Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Crusade: Issue 63 - Crusaders Strike!



Deck A of the Doomsday Robot.

[14] Seeing how ineffectual splitting his attention is, Adamas turned his attention fully to damaging internal systems of the robot.  He unleashed his energy blast to full using auto-blast and delivered six blasts into the systems, spraying across the hardware he could see. He ripped through the systems and outside the robot’s head. His energy ripped through the unarmored sections of the eyes, mouth, top hatch, and the ear sensor panels.

{GM Note: the cover of this issue is a visual depiction of these blasts from the outside}

ZZWWT!! Computer equipment, metal frames, monitors exploded from the energy blast
{GM Note: Adamas needed to roll a 17 to Hit. He rolled a 1 and 3. Crit! His damage roll he gets an addition +3. Adamas roll 7 damage points plus Crit! Bonus of +3 for a total of 10 damage points.}

ZZWWT!! Computer equipment, metal frames, internal wall panels exploded from the energy blast
{GM Note: Adamas needed to roll a 17 to Hit. He rolled an 11. He rolled 10 damage points.}

ZZWWT!! Eye cover cases, Mouth electronic arrays, internal beams panels of exploded from the energy blast
{GM Note: Adamas needed to roll a 17 to Hit. He rolled a 4. He rolled 9 damage points.}

ZZWWT!! Eye cover cases, Mouth electronic arrays, data storage banks exploded from the energy blast
{GM Note: Adamas needed to roll a 17 to Hit. He rolled a 12.He rolled 10 damage points.}

ZZWWT!! Ear sensor arrays, Top of head hatch, head structure frame, structure braces exploded from the energy blast
{GM Note: Adamas needed to roll a 17 to Hit. He rolled a 5. He rolled 6 damage points.}

ZZWWT!! Ear sensor arrays, head structure housing, support structure beams exploded from the energy blast
{GM Note: Adamas needed to roll a 17 to Hit. He rolled a 7. He rolled 7 damage points.}

{GM Note: Adamas total 52 points of damage was greater the ½ of the Hit Points for the Doomsday Robots Head. The A-Deck and the Head is completely disabled}

[ 6] CyberDoom laughed at Adamas. “Do you think my robot is a snake? ‘Kill the head the body will die’ doesn’t work on the Doomsday Robot. Now that you have destroyed all the equipment there is no reason for me to hold back my flames!”

“Burn Adamas! Burn!”

CyberDoom fired two flame blasts, one from each hand.

SHWROOSHH! The flame blast missed.
{GM Note: CyberDoom needed to roll a 15 to Hit. He rolled a 16, miss.}

SHWROOSHH! The second flame blast sent a shock through CyberDoom’s systems. His suits adaption device almost failed but it didn’t.
{GM Note: CyberDoom needed to roll a 15 to Hit. He rolled a 20 and 18, Fumble. He rolled an 8 on the Fumble table. A device is damage. Roll damage against the device’s beak point value if the damage is greater that the break point value the device is broken. CyberDoom’s break point value is 15. He rolled 13 points of damage. The adaptation device is not borken.}

[4] Laserfire flew into the Doomsday Robot’s head through one of its eyes. “Great job, Adamas! I saw flames in here. Someone is messing with my brand. Well look at what we have here a robot within a robot. Is the designer Russian and has a thing for dolls?”

CyberDoom screamed, “No, you fool! I am the creator of the Doomsday Robot and the Cyberions. I am not a man with the dream to become a robot. They are my servants as you will be too in the future!”

Laserfire looked at CyberDoom with a look which clearly said, “oh brother another one.” But all he said out loud was.

“EAT HEAT!”

SHWROOSHH! The flame blast went wide right missing CyberDoom.
{GM Note: Laserfire needed to roll a 12 to Hit. He rolled a 16, miss.}

[4] Manta-Man flew in through the other eye of the Doomsday Robot. “Looks like this is where the action is. Adamas, I hope you don’t mind sharing. We need to stop this thing. You in the power suit!”

CyberDoom turned his head to look at Manta-Man.

“You’re blocking where we have to go. Get outta the way!”

KKZZKTT!

Manta-Man hit CyberDoom with a lightning bolt. The electricity penetrated the force field surrounding CyberDoom. His armor blocked the charge. The Robotic Lord was unharmed.
{GM Note: Manta-Man needed to roll a 14 to Hit. He rolled a 12, hit. Manta-Man rolled 11 points of damage.}

CyberDoom replied, “No.”



Outside of the Doomsday Robot
[13] Skink saw that Demolisher was trapped under the giant left hand of the Doomsday Robot. He ran across the street leaping and bounding along the way. He ran by the hand slashing it with his claws. He hoped to free his teammate.


SLASSH! The metal armor shredded leaving an open area in the top of right side of the palm area of the left hand. The hand was still functioning and Demolisher was still trapped underneath.
{GM Note: Skink needed to roll a 18 to Hit. He rolled a 4, hit. Skink rolled 21 points of damage.}

[13] Demolisher pushed with all his might to lift the hand off him in an effort to free himself. He failed.

GRUNT!
{GM Note: Demolisher needed to roll higher on this basic HtH then the Doomsday Robot to break free. Demolisher rolled a 15 and the DoomsDay Robot rolled a 23. Demolisher is still in a grapple hold.}

[ 9] Manta-Man watched the robot’s right hand. He was prepared to counter blast any energy attack it might make.
{GM Note: Manta-Man held his action}

[8] The DoomsdayRobot attempted to lock the Demolisher in its fist. It was prevented from squeezing its fingers around Demolisher.

 {GM Note: Doomsday Robot needed to roll higher than a 12 to hit. It rolled 16, miss. Demolisher is still in a grapple hold}

Patty looked at Demolisher with concern but attempted to lighten the situation. "This big bozo's a bit heavy-handed, huh?"

"Speaking of hands, do you want one?"

The Doomsday Robot raised its right hand. It made a fist slamming it down on top of where Patty Plus stood. Patty didn’t attempt to dodge out of the way instead she prepared to reflect the damage back on her attacker.

{GM Note: for Mighty Protectors I have 2 house rules. First, a player can push his initiative roll. The player would spend 2 power points to get +2 to his player character’s initiative result. Second, if a player character has a power that requires a save action, like Patty Plus’ Reflection power, to be used but the players phase hasn’t arrived yet, the player can spend 2 power points to take their action to use their power now.

That is what I did for Shane and Patty Plus. I don’t like a player having to save an action from the prior turn in case on the following turn they might need the save action before their phase arrives. This is my solution. Patty Plus spend 2 power points to use her Reflection power against the Doomsday Robot’s attack since the phase for her action is on 2 and it is now Phase 8}

KA-BOOM!

Patty Plus met the fist head on. She rolled with the damage as her reflection power sent waves of force ripping through the right hand of the robotic giant. One of its fingers ripped away and flew down the street. The hand was badly damaged but it was still functioning.

 {GM Note: Doomsday Robot didn’t need to roll to hit since Patty Plus wanted to be hit for her Reflection power to work. The robot rolled 14 points of damage. The Reflection power blocks ¾ of the damage, letting ¼ through, 11 points of damage was blocked. Patty rolled with 3 points of damage, -3 PP}

 {GM Note: Patty needed to roll less than10 to hit. She rolled 1 and 13, normal hit. The robot rolled 14 points of damage. This is under Patty’s Reflection limit of 20 points of kinetic damage so all 14 points are reflected to the robotic hand}

Deck E of the Doomsday Robot
Activating his comm link, The Cyborg Crusader relayed to the team. "Good job so far team, Our attacks on the robot's leg has gotten their attention. They are directing their weapon systems to protect the leg from further damage. If they sustain too much more damage, they are moving to an airborne attack strategy. We have the advantage, so keep pressing them."



StrikeForce assumed a defensive posture. He knew the Cyberion Robot wasn’t going down easy. The Bionic Brawler knew he needed to make sure he didn’t either.

 Dr Wildman looked to the heavens with an ironic grin on his face, shaking his head. He’d come to the conclusion this just wasn’t going to be his day. Here he was in the belly of a colossal mechanical beast fighting alongside his cyborg companion against men who were androids, being led by a bigger robot!

He could see Brother Moon in his imagination shaking his head going - ‘see, this is what comes about when you forget your roots!’

He probably had a point - but as Dr Ian Malcolm said in Jurassic Park - ‘life finds a way!’

William recalled the conversation going on in the room as he and StrikeForce entered:  “Hawkins initiate stabilization protocols. That dang construction worker with the hammer is able to disable one of the legs. Dang, hurry we need the flight engines to ensure the Robot isn’t immobilized. It can’t be knocked over but we can be stuck!”

“So this must be the stabilization controls - let’s see if we can destabilize the situation a bit more”

Whilst StrikeForce was battling the big green Robot Dr Wildman attempted to understand the controls in an attempt to disrupt them.
 {GM Note: Dr. Wildman needed to roll less than a 6 on his IQ save to understand the control to be able to override them.  He rolled 13, fail. Dr. Wildman couldn’t figure out how to disrupt the stabilization controls}

When he drew a blank he went pick up one of the incapacitated androids in an attempt swing it like a hammer to smash the controls!          

GRUNT!
{GM Note: Dr Wildman needed to roll higher on his basic HtH then the Android’s mass roll lift him. Dr. Wildman rolled a 6 and the Android rolled a 3. Dr. Wildman can lift and use him as brawling weapon.}

KA-BAM! The robot crewman smashed into the console. Sparks flew and Dr. Wildman felt the deck shift but the stabilizers still functioned. The Doomsday Robot was still standing upright.
 {GM Note: Dr. Wildman needed to roll less than 19 to hit. He rolled 10, hit. He rolled 9 (d6+d4) points of damage. The consoles structure rating is 4. He damaged the console.}

[5] The Black Orchid steps aside, away from the console but then said quietly "StrikeForce, The Black Orchid here, I'm heading to the weapons console right now. It’s on B-Deck. I should have it disabled or controlled shortly."

StrikeForce moved to allow Black Orchid to pass, but wasn’t obvious about it in order to not give her position away.

She continued toward the hatch. The Cyberion looked her way but made no move to attack or stop her.
 {GM Note: The Cyberion needed to roll higher less than a 4 on his perception (INT) save to realize that Black Orchid was there even though she was invisible. He rolled 13, fail.}

[5] The Cyberion raised both of his palms, pointing it at StrikeForce. The Cyberion Guardian hit StrikeForce with twin power blasts.

BRRZZT!
StrikeForce rolled with the blast. He was still standing and could still fight.
{GM Note: Cyberion needed to roll less than 11 to hit. It rolled 6, hit. Cyberion rolled 16 points of high temp energy damage. StrikeForce’s armor stopped 6 point. 10 points of damage gets past his protection. StrikeForce rolled with 8 points of damage; -8 Power Points. He took 2 points of damage, -2 HP. StrikeForce rolled 3 on mass roll, no knockback}

BRRZZT!
StrikeForce rolled with the blast. He was still standing and could still fight.
{GM Note: Cyberion needed to roll less than 11 to hit. It rolled 4, hit. Cyberion rolled 11 points of high temp energy damage. StrikeForce’s armor stopped 6 point. 5 points of damage gets past his protection. StrikeForce rolled with 5 points of damage; -5 Power Points.}

[3] Keeping himself between Dr. Wildman and the internal robot, StrikeForce attacked, attempting to disable and/or destroy it. StrikeForce fought defensively at first, to get a "feel" at how much damage it could take and dish out.

KRAK! The huge robot was rocked from the strike. Pieces of metal crumpled and dented. It was still standing and functioning. It could continue the fight.
 {GM Note: StrikeForce needed to roll less than 13 to hit. He rolled 11, hit. He rolled 18 points of damage. The Cyberion rolled with most of the damage but it did NOT take more than ½ of its outstanding HP.}

KRAK! The huge robot was rocked from the strike. Pieces of metal crumpled and dented. It was still standing and functioning. It could continue the fight.
 {GM Note: StrikeForce needed to roll less than 13 to hit. He rolled 8, hit. He rolled 20 points of damage. The Cyberion rolled with most of the damage but it did NOT take more than ½ of its outstanding HP.}

Deck D of the Doomsday Robot.
Black Orchid entered D Deck. She immediately recognized it was the Engineering Center. Here crew members worked at the 3 different stations. There was the life support station, the computer control station, and the engineering monitoring station.

The Mistress of the Vacuum knew she had to pass through C Deck which was above D to get to B Deck where the weapons systems for the Right and Left Hand resided.

<Turns and Actions due April 27th>

Battle Conditions (Mighty Protectors character data):
Adamas                        Hit Points:   21 Power Points:   40       
Black Orchid                Hit Points:   24 Power Points:   91        Invisible
StrikeForce                 Hit Points:   29 Power Points:   75       
The Skink                    Hit Points:   24 Power Points:   82       
Manta-Man                   Hit Points:   13 Power Points:   66        Lightning Aura Defense: On
Dr. Wildman                 Hit Points:   12 Power Points:   60        Form of: Man
Demolisher                  Hit Points:   28 Power Points:   66        Absorption: Fortitude (2x rolling dmg)
Patty Plus                    Hit Points:   15 Power Points:   55       
Laserfire                       Hit Points:   12 Power Points:   38        Flame Aura Defense: On,

Phase of Action for next turn:
[15]       Adamas
[13]       Skink
[  9]      Demolisher
[  9]      Patty Plus
[  7]      Dr. Wildman
[  6]      StrikeForce
[  6]      Laserfire
[  3]      Black Orchid
[  2]      Manta-Man
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Family healthy here, crazy at work we sent more people home to work this week than we did all last year.

My youngest daughter got married today, intimate service, less than 25, originally planned for closer to 200.  Still, a nice service.

I'll begin working from home mid next week.  The wife has been since last week, and four teenage boys getting stir crazy... maybe some V&V might help

Jon
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Glad to receive the latest issue. It is a fun diversion, thank you. I am happy that you and your family are doing well, my family and I are also, I work as a Dept. Manager for a retail chain, and as such, I cannot work from home, but I stay as careful as I can. I hope that everyone in our group and their families are doing good.

I will work on my reply for StrikeForce soon.

Best Wishes,
Jamey
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We have just been put on lockdown for 3 weeks here in the UK. As a church pastor it's been nuts as I have had to turn real church into virtual church in a week. Grateful for Zoom and WhatsApp to make that happen.

3 teenagers at home are just realizing the enormity of what we are all facing, my son is seeking solace in his PS4 and Minecraft! He seems to be coping...

I'm grateful to God we are all healthy, worried for my 87 year old Dad who lives away from me, but he is near my sister and brother fortunately.

This will be a welcome distraction, so appreciate the post. I'm in...for the moment at least.

Go well everyone

Steve
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Activating his comm link, The Cyborg Crusader relays to the team. "Good job so far team, Our attacks on the robot's leg has gotten their attention. They are directing their weapon systems to a protect the leg from further damage. If they sustain too much more damage, they are moving to an airborne attack strategy. We have the advantage, so keep pressing them."

Keeping himself between Dr. Wildman and the internal robot, StrikeForce will attack it in an attempt to disable and/or destroy it.

Jamey
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StrikeForce knows that 5 Cyberion Guardian robots fought Maxima, Det Ravage, Blitzkrieg, American Woman and Telecom & the Valiants to a stand still. When the Molecule Man, Gale, Fortress, and Resonator arrived the last remaining Cyberion robot was defeated. It took 11 heroes to defeat 5 Cyberion robots. StrikeForce knows a single one will not be easy to defeat.

OOC: This happened in Issue 17 of the Quest. The New Super Society and the Cyberion Robots were both played by me. So it was a straight dice off. I didn't describe the fight with any detail at all in the issue, so reading to see how they fought won't help. Here is a link to the current New Super Society and Telecom & the Valiants. This is the fight that created the New Super Society.  It game terms Maxima is high (220 to 280 CPs) so on Adamas level. All the others would be Standard level at 150 to 180 CPs with the Valiants being the weakest.


Can you give me more direction on the attack for StrikeForce. Is he going to do just a dual escrima attack? Is he targeting the Head or Arms in an attempt to disable. Is he performing a multi-attack of 4 escrima attacks at -3 to each attack in an attempt to destroy.

You can give me an Attack Plan too. An Attack plan is what I did with Spyder with his fight against StrikeForce. He started with a single strike and each turn afterwards kept adding a multi-attack until half of his attacks missed. Then he would remove a multi-attack until majority of attacks hit. Then stay at that level. The fight didn't last long enough for the entire plan to be used but having the plan saved me time as the GM.

Tom
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 Dr Wildman looked to the heavens with an ironic grin on his face, shaking his head. He’d come to the conclusion this just wasn’t going to be his day. Here he was in the belly of a colossal mechanical beast fighting alongside his cyborg companion against men who were androids, being led by a bigger robot!

He could see Brother Moon in his imagination shaking his head going - ‘see, this is what comes about when you forget your roots!’

He probably had a point - but as Dr Ian Malcolm said in Jurassic Park - ‘life finds a way!’


William recalled the conversation going on in the room as he and StrikeForce entered:  “Hawkins initiate stabilization protocols. That dang construction worker with the hammer is able to disable one of the legs. Dang, hurry we need the flight engines to ensure the Robot is immobilized. It can’t be knocked over but we can be stuck!”

“So this must be the stabilization controls - let’s see if we can destabilize the situation a bit more”

Whilst StrikeForce is battling the big green Robot Dr Wildman will attempt in the first place to understand the controls (to disrupt them) and in the likely event he draws a blank he will pick up one of the incapacitated androids and swing it like a hammer to smash the controls! 

Steve
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 OOC: Unbelievable how much you have put into all of this Tom, I can't tell you how impressed I am...

Thanks for doing what you do!!!

IC: Seeing how ineffectual splitting his attention is, Adamas will turn his attention fully to damaging internal systems of the robot.  He will turn his energy blast to full using auto-blast and deliver as many attacks as he can into the systems, spraying across the hardware he can see.

For those that have seen "The Boys", picturing this similar to Homelander strafing the controls of the airplane, just frying everything.

Jon
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 Jon, how many power points do you want to spend?

Thanks for the compliments
Tom
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 Give me a couple of days to work on it. Today is my son's birthday, and his party is this weekend.

First Spyder, now this, Tom I'm starting to think that you don't like me very much. Lol! Well, it should be very interesting. Maybe StrikeForce should ask one of his teammates for help.

Best Wishes,
Jamey
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Take all the time you need. Wish your son happy birthday for me. Enjoy yourself.

Tom
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StrikeForce will fight defensively at first, to get a "feel" at how much damage they can take and dish out. He will increase his attack until he misses, like Spyder. Why not give his strategy a try. If it doesn't work, he can always shift to something else.

If you need anything else, just let me know.

Thanks,
Jamey
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 Let's go with six and see what happens

Jon
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Patty looked at Demolisher with concern but attempted to lighten the situation. "This big bozo's a bit heavy-handed, huh?"

"Speaking of hands, do you want one?"

OOC: If Demolisher wants help, she will do what she can to help get the hand off of him or move a finger or something. If he doesn't want help, she will try to draw attention to herself by yelling a lot and throwing stuff at the robot, etc. If it attacks her, she wants to use her Reflection (Kinetic) power. If that's not doable for some reason, she'll just try to use Shield.
Shane
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The Black Orchid steps aside, but then says quietly "Strikeforce, The Black Orchid here, I'm working on this weapons console right now. I should have it disabled or controlled shortly."
She will continue if he moves out of the way, or if he doesn't, she will look around to see how else she can assist without giving away her position.

Marc
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StrikeForce will move to allow Black Orchid to pass, but will try to not be obvious about it to possibly give her position away.

Jamey
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