This was -not- an earthquake.  Richard had felt his share of them.  With what Sandra had mentioned not a moment ago -- and was now echoing in a shout -- it could be a bomb, it could be RD action, but whatever it was, he needed to get out of there.  With their combat personnel outside, Richard was not in a mood to tempt fate.

He books it at top speed to the nearest exit.

OOC: Priority 1: get out of the building.  Priority 2, assist any teammates he encounters enroute.  Priority 3, if escape becomes impossible, report to HQ and turn on his GPS beacon so a recovery team can identify him.

Devon blinked at Lauren's sudden disappearance. He quickly bent to help gather the kicked equipment. "Run, run run!

While he moved down the stairs, he checked for any other exits from the building. "Jesus, this place is already messed up, it can't take another hit... how did..." His mind raced, a thousand questions trying to demand his attention, all ignored in favor of survival.

I assume we'd have some advance knowledge of the layout of the building, if not, can my drones highlight anything they've noticed in their simple patrol? Mechanically, Devon's focused on just staying alive and getting people out, so full defense and movement available and all that.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:46, Thu 07 Apr 2016.

Shielding his face as the glass showered down James dropped the briefcase and slid it under the car with one foot. Not the best cover he could give it but the best he had right now. Sparing the man hammering at Jacki's van only a glance he headed for the building, trusting to the other to be able to handle the problem, whilst reaching up to his headset, "Everyone outside stay outside. Everyone inside get out and give us some news about what's inside. Don't like the shape the building's in. Devon did your drones spot any alternative exits from the building besides the front one? Anyone who's on and can do so get the civies back and visibility lowered, if this is something strange we need as few witnesses as possible."

Keeping his guns holstered for now he headed for the building, heading past anyone who tried to stop him even the building security with patient focus. As he moved James glanced at his watch, hit the stopwatch function and began to take his steps measuredly, still quick but timing his motions rather than rushing as he cleared his head to focus on the task at hand. He added one last remark over the communications, a slightly dry note to his voice, "Oh and please, if everyone is clear of the building, do tell me. I would hate to be inside looking for you whilst you are outside."

OC: Nothing odd in actions yet, saving dice pool for defensive if something comes swinging but mostly focused on heading where the others should have been going off the floor plans to try to get them out. If anything does try to impede that guns stay out of it unless we've got clear supernatural in which case all bets are off.

Clair looks around, quickly trying to piece together a possible solution. "Aria, queue me up some music, and download bomb-making." She thought to her internal AI, before ducking down and letting her ADEI remotely pull down the knowledge and skill set needed to piece together a makeshift bomb from the car she was now leaned up against. Over the radio she contacts the rest of the team. "Please try to lead ze -onster out into ze open."


ADEI > Hypercram 4 for Chemistry or Scrounging - which ever you feel is appropriate. She is planning to make a makeshift bomb from - something. Probably a car.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:18, Sat 09 Apr 2016.

Outside bystanders were fleeing from the building, except for the angry drunk pounding Jacki's window. James ran past the two guards in the lobby who were on their way out:"The building is coming down! Get the hell out of here man! Get out!", one of them shouted at him. He didn't wait to see if James was following him though, dropping his snickers bar on the floor as he ran out the door after his collegue. James headed up the stairs since the elevators were already down since the previous attack.

Sandra hid behind the desk as the lumbering lava creature crashed through a loadbearing wall on its way to the hallway. The ceiling in the board room came down on Sandra's hiding spot, raining debris down on the desk. Sandra hid under the desk before the heavy concrete beam came down along with the ceiling tiles and pipes.

Claire's mind switched to download mode, her arms dropped limp. Her breath remained steady and she remained upright but her mind was attempting to find and download the information she was looking for. Claire's mind had trouble focusing for the time being, her mind distracted by the crumbling building and her team mates who were still inside, the screaming masses, the loud caralarm nearby and the shattering glass.
(Claire, you have trouble going into the trance state required to download the information, but you can try again next round)

Richard headed back down when the building made known its fatal wound with a cracking roar of splintering concrete and tearing metal. In front of him, as he ran back down, a central heating unit shook itself from the wall and scolding hot water began spraying across the staircase. Forced to wait for the time it took for the water pressure to lessen and turn the spray into an arc he could avoid he heard someone come down from the 5th floor. The man was covered in dust and he had a bewildered look on his face.

Devon narrowly escaped the 6th floor collapsing on top of the boardroom on the 5th floor. Behind him he heard the molten rock creature slowly following him down the corridor. He ran downstairs as the building shook again, lighter this time, and ran into Richard standing in a steam-filled staircase. Above him he heard the glowing hot monstrosity stumbling after him.
(Devon, in case these main stairs become .. ehm .. unusable there are emergency stairs in the back of the building. There is also an elevator shaft but the elevator itself has been deactivated after the fire. And finally if you really want to press your luck there might be a garbage chute in the back of the building)

The beggar's eyes turned a cold flickering crimson red, his left hand transforming right before Jacki's eyes into a plasma cannon aimed at the van, plates replacing skin, fingers turned into plasma emitters, veins replaced by cables and tubes. The weapon fired a superheated plasma bolt into the van at Jacki.

Jacki knocked the weapon upward, twisting it up to avoid getting hit. The plasma bolt punched a smoldering hole through the van's roof instead of Jacki's face. Jacki grabbed the doorhandle and kicked the door open but the cyborg leapt back in time to avoid getting hit. Jacki leapt out of the van to give herself room to maneuver. The cyborg charged up its plasma cannon again and for a moment Jacki realized the cybernetic organism closely resembled the basic configuration of a HITMark unit, the shocktroops of the Technocracy, near-mindless engines of destruction, more man than machine. 3 clawlike blades sprang from its other hand ...
(i split your dicepool for dodging, which you did splendidly, your counter attack however failed)

The blue-cloaked teleporter collapsed the spacial rift as the roof came down, leaving Sandra alone in the collapsing boardroom ...

The lava creature didnt really fit the corridors but it wanted to crush the moving prey that had escaped the boardroom. It did not like fast-moving objects, preferring the relative immovability of rocks, the creeping slow movement of magma. It wanted to know what the creature would smell like when it smoldered in its embrace. It found itself at the top of the stairs downward, seeing two moving creatures far ahead of it ...
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:32, Thu 14 Apr 2016.

(round 2, same initiative, lets hear your actions)

"That steam is coming out of a cracked pressure heater!" Richard shouted to Devon over the high-pitched whine of escaping steam.  "Don't get caught by it!"

He glances past Devon to see if the other man is being followed, then gives the staircase a few moments.  Will there be an opening clear in time for him to try and beat feet downstairs, or will they need to find an alternate route?...

OOC: If there's a break in the steam/water venting that might be passable for someone not tremendously agile, head downstairs; otherwise, he is consulting the mental map of the area for an alternate exit.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:18, Wed 13 Apr 2016.

(just to clarify Richard, the man covered in dust coming down the stairs is Devon :))

((editing accordingly!  >_>))

Sandra cringed and clenched her eyes underneath the desk as the ceiling collapsed around her. When the debris had settled, and she realized she was still alive, Devon's command spurred her to action. Seeing that he had grabbed her equipment, Sandra wasted no further time in extricating herself from the pile of debris and sprinting after Devon.

As she ran, she risked a single glance back at the lava creature.

(OC: I might be wrong Sandra but I think lava man is between you and Devon since he left the room you were in, followed Devon and is now looking down the stairs the way he ran)

Continuing to sprint up the stairs despite the warning James did not bother listening for sounds of movement, instead just heading up the stairs as he looked for some sign of those who had gone in whilst dodging the odd bit of debris. Without any reply over communications he was lacking in a direction but given where they had been heading up was the way forwards.

Devon shouted to Sandra, but he saw beams tumble down and his feet were already carrying him forward. The way the building was shaking, he couldn't be said to run dow the stairs, more a jangling series of long, jarring hops, barely cut short as he fell into Richard's arms, just shy of scalding water. He looked at the man with eyes over-wide and flicking left and right rapidly... he looked half-mad, but he was visualizing everything he knew about from their prep work. "We've got nearly no way out, man. Most everything's back towards that, that monster and I don't-"

Wait. Hot water. He slapped at the pockets of his jumpsuit and grabbed at a vial. The nano-machines were basically self-fueled, but they could convert anything to energy.

Anything.

"Can you hold that thing off? I think I can clear the stairs and keep it off our backs at the same time, but I need a minute, here."

Furiously, he ran calculations over in his head, hoping a favorable solution lay beyond the equal sign.

I'll spend another point of Willpower on Int + Hypertech so I can hopefully pull off the Genius roll in one go next round. Ugh, I never picked an Int specialty, but whatever it would be, I don't think this is what Devon's specialized in.

And as always, I hate the ones cancel rule.
Int+Hypertech: Devon Arc failed (1 failure) using 6d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 ((1,1,9,5,4,3)).

Oh well, I guess some gambles aren't meant to pay off.

Claire got up and moved away and took cover around a brick wall while she let the ADEI do it's download. Sure, it was going to take a moment, but Claire felt it was the only way that she was going to help with a resolution.

James (15). Sandra (13). Claire (12). Richard (11). Devon (10)/Machinist (10). (Jacki 9). Prime (8). Golem (7).

James bounced up the stairs, relying on his enhanced dexterity to remain steady in the aftermath of the initial quake. Somewhere far up, on the 6th or 7th floor, he heard a ceiling collapse, shaking the building a second time and further destabilizing the collapsing structure of the tower. Lights flickered as electricity systems went down. The building was in a bad state. He glanced at his chronograph, he'd have to pick up speed ...

Sandra was hesistant but ducked past the molten rock creature and tried to run down the stairs to Devon and Richard. Devon had her gear and without it she couldn't even begin to tackle this mess.

Claire managed to block out the distractions and entered the desired download state. In her heightened state of awareness she was capable of hypercramming temporary skills suitable for her current situation. It wouldn't last long but it would let her think up a viable plan. She began to inventorize her surroundings. While she wasn't clear on exactly what was coming down after her team mates explosives were usually a good bet when trying to stop something big and nasty ..
(I'll let you know your options shortly since this is not instant knowledge but you have 5 successes so you'll figure something out once you snap out of your trance. You'll be busy downloading and extrapolating information next round)

Richard saw no way around the hot steaming geyser emanating from the cracked unit. He expected the pressure would eventually lessen and the heater wouldn't be able to heat all the water escaping for a long time. Which was little comfort in light of the imminently collapsing building and the magma monster at the top of the stairs. And now Devon wanted him to .. hold the entity made of molten rock off. He quickly tried to think of alternative routes. But caught between steam and an alien molten rock entity left him with no real options. Except through the walls ..

Devon couldn't figure out the most favorable pattern to feed into his nanomatrix. He might still be able to pull off the move but activating the damn thing to make the desired shape was going to be tricky.
(Devon, you can still make an Arete roll for the effect the next round but with the difficulty 6 that i mentioned earlier)

The machine man recharged and attempted to fire his plasma weapon again. Having Jacki right in his line of sight Jacki prepared to duck the beam. Observed by a small group of onlookers from a distance the highly experimental weapon fired up but the plasma buildup fizzled out before it was discharged. Jacki got lucky and made use of the weapon misfiring and leapt up to plant her foot in the cyborg's face. She hit him square in the jaw, knocking his head sideways and staggering him.
(lucky you, the vulgar plasma weapon had trouble firing on account of being observed by sleepers)

The robed teleporter began muttering incantations again from the safety of his secret sanctum santorum ...

The giant made of living molten rock swung its powerful arm at Sandra. Caught unaware Sandra managed to duck under its massive arms and slid/ran-crawled down the debris-strewn stairs toward Devon and Richard.
(8 dice on its attack and no successes, sigh ..)

(round 3, lets try to get through this round within 3 days rather than a week this time)

It's a choice between terrible and worse, but it's not the first such choice Richard has made in his life.

He pats Devon on the shoulder and moves past him to where he can hear the deviant spirit crashing down the hallway.  "Excuse me!  Tall, dark, and glowing?" he roars at the top of his lungs, over the unsubtle shifting of the building, making his way a bit up the stairs.  "If I could have a moment of time before you pound us all into bits?  I've never had the chance to speak with one of your kind and I'd love the chance to learn more about you before we all get crushed beneath your overwhelming strength!"

All in.

OOC: We're going to hope it has some sort of notion of vanity and appeal to that as a stalling or possible door-making tactic. More specific plans emerge if it a) answers, or b) is susceptible to Mind effects without a Spirit prerequisite.

When Sandra caught up, she took the kit from Devon with trembling hands.

"Wh... What do we do?" she asked, unable to hide the fear in her voice. She fumbled with the latch and took a synthetic fiber gauntlet with an embedded touch screen display and a miniaturized multi-field manipulator array. Hurriedly, she pulled it onto her left arm and felt some relief as the display blinked to life, the nano filaments weaved in the material interfaced with her arm and hand to detect their motions, and a connection confirmation appeared on the heads up display in her glasses.

Her face paled when she heard Richard call out to the beast. That was not at all what she expected. And she wondered briefly if Richard had lost his mind.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:56, Wed 20 Apr 2016.

Rounding onto another floor James spared a quick glance for any sign of the others fleeing, hampered somewhat by the inconsistent lighting, before heading upwards again. Still no sign of the others, if they had headed out and no-one had bothered to communicate that he planned to bring it up at the debrief assuming he survived this experience.

Devon growled, unable to complete his calculations, but needing to do something. He pulled out a cylinder from an inner pocket. Witha twist, he pulled the top off the cylinder... which promptly softened, revealing itself to be a silicon-based putty, programmable, durable, and heat-resistant.

To a point.

"If this works, which it should but maybe not cause this stuff isn't tested yet, we go forward... if it doesn't, which maybe it won't cause y'know, see previous statement, I think we still go forward, cause better scalded than crisped, y'know?" His words came quick, jittery, as much a babble to release tension as voiced decision. His fingers slapped at his pocket until he found a measuring tool, a long, thin rod helpful for smal, highly accurate distance recording. He formed the putty around the rod, hen wiggled it, widening the tunnel in the putty, before he eyeballed the steaming pipe. Wincing in preparation of the pain he was likely about to feel, he jammed the putty over the pipe and bent it, aiming it back at the lava monster simultaneously jamming a small device into the putty, which would shock it, signalling the putty to maintain its current configuration.

Assuming it worked, of course. "Clear!" he shouted, hoping Richard would get the warning, but not the slow-moving lava beast.

I'll go ahead and spend my one point of quintessence on this'n and another point of Willpower, so that'll be dif 5 and need one more success.

Devon Arc rolled 3 successes using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 5 ((10,6,5)).

Woo! alright, so that's 4 total successes. Any chance of something going unexpectedly well, maybe a weird reaction with the heat and the water that supercools it as it hits the lava dude? Either to constrain it or for damage, maybe?

As James ran further up the stairs water was leaking from upstairs. James heard someone .. Richard? .. yelling upstairs
(For dramatic purposes I'll let James reach the team at the beginning of the next round

Sandra had her kit back, and putting it on gave her a little jolt of feeling ever so slightly more secure. It didn't last long when the massive glowing rock-thing began moving down the stairs after her and her team mates.

Richard saw no outward sign that the creature recognized his attempt to communicate with it, there were no facial expressions, its face as immovable as rock in most places with flickering streaks of molten magma seeping from between the solid parts of the creature. There was no understandable body language save perhaps aggression and anticipation, and whether the magma entity was even capable of human speech was equally impossible to determine as the only noise it made was the grinding of rocks against each other and the bubbling of the furnace inside the creature. If it did have sentience it either completely ignored Richard's words or simply did not understand them. As it came down the stairs the steps made of marble cracked under its weight, its eyes two menacingly glowing orange pinpricks glaring at Richard. Its crude hands malformed into a sort of funnel from which black smoke escaped and an orange glow, like the mouth of a volcano ..

"Clear!" Devon shouted, hoping Richard would get the warning, but not the slow-moving lava beast. Steam scolded Devon's face and hands as he slapped the putty on the pipe and aimed it at the lava creature. A focused beam of water shot at the magma entity. While for humans the water was scolding hot a creature made of magma had different parameters for comfort. The magma cracks began to crystalize under the water's cooling effect, and with it the magma monster's steps grew slower, less mobile, and for a moment it appeared to stand still alltogether.
(while the skin of your face and hands is painful and red you managed to soak the damage). The extra successes have cooled the molten rock down. It will need to make a strength roll to break free, but it is not helpless and more than likely will break free at some point. It needed 4 successes this round, 3 next round, 2 the round after that, etc)

The rock monster strained to break free from its petrifying shape, forcing its inward lava core to the surface to splinter its rigid hide and regain movement. The fleshings would burn for their insolence!
(but not this round as it failed its strength roll to break free)

Outside, Claire began to inventorize her surroundings, her ADEI downloading the information she needed to puzzle together the components to build a bomb. This was not going to be easy without any tools. It would require some quick thinking and rapid assembly.
There were cars parked nearby, cars had gasoline. She saw a truck left behind by the driver after the initial shockwave. It was stacked with water containers. She glanced at her watch. It could be used as a timer. She'd need wiring. She'd need the car battery as well.
Claire went to work.
(Claire will be assembling a bomb made of water containers filled with gasoline, a car battery and a digital watch. It'll take a couple of rounds)

Jacki still struggled with the man-machine. It now tried to swipe at her with his left fist, sharp blades protruding from between the knuckles. Jacki ducked and narrowly escaped a claw to the face, then planted her own fist squarely in the cyborg's lower abdomen. A low growl escaped the burly man but Jacki realized her opponent's skin and bones were likely enhanced to witstand the impact of her punches. She hadn't fought anything like this before. This one could match her pound for pound. Metal versus mutations.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:45, Sat 23 Apr 2016.

(round 4, post your actions, lets see if we can finish this round in 3 days :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:39, Sat 23 Apr 2016.

There's a thin smile that crosses Richard's expression as the EDE slows and comes to a halt -- it lasts only a moment, but it's there.

Then, business all over again.  "MOVE!" he shouts to the other two Technocrats, slapping Sandra on the shoulder and leading the charge down the stairs to hopeful safety.  "Get to a clear radius!  This place is still coming down around us!"

OOC: running running running down the stairs and out.

Claire continued her construction of the makeshift explosive, being careful to get the air-fuel mixture as close to ideal as possible by letting the fuel pumps atomize the gasoline between the various containers while she worked on other components. "I really need to begin carrying a gun."

Sandra was keying in commands into her gauntlet when Richard urged her on. She stumbled forward, stopped, and twisted her torso back towards the lava creature.

"Wait! Almost...!" she shouted, tapping the touch screen a final time to execute the commands. She extended her palm towards the monster as the emitters in the multi-field array hummed and glowed. The air between the two shimmered with waves of energy.

When the burst finished, she wasted no further time. Sandra spun on her heels and sprinted back the way they had entered the building.

Though she had not had any time to properly analyze the data that she had gathered, it was likely that the lava creature was a dimensional entity. By manipulating the local Umbral signature surrounding it she hoped to "tag" the creature. Perhaps later they could find a way to work together to bring it down from a distance with their combined efforts of Inspired Science. Or at least this might make it easier to track it down.

07:41, Today: Sandra Reyes rolled 2 successes using 3d10 with the World of Darkness 3rd ed system with a target of 6 with rolls of 3,7,6.  The Reach and the View, Dimensional Vibration a (Data 2, DS 2).

I'm assuming base 5, +1 fast casting, -1 personalized instrument, +1 magical effect that's not a Procedure.

(where can i find a description of that procedure sandra?)