Another group of travelers arrives as the first group is still picking through the heavily battle-scarred terrain.

(This is your chance for the groups to intermingle and exchange information.  I'll have more for you all soon.)

Ahead of the buggy and the floating platform, the Titan with Eos emblazoned upon it's torso in neon graffiti where a serial number should be stomped to a halt by the other parked vehicles. His rail cannons whirred once as they swept over them, then slowed to a halt and disengaged. Some moments later a belly hatch swung open and a stocky elven figure in body armour hung for a moment from a bar inside and dropped to the ground in a crouch. Behind him the hatch swung shut on remote as he sauntered to the inn's entrance removing his helmet.

Walking among the group that is picking through the battle scene is a 6'3" man with black hair, brown eyes, and bright smile. He has a rifle sling over his shoulder and there is a helmet hung on the barrel. The weapon is some kind of TW rifle. He looks up at the Titan and heads towards the elf disembarking. He is dressed in one of the MDC Western dusters over some kind of black jumpsuit and he hails the elf in Dragonese/Elvin no less.

Kahl had moved over to his Megistias when he saw the approaching vehicles. The Titan robot was concerning but aside from sweeping its guns over them, it didn’t seem interested in being hostile. It was poor etiquette, not to mention safety, to muzzle people with a weapon capable of spewing high speed metal death but then again, the pilot of the Titan might have done it out of caution, rather than negligence or nastiness. Since the new comers didn’t seem interested in attacking, he bade his flaming sword and shield to banish. He kept his protective blue aura about him though. If everything continued to be calm, it too would vanish.

When the elf dropped out of the robot, Kahl was mildly surprised. It wasn’t often he saw elves taking to high tech equipment like a combat robot. Sure he had seen plenty make use of things like compound bows, exploding arrowheads, even a sniper rifle but ‘trapping’ themselves inside a robot vehicle, cut off from the sensory output of the world around them? That was something unusual enough to grab Kahl’s curiosity. He watched as the elf pilot sauntered on over to the Inn and remarked softly to Megistias, “Well there is something you don’t see everyday cousin.”

Driving cross-country with a hoverdisk and a giant, humanoid robot is an interesting thing.  And Darvin enjoys interesting things, despite the things in his life that had led him here, and the most recent circumstances as well.
He watches the scenery go by, and engages Wire in conversation, mostly small-talk.  Asking him questions about where he is from, he shares just as much about his own past in the Chi-town Burbs.
It was a pain, hiding my "condition" from the Dead-boys.  Not as bad as some of the other mutants and mutoids in the Burbs, though.  I'm short, skinny, but look pretty much like a normal human.  My doctor?  She had to put on make-up to cover her blue skin, and had to cut her hair every day because it would grow at least an inch in twenty-four hours.
When they pull up to the Horny Goat, the young chef eyes it warily for several moments before noticing the nearby carnage and destruction.  Are those bodies Coalition troops?
He climbs out of the Big Boss, his C-18 left under the seat just in case, and walks over to Silver as he strides towards the inn.  When the very tall (to Darvin) man with dark hair walks up, he stiffens slightly.  Then he hears the man speak a language he is sure the CS would execute a person just for knowing, and he relaxes a bit.  He walks up to the building and puts his hand on it, pushing just enough to test its solidity.  Not that it matters, really.  The last inn felt entirely real, right down to the textures and tastes of the food he prepared, and the heat from the ovens.  I hope this one is real.  All that food I thought I ate at the last one has left me feeling a bit empty in the belly.

Wire, in turn, had been opening up about his past-- scandal and a rapid fall from a respected physician to a nobody, and rebuilding himself as a black-market cyberdoc after a near-suicidal drunk confrontation with cybered-out gangsters.

"...and that's how I wound up getting a rifle like this as a gift," he finished as they saw the approaching robot.  They didn't look hostile, but he kept one hand on his rifle anyway.  You just never knew, these days.

"Good work, Rod. Even if all we can do is copy the data, it's a start, and it can be reviewed later." Carl, still running the numbers regarding what just happened and the salvage acquired, simply glanced up from his analysis, recording his observations into his own pocket computer. "I'm not sure if they are dead Coalition or not. They likely were live CS at some point, but since humans normally don't take sustained antitank fire for any length of time once the armor is gone, I am going to go with 'no' as for what they were at the time of death."

He looked at the incoming group, giving a quick size-up and noting no demands had been made. "So, any of you just happen to be a medic? We have wounded, last I checked."

Wire got out of the vehicle and approached Carl.  That might as well have been directed to him and him alone, after all.

"That would be me," he said.  "Call me Wire.  I'm actually a cyberdoc by trade, but I can just patch up meat if that's what you need.  Who's hurt, and how badly?"

Gabby had also let her flaming sword dissolve and sheathed up her short sword as she  crouched down to examine the dead Dead Boys with Rod and Carl. Like Carl, she also looked up nonchalantly as the giant robot and Big Boss pulled up. There was quite a gathering of unique individuals happening here. It had to be fate.

She stands up as Wire approaches and introduces himself, and takes the opportunity to quickly check out the rest of the group he'd come in with. "Gabby, Rod, Carl." She introduces the trio. "There's a few wounded inside." she adds.

Megs says back to Kahl, "Nope. Then again this is Rifts Earth, so pretty much anything goes."

As the rest arrive, "Excellent Wire, there are some wounded inside that could use your attention. Yes those are former, we think, CS soldiers, but they were zombified or something and took a heck of a lot of firepower to take down even one of them."

Have you seen their faces?  Looked inside the armor?  While he had spent their own battle fighting the mages, he knew some of the others had been fighting animated corpses.

Rod follows along after he is done searching the soldiers for any cyberware or personal data devices. There was nothing of ether on them-only weapons and armor. As a result, he follows Carl and Gabby, and lumbers over with his heavy steps. When Gabby introduces him to the others, he does so. His glowing eyes taking in each newcomer, checking their body temperature for any possible borg status or undead nature.

The men inside what was left of their armor are fairly well burnt and mangled from energy weapons and dragon fire.  There was nothing on them to show that they were anything but human.

Well, it's nice to meet you folks.  I guess.  What I want to know is;  Is the Horny Goat real?  Or is it some magical illusion?  The diminutive Vagabond crosses his arms as he asks, his gaze locking on to each of them in turn.

OOC:  Eyeball a Fella @56%
10:06, Today: Darvin Jaster rolled 23 using 1d100.
10:05, Today: Darvin Jaster rolled 20 using 1d100.
10:05, Today: Darvin Jaster rolled 8 using 1d100.
10:05, Today: Darvin Jaster rolled 66 using 1d100.
10:05, Today: Darvin Jaster rolled 31 using 1d100.
10:05, Today: Darvin Jaster rolled 21 using 1d100.
10:05, Today: Darvin Jaster rolled 49 using 1d100.  Wrong die type.  56%.
10:05, Today: Darvin Jaster rolled 1 using 1d20.  Eyeball a Fella at 56%.

"Well there Mister, most of us were enjoying a fine meal in the Inn before all these things came attacking us. It is as real as I have ever known anything to be...."

He looks back at the fellow, but not very hard, more like answering a question and waiting for something else to happen.

Carl started with Darvin's second question. "It is as real as anything else out here."

"As for 'are they human,' for the moment I am guessing 'not quite.'" He moved to the inn, while speaking. "Current data suggests they are an extra-dimensional hostile force with the M.O. of possessing soldiers and augmenting their physical forms to supernatural levels. Thankfully, they aren't very smart, and since none of us are showing abnormal behavior, my guess is that they cannot simply abandon and repossess at will."

He scowled at an unwelcome thought as he turned to Gabriella. "Actually, Gabe, that's a thought: are any of us showing signs of possession? I am making a presumption when I say we aren't, and a dangerous one at that."

"Nobody I've noticed," said Wire.  "So, like I said, who's hurt?  Come on, now.  Speak up.  I can't fix you up if you stay quiet.  Don't be afraid of the nice doctor man.  He may be ugly, but he prevents infection and internal bleeding."

Yeah.  We thought ours was real.  Hell, I'd been cooking all morning.  Then we woke up, in the same place, hanging from trees as a group of mages were sacrificing the customers to open a Rift, and no inn in sight.
Hearing what has been going on the area here, Darvin shakes his head.  Seems this area is pretty active, magically speaking.

Gabriella shrugs at Carl's question. "Hard to say, but I don't think so. I don't know anyone other than you and Rod to know if they're acting strange. Nobody is shuffling towards the inn. I don't sense anything vampiric, and these things don't seem undead. That brings up a good question... what were these things trying to do? And why? It's kind of random to attack this inn... unless there's someone here worth attacking."

Gabby approaches Megs and whispers to him, more so nobody in the inn would hear. She was fine if any of her own party or the newcomers heard. "Got any spells that might suss out if anyone in here is particularly extra afraid of these things, or recognizes them, or otherwise sticks out psychically?"

Megs replies to Gabs, "Not especially. If somebody is possessed I could possibly exercise it, but that is all other than 'sense magic'."

(I know it's been awhile so I'll remind you guys of the portal that opened up in the inn before the larger portal opened with the invaders.)

In reply to Gabriella (msg # 19):

"They all show up on infra-red, expect for the bionic ones of course. Suckers don't have cyberware." He points out to Gabby and Carl. That being said he keeps an eye on them just in case. The cyberdoc held genuine interest for him, he headed over to Jer Wire. "You an implant specialist Doc, or you do any work on full body conversions?"

"Meat, metal, both, whatever," said Jer.  "I've had more experience with bionics, but I can work on you, too, assuming that you don't have some weird Riftworld tech I've never seen before in there."

...Which was a hazard in this world, he reflected.  Not all his work involved fitting a prosthetic leg on an adolescent girl, or patching up laser burns on some unfortunate.  Some of it was strange.

Darvin steps away from the inn and looks around both groups.  So, you guys going to collect the armor from the dead Dead-boys?  I see you collected the weapons.  Id you can patch the armor up, you can get a decent price for it through the Black Market.  Hey, any of them have a vibro-knife?

(The armor is too far gone for any patching.  No knives, either.)

One of the owner's daughters walks out to the group.  "Excuse me, but Athena...  Uh, the woman that fell into the bar before that attack...  She wants to talk to you all.  She says it's of the utmost importance.  Like the entire planet is in danger."

The name of the woman, Athena, caught Kahlvyn's attention. He very much doubted that it was the actual goddess but just the fact they shared the same name piqued his curiosity. He looked at Magistias, jerked his head at the entrance of the bar, and then began walking towards it.

Darvin looks surprised.  All of us?  Really?  Even those of us who just got here?  He looks at his own travelling companions and shrugs his shoulders.  Turning back, he heads inside.

"Good name." Gabby approves as she follows the others to where the person indicates Athena will see them.

"Glad she recovered." Carl frowned. "She might need checking on anyways. I've seen wounded swear they can fight with a hole in them, and that they don't need help."

He was rounding up his weapons, checking clips, and powering down his missile launcher. He noted the replacement costs, and considered the inn to be worth it in the moment.

When they moved inside, they spotted her right away.  She was very pale with her damp, blond hair in clumps and a plain sheet wrapped around her chest.  Deep bruising could be see coming from under the sheet and across her shoulders.  Still she somehow managed to dominate the room.  "Greetings.  I'm told we all owe you a debt of gratitude, especially myself since I was the one that brought the danger here.  You're all wondering what you faced out there.  Even in my weakened state I can still sense that.  While most easily mistake them for zombies, they are in fact Soulless.  They are created using a particularly foul brand of sorcery by ones called Harvesters through their association with a dark alien intelligence, Nxla.  Theirs is a secretive cult, for obvious reasons.  The elder council of Psyscape first discovered them over 200 years ago.  All of our city's resources were devoted to destroying this cult.  Once the mission was done, the city went into hiding to watch for their return.  The insidious nature of the cult meant we had to keep it a secret, for there were many that would find such power irresistible.  When we sensed  the return of Nxla and its cult, we acted to stop it.   Unfortunately they had planned for us.  My entire assault group was destroyed by their combined forces.  Even my cyber-knight protector who stopped one last blast meant for me so that I could ensure that our failure would not doom this dimension.  With only a small defense force left, we may not be able to put a stop to Nxla.  Your group not only seems capable, but courageous enough to stand firm in the face of evil.  So I must ask, will you help Psyscape put a stop to Nxla, once and for all?"

"Those things barely needed any armor. In fact, I rather think it was more for disguise than protection." He says to the woman. "Do they have any weaknesses? Sliver? Fire? Water?" The vulnerabilities of vampires where seemingly endless, but Rod had faced very few of the 'regular' undead. If such a thing could be said to be 'regular'...

Kalhvyn listened as the beautiful blonde told her tail of impending doom. “What is it with this world?” he wondered to himself. “Other worlds can go millennia without apocalyptic calamities falling on them but this Earth? Nope, bridge too far.”

Though his thoughts, had anyone been able to hear them, would seem flippant, even callous, the young Undead Slayer truly did care about the welfare of this world. If it had been any other way, he wouldn’t have set foot on it. Though he had been born in another dimension and raised on an entirely different world, he had grown up hearing the stories told by the elders of his race. That had spoken of this Earth in reverent tones, extoling its beauty and of his people’s blood connection to it, their ancestral home world.

Kalhvyn had never heard of Psycape, Soulless or Nxla but was willing to believe that the mysterious woman was telling the truth. It could all be part of some elaborate ruse but he didn’t really think that was the case. As he looked around at the assembled people, he felt that the entire current situation seemed far too random rather than the contrivance of some master planner.

He waited as the borg asked his questions, curious as to the answers Athena would give. He was already forming his own questions but he could demonstrate patience when it was called for. He nudged Megistias in the ribs gently with an elbow and when his cousin looked at him, he jerked his head at the bar. “I’m thinking this is going to take a while,” he said softly. “Want me bring you back a drink?”

"Yes, like many supernatural creatures, they are quite resilient.  They do have a weakness, though.  For reasons still not understood, they are vulnerable to psychic powers.  Their bond to this alien entity also makes them vulnerable to holy and rune weapons."  Athena pauses and takes a deep breath.  "Here comes the wrinkle...  If their souls can be freed from Nxla or his Harvester cultists, they can return to normal beings.  As long as their bodies are not destroyed.  It is unfortunate that their nature makes it difficult to avoid damaging them.  Also, freeing souls from Nxla would require assaulting him on his home plane or one on which he has physically manifested.  It can be done, but the sacrifice is not insignificant."

"You aren't kidding about the sacrifice part." Carl was running through the numbers. "Assuming we have the good fortune to not walk into some Black Market smartass marking up prices due to 'demand' or some nonsense, it's 2400 credits per plas mini-missile, 1500 per recharged clip, 2500 for the long ones, 2500 per canister, half a cred per rail shot, and that's not even bringing costs of equipment repair and replacement on the table."

"But yeah, if this Nxla manifests, which I'm assuming from context is some sort of alien god, he can be killed. Hell, I think everything that screws around with this world dies eventually." He leaned against one of the walls, after he gave it a quick test for stability. "Makes me wonder why the demons even bother sometimes. Maybe they're just slow learners."

He paused as he considered this Athena person. "I'll ask you what a Harvester is right after we figure out how we can fund this war you'd like us to do for you. This world is one of unending war, and the winner of it will be the one who understands how to conserve resources."

Psychic abilities?  Darvin seems perplexed.  My mother was the psychic in my family.  Mind Melter.  I'm just a cook and a businessman wandering the world.  He gives a bit of a chuckle.  How much good am I going to do?  I got no magic weapons or runes.

Athena seems mildly irritated by Carl's bean-counting.  "How much is too much to pay for an Earth free from Nxla's clutches?  How much is too much to keep your soul?  Will a stockpile of  missiles keep you comfort when everyone you know has had their soul ripped from them?"  She pauses for a breath of calming.  "Psyscape does not use credits, but we are not without resources.  You will have all the aid we can muster."

"Harvesters are dark mages that worship Nxla and have learned dark rituals to steal souls and use them to fuel their sorceries.  They are beyond redemption.  Every one of them killed is a step back for Nxla.  They are hard to find as they are mostly normal beings without markings and skilled at blending in."

Seeing that the bartender was nowhere in sight, Kahlvyn reached over the bar and poured a shot of whatever whiskey he could find for himself and another for Magistias. He left a credit chip worth twenty on the counter and walked back, drinks in hand to where the question and answer session was on going.

Unlike Athena, he appreciated Carl’s concerns. A result of the training he had received. “Amateurs study tactics,” they had told him, “professionals study logistics.” One could have the moral high ground, a belly and head full of righteousness and a signed seal of approval from every god of Light but none of that would slay demons and monsters. Swords, arrows, rifles, bullets, armor, rations, vehicles to move rations and munitions, support personnel to repair, rearm, feed and heal warriors…those things were what won wars, not good intentions. Athena had responded to Carl's question but not really answered it. It sounded like she was asking for a long term commitment, not something that would be taken care of over the course of a weekend. That would mean Psycape, wherever it was and however big it was, would have to agree to supporting the needs, all the needs, of those it recruited to fight in this war. Was it able to do that? Did it possess the resources to properly equip and maintain everyone?

She had dodged answering the question directly though and Kahlvyn hadn't failed to notice that. It could be she had just given a snappy response, born of high emotion and righteous indignation at the question but then again, maybe not. Whatever the cause for her lack of a firm response, Kahl didn't want to press her about it at this time. He saw other questions that needed answers. The logistical concern could be returned to in a while.

He handed one of the glasses to Magistias, downed his own and set it down on a nearby table. Seeing as no one else was asking anything of Athena at the moment, he decided now was his turn. “Do these Harvesters have the same…durability as the Soulless? And the same weakness to psionics?” He then waited for her answers. He had more questions but he was being patient.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:56, Fri 03 Nov 2017.

Darvin looks incredulously amused.  So, our quest is to locate and kill untraceable, magic-using minions, and to eventually defeat an unbeatable monster from another dimension.  Sounds like a Thursday to me, he says sarcastically.  Suddenly, something dawns on him, and he turns to face his companions.
Those zombies you guys were fighting, while I was fighting the mages... was there anything different about them from the normal zombie?  I wouldn't know because I've never fought zombies before.

Kal snorted in amusement at Darvin's question about zombies. "You mean aside from them refusing to go down? Not much that I could tell."

"They weren't zombies." Gabby replies to Darvin matter-of-factly, like that explained it. "We don't know when you were fighting the mages, but they did not seem to change characteristics during our battle." she adds.

"Clearly someone must destroy this Nxla. Although this one has a good point about the apparently impossibility of the task." she says.

I have no idea what or who you were fighting, he says to Gabriella then points off in the direction from which he and his companions had come, because our fight was several miles back thataway.

"We were fighting a dozen 'Soulless'. They are not zombies. They have none of the typical resistances, weaknesses, or aura of undead. Nor did anything about them change during the battle." Gabby tries to explain.

"Yeah, a beer would be great," he says to Kahlvyn.

"Fighting off these guys will require an army. We are just a small band of mercs looking for some jobs that offer pay. We have to eat you know."

He knows he is 'playing it', but keeping their 'cover' is always a good idea.

Well, we were tricked with a very realistic illusion of a tavern, captured, and almost sacrificed in front of an open Rift.  I was wondering we might have been dealing with Harvesters and Soulless ourselves.

"Harvesters are, for the most part, the same as any other wizard.  They have the same strengths and weaknesses of most traditional invokers.  It sounds like some of you here have run afoul of them.  That you survived with your souls intact says much of your abilities.  The ritual you describe would have removed your souls and sent them to Nxla.  Your bodies would have received a fragment of his essence and gone on to do his bidding as Soulless."

"This isn't going to be a conventional war.  We will not be able to overpower them as we did in the past.  They learned from their past defeat.  They have hired all kinds of mercenaries, co-opted the local garrisons into Soulless, and used our past tactics against us.  The defeat handed to our forces has convinced me that we cannot succeed as planned.  We need to change our tactics.  Find their sacrificial altars and destroy them.  Root out the Harvester cults.  Cut off their supply lines and make the mercs abandon them.  I will advise you and secure what resources I can, but I fear Psyscape has been compromised.  The totality of this defeat indicates this.  They were too well prepared."

Megs looks over at Kahl. This is straight up their ally, as it were, given what they are. However, Megs is unsure about getting involved in a war and raises an eyebrow at Kahl to see if he is up for it.

Darvin nods his head.  Then, maybe the smart thing to do is set them up to fight the Coalition whenever we can.  Larger units of CS troops.  Or even convince the Dead-Boys to help us.  Can we pit them against the Federation of Magic, too?

"Too dangerous." Carl shook his head at Darvin. "The CS will either want to claim and hold territory, turning whatever ground they gained into a zone of martial law - or they will just kill everything and salt the earth as they leave. So I would advise considering them a wild card for now unless you are okay with either outcome. Besides, who's making that bargain with them? I associate with mages and renegade 'borgs, so I'm off the table unless I can disguise myself AND be credible to them at the same time."

"Although..." He was thinking on Athena's words. "That they have mercenaries and have seized CS firebases is actually good for our supply situation. I think both sides will be fighting an asymmetrical war: we will be aiming for resources to use to fight with, same as Nxla. He just has a headstart, but unlike us, he can't draw too much attention to himself, or the game is just as over for him as it would be for anyone in Federal Territory who's britches get too big."

"I'll need all the information we can get on this entity, his known forces, his locations, the landscape around them...nothing is insignificant until I've analyzed it." He nodded to Darvin. "And you've got the right idea about getting allies. Just not the CS."

I could talk to them, he says with a shrug.  My parents were former CS soldiers who were pretty well respected in the Chi-town Burbs.  Their hotel was frequented by quite a few enlisted and officers.  They might not be looking for me....
The short man looks to the ground as he trails off, then looks back up.  My parents told me that there were a number of times in their missions that it came down to "The enemy of my enemy os my ally."
He then looks directly at Carl Petros.  For your information, I was involved in one of the worst battles of Net-Set, Dogboys, and Regular Infantry, against a "mutant menace" in the Burbs.  Six square blocks, including my parents' hotel, got razed to the ground.

"The politics game is dangerous," said Wire.  "Don't trust the CS to do what you'd expect or want.  It's better if we can cut off these fiends at the source-- small, mobile strikes that they can't react to in time."

"But how do we tell the difference between a Harvester and a regular ole spell caster, like Magistias here?" Kahlvyn asks Athena. "I'm not all that keen on taking the Coalition approach and killing every spell caster we come across. We have to have some means of detecting them, preferably at range or else your war goes from incredibly difficult to impossible."

"Fortunately, they are not hard to spot if you have any psychic ability.  Their evil nature gives them an unmistakable aura.  Don't let that fool you into thinking they are easy targets, because they are aware of this, too.  Most will have Soulless protectors with them.  Even if the controlling Harvester is killed, the Soulless will fight on.  Masterless, they will kill any living being within reach.  They are not completely mindless but will fall back on training and instinct if not under someone's control."

"Again bringing up psychic power." Carl put on a smirk and waved his bionic arm in a hello gesture to Athena. "Not all of us have those gifts, much less the holy or runic weapons you spoke so casually of."

Carl thought about the way they had been attacked. "But at least they don't retain that much of their training."

"Yes. They are tough, but clumsy." Gabby agrees with Carl's assessment. "

<yellow>"So we need to find some psychic powers, or holy or rune weapons. Anyone have any ideas where we can acquire those? I'd much rather take the fight to them after we have the proper weaponry."

Rod seems somewhat concerned these weapons would be so hard to come by. "I don't suppose just carving the proper runes will do?" He sounded doubtful.

Somehow I doubt it.  I don't exactly know anything about magic, but it couldn't be as simple as that.  He shrugs.  Besides, would anyone here know the runes needed?  I sure as Hell don't.

"Way out of my depth," said Jer.  "I do technology, and I do medicine, and that's about it."

Hey, Doc, Jarvin says as an aside, how are you at patching up super tough skin?

...Odd question, given that no one had been willing to tell him who was actually hurt here.

"I can probably manage something," Wire said.  "So is someone actually hurt around here?"

Darvin almost look sheepish.  I got burned when one of those mages who were tryin' to sacrifice us, hit me with a spell.  That woman on the flying disk healed a lot of it, but I've still got a bit of charring to my skin.

In reply to Man in Black (msg # 53):

Megistias says, "Most interesting. Pretty easy to tell who the bad guys are if they are in the center of a group of soulless I guess. Does detect evil work on the soulless?"

"Yes.  The fragment of Nxla will set that spell off nicely."  Athena waits a moment for any further questions before moving on.

"Now unless there are further questions, I think it is time to start planning an end to this menace.  Which of you is the leader of this group?"

In reply to Man in Black (msg # 63):

"That would be Carl I guess...not sure how the others feel about that." He gestured to himself and Gabby. "But's he's our CO." He shrugged his overlarge shoulders.

Well, I can lead a kitchen staff through a slammin' dinner rush, but that's about it, the diminutive man says.  I'm pretty sure they're totally different animals.

"I'm a data analyst for hire. I've commanded before, and can do it again." Carl glanced to Gabby. If she wanted to bust him down, he'd have no objection to it. "I'm all on board with a plan. But I'm going to have a lot of questions we will need answered before we act on any plan."

"My first question is where exactly is this Nxla, and what do we know about its base of operations?" He knew it was through a Rift, but that was just a likely presumption as of now.

When Athena asked who was the leader of their group, his first reaction was to snort in amusement. Clearly she had no idea that what she was talking to was a collection of random individuals and not a cohesive group. He didn’t fault her for that though as she had only just met them. Kahlvyn thought that Rodrigo’s answer, that Carl is ‘their CO’, interesting. It added more weight to his suspicion that Carl was in fact a CS operative. At this point the only question in his mind was whether or not Carl was a current agent or former.

“So a relatively common spell can be used to detect the Soulless but not the Harvesters” Kahl thought considering the implications before speaking. “Unfortunately while that will help, it will also generate a lot of false positives by detecting evil that isn’t a Soulless. It will also do nothing to help detect an actual Harvester unless they are literally in the middle of a group of Soulless.”

He looked at Athena, hoping for something more. “Do you have anyway of detecting a Harvester at range without psionics? Detecting the Soulless is great and all but I though the point is to find and eliminate all of the Harvesters, unless I heard you wrong?”

In answer to Carl, "his home dimension is unknown.  There is a ritual to find him and attack him, but we lack the means of finishing him for good.  It would take more destructive force than we have to bear.  As to where they are operating from, I don't know.  We tracked them through one of their rituals.  Some of you with psychic ability may have sensed it.  We did so recklessly.  They lured us in to destroy us, which they pretty much did."

Responding to Kahl, "unfortunately no.  Finding and eliminating his harvesters is the goal, because he apparently needs a certain number to fully enter a dimension.  Every one we kill slows him down.  Finding each and every one of them will require some searching and scouting.  The Magic Zone is full of likely spots to find their altars.  Each one destroyed slows them.  They are not easily replaced.  I get the sense that you might already have an idea of where to find some of them," she says while looking directly at Carl.

Gabby shrugged at Carl. He knew she wasn't his biggest fan, but she didn't voice any objections. She looks at Kahl and Rod, "This Nxla sounds a lot like vampiric alien intelligences." she muses out loud.

Then she turns to Carl, "Do you know someplace we might start our investigation?" she asks.

In reply to Gabriella (msg # 69):

"Unless sliver works on them, we are still gonna need the right weapons." Rod said, nodding at Gabby's calculation.

The short chef turns to Athena.  Didn't you say. the Soulless were pretty easy to kill.  Well, I mean as in no special requirements to kill them.  If energy and conventional weapons are enough to kill them, then it should be relatively easy compared to staking/beheading/burning or disabling and sewing the salt-filled mouth shut.

"I know of one place that might have a lead." Carl points to the remains of the Dead Boys. "The base they came from. They might have jumped from a rift, but a CS outpost not far from here had a platoon vanish into the woods. Hush-hush, so as to avoid embarrassment that forty soldiers could vanish without any trace until now. That's why I want to get a read on that data Rod got for me."

He tapped the side of his helmet in thought. "The problem with the base is that I don't know what is more dangerous: if it is still CS held, or if it is Soulless held. Still, give me some eyes on it, and I can tell you with five minutes of information who has the base. If it is CS held, we'd have to tread real carefully. Garrison forces are often rife with frustration and laxness, and are notoriously brutal when they are given an outlet. Steer clear of the Dog Packs, too. They'll sniff the magic right off of you."

Athena answers Darvin.  "Their supernatural nature makes them incredibly tough, but they aren't resistant to any thing.  Energy weapons can take them down, but it can take a lot of energy to do so.  Just be warned, those whose souls were already a little thin might have a touch more autonomy than most.  Not all will walk blindly into enemy fire."

(So no you guys will have a little more free reign over things.  You have a major goal to accomplish which will require a few minor goals: ie hunt down Harvesters, find and destroy summoning altars.  You can assign minor missions (scouting, procurement, chasing rumors) to your own soulless, the characters without players.  Athena will advise where she can, but she is leaving the planning and action up to you.  If that's too much sandbox for you, I can also put together a mission board or something.)

Okay.  Gotcha.  No special requirements to kill.  Some may actually thunk a bit.  He saddles up to bar, easily getting up on one of the stools.  I am hungry right now.  Apparently, cooking and eating illusionary food is not very filling.
The small, handsome man raises a hand to get the attention of the barkeep so he can order a filling meal or two, and a fortifying (as in alcoholic) drink or four.

"Do you know approximately where in the woods they disappeared?" Gabby asks Carl. "If so, we could start there, and make our way towards the garrison if we don't find any clues."

"Someone mentioned something about finding one of these Harvester altars already right?" Kahlvyn asked the group in general. "I'm thinking that we should send a team there. If its lightly defended, we can take it out now and comb through the rubble for clues. On the other hand if its too heavily defended, we sit and observe for a while, see if we can learn anything useful before returning to the group."

OOC - In case anyone missed it, this is straight from the mission table.

I'm not sure if we did or not, Darvin says around bites of real stew and bread.  He washes it down with a mug of whatever beer or ale they brew.  All we know is a bunch of mages tricked us with illusions, knocked us out, bound us, and were sacrificing people.  We got loose and proceeded to kick the crap out of them.  They made some zombies join in, and we ended up burning all the corpses.

"CS logs are not meant to be accessed by civilians, so it will take some time to get that data about their point of exit, likely marked by the bios of the soldiers spiking as they realized 'oh crap we are walking through a rift and now being turned into horrible monsters.' As soon as I get it, we have a lead." Carl scowled as he considered the operation as it stood. "Depending on how long that takes, we might be better off getting further information or looking for supply opportunities. I might be able to pull on some strings to arrange for some supplies to fall off the back of a truck or two...although those will certainly have some strings attached in the form of credits paid or expectations to be met."

He considered what Darvin and Kahlvyn were discussing. "And good thinking. If they can be taken intact, a counter-attack will probably be launched, and a trap could be set for them with a potentially high payout in supplies and information gained...but that's a risky move, and asset denial would be safer."

“So can you find your way back to this altar?” Kahl asks Darvin.

Yeah.  It's not really that far away, he responds.  He then adds, a bit sheepishly, I don't think any of us thought to destroy it so no one else could use it again.

"That's alright," the Undead Slayer says to Darvin amicably. "No time like the present to correct a past mistake." Then he looks at the food Darvin is enjoying. "And by 'present' I mean at least ten minutes from now. I'd like to get me some of that too before we head off to face an unknown number of nigh unstoppable soulless zombies and powerful sorcerers. I just hate fighting on an empty stomach."

Darvin looks up at the Atlantean.  I hate doing anything on an empty stomach.  Especially when I've been cooking and eating all day, only for it all to turn out to be an illusion of some kind.

Gabby looks at Kahl with a mixture of amazement and distaste. "You just ate ten minutes ago..." she starts to say, then decides to shut up. That wasn't going to get her anywhere.

Summarizing what she thought the decision was and clearly anxious to have something settled, she says, "So we go check out this altar, leaving in ... an hour?" she directs the last as a bit of a question to the hungry men.

Darvin waves a hand to get the attention of the server, pushing his empty dishes and mug forward and pointing to indicate he wants more.  Three more servings, please, he says as he holds up a hand with three fingers extended.  He turns to Gabriella.  I should be ready to go in about thirty minutes.

"Sounds good, whenever you do this. I have a different mission to pursue, and I'm going to pull on some old strings I normally don't touch. Unless you have some information you want me to crunch on your behalf."

Carl was doing a mental count of the scavenged weapons. It was going to be hard to pass off this many C-10 rifles as anything but a scouting unit being bushwhacked and killed, but if he played his cards right and approached the right channels, he would be able to return the property in exchange for a bounty and a credit line of CS equipment. His real bosses would also appreciate the information regarding their fate, so they could stop trying to suppress information and start the process of "explaining" what happened.

He'd probably have to throw in the e-clips as well, which was a minor lament. He had his own copy of the data that Rodrigo had gotten him, on his micro-computer, and if no one here knew how to crack it, then he'd just turn it in and get it read from the source.

Who is going to the altar and who is going with Carl (if any)?

And where is Carl looking to go to start his investigation?
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:05, Sun 03 Dec 2017.

Darvin watches each of his new compatriots as they speak, paying attention to the back and forth intently, while eating silently.  His eyes focus in on Carl for a few moments then he looks away as his second plate and mug are delivered.  Yeah, that's it.  Just keep 'em coming. This is actually pretty good.  Maybe we can trade a couple of recipes, he say between bites of food.

Kahlvyn eats his meal quickly, finishing it in under a few minutes. "Whenever you are ready Darvin," he says to the self proclaimed cook.

In reply to Man in Black (msg # 86):

Rod will go with his CO Carl. Maybe his sensor array will help with the investigation somehow.

It is surprising how quickly the small man can eat, while maintaining overall good manners.  He doesn't speak with his mouth full or smack his lips, makes little mess, and cleans off every bite and sops up gravy of other liquids with bread.
I'll try to hurry up, he says with a smile.