Thursday 18 January 2018

GURPS Waterworld Session 7: The Satellite Array

Ai - Experienced Tech
Axe - Mutant Hulk
Cap'n Chang - Lucky Nomad
"Lieutenant" Vaolt - Mutant Trooper

Day ??? (Cont.):
Now that they had re-equipped, the party took a look around and noticed that the room they were in had several tables and shelves lining the walls, all practically overflowing with strange and incomprehensible devices.  There was a man in a white lab coat working on something in the corner, a cybernetic panda in the corner opposite, two normal doors, and one steel blast door.  Beside one of the normal doors was a coat rack, which held a robe and wizard hat.

Chang asked the "scientist" what was going on and, as he turned around, the party realized that this was the Wizard.  He explained over the next twenty-or-so minutes exactly what he had done, down to the smallest detail, to transport the party here, his speech so thick with technical jargon that only Ai had a remote hope of understanding him.  He gave similar exposition when asked where the experimental gun was, how the chalice had knocked them out, and why he was so interested in Ai's assistance (in order: scrapped for parts, nanobots, she was really smart).

The Wizard was apparently rather socially incapable, as he kept slipping up and mentioning things like how his former "helpers" who had been mind-controlled by nanobots were "no longer viable", and that Ai was the third smartest person he'd met, but "would do, as the other two hadn't worked out"

Conversation continued, albeit slowly, and the Wizard casually revealed that he was 146 years old, sustained and kept young by nanobots, and that he was the world's foremost nanobot specialist.  The party had been asleep for 46 days (!) and were 6 days' travel away from the shore.  He knew of the Takahashi Machine, but did not care to help repair or rebuild it, as it was pointless compared to the greater goals of SCIENCE! (whatever those might be).

Axe went off to sleep while the Wizard's speeches dragged the dialogue on for another hour, after which he requested their assistance in removing some bandits that had raided a satellite installation of his nearby.  The party agreed to help, in exchange for one ultra-tech invention each, and Chang was given a long-range wrist communicator to keep in touch.

When asked how it worked, Chang got another half-hour explanation about how the "Pandaborg" was actually able to communicate "psychically" through the satellite system.  In fact, it had been able to keep other bandits away from their ship and it's crew ("Wait, who's our crew?" "Oh right, O'Flannigan.  I wonder if he's still alive?").

When asked for equipment the Wizard gave them some spare bullets, but remarked that "all the armour is on the bodies behind the blast door, and you can't go in there".  He then led the party out one of the normal doors and to a hydraulic lift, which took them to a ladder, which came out on top of a secret hatch on top of a boulder.

Chang tried messaging Pandborg via his wrist communicator and the party all got messages in their brain telling them where to go, and how they could mentally communicate to each other with a moment's concentration.  The installation was only 2km away, and they split off halfway there; Axe would stay far away to the bandit's rear and charge once the others started firing, while everybody else would sneak close and take out any leadership with their opening salvo.

Pandaborg was able to scan and told them that there were 7 enemies outside and 5 more inside buildings, so they carefully moved up.  The installation was a small clearing in the jungle, with three buildings: a tin shack, and two single-story, one-door, windowless concrete structures, one of which sported a large dish on top.

The plan went well enough; Vaolt and Chang got into position about 15m out away from the bandits and noticed that they were well-equipped: improvised chain armour, two SMGs, two rifles, a revolver, an electro-katana, and two stun batons.  The bandits were dressed very strangely, with chrome-painted clothes and several sported single-eyed goggles.

When it was Ai's turn to sneak up, however, she tripped over a branch, and the bandits went on high alert, sending the man with the revolver up to investigate, which prompted Vaolt and Chang to open fire on the SMGs; Vaolt's shot went wide, but Chang's slug punched a hole straight through his target.  Hearing the gunfire, Axe started his charge from the forest.

Ai took her shot with Chang's old sawed-off but missed, and fled off into the forest to hide when the bandits returned fire.  Chang took out the swordsman before almost being hit by a rifleman, only for an alpha vampire pelican to fly in the path of the bullet in a stroke of Serendipity, and Vaolt took out the bandit with the revolver.

Doors on all three buildings sprung open, with a man with two revolvers exiting the shack, a man with a portable harpoon gun exiting the non-satellite building, and two men with rifles helping the rifleman now being savaged by the vampire pelican.  Chang couldn't get a clean shot on the harpoon-gunner, and warned Vaolt about him, while Axe charged into the enemies' rear lines and took out the bandit with the stun batons, his stone-like skin deflecting a rifle bullet in the process.

Vaolt fired off the rest of his shots, but missed, and sprinted at the harpoon-gunner with his trident ready, while Chang put a hole through the second SMG-wielder and Axe carved up the pistolero and the other rifleman.  The other three bandits managed to retreat into the satellite building pursued by the vampire pelican, and a shout of "I AM TAZERHEAD" was heard before they slammed the door shut.

The harpoon gunner finished reeling in his harpoon and took another shot, but missed, and surrendered to Vaolt, who forced him in front of the satellite building's door.  Chang went around and took the guns and ammo of the dead, and Axe sucker-punched the hostage hard enough to knock him out.  Ai Gizmo'd some molotovs, while Axe tore the non-satellite building's steel door off its hinges to use as a shield/battering ram.

The party stacked up on Axe, who charged at the satellite building's door, and into the waiting bandits' gunfire.  The door held, but things immediately took a turn for the worse.  Ai missed a molotov toss, only to be outdone when Vaolt bounced his off the wall and into his torso, while Axe was shocked through the metal door, and then pushed back by the bandits.

Chang ended one bandit with another slug, and Ai lit another on fire, while Axe pushed the door down on top of the man who must have been Tazerhead, judging by his electric gloves.  The other bandit was in the back of the room, badly burned by acid and on fire from the missed molotov, burned to death, and the party looted the remains before heading back to the Wizard.

Notes:
The Wizard clearly wants Ai to stay and help him with his SCIENCE! but what that entails isn't clear.

How did the Wizard transport 4 people, one of whom is 9 feet tall, 6 days on foot by himself?  Some sort of mysterious "vehicle", apparently.

Pandaborg is apparently capable of "psychically" affecting people in some way at ranges up to 5000km, though only subtly.  This is worrisome in the hands of somebody else, but if we were to take it...

Lots of bonus guns and ammo this session, which is nice.

6XP
MVP was Chang for getting most kills without missing a shot (4-way tie settled by dice roll)

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