CHAPTER 1 ACT 1 - FOOD FIGHT!
Great tracts of neon and fluorescent lights that leech away color to make everything a uniform, dull gray indicate that you have arrived at the home of synth-alcohol, soykaf, porno-simchipds, Holohayo 3D greeting cards, pneumatic fluid for your bike, cheap fetish trinkets for the magical wannabes, soygrits, and a full line of stuffers with no redeeming nutritional or social value. Yep, the good ol' Stuffer Shack, home to a smell you can't recognize (and probably don't want to) and thousands of nuyen worth of stomach-rotting chow. As an added benefit, it's open 24-7-365. The store clerk is flipping through a holo-zine as his girlfriend sits on a stool next to the counter babbling incessantly about her completely uneventful day. A young couple in full punk regalia is shopping sullenly for cat food. A thin nervous man searches the ice-cream cases frantically as though his life hung in the balance. In other words, everything is normal a Stuffer Shack, even at 4 am.
Astrid and Mona are at Area E using the soy-kaf machine. Roscoe and Jonathan are at Area F, leaning against the table, having finished their drinks and food. Jewel is at Area K looking at frozen pizza, near Aisle 18. Fire-Leaf and Seterin are at Aisle 13 pretending to look at herbal teas while whispering to each other.
A mildly attractive elf woman enters the store with a wailing child in tow. Everyone i the Stuffer Shack wrinkles their noses at the offending noise, which is spoiling the mood. Suddenly a violent explosion erupts from the parking lot spraying glass and Stuffers across the room. The wall caves in and dangling fluorescent lamps spray sparks as they sway precariously. After a moment of shocked silence, two large figures step through the gaping blast hole that used to the front of the Stuffer Shack, guns drawn, faces tense. The uglier of the two shouts, "None of ya's is gonna get hurt if ya keep yer yaps shut and stay outta the way. Now tell me where the lady with tha baby is and you all is gonna live to see sunrise". The clerk has been knocked senseless into the cigarette display and the counter is blasted apart. His dwarf girlfriend is lying on the ground, whimpering. The thin man is trying to crawl inside the freezer shelves.
Combat Round 1 begins.
Initiative: Mona 12 Roscoe 17 Seterin 8 Fire-Leaf 9 Jewel 8 Jonathan 9 Astrid 8 Stooby 11 Crank 6 Joeby 12(delayed) Fornis 6
Order of Action: Roscoe -
Mona / Joeby - Stooby -
Fire-Leaf / Jonathan - Jewel / Seterin / Astrid - Crank / Fornis
Roscoe is not going to take any orders from some nutcase Human gangbanger. His boosted reflexes ensure that he acts first. He
quickdraws his Colt Manhunter from under his coat and points it at Stooby, the uglier of the two gangbangers. His
Quickdraw Holster reduces the target number from 3 to 2. Roscoe rolls
Reaction (6) +
Pistols (3), getting the required 2 hits: 4, 4, 1, 4, 4, 6, 5, 4, 3. Roscoe is roughly 20 meters from Stooby making it a
Medium range (-1) shot. With no other situational modifiers, Roscoe rolls 9 dice (Pistols 3 + Agility 6 + Laser sight 1 - Medium Range 1), getting 4 hits: 2, 6, 3, 5, 6, 2, 2, 5, 3. Stooby defends with his Reaction only, meaning rolling four dice and getting 3 hits (lucky him!): 6, 5, 2, 5. Roscoe hits Stooby with 1 net hit, which increases the DV of the
Colt Manhunter from 5P to
6P. Stooby's
Armor Jacket has Ballistic Value 8, reduced to 7 by the
Armour Piercing value 1 of the Colt Manhunter. Since the modified DV (6) does not exceed the modified AV (7), the damage is converted from
Physical to
Stun. Stooby tries to resist the damage, with Body (4) + Modified AV (7) roll of 11, getting 1 hit: 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 5, 2, 4, 4, 4, 2. Very poor luck. This reduces the modified DV of the hit by 1, from
6S to
5S. Stooby takes five points of stun damage, giving him a -1 modifier to every action.
Since Quick-Draw is a
Simple Action, Roscoe can does shoot at Stooby again. He gets 3 hits. Stooby defends with only 1 dice due to his damage modifier, and this being the
second attack in this
initiative pass against him. He gets 1 hit. Roscoe hits and the modified DV is 5P+2=
7P. Still does not exceed the MAR of 7 and thus Roscoe deals Stun damage again. Stoody attempts to resist, getting 4 hits and reducing the MDV from 7 to 3. He takes three more points of damage, giving him a second damage modifier of -2 that overwrites his first one. Roscoe's turn ends.
Mona dives behind the remains of the counter that was right behind her
(Free Action). She pulls out the knife-holster-bandolier from her ButtPack and ties it around her left arm
(Complex Action).
Joeby is still outside the Stuffer Shack.
Stooby suffers pushback of 3 in his initiative score, moving him from 11 to 8.
Fire-Leaf decides that enough is enough and flies one meter up to see over the aisles
(Free Action), spotting Crank but not Stooby. She casts
Orgasm to distract the ganger, using default
Force 6. As Orgasm is an
Illusion spell, her
Mentor Spirit automatically assist in the casting, adding 2 dice. Fire-Leaf rolls
(Magic 6 + Spellcasting 3 + Mentor Spirit 2) 11 dice, getting only 2 hits. Crank rolls his
Willpower in an attempt to resist the spell, getting zero hits. This means that Crank gets a -2 modifier to his every action but since the hits do not exceed his
Willpower, he is not completely incapacitated. Fire-Leaf rolls 14 dice to resist the Drain value of (Force 6 / 2 - 2 + 2) 3, getting 3 hits, which is enough to completely negate the drain of the spell - she suffers no ill-effect. As Crank's face is twisted in pleasure, Fire-Leaf yells: "one baddie down!"
Jonathan drops to a knee
(Free Action) behind the table, giving him
Partial Cover. All of his gear is hidden inside the duffel bag. Not knowing whether the other customers will be of any assistance or how many more gangers are still outside, he decides to prepare for the worst. Using a
Complex Action, he dons his helmet, puts his extendable baton on his belt and readies the riot shield on his left and his shotgun on his right hand.
Jewel is a lover, not a fighter. She drops prone at Aisle 18
(Free Action), then activates her Commlink in AR mode
(Complex Mode).
Seterin pulls out her taser and readies it
(Simple Action). She then walks to the edge of aisle
(Free Action). This allows her to see both gangbangers, not just the one Fire-Leaf had warned her about. Knowing that she is a poor shot and taser is a close-range weapon, she
takes aim at Stooby.
(Simple Action).
Stooby is having a bad day. His Armour Jacket has barely stopped the two bullets shot at him and if he survives this, he's going to have some magnificent bruises. Might have a broken rib as well. There are multiple targets available but he focuses on the orc with the pistol who had shot him. Knowing that he has nearly been knocked out, Stooby
takes aim at Roscoe
(Simple Action) and only then shoots at him
(Simple Action). After all modifiers, he rolls six dice, getting no hits. The shot goes wide, hitting a shelf and making orange, fizzy, liquid spray all over Seterin, giving her a -1 modifier to all actions.
Astrid is not fucking around. She has already killed two Vory hitmen mere hours ago and she didn't even get the damn soy-kaf before this happened. It's tempting to throw a
Fireball at the two gangers, but there might be innocent people in the nearby aisles, so she flings a
Lightning Bolt at the ganger waving a pistol, making him look like the leader. She casts it at the default
Force 6, rolling 10 dice and getting 3 hits. Stooby has little chance to resist, as he suffers -2 to all actions and his
Willpower is only 3. He gets no hits. The damage value of the spell is thus increased to (Force 6 + Net Hits 3) nine. Two points are enough to fill out his stun damage monitor, knocking him out and causing him to fall down. The remaining seven points overflow into the physical side, seriously incapacitating him. Astrid then resist the drain value 9 of the spell (Force 6 / 2 + 3 + 3) with ten dice, getting only 2 hits. She takes seven points of stun damage due to drain, causing her to nearly fall to her knees in agony. She now has a -2 modifier to all actions. If only she had known that Roscoe had almost incapacitated the ganger already, she could have scaled the spell down in force.
Crank is having a strange day. As his erect dick spews semen inside his faux-leather pants, he considers which target to hit. The troll is scary but is only gearing up. The orc has shot at his buddy twice. The human is probably the reason for the lightning bolt but she seems to be in distress. He's not sure if the pixie hovering over the aisles is an actual metahuman, or a toy-bot, or a drone - so he ignores it for now. Instead he takes aim
(Simple Action) at Roscoe and shoots a
Short-Wide Burst using 3 bullets and decreasing Roscoe's defense pool by -2. He rolls 5 dice by default but
Orgasm drops that to 3 dice and the range of 20 meters drops it to 2 dice. Recoil from burst fire drops it to 1 dice only as the AK-97 carbine he is using has 1 point of recoil compensation. To make matters worse, he rolls a critical glitch. Instead of putting holes into Roscoe, Crank manages to eject the magazine of his carbine and in his clumsy attempt to catch it, he drops the whole gun to the floor, leaving him empty handed.
Fornis had been slow in following the other two inside. However, he clearly saw what happened to Stooby and Crank. He walks up to Stooby
(Free Action) and casts a Manabolt 4 at Roscoe
(Complex Action). Rolling seven dice, he gets 4 hits. Roscoe resists and gets 1 hit. Manabolt damage is upgraded from 4 to 6 but as a mana spell, it causes Stun damage. Roscoe now has -2 modifier to all actions as he shudders in pain.
Combat Round 1 ends.
Combat Round 2 begins.
Initiative: Mona 13 Roscoe 13 Seterin 7 Fire-Leaf 11 Jewel 7 Jonathan 11 Astrid 5 Crank 4 Fornis 7
Order of Action: Mona / Roscoe - Fire-Leaf / Jonathan - Jewel / Seterin / Fornis -
Astrid - Crank
Mona stands up from behind the remains of the counter
(Simple Action), runs to the other edge of the counter near to the gangers
(Free Action) and throws a knife at Fornis
(Simple Action). As she is only four meters away, the range is short for throwing knives. She gets a -2 modifier from running, allowing her to roll 5 dice, and she gets zero hit. Embarrassingly, the knife sails past the head of the wiz-ganger who hardly even notices it.
Roscoe thinks the elf woman must be nuts, running in heels like that but he remembers the stories told at the gym by the old guys: always geek the mage first. He takes aim at Fornis, wanting to make the shot count and fires. Rolling six dice (9 positive, 3 negative) he gets only a single hit.
Fornis defends with Reactions, getting 2 hits, negating the shot. The wiz-ganger leans back slightly and the bullet flies past his head, hitting one of the wrecked cars outside.
Fire-Leaf can see the trail of the Manabolt and how it affected the aura of the orc. Unfortunately her
Heal spell only cures physical injuries so she cannot help the stun damage that the orc suffered. She doubts whether her
Ignite can affect the whiz-ganger quickly enough, so she decides instead to shield the others fighting the attackers, deciding to
Counterspell. As she needs line of sight to everyone that she wishes to protect, she levitates one meter higher, reaching the ceiling and thus having good visibility around the Stuffer Shack.
Sustaining the
Orgasm spell on Crank is simple since she isn't casting anything else.
Jonathan walks fifteen meters ahead, putting him at the same level as Aisle 5 - just few meters from both Fornik and Crank. As a troll, he can shoot shotguns with one hand
(-1 modifier) so he keeps the riot shield pointed at Crank while he takes aim and then fires at Fornis. He gets 3 hits with his eight dices. As this is the second attack Fornis is defending against, he rolls only a single dice, getting no hits. The shotgun damage goes to 10P. Fornis isn't wearing any armour so he rolls 3 dice for resisting damage, getting one hit. The blast nearly kills him, the shotgun slug ripping his side open and causing him to fall on his knees
(-3 modifier to all actions).
Jewel attempts to hack the Stuffer Shack local node to access the cameras. She has no
access ID, nor does she have time to
spoof the clerk's ID. She rolls out an old
exploit that should still work since it's unlikely Stuffer Shack has spent money upgrading their systems
(Complex Action). She rolls eight dice (Hacking 4 + Exploit 4) and gets 3 hits. The exploit works and Jewel gains access to a
Security Account, allowing her to view the cameras. To her dismay, they have been turned off.
Seterin lost her aim on Stooby when the ganger fell down, so she instead takes aim at Fornis and then fires her Defiance Protector. She rolls 3 dice getting 1 hit. This is the third attack that Fornis is defending against, and his reactions are out. The taser inflicts 7 stun damage though Fornis manages to resist with one hit, reducing the damage to six. This gives an additional -2 modifier to Fornis which stacks with the earlier -3. The wiz-ganger writhes in extra pain and tries to resist the electro-shock, but nets only one hit and fails. He passes out and is incapacitated for 5 Combat Rounds. The lanky man falls face first over the unconscious Stooby.
Fornis cannot act.
Astrid is tempted to hurl another lightning bolt but the strain might knock her out. Instead, she readies her Beretta 101T
(Simple Action) and fires it at Crank. She gets one hit as well as glitches. The shot goes harmless wide, hitting the ceiling instead.
Crank is getting worried but there is a big fucking troll right in front of him, so he
takes aim and
fires. His penis is still spitting in his pants, so he has a
-2 modifier to all actions. The range being short, he rolls four dice and gets 2 hits. Jonathan defends with 4 Reaction dice and also gets 2 hits. Tie always goes to the defender, so the AK bullet merely grazes the top of his riot shield and ricochets away.
Combat Round 2 ends.
Combat Round 3 begins.
Initiative: Mona 11 Roscoe 11 Seterin 10 Fire-Leaf 11 Jewel 8 Jonathan 9 Astrid 5 Crank 4
Order of Action: Mona / Roscoe / Fire-Leaf - Seterin - Jonathan - Jewel - Astrid - Crank
Mona pulls out another throwing knife
(Simple Action) and throws it at Crank. She gets 3 hits. Crank doesn't get any hits for dodging. The DV becomes 7P. Crank's Armour Vest has Impact rating of 4 - as the knife does more than that, the damage remains
Physical. Crank tries to resist the damage with 7 dice, getting only 1 hit - he takes six points of damage. The knife embeds itself in his chest, finding a weak spot in the vest and while it does not kill him outright, the serious wound gives him a
-2 modifier to all actions.
Roscoe takes aim at Crank and then shoots, getting only 2 hits despite of rolling 8 dice. Crank cannot even attempt to dodge as his Reaction is lower than the combined negative modifiers. The hits are enough to push the pistol damage above the Ballistic rating of his vest. Crank tries to shrug it off but gets only 3 hits, still taking 4 physical damage. The -2 damage modifier goes to -3 now, for a combined -5 to all actions. Weaker men would have succumbed to their wounds already.
Fire-Leaf keeps maintaining the
Orgasm spell on Crank and, in case there are more caster hiding outside, remains ready to
Counterspell.
Seterin wipes the sugary liquid from her face and walks closer to Crank, pointing her taser at the ganger and ordering him to "DROP YOUR WEAPON!"
Jonathan isn't in the mood to take any risks. With the wiz-ganger out of the picture, nothing stops him from walking right up to Crank, sticking his shotgun against his head and pulling the trigger. Crank has no change to dodge nor to resist - his head explodes as the 12 gauge slug enters through his nose and exits through the back.
Jewel turns the cameras back on. Seeing no attackers left standing, she quickly scans the outside camera, which shows a fourth gangbanger lying prone at the far edge of the parking lot.
Astrid puts her pistol away and leans against the table, catching her breath. She is exhausted.
Crank is dead.
Combat Round 3 ends.
