The Ballad of Echo Company - Episode 2 - Toujours En Avant

[Cavir]

Lt Xiloscient darts to some partial cover, more focused on analyzing the situation. There was no time to come up with a complicated plan. Take action, or the wrong people die.

"Jackpot! Rush through the left side. Stop them from starting up the big weapon. Capture the scientist. MOVE MOVE MOVE!"

The LT takes the lead with his elven fleet of foot and a battlecry, rushing toward the enemy at his left. He throws a grenade toward the enemy soldiers on that flank, placing it between them and their intended cover so they are charging right into the blast. He follows it up by conjuring a fog cloud covering the enemy to cover the Psychos' own charge.

Spoiler: OOC

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Without a map, I imagine the 2 squads are between us, side by side, with the scientists and their toy a ways behind that. Intent is to use the grenade to deal with the enemy on the far left and running around just to the left of that to circle around to the techs. Place a Fog Cloud over the 2 squads without hindering our path. If the 20' radius won't cover both squads then have it more to the left side so that as we swing around left the cloud is between us the the enemy soldiers not covered. The cloud will hide our movement, give cover, and hopefully have them looking the wrong way for us.

My Archetype gives me an extra attack. If I can't use that to throw the grenade and cast, then I'll use my Action Surge for it. Just let me know either way.

35' movement.
Grenade targets: (1d4+1)[5]
(3d6)[15] piercing
(3d6)[11] fire damage
Reflex 13 for half

[Waistcoatwill]

Doc

Doc surges forward in a panicked rush as soon as the gap in the door will admit his tiny frame. He runs practically underneath the LT's feet, narrowlying avoiding taking them both down. The unfolding chaos is a blur as he runs to filing cabinet.

Somehow some part of the skyknives basic training managed to fix itself into his addled brain. He blindly mimics Xilo's motions. The grenade is out of his hands before he knows it, his eyes widening in shock as the pun hits the floor. A short scream of apology follows it through the air as if tumbles towards the a knot of wild-firing soldiers.

He can't watch the carnage he knows he will cause. His shirt legs carry him finally towards cover. He spots the lead scientist further on, his scrunched up face a welcome target to fling his guilt at.

I've got some Angrief for you right here! He spits at the man, following it with a hastily snapped shot.

Flinging himself to the left he finds a series of half emptied filing cabinets. With a hasty wrench he drags open the middle drawer and hops inside. He hunkers down amongst the few remaining folders, the cover hiding the battle from his as much as him from it.

Spoiler: OOC

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Surprise round
Move 25 ft.
Toss grenade at soldiers (1d4+1)[3]
Piercing (3d6)[15]
Fire (3d6)[8]
Dex DC 13 for half

Second round
Move final 15ft to some.cover.
Fire at chief labcoat (1d20+7)[26]
For (1d6+4)[7] piercing damage
Hide in drawer

[Novabomb]

Pvt Gabriel Ginger grimaces as he cannot watch his diversion in action....otherwise it would not be a diversion.
He races forward gently placing (mage hand) his grenade in a separate cluster from the LTs.
He takes cover behind some fabrication equipment, and starts picking off the highest ranked Kriegers he can see.

Spoiler: OOC

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Surprise Round:
Move ahead to light cover
Std mage hand a nade (3d6)[11]Piercing (3d6)[7]Fire
Cunning Action Hide (Skulker feat allows hiding while lightly obscured) (1d20+10)[20]

Round 1:
Std Action: Attack (1d20+7)[25] Dmg: (1d6+4)[10] + (3d6)[7] (Sneak attack)
More hiding. (1d20+10)[29]

[JbeJ275]

Salamir was slower to react than normal, his attention momentarily captivated by the monstrous machine the vulters seemed to be working on. When he eventually recovered he dismissed the idea of throwing his own grenade, instead focusing on speeding towards the machine before it could be moved or activated. A forward sprint ended with him 60ft across the room and still proceeding at full speed. Sparky remained held tightly to his arm, marking him at the centre of a sphere of crackling guardian light.

[Continental Op]

Wolf, caught up in the moment, stands just inside the doorway and yells at the top of his lungs as he changes and becomes a feral beast. He does not like the looks of the giant machine in the room. He squeezes off a few shots at the labcoat he has the best line of sight to, aiming to kill.

Then, after the grenades go off and the fog descends, he yells, "Come on squad, you heard the Ell Tee!" His voice is slightly garbled from his elongated teeth and snout, but still recognizable to those used to it. Not waiting for the others, Wolf runs towards the machine with his M1 Thompson in one hand (the shoulder strap helping to stabilize it), and his trusty k-bar in the other.

Spoiler: OOC

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Wolf uses his bonus action to morph into his beasthide shape, gaining (1d6+9)[12] temporary HP and +1 to AC (making it 17).
Two shots at the unlucky labcoat, attack1: (1d20+9)[23] and damage (1d10+4)[13]
attack 2: (1d20+9)[11] and damage (1d10+4)[12]

For round 2, Wolf just dashes forward into the fog towards where the machine is. He gets 60' this round, assuming he doesn't run into a soldier in the fog. He does not bother taking cover (unless he runs through the fog cloud and finds something like a giant gun barrel right at his face).

[MrAbdiel]

The opening assault on the surprised enemy is textbook, and devastating.

Pvt. K'ral rushes through the door with the squad, and pitches his grenade with Doc's, Xilo's, and Gabriel's, before winking out of sight; manifesting from a rush of emerald mist amidst the smoke on the parallel gantry extending from the blown-open distraction door and snapping off a shot that that punches clean through the chest of one of the Kreiger technikers, dropping him. Gabriel's round finds the throat of the grenzsoldat korporal trying to direct his soldiers to cover; Doc's bullet, laden with projected guilt, sinks into the thigh of the hysterical scientist.

And then, with a ripple of booms and a chorus of screams, the grenades go off in rapid succession; and their toll is terrible. In that small window, fifteen of the twenty soldiers caught gawping in the middle of the room outside of cover are dismembered, or else so badly riddled with shrapnel as to be our of action and probably dead very soon. With the Korporal shot down, the volley leaves just four of the Grenzsoldat operable, and one of those bleeding heavily from where he doesn't seem to notice a penetrating wound is his stomach. On the heels of that devestation, elements of 5th squad roar forth; Salamir, and Wolf and Xilo all chewing up the ground towards the technikers. Two of wolf's rounds find marks, dropping two of them; leaving three of the technikers out of action and five still capable and active as the fog cloud billows out to engulf the Amcaran advance.

It is likely, in tactical retrospect, that the grenzsoldat simply have no reflexes for dealing with casualties like that so suddenly, and so they operate on the last order they were given for the critical several seconds while their brains marshal the instinct to fear death. Taking cover, the four of them blast away at the smoke where they last saw the advancing Amcarans...

Spoiler: Attacks!

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Two attacks from each remaining Grenzsoldat. Two on Sparky, Two on Xilo, Two on Wolf, Two on Sal. All with disadvantage because of the fog.

Against Wolf:
(1d20+1)[18] or (1d20+1)[15] or, for (2d6+1)[9] damage.
(1d20+1)[19] or (1d20+1)[6] or, for (2d6+1)[9] damage.

Against Xilo:
(1d20+1)[17] or (1d20+1)[18] or, for (2d6+1)[7] damage.
(1d20+1)[4] or (1d20+1)[12] or, for (2d6+1)[4] damage.

Against Sal:
(1d20+1)[17] or (1d20+1)[4] or, for (2d6+1)[8] damage.
(1d20+1)[9] or (1d20+1)[9] or, for (2d6+1)[4] damage.

Against Sparky:
(1d20+1)[19] or (1d20+1)[9] or, for (2d6+1)[11] damage.
(1d20+1)[16] or (1d20+1)[12] or, for (2d6+1)[9] damage.

But beyond the smoke, the technikers process the hopelessness of their posture immediately. Their retreat is discernible to K'Ral up high, and to the party surging forward by the scientist's mad objections.

"Nein! Nein! Kommt zurück hierher, ihr Feiglinge! Es ist noch nicht fertig! Ich sehe euch alle erschossen!"

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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"No! No! Get back here you cowards! It's not ready! I'll see you all shot!"

The remaining technikers ignore him, as they bolt for the nearby egress from the room; a roller shutter like the one by which the Amcaran's entered, on the room's other extreme face. It is only rolled up a man high, as it idles; and passing through, one hammers a panel out of view which sets klaxons hooting in the hallway beyond, and the shutterdoor trundles closed with a finalizing, mechanical ka-chunk.

With a shriek of frustration available only to academics, the kreiger labcoat scientist - now realizing how he is hobbling, from the bullet in his leg - does the only thing he is capable of, with audible reluctance. He detaches a bundle of cables from the machine before him, throws a switch, and slams shut the heavy steel panel on its side. A roar of diesel engines almost drowns out one half of the conversation; but it cannot drown out the mechanically throated, booming second half of it.

"Angreifer Aktiv. In Erwartung der Direktive."

Spoiler: Loud Kreigspiel:

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"Assailant Active. Awaiting directive."

"Amcaraner sind da! Zerstört sie!"

Spoiler: Kriegspiel:

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"Amcarans are here! Destroy them!"

"Anerkennen. Suchend. Suchend. Suchend."

Spoiler: Loud Krielspiel:

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"Acknowledged. Seeking. Seeking. Seeking."

With heavy steps slamming against the floor panels as it moves from its preparation dock, the Angriefer steps forth, pivots to face the fog, and begins to apply whatever mechanical senses it possesses to finding its targets.

Spoiler: Guten Tag! Turn Summary:

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Grenades do what they are meant to do - they rip apart lightly armored, exposed troops in clusters.
From twenty enemies, you're down to four, and one is already wounded. The labcoat technikers have bolted, but the scientist, whose project this seems to be, has a bullet in the leg, and nothing to do but activate the machine he has proclaimed is 'not ready' and 'mustn't be left behind'.

It is a TANK, for rules purposes; an enemy type which we haven't used yet, but, as a refresher...

TANK - A tank is immune to damage from weapons and spells that are not specifically listed as Tank-Buster weapons or spells.

However 'not ready' it supposedly is, you would be right to regard it as very dangerous to infantry.
Dealing with it may require unusually cunning strategies, since the only tank-buster weaponry in your possession presently are your Behir mines. I am, however, always open to cunning and cinematic suggestions.

[Novabomb]

Pvt Gabriel Ginger
That aint good, but at least I now have a good excuse to use this!
He reaches into his pack producing something reasonably large.
He mutters some low and gestures, and nothing appears to happen. Then a few seconds later the item disappears.

Spoiler: OOC

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Use movement to fetch Behir out of his pack
Std action: silent image, to place the image of empty floor a few inches higher just in front of the walker.
Bonus action, mage hand that Behir right in front of the walker.

[JbeJ275]

Sal continues sprinting towards the krieger labcoat at the control panel as he goes he yells back at the machine in Krieger.

"Direktive Zwie, Direktive Ein, Direktive Acht, Direktive Schieben!!!"

Trying to input enough results in the unfinished tank to leave it confused and reacting rather than targetting them until he could get to the control panel and try to implement some sort of shutoff command.

[Waistcoatwill]

Doc's shudders in the safety of his filing cabinet at the sound of the steel monstrosity activating. Peaking out at the unfolding fire fight, Doc sees only one course of action.

The tiny lithe figure explodes out of the cabinet and sprints towards the scientist.

Call it off you Krieger maniac!

He almost climbs up the white coat to grab egghead by the collar. Suddenly top heavy, the Krieger nearly topples as the short doctor's feet return to the ground and scrabble to drag the scientist into the path of its creation

Spoiler: Actions

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Move and bonus dash to get to the scientist if required.
Athletics (1d20+8)[18]
Using any of the 50ft of movement that remains to try and drag the boffin in front of the tank.

[Cavir]

Lt Xilo is nearly hit by the grenzsoldats' blind shooting but Sparky's protection does its job. Xilo focuses his run toward the walking tank studying the situation. With its guns facing forward he continues onward past it. Tanks aren't agile and hoped it was the same for this contraption. The more time it spends spinning around chasing targets the less time it spends aiming at them. Keeping a side eye on the tank, he checks out the cables the tank was just connected to. Were they detachable? Strong enough to trip up the bipedal tank?

Spoiler: OOC

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7 damage absorbed by Sparky granted temp hp. Double move for 70'.

[MrAbdiel]

Ginger's Behir scoots out infront of the scanning mechanical monstrosity, sheathed in an illusory suggestion of uneven but mundane ground. A flickering matrix of red light skims out from the Angreifer skims out over the sudden anomaly.. but doesn't seem to drive it to recoil. Perhaps it is fooled; for now, it merely lacks incentive to move forward.

Doc and 1LT Xiloscient burst from the fog cloud at the same time, blowing past the remainingGrenzsoldat and tearing across the cement to flank past the machine. Xilo books past on the right; and as he does, the machine's right 'shoulder' mount swivels to track him, untethered cables sparking bobbing amidst naked sockets...

"Makro-Gattler engagieren."

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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"Makro-Gattler engaging."

...But with a series of dry mechanical clicking sounds, nothing eventuates.

"System nicht gefunden."

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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"System not found."

Simultaneously, Doc loops around on the left, as the left shoulder mount cranes by in time with his passage; a bundle of rubber tubes sputtering some fluid remnant of an unfinished job...

"Phosphor-Feuersbrunstprojektor engagieren."

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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"Phosphor-Conflagration Projector engaging."

...But again, blessedly, yields no result.

"System nicht gefunden."

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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"System not found."

The Kreiger labcoat wriggles and writhes as Doc latches on, his cry of outrage almost mewling in its tone. His retort to Doc's command, atleast, is to the point.

"Ahhh! Get off!"

Sal is quick on Doc's heels, close enough now to get a good look at the machine's construction and hopefully to find an accessible panel.... though it offers no response to his flurry of conflicting commands.

Spoiler: Action Summary so far this turn!

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Gabriel's Behir is deployed infront of the Angreifer, concealed with a silent image.

Doc and Sal have gone around the left. The Angreifer took a Legendary Action with no visible effect. Doc has grappled the labcoat and is dragging him toward the Angriefer - presently alongside it, but next turn all the way infront of it, if he doesn't escape. Sal is close enough to have a clear view of the machine and to consider spending actions to find engineering access. It doesn't react to the directive commands, however; however it is driven, it has a sophisticated enough Friend/Foe identifier to know who to listen to. Xilo has come past on the left, so presently the squad is zooming around both sides of the walker. The Angreifer took another Legendary Action with no visible effect. Cavir, I didn't answer you before, but your speculation was correct that the grenade and a cast spell couldn't be used together with Extra Attack; it has indeed required your action surge to do so. Didn't want to forget to bring that up again, lest it become important later.

Sgt. Wolf still to act, before K'Ral and then the enemy responds!

[Continental Op]

Seeing the walking tank up close almost unmans Wolf; he freezes for a second while it talks loudly and apparently tries to fire weapon systems it doesn't have. Oblivious to everyone else, Wolf shakes off his indecision and continues his running toward the tank creature. He lets go of his M1, which hangs at his side as it swings freely on the strap around his shoulder.

Getting next to the walking tank, Wolf leaps onto its side and starts trying to climb the thing using his free hand and his K-bar if he has to.

Spoiler: OOC

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Wolf attempts to climb the thing using a grapple check. He still has his knife in his hand, but will drop it if he needs both hands to climb or hold on.
Str(Athletics) check: (1d20+5)[11]

[Waistcoatwill]

Doc continues to drag the protesting lab coat back towards the entrance, aiming to get a distance past the cunningly disguised mine. He tries to frisk Fritz as they go.

I'll get off when you call that thing off mister!

Spoiler: Actions

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Move and action dash to drag the scientist another 25 feet towards the entrance, trying to put the mine directly between then and the "tank".
Sleight of hand to look for something handy in the labcoat pockets.
(1d20+4)[22]

[MrAbdiel]

From the catwalk, K'ral dashes head, trying to get an elevated angle on the Angreifer. He pops off a shot at the Grenzsoldat remnants on the run; sending a round through the calf of the man just now reckoning with the pain of his shrapnel injuries and toppling him to the ground.

The three remaining soldiers try to track the rapidly moving enemies, but before they can do much, the Skyknives have pierced their lines and are assaulting their support vehicle and VIP. At once, dutiful and foolish, they charge to the aid of their bleeding, accosted scientist; surrounding Doc where they can, grabbing and pummelling with fists and weapon stocks while the scientist flails and tries to free himself, defiant to the last.

Finally, the Angriefer takes action. The Amcaran assault had been swift and ruthless against a much superior enemy position; but whatever calculation of spool time the walking tank had required to calibrate its coming decision seems to have come to an end just as Wolf lays a hand on the armor plate of one leg. It takes five huge, scuttling steps backward and away, the power of mass in motion hauling itself from the shifter's grip as the chin-mounted heavy machine guns progress from mechanical clicking to the sudden hideous barking that has been ringing in Echo Company's ears since they charged the emplacements at Naphto. It does not appear able to swivel and maneuver with the freedom of an infantryman; but it knows its capabilities, and with an adjustment in its position it puts K'Ral, Sal and Wolf in a strafing arc, and rakes their positions with a storm of Vult-forged lead.

Spoiler: Achtung! Remainder of Turn Summary!

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Sal's assessment action fails - a 12 won't do it, but he can have a cumulative +2 to his next action spend hunting for an actionable weakpoint.

Wolf's grab-climb fails. The big-boy has a lot of power behind him, so it's not outrageously easy to get on board while he's in motion; but even if it were east, he rolled high and you rolled low, so them's the breaks. As the Angreifer moves, he's stepping out of your threat range - so you can attempt another grab-climb as he goes, if you like.
You might as well; a melee attack of opportunity is unlikely to do damage. But you'll be chasing his athletics roll to oppose that grab, which will be (1d20+14)[27]!

K'Ral shoots down the wounded Genzsoldat, but the other three rush to try to grapple Doc to get him off the scientist.
One has to doublemove to get there; two get there and make grapples, so Doc's going to need to oppose their grapple attempts. One got a 12, one got a 21. And the labcoat got a 17 trying to escape Doc's grapple!
I know you posted your next actions already, Waistcoat; feel free to adjust them based on this new information.

The real meat and potatoes of the round comes from the Angreifer, who actually attacks this turn. He's only able to turn up to 120 degrees per turn, and can only target folks in a single attack who are within the same 90 degree cone. Xilo has gotten well past; and the Angriefer seems unwilling to open fire at the scrum of Doc and friends. Ginger's well hidden. He's able to move back before opening fire (away from the entrance to the room and the concealed mine), so his attacks spray bullets over Sal, Sparky, K'Ral and Wolf (if he doesn't succeed wildly at that Grapple of opportunity and suddenly be onboard!).

It's a muscular 43 piercing damage, with a DC17 Dexterity save for half. Those attacked can also make a DC17 save or be PINNED - though the tank isn't suppressing deliberately, so even if you go prone with pinning, you'll have advantage to shake it off at the end of your following turn.

K'ral's Dex: (1d20+7)[21]
K'Ral's Wis: (1d20+3)[21]

K'ral takes 21 damage, and remains unpinned.

It is the Psychos' Turns. I'll try to get a map of some kind up this week, I think!

[Waistcoatwill]

Doc bristles the slimeball scientist slips out if his labcoat to evade the halfling's grip. To add insult to injury he can't even fend off both the young oafs in jackboots that cane to his aid.

Hey, Schmuck? Ever heard of the medial collateral ligament?

He lashes out with a foot at his assailant's knee, trying to loosen the humans grip.

Spoiler: Action

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Athletics tonescape the grapple. He might try to move off and heal Sal if he succeeds.(1d20+8)[13]

Hampered by the curse of leverage he fails to get a strong strike in. He digs out a bandage with one free hand, aiming to patch up any allies that come to his aid since he can't make it over to them.

[JbeJ275]

Sal takes a more direct approach to the situation. Dragging Sparky over and redirecting the output flow conduits from the fractured and leaking prismatic shielding powder, directly into sparky’s fuel tank, making the device a fairly powerful flame thrower.

With that he turned to the gang of men around Doc and says. ”Drop the halfling or I toast every last one of you bastards.” Ready to spray them down with exotic fuel if they’re not amenable to surrendering.

[Cavir]

Xilo had spent too long trying for a cable to trip up the Angriefer. It had started walking backwards towards him, away from Ginger's Behir. As it stepped back Xilo took notice of its movement as he pulled out his own Behir. He placed it where its next back step would take it then readied to run and get clear of the blast if the Angriefer took another step back.

[Continental Op]

Wolf drops to the ground as soon as the first bullet hits him. Frustrated with himself for not being able to hold on to the machine, he tries to think of a different plan -- which is hard with the gunfire ripping everything around him. His first order of business is to get some protection, so Wolf crawls towards the nearest cover he can, be it a desk, some machinery, or a Krieger.

[Novabomb]

Gabriel Ginger tries not to allow impatience spoil the eventual boom.
While maintaining the illusion he snipes one of the remaining kreigs that have not surrendered yet. (Not the scientist)

Spoiler: OOC

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Att: (1d20+7)[27]
Dmg: (1d6+4)[10] Sneak attack: (3d6)[7]

Stealth: (1d20+10)[17]

[MrAbdiel]

K'Ral's steps carry him across the gantry with all the warrior élan of his fey-touched people. With little cover on the walkway, his commanding view of the field leaves him empowered to target anyway - but also exposed, with no good place to hide. Mid stride, he raises his rifle to shoulder and bangs off one shot, racks the bolt and then another towards that seems to be the 'head' of the Angreifer, trying to put enough punishment on its sensory apparatus that it 'feels' the need to cover up. But it avails little - the machine has a clear understanding of its nigh-invulnerability in the situation, it seems; and all it does it swivel its attention to the shooter.

The sergeant is unhindered scrambling into cover, leaving a steak of blood on the textured metal floor plates; the lieutenant slides his BEHIR mine by the backstep of the machine in hopes it would continue reversing and activate it. Now there are two active behirs - if only they can get the bloody thing to step on them!

Hey, Schmuck? Ever heard of the medial collateral ligament?

The labcoat flees at his best hobble into cover at the back of the room, while Doc kicks out at his attacker - but remarkably, the Grenzsoldat who grips him pivots to remove his knee from the incoming blow. In doing so, he worms an arm under the halfling's chin and hoists him into the air!

"I have, actually. Ever heard of the anterior cruciate ligament?"

This response, in clear, barely accented common Albinese, is so unexpected that the medic barely has time to process. Then his grappler has dropped to his knees voluntarilly, driving Doc to his own, and the weight of his body crushing a knee into the back of Doc's as he torque's back on the halfling's neck. The effect is awful - searing, straining pain in the halfling's leg and neck as grappler applies pressure with the powerful implication that, with just a little more effort, either neck or knee has to give way. The physical frame differential between human and halfling is made starkly plain, all of a sudden; all because Doc happened to sass the one Vult soldier who seems to have gone to medical school at Oxbrand University.

Just his luck, really.

But then another shot rings out, and the back of doc's helmet and neck is flushed with warmth, as Ginger's careful shot all but decapitates the cocky grappler. The other two Grenzsoldat try to recapture him, but can barely lay hands on him - and then Sal's there, flamethrower pointed, promising a fiery reprisal if they keep it up.

"Don't! Halt, please!" One of them finally yields, raising hands and taking a backward step; and his comrade follows suit. The massacre is catching up to them - and neither want to die here.

But then, no one wants to die in war; that is much of what war is about.

"Wehrpflichtige Soldaten sind nicht befugt, diplomatische Entscheidungen zu treffen!"

Spoiler: Kreigspiel:

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"Enlisted soldiers are not authorized to make diplomatic decisions!"

The Angriefer angles its frame, and with a disheartening shoonk, dispenses a bouncing, metallic charge from the underframe of its paired machine guns. It erupts in a hideous bang amidst the cluster it had not been willing to fire on before - the flechettes shredding the surrendering soldiers, and spelling terrible danger for Doc caught in the spray.

Finally, it cranes its guns to the gantry from which it is receiving fire and begins blazing away with short controlled bursts - but in such volleys that sparks shear and erupt all over from the walls and gantry. K'ral can't help but elicit a howl of greivous pain as he hits the deck, with only the sheer angle of the flimsy gantry to possibly protect him. He's hit - but the lingering cry of pain suggests, atleast that he is not killed.

The machine begins retreating, keeping itself between the squad and the Kreiger scientist. It lifts a leg back, and it hovers over Xilo's BEHIR... before infuriatingly adjusting the step to avoid it. The machine definitely has a forward facing set of superior senses - but it seems, with some effort, capable of perceiving its surrounding and dangerous anomalies within them, less perfectly. Perfect enough to thwart the trap, still.

Spoiler: Alarm! Turn Summary! OOC!

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Doc failed to escape the grapple - a nat 20 on the opposed check! What a champ! But Ginger was there to take a shot, and I saw no reason he wouldn't target that schmoe first. I was going to call for an intimidate roll from Sal to talk these guys down - but between losing 90% of their guys and having a flamethrower pointed at them by a furious devil-man... they gave up.

Xilo laid his mine; and I gave a DC13 to the Angreifer to perceive such an object undisguised on the floor. He rolled with disadvantage because he's facing away, but man if he didn't ace the rolls.

K'Ral used his inspiration to try to button the machine with a pinning attempt, but didn't get the 1 in 10 chance he needed to blind it temporarilly. He double moved with his bonus action to get to the end of the gantry.

And Sarge, a little worse for wear, was able to crawl into cover - he's likely to recover from pinning this turn.

But with the kreiger scientist running into cover,the Angreifer used a reaction to launch a grenade at the treacherous surrendering soldiers - and Doc! the soldiers are splatted. Doc probably ain't happy!

ROLLS I NEED:

WOLF: At the end of your turn, give me that DC17 Wisdom pinning save again, with advantage because the Angreifer is not continuing to suppress you. If you succeed, you're unpinned for your next turn. If not, you're still pinned - but you can atleast stand up to a crouch behind your cover! The DC of the pinning check will drop to 13, at the end of your coming turn - the base level for pinning checks by small arms, and after the enemy has not repeated the attack to 'refresh' the weapon specific DC.

DOC: You've got a grenade to dodge, my man. DC13 to take half of 5 piercing and 11 fire damage!

And that's it. So far the Angreifer hasn't oblidged to step on your mines. Cavir - sorry I don't think I responded about the cable question, but no; the cables at the bay the Angreifer left from were not thick enough to be a trip hazard for it. Getting behind it and placing a mine ain't a bad idea - I just rolled awesome.

Good Guy Turn! Also, I've made a campaign on Roll20 with a map - check the OOC thread for that, to get the visuals of what's going on!

[JbeJ275]

Upon seeing the grenade drop amongst the surrendering foes Salamir was in motion, he ran toward the machine, coming up so that it was positioned between him and Xilo, repairing Sparky's legs as he went. Then he dropped to a knee looking at the machines lumbering chassis from up close, after a moment to examine it he turned to the theoretical prize here. The labcoat who'd set this thing in motion to begin with.

"Look buddy, I took shots from your little friend there and I'm still walking. How much you wanna bet you can do the same to my buddy?"

With that, he released Sparky again, who scrambled over the rubble to line it's flame emitter up with he labcoat's centre of mass, should the guy start doing anything funny.

Spoiler: Rolls

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Intimidation: (1d20+5)[23]
Perception: (1d20+1)[7]

[Waistcoatwill]

Doc

The gore covered halfling can barely react as the infernal machine slaughters its own comrades. Even the humiliation of his Grappling orthopaedic rival fades into the background in the face of such callous disregard for life. Doc stares in disbief, Sparky's shield the only thing preventing a similar fate from befalling him.

The disbelief turns into cold rage as his eyes cast over the behemoth. It walks on two legs, maybe it keeps its vitals in similar spots too.

Groans from the Sarge finally break through as the ringing fades from Doc's ears. His reflexes finally kick in and he finds himself hunkered down in cover, stemming bleeding wounds. As he does, so he cranes around, looking for a route to climb up to K'ral.

Spoiler: Actions

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Perception (1d20+5)[24] on the Angriefer.
Move over to the Sarge's cover (on my phone making roll20 difficult to move tokens, sorry!).
Healer feat using one med pack (1d6+4)[8]

[Continental Op]

Wolf scrambles behind some metal crates and takes a deep breath, happy to still be alive.

"Is that the best you got, you half-finished rust bucket?!", Wolf shouts, trying to use the bravado to calm himself and hopefully draw its fire away from everyone else. He risks rolling over on the floor and risks peaking around one of the containers, seeing how ineffectual his taunt was on a robot. But in Wolf's defense, this is like nothing he has ever seen before.

[Cavir]

LT Xilo's face turned to a victory grin as the tank was about to destroy itself on his mine. The grin disappeared just as fast as the tank avoided termination.

He called out to his troops. "Hey! It's slow to turn and won't fire at the labcoat. Get out of its line of fire. Wolf, get moving. Doc, when you can, get to the labcoat. K'Ral, keep its attention without getting killed. Sal, figure out how to stop it. It has limited weapons. I'll try to take it out. Everyone, get to it!" Xilo follows his own command, slinging his M1 as he sprints at the tank, darting up its back side. Whether it works or not he has a new obstacle idea course idea for trainees.

Spoiler: OOC

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Athletics (1d20+6)[8]

[MrAbdiel]

The Labcoat is too proud to raise his hands - but not too proud to die. He intuits the threat's implicit follow up, and offers up a spontaneous, sneering fragment of information that seems too born of desperate arrogance to be false.

"You ought to flee, Amcaran dogs! Even I cannot shut down the Angreifer now that it is in engaged in combat - if I tried, it would shoot me for trying to surrender. It is a...", then with nearly hysterical, transcendent awe, "...a semi-autonomous warrior-machine-being!"

Doc skids into cover with Sgt Vognar, and slaps Quik-Clot on his wounds to last the battle. Behind heavy steel lockers, they are safe-ish; but the machine is moving skill, popping off threatening bursts; hunting for targets; periodically roaring its apparently thwarted commands.

"Makro-Gattler engagieren... System nicht gefunden."

As it goes, Doc spots what he's hoping to see - a rounded, cast steel panel on the right-rear of the torso, kidney-high, whose screw-pilots do not flash with the steel gleam of fasteners. An unsecured panel over something, perhaps? Some way Sal might get a tool in and do some damage?

Spoiler: OOC: Weak Points

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With a couple of eroding attempts and a success, Sal and Doc have discovered a Weak Point. These are pretty dynamic, narrative driven exposures of opportunity. Here's the beta rules, as I'm trialling them with you guys.

The DC to exploit a weakpoint with any relevant skill is equal to the vehicle's AC - in this case, 16.

To exploit a Weak Point, you need to declare how you are using a skill to expose the weakpoint. It's like a skill challenge, mid combat. If you succeed, the Weak Point becomes Exposed - which means the enemy Tank can be attacked normally until it loses 1/3 of its total HP, at which point it will (in addition to the nature of the damage inflicted upon it causing some other debilitation), lose one Legendary Action per turn. This Angreifer appears not to have much it's able to do with those - but it's worth knowing.

Once you've done a third of its HP, that's all the damage you can get out of that Weak Point - you'll find and expose another to do more damage. Three times, naturally, and you'll have exposed all its HP to conventional destruction.

The great advantage to Anti-tank weapons, like the Behir, is that in addition to doing their damage, they immediately reveal and Expose a Weak Point.

So as it stands, Sal might, for example, make a check with his Tinker's Tools as his action to try to jam a crowbar into the panel and pop it off as the machine goes by. If he succeeds, that weak point will be exposed, and everyone else will be able to lay on the hurt - atleast for a bit!

The LT makes a valiant effort to clamber on the machine's flank; but all of a sudden it's moving again, and it's all he can do to back up a step to avoid getting crushed in the moving components of the mechanical demon.

Ginger lends his fire support along with K'ral to keep some distracting pressure on the Angriefer while their comrades operate in dangerous close proximity to it. The arcane trickster pops off a concentrated five shots toward the thing's "head" before diving away from his cover to another piece; fire and relocate well learned.

K'ral doesn't have that luxury; with bursts of machine gun fire hammering into the wall above him and sparking off the guard rail of the gantry, he can only grimace through the pain and flatten himself as best as possible. Hearing the LT's commands, still, he isn't one to shirk duty; and while prone, he bangs off a couple of shots that spark off the 'head' of the machine, capturing its attention again.

The reprisal is immediate - the Angreifer lurches into motion, its metal bulk threatening to crush Sal as it goes, and its torso guns track onto K'Ral's position and unlease a burst of hell again. From the gantry, the eladrin lets out a gasping, pained cry, and then falls silent; blood sluicing through the grated metal on the gantry and pattering down onto the consoles and machinery ten feet below.

Spoiler: Turn Summary!

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Play-By-Play available in the Roll20 chat!

Xilo fails to grab - an 8 athletics won't get you far, unfortunately, even it it hadn't clobbered the roll!

Sal intimidates the Labcoat - he seems to have tentatively surrendered, and has offered up some information.

Doc spots a Weak Point with the DC that Sal eroded earlier.

Wolf keeps his head down and gets medical attention.

Ginger tries to pin the Angriefer, then hides again.

K'ral tries to pin the Angriefer. Both attempts to score a pinned result, and therefore a chance to button the vehicle, fail.

The Angreifer moves through Sal's square, trampling him - with a 23 to hit, that'll do 27 bludgeoning damage to the Tiefling unless he has a trick to save himself from being slammed by Vult engineering power.

The Angreifer uses its action to shoot at K'ral again - he passes his save, but the intensity of fire is sufficient that even with the damage halved, he goes down. K'ral is on 0HP, and bleeding out.


Player turn! Doc and Sal may want to act first, since their actions may open up opportunities to everyone else.

[JbeJ275]

As the machine bears down on him Sal gropes around for Sparky's reserve shielding circuit and jamps it directly into a powerpack. For a second blinging blue light flares up as the shield is produced across Sal's entire body but he knows the pack is merely seconds aware from wearing out with this unstable configuration.

In those few seconds he runs to the patch Doc is pointing out and cries to the rest of the group. "This thing has a weak spot! I'm gonna try and crack this panel!"

A quick whistle has Sparky scuttle back towards him and jump up on his arm, refocusing the fire to act as a blowtorch and allowing Sal's flame resitant fingers to try and pry the panel off of it's housing, jamping a small tool from his belt into the hinge and pressing down on it as the metal begins to glow and warp.

(1d20+11)[24]

Unable to do much with his gun at so close a range, and knowing that this spot alone won't bring it down he immedietly tries to look at where the wiring behind this panel leads, and what other weak points in this robot it might suggest.

(1d20+1)[2]

[Waistcoatwill]

Hey midtown, give it a kidney shot! One of your access panel thingies is there!

As Doc finishes yelling about the weak spot to Sal he pivots on the spot. His eyes follow the fire ploughing into K'ral with horror. He begins to sprint, clambering over equipment and leaping up to the support beams holding up the gantry.

He frantically scrabbles to get over the top, trying to slide under the railing and start slamming a cocktail of syringes into the downed soldier.

Spoiler: Actions

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Move plus dash if required to get to K'ral, climbing is bo extra movement due to Second Story Work.
Athletics check (1d20+8)[28]
Bonus action use inspiration to give a short rest heal to K'ral.

[Novabomb]

Gabriel Ginger
Promptly opens fire on the opening exposed.

Spoiler: OOC

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Std
Attack: (1d20+7)[21] Dmg (1d6+4)[9] (Not sure if sneak attack can apply) (3d6)[4]
Bonus
Hide: (1d20+10)[19]
Mv
Fetch the weasel out of his pack. (If we gut the exposed section, I imagine the cavity formed might be a nice place to plant some weasel.

[Cavir]

Xilo grimaces as K'Ral suffers the Angriefer's fury. No time to dwell on it he goes for a mad dash, first picking his Behir mine back up then darting around again to the back side of the walking tank hoping it loses track of his movement. His eyes lock on the bipedal tank, watching for the best time to slip the mine under its foot and seeing if he can detect any other weakness they can pounce on.

Spoiler: OOC

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I can't grab the mine and get behind it in one move. Will have to wait til next round to deploy it.

Stealth (1d20+5)[11]
Perception (1d20+5)[8]

[Continental Op]

Wolf takes a second's respite behind the crates to think about where the walking tank may be exposed, or at least react to protect itself. Making his decision, Wolf leans around one of the crates, bracing his M1 on the floor and aiming at one of the walking tank's gun barrels. Edit: But once he gets the metal monstrosity in his cross-hairs, he sees that a weak point has already been exposed. He fires off a burst into the exposed insides of the tank, then rolls back to the relative protection of the crates.

He slowly rises and looks over the top of the crate to see if his shots had their desired effect.

Spoiler: OOC

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Wolf will use his inspiration to counteract the advantage from still being prone. So two normal attack rolls, and if he hits with one of them he will spend a superiority die on distracting strike. And since I already successed on the Wis save (finally), he will move to a crouch or standing position at the end of his turn, depending on how tall the crates are in front of him.

Attack 1: (1d20+9)[23] and damage: (1d10+4)[12]
Attack 2: (1d20+9)[27] and damage: (1d10+4)[9]

If an attack hits, extra damage from distracting strike: (1d8)[7] and the next attacker has advantage against it.

Edited the text above to explain where Wolf is shooting.