NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7107186" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 12 (135) - Part One: Lya's Last StandMATUNAAGA SOLOI won’t bother to ‘tell’ the story of this all-too-brief encounter.  Matunaaga got the drop on the Ob and, thanks to an array of abilities that allow him to take multiple shots in a round (albeit with a substantial ‘to hit’ penalty), succeeded in dropping five of the eight members of the extraction team in the surprise and first round! Three skulks bolted – two for the main chamber, one hiding in an alcove, having yanked out the duplicant that occupied it. When Lya Jierre’s request for support came in (to a sending stone on the dead ambush mage), the hidden skulk darted out, only to picked off by Matunaaga, who had waited on overwatch for the chance to take him out.  Then Matunaaga ran down the tunnel, following the other two skulks into the Magma Emporium…MAIN COMBATLya calls in the extraction team.  She then scrambles over Conquo’s recumbent form, reaches Rush, and wraps her arms through the straps on Rush’s back as he brachiates over the lava.  (Merton retreats towards the upper platform stairs at the same time.)  Rush and Lya don’t get far:  Terakalir crashes into them mid-flight, catching Rush with her right claw, causing all three of them to plummet to the ground beside the conveyor belts.  Again Pemberton cries out in panic, pleading with his daughter to flee.Uru is alarmed and almost opens fire when one of the duplicants posed near the schematics table begins to move.  But it quickly takes on the shape of Xambria Meredith, extends a hand and asks the deep faen, “Can I borrow your pistol, please?” Uru obliges the professor, then follows Korrigan’s order to regroup, so that Korrigan can heal him. Only when Xambria checks the simple flintlock she has been handed does she realise that it’s empty! “I only use it for vendetta bullets,” Uru shrugs.Lya stands before the thrashing, flailing, maddened Terakalir.  “The last thing this world needs is another dragon tyrant,” she says, “even if you tree-worshippers don’t realise it.”  With that, she cuts off Terakalir’s other claw and runs the dragon through the chest for good measure.  Pemberton cries out in agony and grief.  Gupta catches Rush with a Question, “Have you worked out what’s going on yet?”  Rush pauses, confused.Two Obscurati skulks enter the chamber from the rail tunnel.  They seem panicked, and run for the cover of one of the pillars.  Matunaaga arrives shortly after them.Leon calls Rumdoom towards them, so that he can get them all across the chamber quickly in pursuit of Lya and Rush.  As Rumdoom runs across the platform, Merton tosses his resonant bomb, clipping the dwarf and ripping Pemberton’s duplicant to pieces.  The explosion causes the platform itself to begin to collapse, and Rumdoom has to scramble frantically over Conquo’s enormous form, as the lifeless golem slides inexorably towards the lava!  (As he clambers, Rumdoom inadvertently snags the Icon of Avilona around Conquo’s neck.  He gives a tug to free himself, and the icon comes with…)The guard rail does not seem to be affected by the platform's collapse, so Korrigan uses his Bolt of Avilona to try to reach the force beam controls.  He misses his footing, though, and has to use another bolt to get himself out of danger, arriving near Merton on the far side of the hole.  Uru – wishing his boss would leave things like this up to him – shadow walks to the controls and quickly appraises them.  Then he aims the beam at Lya.  She recoils under its force and leaps across the conveyor belt to escape.  She threatens Gupta with her wicked rapier and suggests they parley before someone else gets killed.Leon creates a wormhole for him, Xambria and Rumdoom to reach the far side of the platform, just as Conquo plunges into the lava and sinks out of sight. Rumdoom avenges the golem, lamping Merton with his hammer and knocking the half-orc off the platform.  Merton lands heavily but, muttering under his breath, scrambles to his feet, unphased.Gupta uses docker’s jank to switch places with Leon.  Leon creates a second wormhole back up onto the platform, and ducks through it.  Then Uru hits Lya with the force beam again.  (So that’s a ‘no’ to the whole parley idea, then…)Rush rappels across the chamber again and exhorts his mooks to turn around and charge Matunaaga. Emboldened, they do so.  Matunaaga shoulders his rifle, draws two pistols, and kills them both.  Rush says, “How about you put away those guns and we go toe-to-toe?”  To his surprise, Matunaaga obliges, and they meet in a balletic melee, rods against fists.  Lya spoils it by opening fire on Matunaaga (and others) with her dancing storm carbine. Then all bets are off.Denied a target for the force beam, Uru shadow walks into the steam-suit, knocking Tinker’s inert duplicant to one side and figuring out how to control the thing.  He turns and fires on Merton, who ducks behind a pillar, then strikes at the steam-suit’s legs, causing it to stagger back.The rest of the unit use Leon’s wormholes to cross the battlefield in pursuit of Lya, now that she has joined Rush in attacking Matunaaga.  The pair work well together, fending off blows and striking out at anyone who comes near.  Korrigan is forced to retreat and even Matunaaga begins to fail beneath their onslaught.  Leon is so badly hurt, he follows his wormholes back to the safety of the schematics room, where he catches sight of the Godmind Urn tangled in the webs Uru had used to restrain Rush and Tinker.Back at the ‘front’, Rumdoom clips Lya with a beam of frost, and Matunaaga draws his pistols again and unloads a whole clip at her.  Her defences, both magical and mundane, are superb.  It is anybody’s guess which way this fight will go.  Then in rapid succession, three things happen:1) Xambria calmly asks Korrigan for a bullet, which she loads into Uru’s pistol.  Then she shoots Lya in the head.  The Scion of the Jierre slumps lifeless to the floor.2) Electrified by a shot from Lya’s carbine, Rumdoom charges Rush and strikes him a sound blow with his hammer, summoning the spectral jaws of a King-bred Tyranossaur as he does so.  Rush dies screaming, coughing blood into his mouth.3) Merton raises his sonic staff in surrender.  Uru shows no mercy.  He fires his autocannon until Merton is dead, and keeps on firing long after he is dead, until the autocannon is empty.End of Combat</blockquote>

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