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You reload and fire at retreating RED team, then at the joints and servos of the tremendous robot, but it's far too armored to break through. RED Myrmidon armor is on another level of defense... Destroying the visual sensors isn't enough to take down the machine, but you've at least neutered its offensive potential. Now it's nothing more than a wall of steel between you and him, him and you... somehow you see him take the radio from his back-mounted manpack and

"SQUAD BROKEN. UNKNOWN OPPOSING FORCE. REQUESTING IMMEDIATE EXTRACTION."

A humming noise fills the entire corridor as a blood red light begins to filter from everywhere yet nowhere at once. Shadows lengthen from all over then rise from the walls, hellishly convulsing and cavorting through the air, before coalescing on top of their RED owners. warp tech!

[CRUELTY] Then that ugly feeling rears its head again... Tenderly awakened by the innate sense of human weakness. Feeling hot and cold all over, riling you up inside, causing all your arms to tremble...

How will you proceed?
>ADVANCE. THOSE WHO FLEE MUST FIRST PERISH BY YOUR HANDS. THEY. MUST. BE. PUNISHED.
>BODYGUARD. MAINTAIN DISCRETION, SECURE THE TARGET. ([CRUELTY] Risk of losing COMPOSURE.)

>>6002991
>ADVANCE. THOSE WHO FLEE MUST FIRST PERISH BY YOUR HANDS. THEY. MUST. BE. PUNISHED.
Finally, it's back!

>>6002991
>BODYGUARD. MAINTAIN DISCRETION, SECURE THE TARGET. ([CRUELTY] Risk of losing COMPOSURE.)
ENTER

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Mission Two - SEPTIC SHOCK
OBJECTIVES
1. Investigate the last known location of the Survey Team.
2. Retrieve any equipment and remains.

LEAD's Theme: (Megadeth — Killing is my Business) https://youtu.be/Q__ozbrEDh0
Big thanks to Overseer/HandlerQM. Going to change the system to be more simple.

>>6002999
>he's using the original track
Now that's what I wanna see

>>6002991
Changing vote from ADVANCE to BODYGUARD
LEAD has claimed his due. Let the other prey scurry away while we secure the VIP. They've lost, but we've yet to truly win as long as the VIP is in danger.

>>6002991
>BODYGUARD. MAINTAIN DISCRETION, SECURE THE TARGET. ([CRUELTY] Risk of losing COMPOSURE.)
AWWWW YISS WE'RE BACK

>>6002991
>ADVANCE. THOSE WHO FLEE MUST FIRST PERISH BY YOUR HANDS. THEY. MUST. BE. PUNISHED.

>>6002991
>BODYGUARD

>>6002991
>BODYGUARD. MAINTAIN DISCRETION, SECURE THE TARGET. ([CRUELTY] Risk of losing COMPOSURE.)
glad to see you back, nigger

>>6002991
>>ADVANCE. THOSE WHO FLEE MUST FIRST PERISH BY YOUR HANDS. THEY. MUST. BE. PUNISHED.

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Let's wrap it up.
One or two anons, SAN CHECK.
>DC: 13
>INSTINCT CHECK: Roll 3d6
>1d6 reroll from Night Watch Mushroom Extract

I'll compile a pastebin with elaborations after the mission. For now, here's your current basics.

CORPUS: 4/4
- Health stat. Don't lose your life.
COMPOSURE: 2/3 (+1 max COMPOSURE from Night-Watch Mushroom Extract)
- Mind stat. Don't lose your cool.

TERROR LEVEL - 2 (+1 from MAURICE encounter, +1 from RED Syndicate encounter)

Attributes
FORCE: 6d6 (4d6 base, +2 from TERROR due to [CRUELTY])
- Behaving very badly indeed. Used in strength, endurance, agility, physical endeavors.
INSTINCT: 3d6 (2d6 base, +1 from Night Watch Mushroom Extract)
- The veins may be cold, but the nerves are not. Used in perception, persuasion, mental and emotional activities.
ACCESS: 3d6 (3d6 base)
- You're a man of the street, you're still a face in the crowd. Used to pull favors from the Company, speak the corporate tongue, listen to the distant sound of crashing waves, corporate movements.

Talents:
GUNPLAY (+2d6 to a FORCE roll)
TERROR (+2d6 to ANY roll)
NAVIGATION (+2d6 to a related ACCESS roll)
-Talents are EXHAUSTED on use and can be replenished during a rest period or through certain thematic actions (ex. unleashing the contained anomalies to make sure everyone at the monster facility has a really bad day for TERROR, taking a harder shot at someone's hand off like a demented cowboy for GUNPLAY).

Trophies:
Perfumed Knife (torn out of your head after an encounter with Miss DIRECTOR during a C Company raid)
Maurice's Tooth (wrenched from the massive jaws of the albino crocodile MAURICE)
Street Sweepers Harpoon (taken from the cold dead hands of a Greytide tribal after facing something more inhuman)

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>6003820
Let's see

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>6003820

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>6003820
Shit is PRETTY BAD, BRO. Let's see how the final 1d6 plays out.

>>6003839
>4
>even the best case scenario with a reroll would be a 9 (1+2+6)
uh oh. I think we're having a moff moment.

Have we changed dice systems again?

>>6003852
Yes. Simpler now, like Cleaner Quest's. Writing.

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The enemy is degraded, demoralized, disordered. Inferior. All it would take to utterly rout them is for you to leave the Captain and hop over the robot with your hands filled with hate and murder...

>BODYGUARD

You force yourself to hold your position. You prop the Captain upright against the wall and stand in front of him, playing the sentinel. Focus on the ever-guiding Objective. Time to let go.

>OVERWHELMING FORCE - Automatic Success
BLAMMO!

But not without a fight. Support fucks up and takes a peek - you immediately capitalize on it and blast apart the barrel of his rifle as quickly as it appears. Trying to get the last shot eh? The rifleman shrieks and takes cover yet again. You wait. Blood drips down from his ruined hand into the fetid drink.

The humming reaches the climax. The entire storm tunnel is filled with a lurid red light. Shadows rise from all over, at critical mass, and you raise Big Iron in a growing panic as if it would do anything at this point. Then there's a tremendous crack! and all three members of the RED team explode into gouts of burning shadows which flare upwards and beyond to that Elsewhere you cannot reach. Red silhouettes like bloody ghosts hang in the air until they fade away into nothingness and it goes still.

Nothing remains of the RED team save for mechanical debris and the pockmarks of a firefight...

>COMPOSURE Check - Failure
[CRUELTY] And a deep, lingering resentment.

They may live yet a little longer but they will not elude you a second time. You swear on this.

-COMPOSURE
COMPOSURE: 1/3 (WARNING)

You're roiling inside now. All this stress pushing down like the layers of the earth around you. It makes you want to smash your head against a wall and squeak over and over and over again. Yet you are in control. You must master yourself. Just for now, just for now...

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The Captain's Request: (Darkwood OST - Morning) https://youtu.be/-hz-yiQkmGY

You don't speak as you approach the Captain but he seems to understand your intentions as he rests with his sledgehammer in his lap. You're missing your second, better voice anyway; would have been damaged in the wet and the filth.

"You must be.." The Captain turns his head and looks you in the eyes. His breath is shallow and his life's essence leaks from the bullet hole in his suit but he speaks with purpose. "One of those monsters as well."

Your claws freeze for a moment as they finish the calibrations on the extraction kit for the Captain's leave. He laughs. He knows what you are, having seen your reflex response to the lighting of his Depths flare. You cannot help but squirm like the insect you are - you've been found out.

"The Lord must have a good sense of humor (wheeze) for Him to send a devil to rescue me." He weakly coughs as he lies back against the wall. "But right now... It doesn't matter who you're working for under the earth... I have one request to make of you."

"Recover my squadmates. Just down the western hall. I'm... I'm the only survivor. gggggg-wheeeeeze We all fought to the last but there were hundreds of them... so many... Please. Don't leave their souls to rot in these lightless depths."

He stops talking. His labored breath hitches then collapses into gasping rattles. And yet the Captain clings to life...
>Extract the Captain and proceed forward.
>Extract with the Captain. [End the Mission]
>Use your only emergency tool, the Crisis Ampule, to stabilize him?
>Write in.

I have to reread. In the first thread, it's actually MAURICE's Rotten Monster Tooth Necklace and that's a lot cooler.

>>6004067
>Extract with the Captain. [End the Mission]

>>6004067
>>Extract the Captain and proceed forward.

>>6004067
>Extract the Captain and proceed forward.
we can risk much now, but I'll do it anyway.

>>6004067
>Extract the Captain and proceed forward.
This better cost extra. We're going in.

>>6004067
>>Use your only emergency tool, the Crisis Ampule, to stabilize him?

>>6004067
>Extract with the Captain. [End the Mission]

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>>6004067
>PROCEED

You nod. You'll see this through, to the end.

"Go forth..." the Captain whispers. "Let it... be done..." With the last of his strength, he reaches into his bandolier and takes out the very last of his flares.

>+1 Depths flare
TOOL. "Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
- Reduces opposing DC by 2d4+2 and imposes debilitating effects against the creatures of every abyss. Has reduced effectiveness in your claws. One use.

His breath lapses to hardly a murmur, so you quickly finish calibrating the extraction pack to the precise coordinates of the exfiltration site. Here goes. You press the SEND button.

Beep.

A shimmering light appears for the briefest of moments.

The Gateless Gate opens. Across the improbable fold through warped space, the City leaks through. In the space of a few seconds, the form of the fallen Captain folds onto himself in a flattened kaleidoscope of borders and colors, his details rotating and shifting in place...

Then the portal crumbles and he's gone.

>Captain Axel of the 5th Strata Survey Team has been extracted.

You stand up. Down the western hall, the navigation device affirms. The work continues.

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MASS GRAVE: (the white chamber OST - Something stinks [Living Room Fridge]) https://youtu.be/0-pxkeLxTgM

Filtered through the hellish monochrome green of your NVG goggles, the elevator shaft is filled with corpses.

Body parts piled on top of each other, one after the other, like so much trash discarded into the sewers and cast into the depths. Buckets and coolers filled to the brim with infected arms, legs, organs, then thrown down here with the rest. Little pieces of little people, intestines unwinding in the endless murk. No identification. No features. No purpose. Nameless bodies in an unremembered room. On a woman's leg stitched onto a large man's torso reads the tag "NOT ECONOMICALLY VIABLE." Very slightly underneath, you see the signature "ALETH ZOBEL".

You're very glad that the seals of the armored wetsuit still hold. Even now the relentless stench of decay threatens to melt your face off.

[CRUELTY] You've seen worse.

There's movement across the pile. You take cover, shifting limbs as you skitter away.

Beams of light flash across the walls. Thin and flickering. Footsteps approach. The encroaching darkness is suffocating here, so relentless and so hopeless that even the Gray men must return to the light.

You'd laugh if these Ghouls weren't aware of your presence.

[TERROR] These pack of four seem heavily armed, with handmade guns and pilfered tools, and are on high alert. As if on the hunt for something...

There's a good deal many somethings down here... Things that are better left alone.

Your navigation device says there are six dots within the pile. Six bodies to recover. Since you are not currently engaged in combat, you have time to calibrate the extraction pack to take two entities to the Surface, including yourself. (Choose two MAJOR ACTIONS.)
>REMAIN HIDDEN. Perhaps they will just leave if you stay hidden long enough. (INSTINCT Check: Medium)
>START BLASTING. Pow, pow. (FORCE Check: Easy) Inadvisable for now. They have no fear and will not retreat unless they are up against *overwhelming* odds.
>START CHOPPING. Melee time. (FORCE Check: Easy. Beating the DC with a higher margin of success means a quieter, swifter takedown.)
>SEARCH THE PILE. Focus on recovering the Sanitech corpses. (INSTINCT Check: Medium. Beating the DC with a higher margin of success means a quieter, swifter search.)
>You should extract yourself NOW! Before the others arrive... (No penalty currently. You may take one other entity with you. This may change as circumstances do.)

>Write in.

>>6005300
>SEARCH THE PILE. Focus on recovering the Sanitech corpses. (INSTINCT Check: Medium. Beating the DC with a higher margin of success means a quieter, swifter search.)
>START CHOPPING. Melee time. (FORCE Check: Easy. Beating the DC with a higher margin of success means a quieter, swifter takedown.)

>>6005306
+1
I like to make a silent takedown

>>6005306
+1

>>6005300
>You should extract yourself NOW! Before the others arrive...

Seems like a clear majority.

>SEARCH
>DC: 10
>ROLL 3d6 INSTINCT

>CHOP CHOP CHOP
>DC: 12
>ROLL 6d6 FORCE, can be divided between two anons as 3d6 each.

Rolled 2, 1, 4 = 7 (3d6)

>>6005721
Cmon LEAD

>>6005726
NO IT LOWBALLED 2/3

Rolled 3, 1, 2 = 6 (3d6)

>>6005721
let's go CHOP CHOP CHOP
>>6005726
I assume you're the instinct roll, then

>>6005772
Nah I'm the other FORCE roll, haha...

Rolled 6, 2, 6 = 14 (3d6)

>>6005721
Come on LEAD, you aren't blind aren't you?

Rolled 3, 6, 3 = 12 (3d6)

>>6005721
Instinct.

>>6006002
>>6006003
berry nice

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>>6005721
>>6005726
>>6005772
14
>INSTINCT: PASS

6 + 7 = 13
>FORCE: NEAR PASS

FELLAS, I'll take what's here but make sure to declare what attribute/person you're rolling for next time. I was playing Cataclysm like a bum. Time to get cracking.

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>DC: 10
>RESULT: 14
>PASS!

Work fast.

You follow the thin light of the navigation device, querying the mass grave for the rough locations of the bodies. But as you grab the first arm in reach, the pulped flesh gives way and something black and horrid and *viscous* squirts onto your oversized goggles.

You stop. Something in you snaps. You feel nothing but disgust and contempt for all this cold, rotting flesh. With your weapons and Mementoes in hand, you start to hack at the bodies without abandon. Chop, chop, chop. Ah, this is not as fun as it could be, dismembering only these old, rotten, scarred corpses...

You rip and tear your way until you find the first Street Sweeper. The armor of the fellow is intact but his helmet has been cracked open like a pigeon's egg. Unlike his deeper brethren, this one is still recognizable as a human, albeit marked by the taint of malmutation from his years of service.

You start to extricate the poor bastard from his wretched tomb but then a light shines in the dark...

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>DC: 12
>RESULT: 13
>NEAR PASS!

You've just gone as the beam passes by and lands square on the unearthed (decorpsed?) Sanitech. The Gray team must have made their way over while you were so caught up in your chop-chop-chopping.

You wait, laying as quiet and still as the dead around you, all that remains of more than a decade of monstrous medical experiments.

A Gray spearman walks forward and looks directly at the Sweeper, using the flashlight to examine the corpse with utmost care. He nods to the others and they apparently "converse" by staring at each other quietly. After about a minute, he takes up his spear and pokes the Sweeper right in the exposed eye. *squish*

You lunge forward and grab him before he can take it out. The flashlight falls. The other two can't react fast enough to save their friend.

[CRUELTY] It would be easy to snap his neck, but you opt to do things more *personally* in the chaos of light and dark. Your first hands find his neck and crush down with terrible force until the flesh is pulped to the spine. Your second hands take up the perfumed knife with care and gut him alive like a fucking cave pig.

The two buddies try to circle around and lash out with their spear and toolbox, but you throw the mangled body at them, knocking one down with the mass and entangling the other with the gore. You surge forward and begin administering the death blows. Spearman finds his throat cut in an instant then all the way around into a beheading. You snatch the toolbox, find the other in a frantic struggle, break his head open sideways, feel his lungs spasm beneath you, one two three four -

Movement. Heard from behind.

The last one. He has a knife in his hands but he drops it as you whirl around to greet him.

Instead he raises his head, staring right ahead into the deeper tunnels, takes a deep breath as if to speak -

And you run him through the neck with the Street Sweeper's harpoon before he can utter a breathless word. He convulses violently, arms robotically reaching up as if to strike, but they clasp together in some semblance of... prayer?

Futile...

You stab all four with your harpoon just to make sure they won't try anything funny. It feels a bit more familiar to wield it...

>You gain insight into your weapon...
>Street Sweeper Harpoon
>+1d4 against ABYSSAL and ANOMALOUS opponents (reduced effectiveness in your claws)
- To be driven into the hearts of beasts and men alike. Used by the Health and Sanitation patrollers of the Urban Layer, and thus lacks the chamber for the explosive charges used at deeper levels.

You step over the new bodies added to the pile and finish dragging out the one you need. Claws jittering from the adrenaline rush, you barely manage to hold the navigation device steady as you extract two more.

Your head spins. False heartbeat hammers inside.

[CRUELTY] More. More! MORE!

[TERROR] You hear many more coming. Footfalls echo from beyond this corridor. Dozens? Hundreds as he said? The popping of gunfire blasts out through the nearby tunnels then abruptly halts.

Something isn't right. The sound should carry for much longer in these corridors. Their echoes end far too soon.
SOMETHING IS COMING.

ITEMS and TALENTS:
- GUNPLAY (+2d6 to a FORCE roll)
- TERROR (+2d6 to ANY roll)
- NAVIGATION (+2d6 to a related ACCESS roll)
- [EMERGENCY ITEM] C Company Crisis Ampule (Automatic Success on ANY action)
- [EQUIPMENT] Street Sweeper Harpoon (+1d4 against ABYSSAL and ANOMALOUS opponents)

>[EMERGENCY ITEM] Can be used after all rolls are made to avert an action's failure or intensify a success.

SWEEPER BODY COUNT
BURIED: 3
EXPOSED: 3
RECOVERED: 0

Because you haven't been discovered by the other Grays, every action remains as easy or hard as they were before.

Choose TWO major actions.
>REMAIN HIDDEN. They aren't here for you, but they will find you and kill you anyways. Tribal or terror, it's good to remain unnoticed. (INSTINCT Check: Medium.)
>PREPARE AN AMBUSH. You hear many more coming, but they don't know that you are here. You can use this. (FORCE Check: Medium.)
>SEARCH THE PILE. Focus on recovering the Sanitech corpses. (INSTINCT Check: Medium. Beating the DC with a higher margin of success means a swifter search and more bodies recovered.)
>EXTRACT CORPSES. Two bodies can be sent to the warp zone at a time.
>YOU SHOULD EXTRACT YOURSELF NOW! (No penalty currently. You may take one other body with you. This may change as circumstances do.)

>Write in.

>>6008628
>PREPARE AN AMBUSH.
>SEARCH THE PILE.

>>6008628
>REMAIN HIDDEN. They aren't here for you, but they will find you and kill you anyways. Tribal or terror, it's good to remain unnoticed. (INSTINCT Check: Medium.)
>SEARCH THE PILE. Focus on recovering the Sanitech corpses. (INSTINCT Check: Medium. Beating the DC with a higher margin of success means a swifter search and more bodies recovered.)
Time is on our side. The dead Sanitech aren't going anywhere. We simply need to work patiently and hide, and continue once all the enemies have come and gone. We are in control

>>6008628
>PREPARE AN AMBUSH.
>SEARCH THE PILE. Focus on recovering the Sanitech corpses. (INSTINCT Check: Medium. Beating the DC with a higher margin of success means a swifter search and more bodies recovered.)

>>6008634
>+1

>>6008628
>>EXTRACT CORPSES. Two bodies can be sent to the warp zone at a time.
>REMAIN HIDDEN. They aren't here for you, but they will find you and kill you anyways. Tribal or terror, it's good to remain unnoticed. (INSTINCT Check: Medium.)

You prepare to make a silent takedown...
>PREPARE AN AMBUSH
>DC: 18
>ROLL 6d6 + 1d4 FORCE, divided as you like

You focus on finding the dead...
>SEARCH
>DC: 10
>ROLL 3d6 INSTINCT
>1d6 reroll available from Night-Watch Mushroom Extract

Rolled 5, 1, 3 = 9 (3d6)

>>6009380
Corpse searching.

Rolled 1, 6, 6 = 13 (3d6)

>>6009380
FORCE

Rolled 1, 2, 4 = 7 (3d6)

>>6009380
FORCE AGAIN(not same anon dw)

Rolled 2 (1d4)

>>6009380
I'll roll the 1d4

>>6009398
You can reroll that 1

Rolled 3, 3, 5 = 11 (3d6)

>>6009380
Ambush roll

>>6009441
didn't update before voting, so this can be used for the instinct roll instead

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>6009380
INSTINCT reroll.

>>6009712
Phew.
13 + 7 + 2 = 22
>FORCE: SUCCESS

9 -> 11
>INSTINCT: NEAR PASS

[INFORMATION] DEGREES OF SUCCESS are determined by how much you beat the DC and are roughly measured in NEAR PASS -> PASS -> SUCCESS -> GREAT SUCCESS -> DOMINANT SUCCESS.

Writing.

>>6009733
shouldn't the force roll be great sucess since it's 4 points more than the dc ?

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>>6009746
How did you calculate that? I'm going on instinct, bigger numbers, and cool-sounding names, not strict mathematics.

Natch on the GREAT SUCCESS stage too, it'll just be SUCCESS -> DOMINANT. End result is the same.

pls come back to us

we miss u

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Backstabbing son of a... you're surprised this jerk even knows how to use a butterfly knife. You kick the still twitching corpse down the mountain of corpses and it tumbles over and over before resting among the many hundreds like it had always belonged down there. Where it ought to be.

After all this, when you return to the City proper, you swear you'll tear apart the first Ghoul you set your unblinking eyes upon.

>SEARCH
>NEAR PASS

You find the fourth corpse almost buried at the very top of the pile save for an armored gauntlet. His armor is punctured, semi-liquified flesh leaking through, and his exposed face is furrowed in anger as if he went down fighting. There's still rounds of 7.62 link in his ammo pouch but the machine gun is nowhere to be retrieved. Feh.

Most disturbingly, some of the new corpses surrounding him remind you... of yourself. Yes, the younger years, when you had finally grown up. Like a cocoon burst open, the chest cavities of all these women are all hollowed out and slick with something sticky, almost resinous. This pattern of wounds seems to be a recent addition to the pile.

You move the bodies of the fallen Street Sweepers to a safer place. Since they're not in any state to use their equipment, you take stock of what they have and bundle it together for extraction. Sledgehammer, pickaxe, heavy implements of sewers maintenance - not your style. You almost let out a chirp of disapproval.

Hey, wait a minute...

>PREPARE
>SUCCESS

[TERROR]Acquired DYNAMITE x3 + REMOTE DETONATOR

You stand there for a moment and quietly examine the stained paper cylinders in your claws. A Company brand. Ominous blasting caps. Pretty red sticks :)

You turn them in your claws once more and then it all clicks. Under the earth, in a Black Zone like this, there's no one to rein you back, no obligation to maintain rationality or discretion or the facades thereof.

How does it go again? "Just do what comes natural." Hshshshsh.

DYNAMTIE x3 + REMOTE DETONATOR
- Sticks of dynamite commonly used to blow holes in rock or remove blockages in the sewers and pipework. Instantly kills or maims opponents within a small radius. Detonate at will by pressing a SHINY RED BUTTON.

You may lack the skill in heavy weapons handling which is so freakishly common among other City slickers, but you do know how to press a VERY FUN LOOKING BUTTON. You hide the sticks of dynamite within the jumpsuit pockets of the dead Gray men - they'll try to take the bodies back for looting. As for the first one you tore open, you elect to unzip him a little more with the perfumed knife (see how clean and sharp the edge is?) and cram a stick into the split cavity. Not subtle, but it works.

As for the rest of your preparations, you construct a grim barricade further down by hurling down the most intact corpses into a pile by the entrance. When those Ghouls come, they should be forced to funnel in and you'll open up with a rain of -

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GLOSSOLALIA: (Maintenance OST - Voice of Tunnel) https://youtu.be/P3spxWZ9hDw

A shadow crouches at the threshold.

Your senses are telling you there's nothing there but darkness, unescapable, suffocating. But there is a presence there, with weight and volume, streaming forth like smoke as it fills the rotting air with the terrible pressure of itself. It's always been there. Before the City ever was, it was there. In ancient tunnels, it was there. In pitchest black, it is there.

You can hear its voice all around you. It's as if the very earth was given a singular tongue to cry out with, droning in a tone far below the range of your moth hearing. The mountain shudders underfoot as the bodies whisper together. That voice is saying one word over and over and over again. Once, twice, seven fold times. What is it saying? A leaden sensation grows in your abdomen. Frustration deepens. You feel like you should know it, but the name just falls through like water pouring through a grate.

The churning chaos of smoke... It is so close now, you see it just above you. Maybe even if you tried very hard, you could touch it.

You reach up...

For some reason, you sense a malevolence like nothing else.
[???] For some reason, you feel a bittersweet nostalgia.
COMPOSURE loss negated!

And your claws grasp at nothing. The voice is gone, gone out the elevator shaft and into the earth. A message that was there and then wasn’t. You feel strangely sad for a moment, and you have no idea why.

Darkness there and nothing more.

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Another presence. Flesh and blood.

The visage of a gas mask is peering from the entryway behind the defenses. Yet his head is cocked upright, his attention turned to somewhere else. Staring into the breathless air. Staring. Waiting. Understanding.

More heads appear beside, all turned upwards in prayer, turned towards the end of the corridor, tuning in to that invisible secret signal droning under the earth, endlessly...

You take Big Iron out and wait. With your claw on the trigger, things begin to take on a clear and definite purpose once again. You are LEAD. You have a Mission. You intend to see it through...

Then a deafening silence falls. Hideous and unnatural. Though it lasts for a few seconds, the spell is broken. The Gray men move forward.

And the tide pours in.

GRAYTIDE: (Underrail: Expedition OST Savage Battle Theme) https://youtu.be/1iTyVoet9w0?si=cacJ1JfGd8Qv1WHD

[TERROR LEVEL RAISED.]
[CRUELTY] GO FORTH IN GLORY AND STRIFE. LEAD'S FORCE INCREASES BY 1d6.

Hampered by the new walls of corpses, they can hardly take an inch before you start pulping heads.

The Ghouls who do not take shelter are cut down immediately, high caliber bullets ripping through flesh and completely smashing bones! The ones who do take shelter quickly learn that corpses do not make good sandbags for this kind of stuff! You take aim, one, two, three, four- And it is only during the accursed moments of reloading that they are able to claw their way up the mountain.

A bullet flies by your head. Handmade submachine guns, spears in hand, leveled at you with hateful purpose...

Come on, I say, take me out!

SWEEPER BODY COUNT
BURIED: 4
EXPOSED: 2
RECOVERED: 0

Choose TWO major actions.
>THROW CORPSES. With your monstrous physique and the high ground, you may be able to slow the tide for long enough. (FORCE Check. Odds: Medium. Gain an additional action through bullshit stuns on success, waste your time on nonlethal takedowns otherwise.)
>GET THE FUCK IN THERE. MELEE. MELEE. MELEE. (FORCE Check. Odds: Easy. Inflict terrible losses on the enemy, but it'll become very hard to take actions on anything else but MORE MELEE.)
>FIRE AT WILL. If you line your shots up right, you can nab a few juicy, uh, money shots on their heads. But somehow... you find yourself running out of ammo. (FORCE Check. Odds: Medium.) (That's the right phrase, right?)
>[FREE ACTION] DETONATE CORPSES. (3 CHARGES) (*maniacal moth hissing*)
>EXTRACT CORPSES/PREPARE EXTRACTION KIT. (The extraction kit is ready to transfer. Two bodies can be sent to the warp zone at a time.)
>GET THE FUCK OUT. (No penalty currently. Will get more difficult to extract once the party really gets going. You may take one other body with you.)
>WRITE IN.

>Use a TALENT?
>Use an ITEM?

>>6015019
>THROW CORPSES.
>[FREE ACTION] DETONATE CORPSES. (3 CHARGES) (*maniacal moth hissing*)
>FIRE AT WILL.

Hurling some explosive corpses.
Though if we gain another action on success because of throwing I vote for this extra action.
>EXTRACT CORPSES.

>>6015019
>[FREE ACTION] DETONATE CORPSES. (3 CHARGES) (*maniacal moth hissing*)
>THROW CORPSES. With your monstrous physique and the high ground, you may be able to slow the tide for long enough. (FORCE Check. Odds: Medium. Gain an additional action through bullshit stuns on success, waste your time on nonlethal takedowns otherwise.)
>FIRE AT WILL. If you line your shots up right, you can nab a few juicy, uh, money shots on their heads. But somehow... you find yourself running out of ammo. (FORCE Check. Odds: Medium.) (That's the right phrase, right?)

>>6015019
>EXTRACT CORPSES/PREPARE EXTRACTION KIT.
GET THE FUCK OUT.

>>6015019
>[FREE ACTION] DETONATE CORPSES
FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUU
>THROW CORPSES
BUY TIME
>EXTRACT CORPSES/PREPARE EXTRACTION KIT
We got all 4 corpses out? GET THEM EXTRACTED OUTTA HERE

Nice seeing you again OP, even fi you're a lazy baozou
>>6015191
>+1
will the free action explode all 3 charges at once or 1 at a time ?

>>6015260
1. One charge at a time. You'll have to LEAD to detonate more than one at a time, but since I didn't make it clear
- there's about a dozen of these guys climbing right now
- it's slow going
2. Correction: 4 EXPOSED, 2 BURIED/HIDDEN, 0 RECOVERED/EXTRACTED

>>6015019
>>[FREE ACTION] DETONATE CORPSES. (3 CHARGES) (*maniacal moth hissing*)
>>THROW CORPSES. With your monstrous physique and the high ground, you may be able to slow the tide for long enough. (FORCE Check. Odds: Medium. Gain an additional action through bullshit stuns on success, waste your time on nonlethal takedowns otherwise.)
>>FIRE AT WILL. If you line your shots up right, you can nab a few juicy, uh, money shots on their heads. But somehow... you find yourself running out of ammo. (FORCE Check. Odds: Medium.) (That's the right phrase, right?)
LET'S GOOOOO AAAAAAA

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There's always time for fun. It's Friday night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9PC6KacE1c

THROW: V
DETONATE: IV
FIRE: III
EXTRACT: II
GTFO: I

The tide keeps coming in. Struggling to push over the barricade, you can tell there are about a dozen more beside. They'll get over the top eventually...

[CRUELTY] All massed together just like that... How many more intend to enter this grave today?

You grab the nearest torso and lift it above your head...
>THROW CORPSES
>DC: 18
>ROLL 7d6 + 1d4 FORCE, divided as you like
(+3d6 from TERROR level, +1d4 from Street Sweeper's Harpoon)
>TERROR Talent available

You keep a second claw on your detonator...
>DETONATE CORPSES
>HOW MANY?

Big Iron in hand, you take aim...
>DC: 18
>ROLL 7d6 + 1d4 FORCE, divided as you like
(+3d6 from TERROR, +1d4 from Street Sweeper's Harpoon)
>GUNPLAY and TERROR Talents available

>Use a TALENT or ITEM?
- Crisis Ampule (Automatic Success on ANY action requiring dice)

Rolled 5, 1, 3 = 9 (3d6)

>>6015684
THROWING CORPSES

Rolled 5, 3, 6, 2, 3, 4, 2 = 25 (7d6)

>>6015684
Shooting Big iron.

Rolled 6, 2, 5, 4 = 17 (4d6)

>>6015684
Corpse tossing.
Detonate 1 corpse.

Rolled 2, 5, 2 = 9 (3d6)

>>6015684
Big Iron

Rolled 1 (1d4)

>>6015684
welp, I didn't read this one >>6015695, so I'll be rolling the 1d4 for throwing

>>6015777
>>6015783
also only detonate 1 corpse

>>6015684
Am I late to rolling? I still want to vote we blow only one corpse. I want to save the last 2 dynamite for the finale or a pinch

>>6015785
you can roll the big iron 1d4

>>6015787
OK

>>6015684
1d4 for the BIG IRON (on his hip)

Rolled 4 (1d4)

>>6015803
Whoops, here we go

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Rolled 35 (1d75)

>>6015695
>>6015805
25 + 4 = 29 > 18
>SHOOTING
>DOMINANT

>>6015685
>>6015697
>>6015783
9 + 17 + 1 = 27 > 18
>THROWING
>DOMINANT

>DETONATE ONE CORPSE

Time for gratuitous moth violence. Writing now.

...

You sense a terrible malevolence...
>Rolling for TERROR.

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You've seen the Ghouls do this tactic back in the City. So if you're going to play dirty, you might as well imitate the best, even if they smell like shit. You grab one of the hollowed torsos at the top and hurl it down with terrible force -

>THROWING
>DOMINANT SUCCESS

- and watch as the broken body slams right into his center mass, sending him flying back into his fellows! The charge upwards is broken - send back to whence they came! You start hissing to yourself, but you're not done with them yet. You figure you can get away with this, being about a story up the mountain and wearing the protective Depths diving suit. How wonderful this armor protects you from the outside environs.

>DETONATE CORPSE
The split open Gray will be the one. With one set of arms, you throw the rigged corpse in their general direction and it lands right on top of the stunned and tangled mess. You bring a tarsal claw down on the detonator, a click, a beep, you brace, and then -

POW!
- DYNAMITE STICK x1

>FORCE: 7 - AUTOMATIC SUCCESS
The ground quakes! You stand yours with ease. Any shrapnel that comes flying up slices through the bodies in front, leaving you unharmed.

But while you're not gone with the blast wave, the blast wind roars throughout the shaft and sets all your ears a-ringing! You let out an involuntary squeak as your thorax and other body parts ache but find yourself unable to hear!

If you weren't already partially deaf from your years of service...

INSTINCT 2 -> INSTINCT 1
Your ear drums have been ruptured!

You certainly are deaf now.

But look! You regain balance, eager to survey the damage -

[CRUELTY] "HSHSHSHSH." You don't hear it but you are laughing all the same: deep, loud, and mocking. What a wonderful sight this all is!

The blast wave has taken out a sizeable chunk of their forces.

You see the broken bodies, limbs twisted this way, parts of the Gray and nameless bodies strewn that way, left behind, smashed apart, torn to bits, burned, blasted, butchered... all very good indeed. Amidst the scents of seared flesh and burnt earth, there's the horrid stench of gas masks successfully reduced to molten plastic and the tender smell of ... bananas? The blood is fresh, the blood is yours.

The barricade is gone now...
... but everybody dead. You like that :)

Big Iron enters your claws but you decide against it. There are stragglers but they're already dead. You swear you can see some "survivors" with their lungs forced through the valves of their gas masks. They're still struggling, crawling around with their mangled limbs, refusing to stop breathing, desperate, hopeless...

[CRUELTY] It's a sight that fills your heart.

+COMPOSURE
COMPOSURE: 2/3 (+1 max COMPOSURE from Night-Watch Mushroom Extract)

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You're alone again, in the murk and in the miasma, surrounded by the living damned and unhallowed dead.

GOD OF DEPTHS: (Fallout 1 Soundtrack - City of the Dead (Necropolis)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZctTNwrjHA

[???] Something... something is wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.
You're not alone.

>TERROR
>35
A black mist begins to form. It's that presence again, a sourceless malevolence manifesting from the still air, so you take out the Big Iron and watch.

The dark clouds descend and gather on top of a corpse. Then, buoyed by the force, it rises straight upwards and hangs right in front of you. The peeled back lips of the cadaver seem to mock you. It gets you real riled up - you open fire but the bullets fly right through the mist and slam into the walls.

Of fucking course.

You switch targets and fire right at the neck, striking a good clean shot through, leaving only sinews and meat to connect it, and the weight of the body is enough for it to decapitate itself. Your own body aches as you slowly watch the body float gently downwards. What the hell was the point -

INSTINCT 1 - AUTOMATIC FAILURE
You realize too late that's not the right target.

There is a Ghoul standing in the open entryway, now turned into a pitch black figure with its head turned upwards. You let loose another bullet, hitting its center mass, but its too late.

Its flesh swells before your eyes and you can only imagine the noises of creaking bones and popping joints as its entire frame twists into something more animalistic. Its arms are lengthening and now dangle by its sides as it begins to sways from side to side, jittering with great agitation. You let loose a second shot and it hits its mark once more, but the flesh forces itself together with a spray of blood.

The gas mask is pushed upwards and you see its tongue lolling out, then the skin tears and the jaw is pushed forward and its mouth opens wider and wider as if its screaming in utter and total agony. Every muscle seems to distend and contract. It grows taller and broader, getting stronger even as it suffers.

A hideous mutation! It crouches down on all fours in a grotesque, candid mockery of a man and it heaves and wheezes audibly as it begins to creep forward. You aim and open fire. It dodges. The momentum slams it into the wall, but it rapidly and erratically rights itself. It seizes a nearby corpse, rears upright on two legs, hefts it over its shoulder, about to throw -

>SHOOTING
>DOMINANT SUCCESS

A chunk of flesh is blown straight out of its shoulder. The bone is exposed and its right arm goes slack! It shrieks, you think, and it lopes back into the outer black to lick its wounds. Looks like its abilities aren't all its cracked up to be. That regeneration doesn't seem to be an issue now. Still, it seems retains the same instincts it had while it was a Gray Ghouls - or still is.

The bastards are adapting down here.

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TARGETS:
DOG OF MAN (INJURED, REGROUPING)
[MONSTROUS PHYSIQUE] Much of it is useful muscle mass, but it is unstable, and unused to this massive hulking form.
GRAYTIDE (EBBING, REGROUPING)
[MOOKS] They are a curse. One curse. And there are thousands of them.

SWEEPER BODY COUNT
HIDDEN: 2
EXPOSED: 4
EXTRACTED: 0

CORPUS: 4/4
COMPOSURE: 2/3

You seem to be at an impasse.
An unknown threat and a regrouping force may contest the effects of certain actions or just make things plain difficult.
Due to the terrible losses inflicted, you've gathered enough time for TWO ADDITIONAL ACTIONS.
Due to the detonation on the massed group, your ammo count remains about the same.

Choose FOUR major actions. The same action can be taken multiple times within reason.
>PREPARE CORPSES THEN THROW THEM. These are more effective than you thought. (FORCE Check. Odds: Medium. Gain an additional action through bullshit stuns on success, waste your time on nonlethal takedowns otherwise.)
>THROW CORPSES FOR ANOTHER BARRICADE. It worked once, will work again, though, the explosion did throw off some of the foundational bodies. (FORCE Check. Odds: Hard. Pairs nicely with detonations. Makes ranged attacks easier if successful.)
>GET THE FUCK IN THERE. Melee. MELEE. MELEE! (FORCE Check. Odds: ???. Inflict terrible losses on the enemy, but it'll become very hard to take actions on anything else but MORE MELEE.)
>FIRE AT WILL. Effective at taming the savages. (FORCE Check. Odds: ??? You still have ammo, kid.)
>(Talent: GUNPLAY) PREPARE A BULLET. You don't need all four. One shot is all you need to put that mad dog of a man down. Just need to find the opportunity. (FORCE Check. Odds: VERY HARD. Instantly kills the Dog of Man. Don't screw this up. Uses the Talent)
>[FREE ACTION] DETONATE CORPSES. (2 CHARGES) (*maniacal moth hissing*)
>SEARCH THE PILE. Two more left. (INSTINCT Check. Odds: Hard.)

>EXTRACT CORPSES. Damn the rules and twice damn the set up time for this, even a partial calibration is fine for corpses in the end. (The extraction kit is ready to transfer. Two bodies can be sent to the warp zone at a time.)
>[2 ACTIONS] PREPARE EXTRACTION KIT PROPERLY/GET THE FUCK OUT. A wise man like you knows when to run. (Chance of CORPUS damage, minor chance of COMPOSURE damage. You may take one other body with you.)
>WRITE IN.

>Use a TALENT?
>Use an ITEM?

>>6017224
>SEARCH THE PILE.
Without sound, other senses heighten. Not simply the other main 4, but sense of presence, sense of pressure, sense of temperature, and the rest...
>EXTRACT CORPSES.
Remove 2 of 6
>EXTRACT CORPSES.
Remove the next 2 of 6
>FIRE AT WILL.
Keep the weaklings DOWN while we do our work

>>6017224
Extract the corpses x 2
PREPARE EXTRACTION KIT PROPERLY
GET THE FUCK OUT

>>6017224
>SEARCH THE PILE. x2
>EXTRACT CORPSE x2

>>6017238
+1

>>6017224
>THROW CORPSES FOR ANOTHER BARRICADE.
>SEARCH THE PILE.
>EXTRACT CORPSES.
>FIRE AT WILL. Effective at taming the savages. (FORCE Check. Odds: ??? You still have ammo, kid.)

>EXTRACT x2
With the coordinates already set and the threat literally outside the gates, you start to shunt the bodies upward instead of folding through. Flick a switch, manual override, "Are you sure?", YES YES YES. Waiting for the black progress bar to fill is a little too slow, N-T!

In a crackle of sparks, the corpses are thrown into the air, folded into themselves, and sent off through an impossible angle up to the City's safe haven...

BURIED: 2
EXPOSED: 0
RECOVERED: 4

In your full range of vision, the Gray tide begins to flood in. Dozens now, more than you had ever seen in a single room, all moving in silent lockstep unison.

You whirl around to greet the newcomers. Muzzle flashes then the impact of bullets across your chest, but it's more of a series of love taps against the armored wetsuit. You stupid motherfuckers! It'll take a lot more than 9mm to put you down! You return fire, firing four times, feeling no recoil as no bullet comes out-

Oops. You duck down and reload instead.

The head of the Dog leers at you from the backline. He's just out of reach, but you see the pale twisted claws motioning to the nearest Ghoul. He's grabbed aggressively with both hands, lifted up bodily, then thrown all the way up the mountain to land right next to you!

You look at him. He looks at you.

>FORCE: 7 - AUTOMATIC SUCCESS
Before the Ghoul regains balance, you lunge forward to gouge his eyes out. He tries to get a deathgrip of his own on you, but you push hard until the plastic lenses crack and the red spurts out like an old friend.

[CRUELTY] In a terrible act of will, you put all the force in your body and drive your claws further in. You feel orbital bones cracking like plaster in your grip. For a moment, there's the unexpected sensation of something soft and pulsating. Then you realize what it is - you lean forward and fully commit to the manual lobotomy. The Gray man's body seizes up and falls limp in your arms...

You rip out pieces of skull as you remove your claws before throwing the corpse aside with contempt in your pseudo-heart.

The Dog seems to be assessing the situation.
The Gray men may be fearless, but they aren't suicidal. Mostly.

You hastily look around for any more Sanitech corpses but its hard to keep balance with the room spinning so much...
>DC: 10
>ROLL 2d6 INSTINCT
>(+1d6 from Night-Watch Mushroom Extract)
>1d6 reroll available from Night-Watch Mushroom Extract

Your arms whirl around and prepare to blast apart anyone who dares get closer..!
>DC: 27 -> 24 (-3 from DOG's hesitation)
>ROLL 7d6 + 1d4 FORCE
>(+3d6 from TERROR level, +1d4 from Street Sweeper's Harpoon)
>GUNPLAY and TERROR Talents available

>WRITE IN.

Mucked the numbers a bit. LEAD has the Night-Watch INSTINCT buff of +1d6, so INSTINCT after hearing loss is still 2d6.
If there's any more missing numbers or items, let me know.

>>6018519
Rolling 3d6 for part of the FORCE roll

Rolled 1, 3, 5 = 9 (3d6)

>>6018554
>>6018519
FORGOT TO ADD THE DICE
Now it will work

>>6018519
Rolling 2d6 for Instinct (Don't like my odds but we'll see.)

Rolled 3, 1 = 4 (2d6)

>>6018560
Fat retard moment, forgot to add in the actual dice.

>>6018562
>>6018560
Even if you 1d6 reroll that 1 with the shroom extract, that's not gonna beat the DC 10. Unless we burn the TERROR talent (+2d6 to ANY roll) to scrape by it

Rolled 2, 5, 5 = 12 (3d6)

>>6018519
Rolling for FORCE against the dog, will have the 1d4 remaining

>>6018571
Also a 1d6 remaining too

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>6018519
rolling the remaning force dice. man if that's the dc for looking for corpses with 2 die, we're probably better off just escaping next time

>>6018562
>>6018565
welp, it's still better to reroll for a better one unless there's no difference between failing with a 4 and a 9

Rolled 1 (1d4)

>>6018625
>>6018519
Rolling the last d4

>>6018557
>>6018571
>>6018625
>>6018640
FORCE: 9+12+6+1 = 28. GUD.
INSTINCT: 4 (I don't really see a point rerolling since we can't win it regardless). BAD.

>>6018649
Moff moment incoming

Alright, here's what we got:
>>6018649
>Use CRISIS AMPULE? (AUTOMATIC SUCCESS)
>Use TERROR Talent? (+2d6 on top of the 1d6 reroll)
>DETONATE? (x2 charges)
>None of the above. Proceed.

You guys can roll the TERROR dice when there's a clear majority (about 3 voters) or I will when I start writing the INSTINCT results in a few hours.

>>6018723
>TERROR
FUCK IT
WE BALL.

>>6018723
>TERROR
TEEROR LEVEL: HIGH

>>6018723
>TERROR

Rolled 6, 6 = 12 (2d6)

Alright, time to roll then. 2d6 first.

>>6019074
TERROR LEVEL: MAX

>>6019074
terrormaxxing, we play on this shit nigga

So we beat the FORCE DC 27 with our 28. Then beat the INSTINCT DC 10 with our 16. We still have night watch mushroom 1d6 reroll banked, and we still have GUNPLAY banked. NAVIGATION too but that's not usable here

>>6019176
Correction, we beat 24 anon, since Dog hesitated

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Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>6019074
INFORMATION: When SNAKE EYES or BOXCARS are rolled on a Talent, the Talent is DOMINANT and the resulting scene is drastically altered accordingly.
In other words, hold on to you're anuses

This d6 is for that final TERROR increase and the resulting +1d6 to FORCE. Writing now.

>>6019191
waiting warmly

Stomach virus from bad oysters. Deep pain and bathroom breaks are holding me back. Sorry for the delay.

>>6026136
Look at the bright side. It could have been Hepatitis A or some other horrible seafood-borne illness

>>6026136
>>6026147
Good news: I've recovered a lot.
Bad news: Literal projectile vomit destroyed my laptop's motherboard. Update is lost until I get the data transferred to a new laptop (AAAAAAAAA) or I rewrite on mobile from memory. I'm going to lie down.

>>6027703
>Literal projectile vomit
Do you not have vomit bags at the ready on-hand?
>destroyed my laptop's motherboard
How is this possible?!
>data transferred to a new laptop
You do have backups on external HDD, right? You don't keep your backup external HDD constantly plugged in, right? You do put it away in a safe place when not in use, right?
>going to lie down
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbIN9DHtOfK_UQjnkeynn2KFD8v0n5l3o

>>6027703
>>6027719
Data is being extracted from the laptop now. I apologize for not finishing the mission. It will be completed when the next thread drops. Take care now.

(Fats Waller - Ain't Misbehavin') https://youtu.be/PSNPpssruFY

>>6038406
thanks, remember to archive it

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