To: wmnabors@flash.net
In-reply-to: <35DCC866.8F3F7AA2@flash.net> (message from Terp on Thu, 20 Aug
1998 20:07:50 -0500)
Subject: Turn 6
FCC: /u/ruban/mail-archive
--text follows this line--
Please start sending your email to george_ruban@hotmail.com .
That makes it more convenient for me, easier archiving, and I can get
to it from anywhere I have Web access. I might not get it otherwise.
-----
[ Phase 8 ]
> "Tigers Son. I will go to the green man. You take care of the man with
> gun."
"Hhhhhhh." The youth with the Tiger Head necklace glances at Cheetax
then at the fat man in the chauffeur's uniform getting out of the car,
then back at her. His left arm is pressed against his wounded side. He
looks as if he wants to say something, but it doesn't come out, so he
just breathes heavily, and divides his attention between the
chauffeur,and Doctor D whirling his chain.
> Then Cheetax begins to run towards "X".
> "No I will not go home now! You will suffer."
She stays low and zig-zags as she runs. She's not afraid of the gun,
that was one thing her Tutor and the Hard Man had taught her
together. She remembers their "practice sessions", when the Hard Man
would fire his service automatic by the side of her cage, Tutor
standing off to the side, chuckling as Cheetax winced at the loud
noise and flash.
"And what purpose does this sadism serve?" the Soft Man once asked, as
the Hard Man was reloading.
"That a SuperSoldier shouldn't fear guns, naturally," the Hard Man
replied. "The Cheetah in the subject still has the animal fear of
guns, we must drive that fear out. A weapon should not fear being
used!"
"I think you're overdoing it, Hard. The Cheetah fears guns for a
reason: they can kill it. So the fear is a good thing to keep in the
SuperSoldier. You don't want it to become blase..."
"Oh yeah? Why not? Watch this!" and the Hard Man emptied his pistol
directly into Cheetax's body. Despite Tutor's training, and her own
natural, superhuman agility, she couldn't dodge within the confines of
the cage. The Soft Man gasped as the bullets struck home ... and
bounced off, one by one, leaving only bruises and minor
bleeding. Tutor giggled. The Hard Man grinned at the look on the Soft
Man's face.
"We put in subdermal armor. Guns can't kill it, at least not small
arms, so it shouldn't fear them. It's only bruised. Why that look?
It'll heal."
"Getting SOFT, Soft Man?" Tutor asked, and again giggled.
"What a waste," the Soft Man said, and dropped his voice to a
whisper, calling the two away from the cage. Cheetax's ears could of
course hear everything perfectly.
"You're teaching it to hate you. And you're teaching it it's
invulnerable, at least to permanent damage. If it meets someone with a
bigger gun, it'll die. Or if that doesn't kill it, eventually we'll
have to," the Soft Man said.
The Hard Man was silent.
"That's OK. We'll make others." Tutor giggled.
But after that, the Hard Man never shot her with real bullets again,
only blanks, and in the "practice sessions," Cheetax had a bigger area
in which she could pretend to dodge.
So she dodges now, running. "Is this the 'bigger gun' the Soft Man
meant?" she wonders. "Well it won't kill me if it won't hit me."
Off to the side of the park, Foulmouth and the female "Tiger's Son"
are fighting, ignoring the rest of the world.
"F&%* you you f%$&8 b$%#&!" Foulmouth exlaims as he swings again.
[ Roll 11. The Martial Dodge +5 to DCV still applies, since J canceled
her last phase and hasn't had her next phase yet.]
"Oh, you say the sweetest things," the girl says as she again nimbly
dances away from the blow.
Phase 9:
The man in green and black Doctor D. called "Mister X" tries to follow
the dodging Cheetax through his gunsight, but quickly gives it up.
"Cheetah, you ssay? I can believe that, you're dodging quite fassst. Letsss
ssslow you down." He pulls a canister from his belt with one hand, and
crouches, waiting for the rapidly approaching Cheetax.
Upon consideration, the man with the Tiger's Head decides that the
chauffeur is the less dangerous of the two he's facing, and turns
towards Doctor D.
"Drop the chain, Rhymer," he says and extends his left hand. It is wet
with blood, but he straightens tall and proud, rolls his right
hand into a fist behind him, and advances at Doctor D. The threat is
obvious, and the Doctor backs away.
On the other side of the park, the first "Son of the Tiger" that
Cheetax had knocked across the park is getting up.
"Your mama should have washed your mouth out with soap, gangster," he
says.
"Huh?"
"What?"
Both the combatants are surprised and distracted.
"I don't have none on me. I'll have to use my fist." The man with the
Tiger's left paw ornament bounces to his feet, and strikes.
[ -1 for getting up and attacking, +3 for surprise (he'd been
forgotten about). Roll 11, hits. 6.5 dice roll 22 STUN, 5 BODY, no Knockback.]
Foulmouth staggers, but does not fall down. The girl recovers from her
surprise first, and kicks him from the other side.
[ Roll 9, hits. 7.5d6 22 STUN, 7 BODY. No Knockback. ]
Foulmouth mumbles "Fuhhhhhh" and sits onthe ground, hard, his
blackjack falling out of his his grasp.
"Are you all right? I could have handled him," the woman with the
tiger's right paw ornament says.
"Hah! Girl, don't make me laugh," her friend replies, smiling. Then
he holds his cracked ribs, and gets more serious. "Ow. I mean it,
really don't make me laugh. Ow. I think the furball broke
something. Who is she, anyway? And why does it look like she's now on
our side?"
Phase 10:
Cheetax closes on X, and tries the maneuver that worked so well
against Virgil. She crouches low, and readies herself to spring at the
man's armored chest, this time with her full strength, figuring that
he looks a little tougher than the Wordsmen.
But he doesn't wait for her to spring, merely for her to get close and
begin to crouch.
"Yesss, sssame maneuver. You tried that trick onssse too often,
Cheetah, or whoever you are. I wass watching. Now ... you watch!"
And he tosses the canister he was holding to the ground between
them. It goes off with a pop, and a bright flash. Cheetax finds
herself looking directly into it, as if into the sun with her
dark-adjusted eyes.
[ Roll to hit a hex, not Cheetax herself. Hex only DCV 3. Roll is 12,
hits - but X was aiming a little before Cheetax in case he overthrew,
so instead it strikes early. 3d6 Flash Explosion roll 6, 4, 6, total 5
BODY, but the highest die is removed for the distance, so only 3
BODY. Cheetax is blinded for 3 phases. ]
She can see nothing except bright spots in front of her eyes, and she
feels it will be that way for a short while. Just a few seconds before
her vision comes back, and then she can knock this new stranger down,
like the others. But will she get the time? He's somewhere around
here now, not too far away, undoubtedly taking aim at her as if he has
all the time in the world, and she doesn't even know which way to
dodge. She could smell him, but the burning tree is masking his
odor. She might have heard him breathe, even over the crackle of the
fire, but perhaps he is holding his breath. If only he would say
something!
[ Don't completely trust the map this time for obvious reasons.
This is vaguely how you last remember it at the last time you saw anything.
00 02 04 06 08 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30
00 _______________________________________________________
01 |L_\_/__________TT______L_..____________________TT___L|
02 | |-T - * * * TTTTTTT * * \ / * * * * * TTTT | |
03 | |/ \ TTT TO . ---T-r TTTTT | |
04 | |* \ . /|\b TT *| |
05 | |* \ / V H D ] | \ *| |
06 | |* --T--- . T T *| |
07 | |* /|\ \ / . ] FJTTTTTT *| |
08 | |* / | \ --T-- . K T T *| |
09 | | [ ] / \ . | |
10 S|L| . . . . |L|
11 B| | . . . C . | |
12 B| :. . . . . . f . . . | |
13 | | . . . . . . . | |
14 | |TT . . . | |
15 | TTT [ X. . . . .g. . . . . . . . . . . .: |
16 | |TTT ] [] ] | |
17 | |* T T % % T \ / *| |
18 | |* TTTTTT -%%T%%- TTTTT ---T--- *| |
19 | |* TTTTT % % T / \ *| |
20 | |_*_*_*_*_*T*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_| |
21 |L_________________________L_________________________L|
B - parked car (2+ hexes) f - broken water fountain
: - park gates 0 - round picnic table, on its side
. - paved path [ - bench skeleton
* - bush [] - rectangular picnic table
--T-- - skeletal dead tree TTTT - leafy living tree
%%T%% - burning dry tree
b,g - bags L - streetlamp
C - Cheetax (11,10), flashed, considering next move
r - Hispanic kid, (19,03, 25' up in tree), holding on tight
H - Tiger head (14,05), intimidating D
K - Tiger left paw (23,07), considering next move
J - Tiger right paw (23,07), considering next move
D - Doctor D. (15,05), retreating from H
V - Virgil (12,05), unconscious
F - Foulmouth (22,07), semiconscious
X - X, green armored man (??,??) just threw a flash grenade
S - Shofar (01, 10), chauffeur man, walking with shotgun
Here are the Flash effects by the rules (though you could look them up
in your copy of the rules if you like, for ideas):
You will be blinded for this phase, 10, then 12, and then phase 3 of
the next turn. You probably want to write orders for all 3 moves,
since your options are much limited. Assuming X is SPD 4 (a fair
assumption, since he acted on phases 6 and 9), he will get to act on
12 and then 3 again. On 3, by the time of his second action, you will
again be able to see, but not act, only react by canceling your next
phase, phase 5 of the next turn, to a defensive maneuver, such as
Dodge. And that's IF you're by chance looking the right way.
Until you have some idea where the enemy is, you are at 1/2 DCV, and
OCV is irrelevant, you can't attack. You can guess, of course, or you
can try to somehow figure out where he is - be creative, Cheetax has
great senses. If you figure out vaguely where he is (or just guess
right), you become merely -1 DCV, and can attack at 1/2 normal OCV
(though you might get an OCV "surprise" bonus if he isn't expecting
any attack from a person who presumably doen't know where he is at
all).
Don't forget to send the email to george_ruban@hotmail.com - and hold
on to a copy of your mail, just in case. It might take me longer to
respond, I'm moving to a new job (lot of being a contractor), so send
in your move, and if I don't respond quickly, consider it a chance to
look your move over and change your mind.
George
]
(
geocities.com/siliconvalley/vista/2013/cheetax) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley/vista/2013) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley/vista) (
geocities.com/siliconvalley)