Bay 12 Games Forum

Finally had a dream for the first time in ages. Not a good dream, but hey. Might as well write it down.

So, my mom and I were basically at some weird isolated outdoor concert. Nice place, sort of an open field. The band seemed to be a combination of country and rock. I don't generally listen to that sort of thing, but people were having a good time. I remember a couple people in the audience(small one, maybe 20-30 people) near me had guitars, acoustic ones, and were playing along. Weird, but all right. Sort of seemed like hipster bullshit.

But as things generally go with my dreams, that couldn't last. Suddenly out of fucking nowhere I hear this eagle-ish noise, and one of the audience members gets grabbed into the air and flown off by a Skarmory. They were not pleased by this, needless to say. If you're wondering then no, there was no indication that the dream was apparently happening in the pokemon world before this moment. Now, I like Skarmory and all. It might actually be one of my favorites, which I guess makes sense. After all, if a Pokemon is going to show up in my dream, It'd logically be one I at least somewhat like. So anyway, this was sort of not okay. A couple other people get grabbed by other hueg metal birbs, screaming as they go, and we start running for our cars. Remember that open field I told you about? Yeah the cars are all on the other side. This is stupid. But before we start running, dream me has an extremely vivid thought. I HAVE A GUN IN MY BACK POCKET. Like, dream me was absolutely sure about this.

So we're running through the field, zigzagging to dodge the birds (a few of them got extremely close to me) while I rummage through my back pockets, probably looking like a total moron. 20-30 seconds or so later, dream me holds his newfound weapon in his hands. He takes aim, and *click*. What I'm holding in my hands is a perfectly functional mechanical pencil. Yeah. I do carry pencils around like that one, but that's not very nice of you brain. Anyway, we keep running, and eventually we make it to a covered area nearby to our cars. So we rest for a bit to catch our breath. Maybe 9-10 people got taken. And after that morbid thought, I woke up.

Oh and by the way this dream is especially weird because I haven't played Sun and Moon at all. Haven't even really watched videos of it. So yeah, probably unrelated.

(Is this the Let's Players'/Commentator's Curse? Man, I really should avoid making promises in the future. There's really no excuse for why this is so late, especially after I bumped. crazyabe isn't here but screw it, I really gotta get this show on the road. I'm sure he was just waiting for actual combat. )

After an uneasy silence passed, Andel decided to go and pilot the ship, as he was the most skilled pilot on board. He'd follow the orders of the other crew members regarding movement. If the whale attempts to retaliate in some fashion, attempt evasive maneuvers (if possible).

Andel makes his way to the pilot seat, making himself more familiar with the controls. He'll be more than ready to avoid an attack, in theory.

Shoot the whale with three normal rail gun rounds aimed for the center of mass. Stop shooting, and wait to fire again until either it tries to attack us, or its been a few minutes and the whale's still moving.

Tired of waiting, Anna sends a rail gun round flying towards the whale! It isn't the best shot given that they're still in orbit. Despite this, it makes a bee line towards the whale and... is deflected? By what? She can't really tell from this distance. The whale starts moving to engage, but the rail gun has plenty of time to charge for a second shot... Or it would if it didn't start overheating all of a sudden. Deja vu eh? It'll be ready next turn.

I will wait by the laser. if we decide to attack, I will use the laser.

Techni fares little better, all of the lasers being either off target or absorbed by the planets atmosphere.

Add to the barrage by using the harpoon turret. Aim for a flipper, if possible.

This is unfortunate outside the harpoon turret's range. Techni will be more than ready when the whale approaches though.

Edward, with a stupid smile, goes and re-attaches himself to the harpoon he was previously launched from. He gives a thumbs up to anyone in the general area, and declares he wishes to be launched into combat.

Fire before Edward gets a chance. He can zipline down this time.

Or he would be if he didn't change his mind due to dire circumstances. He fires the harpoon, and decides to wait before reeling it in.

Edit: Edward easily grabs onto the cable and follows it down, aided greatly by his jetpack.

---

The whale slowly begins to approach rising into the lower atmosphere. It is a lot more visible to the rest of the crew now, and any scans should be more effective in theory.

Statuses:

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Absent:

(I'll let Edward decide if he wants to ride the cable down anyway retroactively, since that's probably the sort of decision that should work that way. I'd just make him do it but I don't want to assume.)

As an aside, I figured I'd answer this since I apparently forgot to before.

(Does our ship have any kind of drop-pod technology standard? Even a kind of escape pod or life pod?)

Drop pods? No. Escape/life pods? Yes. They're not really something that's likely to get any use, but they're there. The thing is, if you need to abandon ship there's pretty good odds that whatever broke the ship is going to go for the pods next, which makes the whole exercise rather pointless. You've got no ship, and it is rather unlikely you'd fight off a whale without it. However, in the hypothetical scenario where the ship is destroyed and a call for help succeeds, I'll definitely go to the trouble of showing them off. It'd certainly be suspenseful at any rate.

As an alternative, it may be possible to load possible invaders into a life pod and shoot them off into space. I hadn't really thought about them until after the first whale hunt so sorry about that. Kinda weird how easy it is to miss obvious design features, eh? Then again it is a bit of a junker after all.

(Sorry about the wait.)

Once he has recovered, he goes and finds some food.

Edward starts getting some new food in his stomach, but it's slow going, and he spends most of the time just cleaning the vomit out of his suit.

((Glad to see you back Person.))
Find Edward and Frank, and ask them about the whale.

You don't need to find Edward and Frank to ask them things. You're all linked together properly now. Still, Frank is a bit more informative than Edward is, and relates the remaining information to the crew.

Techni will scan the whale. let's get a danger rating and possible powers, especially speed and maneuverability. Let's see if we can dodge in our space suits, or if we'll need to fire the ship's weapons again.

The scans don't seem to reveal much about it. However, it is apparently able to speak some sort of language. It is someone doubtful this language can be translated to a human one, but you could try.

Maja heads back to check on reattaching the harpoon to the cable.

The harpoon is safely in position, and ready to fire when needed.

---

The whale seems to be remaining where it is for now. However, it seems to be getting ready to move elsewhere.

Statuses:

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Absent:

Still been rather busy, but I've finally got this one out. This game is still fun for me to run, so don't worry about it dying anytime soon. (I probably would have capped stats and skills at 12, and altered initial points to account for that if I had the chance to go back and start over. Still, its a learning experience.)

(I am so sorry about this, I thought I had time but ugh school.)

Andel prepares to deal with shit that happens on the ship, pretty much like last time.

Hopefully minus the pain. And animals. And stuff damaging comms and other important shit.

Andel accidentally breaks the weaker of their two harpoons during their preparations as part of an attempt to improve it.

Everything on the ship seems to be in order. Andel considers creating a sort of "airlock" system between parts of the ship. However, he doesn't have the materials, time, or knowledge required to do so at the moment.

Scan the whale

The ship stays where it is for now, though it enters atmosphere for later.

The scans seem to indicate that the whale is composed entirely of cream cheese. That's probably not right. It isn't outside the realm of possibility, but it just seems to silly to be true.

Maybe we could drop a jackbot in as a sort of scout?

Techni mans the laser turret, for now.

It might not be a terrible idea. How far do you think the cable is on the harpoon turret? Maja heads to the engines, finding Edward and Frank. I hear one of you is suicidally reckless? The kind of person who might ride a fishhook into battle, perhaps?

Maja lays out a plan, loosely inspired by Techni's Plummeting Jackbot, but safer. For the Jackbot. Edward and Frank could hang on to a slowly unreeling harpoon, and provide reconnaissance on the whale. If Edward agrees, Maja starts prepping the harpoon turret for the stratagem. If not, she can go do another scan of the whale, but glummer.

Edward volunteers for the plan, and the crew slowly works to attach him to the harpoon turret's cable. It takes awhile to replace the harpoon with him and Frank, but after a bit of finagling, he's fastened on relatively safely and securely. Now it is just a matter of having the harpoon turret slowly launch or reel out its payload, rather than shoot it into the abyss at top speed... [Tech: 1] (I usually hide rolls, but this was too good not to show.) The harpoon flies off at maximum speed, and the duo fly off towards the planet's surface. Edward stays conscious despite intense G forces, and is met with a curious sight as he enter's a wide forested clearing.

---

First of all, the whale in the center of the clearing is decidedly larger than their last foe by about a third. The whale is located at ground level, and doesn't seem to be flagrantly ignoring gravity like most of its kin seem to like doing. The whale is violently tearing apart the area with three large arm-like limbs, each about half the length of the creature. It is feeding on both the vegetation and animal life of the world. The arms don't possess any fingers or visible joints, but can fold up and "flex" nonetheless. They may be more akin to fins. One arm is somewhere on the creature's "back" and the other two are off to the side as one would expect of arms. Perhaps the third is more like a tail, or a dorsal fin? The whale's whole body is covered in shiny bronze colored scales, and is wiry and twisted. The proportions seem otherworldly, or perhaps like what one would see in the victim of a car accident.  That doesn't seem good for quick movement. On its head are 2 eyes, one on each side of its head, and what appear to be 4 Antennae. The Antennae twitch on occasion. It still seems to be busy eating, and doesn't seem to have noticed the ship yet.

Edward is quickly reeled in before he hits the ground. However, the cable jams into him unpleasantly and he vomits his last meal into his suit. After a short reprieve, he's back aboard the ship, and the harpoon is placed back into the turret.  What will you do?

Statuses:

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Absent:

And we're off! Feel free to do your things now. I should be able to post/work on this much more frequently now.

Edit: Changed Andel's turn.

Sorry about the wait. IRL was really busy. Will have a turn up soon.

Edit: Oh damn really sorry. Can't believe I forgot to make the turn.

Keep chasing and firing.