to ask, is it?"
Because if it is, well, he could just leave them with the lava guy and let the natural thing happen.
DG: Kahran Ramses has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Military Checkpoint.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm had recalled the troops maintaining the perimeter for what felt like five minutes, and in that time Adelhyde managed to roll up their own forces and cause a headache. The Captain might find their swift action worthy of complement were Kent not there to make the situation infuriating.
Kahm stomped out towards the brewing hostilities aside Ramses with a look of carefully laid, placid displeasure on his face that only hinted at his urge to launch in his gear and send these lambs running to the nearest underside of a rock they could find.
"Put away your weapons." He spoke the command with an icy fury, fists clenched and eyes glaring like a white fire in Kent's direction, "This is not how we operate." Unless they suddenly do, and if so it was because someone in proper chain of command made the decided so, not a bunch of...contractors.
The Commander takes to lead and tries to talk whatever sense has from surface dwellers, and as he does Kahm notes that one of the soldiers standing information seems to have taken a modest injury to his leg-whether from a scuffled with Kent's group or some other incident on the way here, he cannot say.
Wordlessly, he raises one of his field rations slowly the air, so that all can see what it is, and tosses it to the officer who seems to be in charge as a punctuation to the Commander's point. "For your injured man," He explains.
DG: You must use a Tool that matches the Challenge's Dungeon Ability. If you do not have one, use the matching Basic Action instead by typing +act Agility
<Digger Challenge> Turning a corner, the party comes across an awesome sight - a ruined Gear, lying amidst the wreckage of a nearby building and covered with debris. The Gear is damaged beyond all repair, with one arm ending in a jagged stump, a hole punched through its torso showing only wreckage and dried fuel where its Slave Engine used to be, and the head nowhere to be found. If the cockpit can be cleared, there are likely maps or the burned in images on screens from the Gear's last moments that can help point the way to more
valuable treasures within the town.
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
Kahran tries to be calming, yet authoritative. Yet somehow this doesn't work out. The Adelhyde soldiers get increasingly nervous. There's a guy threatening them with some kind of ARM. Someone else is throwing something at them. One of the Adelhyde's soldiers gets nervous and starts opening fire.
Kahran is quick to start cutting them down, but they shot first and fighting these people doesn't actually do Team Solaris much good. They retreat, and Kahran pursues, attempting to at least drive them out of the area so that he can complete the investigation, but after a short pursuit he starts to worry about being led into an ambush or a trap, and so calls it off. "Let them run. I think they learned their lesson."
He peers at the corner they just vanished around, some kind of ruined house on a hill, and as he nears it he slowly peeks around the edge.
He raises a hand, checks quickly for any -Lambs- who aren't on Solaris's payroll, and then gestures for the others to follow.
The gear itself is kindof a wreck. It's hard to tell whether it was a Solaris gear or a Kislev gear from how wrecked it currently is. He starts to climb the gear, trying to get to the cockpit, popping open a potion and drinking its contents just to give himself a short boost.
DG: Kahran Ramses has used his Tool Igissol toward his party's challenge, Wrecked Gear.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
You just can't reason with these people.
Kahm had his weapon in his hand a split-second before the first soldier on the other side started firing, summarily backing up the Commander with precise, relentless cover fire. By the time he's emptied his clip at least a few men lay dead on the ground, and Ramses is pursuing the rest. Having the same thought as the Commander, he's about to voice warning when Ramses breaks off his pursuit.
"You provided every reasonable deterrent to force sir; i'll ensure to put that on the record after the fact." Reloading his pistol and holstering it, Kahm leaned down to pick up the field ration he'd tossed, dusting it off and placing it back into his pack.
No point in wasting perfectly good resources.
Once they find the gear the Captain will set about to trying to pry open one of the leg panels. Although he couldn't quite tell the make, if his hunch was right there ought to be an internal dataport he could hook into and extra some combat information from, assuming it still functioned...
DG: Kahm Yugh has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Wrecked Gear.
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.
Kent's fine with this outcome.
The Black Ties are at least good in a fight. Fargo Foobach in his white suit sprints forward and tackles the commanding officer the moment guns start firing, who screams. Samuelh the Molotov, as might be expected, swings his arm once and hurls three flaming bottles in an arc. Ribaldy had vanished - the German Shepherd beastman explodes from an alley with both flamethrowers blazing, flanking them and scaring the holy hell out of them.
Kent laughs uproariously and fires Red River into the air, sprinkling the entire affair with little droplets of Liquid Hot Mag-Ma (lava, yeah, i know, magma's only if its underground)
After the festivities are over, Kent clips Red River away again and directs the Ties to make sure they don't slink back in. "Hahaha! C'mon, every boring scout job oughta start with a good fight!" He slaps Kahm on the shoulder. "Gets the blood right heated up, innit?"
Then they get to the Gear, and Kent stops short. It's the first time the people here have seen him legitimately impressed.
"Cor," he mutters. He doesn't really know where to begin. Gears aren't something you really... encounter in the Badlands all that much. Kent doesn't know where to begin, so he absently steps up behind Kahran, crouching, and knitting his hands together. He boosts the commander up, though it's kind of more like 'hurling vertically'.
DG: Kent Hauch has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Wrecked Gear. DG: The party led by Kent Hauch has passed this challenge! The party gained 16 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Digger Challenge: Kobold Scavengers> The damaged buildings have been quiet for a time, but a faint squeak reveals that the party is no longer alone. Kobolds are a small type of demi-human who generally avoid conflict when caught in the open, but this group seems to have discovered something in the ruins that they feel is worth fighting over. The kobolds tend to be cowardly, and attack with thrown stones and other crude projectiles unless they sense they have the upper hand, in which case they tend to charge in a rush. If the party doesn't scatter the vermin, they will likely harry the group for a time, trying to steal anything they can get their hands on.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm was just about to get the panel off (or thought he was) when a well-timed backslap from Kent causes the Captain to lose his grip. "Because they were fools, they died needlessly." He glowered at the larger man, "A common story in this land."
He went back to fiddling in with the panel, but the combined efforts of the Commander and Kent bear fruit before Kahm could make further progress. Shockingly, Ramses will find that the cockpit of the wrecked gear still functions on that flickering reserves of auxillary power remained without the slave generator. Although it doesn't last long, the group is able to note that the radar picks up an interesting signal not far from their location; something worth investigating.
As they hone in on the location, Kahm insists on taking the lead. He'll hold a hand out the halt further progress when he hears the sound of squeaking, leaning around the corner and ducking back quickly. "Kobolds, sir." He addresses the Commander, "Quiet a few, and-" A rock whizzes by his head, "More determined than usual. I think they found whatever it is the gear's rader picked up."
Kahm quickly grabbed a sonic grenade from his weapon belt and armed it, primed to throw, "This should scare off a number of them, and we can clean up whatever's left." He waits for a break in the flying debris, then hurls the device around the corner, "Clear!"
DG: Kahm Yugh has used his Tool Sonic Grenade toward his party's challenge, Kobold Scavengers.
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.
"Aw, don't be like that!" Kent grins. "Now their bosses know not to slag around with us! That's a needful death, that is. A good bit of job, leavin' some of 'em to tell stories." He tilts his neck left and right as the smartboys figure out the robot, stepping back and just kinda lookin' at it. He experimentally kicks at the armor. "Oi, how much scratch for one of these? Do they come in shooting fire or summat?"
The smartboys figure it out and go off through the homes. Kent's face lights up when he hears the squeaking. He takes a step, hangs for a beat when Kahm pulls out a grenade, and charges forward right after it blows. A rock caroms off his head, knocking his hat off. Kent digs into the satchel on his back, coming up with two old beer bottles, still labelled, rags stuffed into them.
He vanishes around the corner, screaming, "WHAT COLOR'S YOUR SMOKE YOU DIRTY BASTARDS?!" There is the sound of glass breaking and a pillar of flame briefly jumps up into the sky.
DG: Kent Hauch has used his Tool Molotov Cocktail toward his party's challenge, Kobold Scavengers.
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
The boost does help Kahr get into the cockpit, and it's not as if Kahran can't handle being thrown into the air.
Kahran actually doesn't keep track of how much a gear -costs- because his views of what a gear costs is skewed heavily by the fact that he and his close subordinates tend to get the best stuff that Aveh can unearth. So instead he gives a wishy-washy answer in a way that doesn't really answer it but still somewhat sounds like he actually has an idea of what he's talking about. "A lot. In fact if you want a military-grade gear you're probably better of stealing one from the enemy. If you want it to shoot fire you'll likely have to get it refitted."
He looks in the cockpit, finds the radar still working and announces it to the rest of the group. "It's tracking something. Let's go."
Later on, there are kobolds, and they seem to want a fight. If they were a bit smarter they might not want this particular fight with these particular three gentlemen, but sometimes you have to just let natural selection do its thing.
Kahr doesn't even have to give the order. Kahm and Kent know what to do with unruly Kobolds. After the grenade and molotov cocktail are thrown in, he follows in after to cut down whatever Kobolds are foolhardy enough to charge the line, and then any other kobolds that are still crazy enough to hang around after all of that.
DG: Kahran Ramses has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Kobold Scavengers.
DG: The party led by Kent Hauch has passed this challenge! The party gained 27 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Digger Challenge: Ruined Buildings> It is difficult to tell how many buildings used to stand in this stretch of town, because they have all been blasted into pieces. Now only battered skeletons remain to testify to the presence of people's homes and lives in this area, some parts burned and others raked with gunfire and marred by explosions. However there are bits of treasure to be round - valued possessions hidden under rubble, or weapons and other military equipment abandoned or buried among the detritus - for those who are agile enough to reach them without causing the wrecked buildings to collapse.
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.
Yeah those Kobolds made a mistake. While they were staggering, Kent came screaming around the corner, hurling explosives into the thickest knot of them. Kahran, being a hardened milfic hardboy dispassionately dispatches the lingering flaming kobolds until they all stagger.
"Stealing? Mate, you've just said my magic word." Later, his as-yet-unapped logistics person will take note that Kahran may have just accidentally given Kent clearance to keep any Gears he manages to seize. It takes a hot second for Kent to pull his attention away from the pile of flaming kobold corpses he's made. He crouches down, watching the blaze gutter out. The tension goes out of his shoulders.
He has the sort of expression you usually see on parents watching their children play. It's incongruous.
Finally, he starts, looking into the building the kobolds were clustered around. "Bloody hell, it's a wreck, there's a hole clean through." Kent goes marching in, and alarmingly, declips Red River and points it directly at the house's main support beam.
He clicks his thumb on the side of the gun and the barrel folds out into a nozzle, the molten rock streaming out glowing only dully. It begins hardening immediately upon contacting the support beam, shoring up where it's beginning to sag. "You're both well fit," he comments. "Go see what's up there, yeah?"
DG: Kent Hauch has used his Tool Red River toward his party's challenge, Ruined Buildings.
<Pose Tracker> Kahran Ramses has posed.
Stealing is Kent's favorite word? Kahran never would have guessed.
Kahr took a few hits from that nonsense with the Kobolds and pulls out another potion, downing it before realizing what it is. Oh, it was a Speed Star? Whatever. It just so happens to be exactly what he needs.
He presumes that whatever they're looking for, it's in this set of buildings that the kobolds were being defensive about. It's looking a bit rickety, Kahran thinks, and then... Kent starts to set it on lava?!
Oh. Oh! Well, that's a lot more sane than it looked at first.
"Right. This way," he says in a matter of fact tone, hopping up to the now more stable support beam and starting to take a look around. Hopefully they can find that treasure before something collapses on them and buries it.
DG: Kahran Ramses has used his Tool Speed Star toward his party's challenge, Ruined Buildings.