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Ravana Quest [Exalted/Aberrant]

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[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] You grew up in the confines of the Hailax Manufactory. It's been officially abandoned for close to half a century now, turned into an option for a leg of the race, but that never stopped Slum-Dwellers. You lived wherever you could, whenever you could, doing what you had to. You watched the ships fly through the manufactory, warring with each other brutally, as you grew up. It was dangerous, auto-cannon and plasma and missile fire could rip into a crowd or a home at any moment, and no-one cared if the racers killed slum-dwellers in their fight, but watching those flights...it inspired you. It's a good route, dangerous, but relatively short and not utterly suicidal. (Difficulty 3, 14 threshold Successes to complete. Gain 1 Hazard if you fail to breach 3 successes. Using the Attack/Strife option or the Take Cover options while in the Hailax Manufactory are treated as violations of your 4 dot principle 'Indrajit'. 1.2x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)
 
[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] You grew up in the confines of the Hailax Manufactory. It's been officially abandoned for close to half a century now, turned into an option for a leg of the race, but that never stopped Slum-Dwellers. You lived wherever you could, whenever you could, doing what you had to. You watched the ships fly through the manufactory, warring with each other brutally, as you grew up. It was dangerous, auto-cannon and plasma and missile fire could rip into a crowd or a home at any moment, and no-one cared if the racers killed slum-dwellers in their fight, but watching those flights...it inspired you. It's a good route, dangerous, but relatively short and not utterly suicidal. (Difficulty 3, 14 threshold Successes to complete. Gain 1 Hazard if you fail to breach 3 successes. Using the Attack/Strife option or the Take Cover options while in the Hailax Manufactory are treated as violations of your 4 dot principle 'Indrajit'. 1.2x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)

You know where there's this one chamber where a huge crane fell and crashed through one of the exterior walls near or abouts the exit to the Manufactory section. Not many racers used it because it tore up and destabilised most of the chamber's ceiling and because of all the jagged metal, but what do those pussies know? You know the place like the back of your hand. You can fly through there, ramp off it, easy.
 
[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] You grew up in the confines of the Hailax Manufactory. It's been officially abandoned for close to half a century now, turned into an option for a leg of the race, but that never stopped Slum-Dwellers. You lived wherever you could, whenever you could, doing what you had to. You watched the ships fly through the manufactory, warring with each other brutally, as you grew up. It was dangerous, auto-cannon and plasma and missile fire could rip into a crowd or a home at any moment, and no-one cared if the racers killed slum-dwellers in their fight, but watching those flights...it inspired you. It's a good route, dangerous, but relatively short and not utterly suicidal. (Difficulty 3, 14 threshold Successes to complete. Gain 1 Hazard if you fail to breach 3 successes. Using the Attack/Strife option or the Take Cover options while in the Hailax Manufactory are treated as violations of your 4 dot principle 'Indrajit'. 1.2x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)
 
[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)[X] You grew up in the confines of the Hailax Manufactory. It's been officially abandoned for close to half a century now, turned into an option for a leg of the race, but that never stopped Slum-Dwellers. You lived wherever you could, whenever you could, doing what you had to. You watched the ships fly through the manufactory, warring with each other brutally, as you grew up. It was dangerous, auto-cannon and plasma and missile fire could rip into a crowd or a home at any moment, and no-one cared if the racers killed slum-dwellers in their fight, but watching those flights...it inspired you. It's a good route, dangerous, but relatively short and not utterly suicidal. (Difficulty 3, 14 threshold Successes to complete. Gain 1 Hazard if you fail to breach 3 successes. Using the Attack/Strife option or the Take Cover options while in the Hailax Manufactory are treated as violations of your 4 dot principle 'Indrajit'. 1.2x)
[X] Get Clever (+1 Difficulty, +3 dice on next turn's roll. 1.2x)
 
[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] You grew up in the confines of the Hailax Manufactory. It's been officially abandoned for close to half a century now, turned into an option for a leg of the race, but that never stopped Slum-Dwellers. You lived wherever you could, whenever you could, doing what you had to. You watched the ships fly through the manufactory, warring with each other brutally, as you grew up. It was dangerous, auto-cannon and plasma and missile fire could rip into a crowd or a home at any moment, and no-one cared if the racers killed slum-dwellers in their fight, but watching those flights...it inspired you. It's a good route, dangerous, but relatively short and not utterly suicidal. (Difficulty 3, 14 threshold Successes to complete. Gain 1 Hazard if you fail to breach 3 successes. Using the Attack/Strife option or the Take Cover options while in the Hailax Manufactory are treated as violations of your 4 dot principle 'Indrajit'. 1.2x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)
 
[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] To be perfectly honest you're not sure if this thing is physically possible. You know one guy who completed it, and his ship was so badly wrecked it detonated during the final leg. It's theoretically a massive leg over the enemy, if you complete it, since it cuts five hundred miles to about thirty. But between the gas pockets, the near-impossible confines of the valley, the wrecks of previous racers, and at least one live munitions dump, it's probably not worth it. Once that might have just made it more appealing, but not today.(Difficulty 5, 7 threshold successes to complete. 2 Hazard/turn, on top of any other Hazard gained. If you fail to breach 5 successes, your ship takes 1 lethal health level per success failed by (minimum 1). This is doubled on a Botch. .9x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)

Okay, now this sounds absurdly stupid, right? Picking the most dangerous route with the most dangerous method? But here's the thing - we burn through our Hazard for successes, and we start off this leg with 0 Hazard, 5 Successes. If we pick this option, we have 4 Hazard, and need only 2 threshold successes to complete the leg. Look at the math - assuming a two dot stunt and no channels, we'll on average score five successes with two automatic successes from the method, which means we complete the leg instantly. Channels (and maybe a three-dot stunt, though havocfett's said he's looking at scaling up the requirements there) will just make our no doubt inevitable success all the more assured - and we're at full Willpower right now, so the only cost there will be channels, some of which we might not even have as much of an opportunity to use later on. Having blasted through the danger zone, we then have four more points of delicious Hazard to burn through while we wait for the slowpokes to catch up, netting us four successes for the next leg. Doing the dumbest, most dangerous thing has worked out for us before, dammit, and Lady Luck enjoys a flirt.
 
[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] You grew up in the confines of the Hailax Manufactory. It's been officially abandoned for close to half a century now, turned into an option for a leg of the race, but that never stopped Slum-Dwellers. You lived wherever you could, whenever you could, doing what you had to. You watched the ships fly through the manufactory, warring with each other brutally, as you grew up. It was dangerous, auto-cannon and plasma and missile fire could rip into a crowd or a home at any moment, and no-one cared if the racers killed slum-dwellers in their fight, but watching those flights...it inspired you. It's a good route, dangerous, but relatively short and not utterly suicidal. (Difficulty 3, 14 threshold Successes to complete. Gain 1 Hazard if you fail to breach 3 successes. Using the Attack/Strife option or the Take Cover options while in the Hailax Manufactory are treated as violations of your 4 dot principle 'Indrajit'. 1.2x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)
 
New [X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] To be perfectly honest you're not sure if this thing is physically possible. You know one guy who completed it, and his ship was so badly wrecked it detonated during the final leg. It's theoretically a massive leg over the enemy, if you complete it, since it cuts five hundred miles to about thirty. But between the gas pockets, the near-impossible confines of the valley, the wrecks of previous racers, and at least one live munitions dump, it's probably not worth it. Once that might have just made it more appealing, but not today.(Difficulty 5, 7 threshold successes to complete. 2 Hazard/turn, on top of any other Hazard gained. If you fail to breach 5 successes, your ship takes 1 lethal health level per success failed by (minimum 1). This is doubled on a Botch. .9x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)
 
[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] To be perfectly honest you're not sure if this thing is physically possible. You know one guy who completed it, and his ship was so badly wrecked it detonated during the final leg. It's theoretically a massive leg over the enemy, if you complete it, since it cuts five hundred miles to about thirty. But between the gas pockets, the near-impossible confines of the valley, the wrecks of previous racers, and at least one live munitions dump, it's probably not worth it. Once that might have just made it more appealing, but not today.(Difficulty 5, 7 threshold successes to complete. 2 Hazard/turn, on top of any other Hazard gained. If you fail to breach 5 successes, your ship takes 1 lethal health level per success failed by (minimum 1). This is doubled on a Botch. .9x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)
 
[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] You grew up in the confines of the Hailax Manufactory. It's been officially abandoned for close to half a century now, turned into an option for a leg of the race, but that never stopped Slum-Dwellers. You lived wherever you could, whenever you could, doing what you had to. You watched the ships fly through the manufactory, warring with each other brutally, as you grew up. It was dangerous, auto-cannon and plasma and missile fire could rip into a crowd or a home at any moment, and no-one cared if the racers killed slum-dwellers in their fight, but watching those flights...it inspired you. It's a good route, dangerous, but relatively short and not utterly suicidal. (Difficulty 3, 14 threshold Successes to complete. Gain 1 Hazard if you fail to breach 3 successes. Using the Attack/Strife option or the Take Cover options while in the Hailax Manufactory are treated as violations of your 4 dot principle 'Indrajit'. 1.2x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)
 
[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] You grew up in the confines of the Hailax Manufactory. It's been officially abandoned for close to half a century now, turned into an option for a leg of the race, but that never stopped Slum-Dwellers. You lived wherever you could, whenever you could, doing what you had to. You watched the ships fly through the manufactory, warring with each other brutally, as you grew up. It was dangerous, auto-cannon and plasma and missile fire could rip into a crowd or a home at any moment, and no-one cared if the racers killed slum-dwellers in their fight, but watching those flights...it inspired you. It's a good route, dangerous, but relatively short and not utterly suicidal. (Difficulty 3, 14 threshold Successes to complete. Gain 1 Hazard if you fail to breach 3 successes. Using the Attack/Strife option or the Take Cover options while in the Hailax Manufactory are treated as violations of your 4 dot principle 'Indrajit'. 1.2x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)
 
[X] To be perfectly honest you're not sure if this thing is physically possible. You know one guy who completed it, and his ship was so badly wrecked it detonated during the final leg. It's theoretically a massive leg over the enemy, if you complete it, since it cuts five hundred miles to about thirty. But between the gas pockets, the near-impossible confines of the valley, the wrecks of previous racers, and at least one live munitions dump, it's probably not worth it. Once that might have just made it more appealing, but not today.(Difficulty 5, 7 threshold successes to complete. 2 Hazard/turn, on top of any other Hazard gained. If you fail to breach 5 successes, your ship takes 1 lethal health level per success failed by (minimum 1). This is doubled on a Botch. .9x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)

It isn't until you start considering your options that it hits you.

Shit.

Your Racer is a claptrap. Oh, you more than make up for it with your mad skills, but you still gotta admit that it isn't the fastest thing here. Maybe things would if you'd bought new burners, but you choose firepower over speed. In the Canyon it didn't matter because, lets be honest, You are the best racer here.

Speed was never a problem, your issue was being unable to heckle another racer without ramming them. But that might not matter this leg.

This is one of the clearest stretches of road in the entire race. 500 miles of open ground? with no walls to worry about, some people are going to go full blast. Even getting shot at, the clear ground means they can just accelerate out of sight range.

This stops being about who's the best racer, and turns into who has the best ride. Somebody's going to pull ahead. Worse than that, going purely off ship design, it'll probably be Blandboy and his Fis/Fus reactor.

"Fuck!" You smack the panel.

Sure you can cut through the Hailax Manufactory, you know it like the back of your hand, but there's still that chance...You can't allow it, you need to win this race. It's the only real chance of getting your brother out. So, screw it, through the death trap you go.

As you change course, in a single moment of stark clarity, you realize this may be the most dangerous thing you've ever done.

It's reckless, it's near suicidal, and in the back of your head a voice croons of how fuck awesome you'll look when you actually pull it off.
 
[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] To be perfectly honest you're not sure if this thing is physically possible. You know one guy who completed it, and his ship was so badly wrecked it detonated during the final leg. It's theoretically a massive leg over the enemy, if you complete it, since it cuts five hundred miles to about thirty. But between the gas pockets, the near-impossible confines of the valley, the wrecks of previous racers, and at least one live munitions dump, it's probably not worth it. Once that might have just made it more appealing, but not today.(Difficulty 5, 7 threshold successes to complete. 2 Hazard/turn, on top of any other Hazard gained. If you fail to breach 5 successes, your ship takes 1 lethal health level per success failed by (minimum 1). This is doubled on a Botch. .9x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)
 
[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] To be perfectly honest you're not sure if this thing is physically possible. You know one guy who completed it, and his ship was so badly wrecked it detonated during the final leg. It's theoretically a massive leg over the enemy, if you complete it, since it cuts five hundred miles to about thirty. But between the gas pockets, the near-impossible confines of the valley, the wrecks of previous racers, and at least one live munitions dump, it's probably not worth it. Once that might have just made it more appealing, but not today.(Difficulty 5, 7 threshold successes to complete. 2 Hazard/turn, on top of any other Hazard gained. If you fail to breach 5 successes, your ship takes 1 lethal health level per success failed by (minimum 1). This is doubled on a Botch. .9x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)
 
[X] Gain Successes. (Takes one Hazard/Success)
[X] To be perfectly honest you're not sure if this thing is physically possible. You know one guy who completed it, and his ship was so badly wrecked it detonated during the final leg. It's theoretically a massive leg over the enemy, if you complete it, since it cuts five hundred miles to about thirty. But between the gas pockets, the near-impossible confines of the valley, the wrecks of previous racers, and at least one live munitions dump, it's probably not worth it. Once that might have just made it more appealing, but not today.(Difficulty 5, 7 threshold successes to complete. 2 Hazard/turn, on top of any other Hazard gained. If you fail to breach 5 successes, your ship takes 1 lethal health level per success failed by (minimum 1). This is doubled on a Botch. .9x)
[X] Get Dangerous (2 Auto-Sux, gain 2 Hazard. 1.3x)
 
9.9 votes (Post Weight) for Death-Run
10.8 for Hailax Manufactory
0 for Boringland McFPSMap

Hailax it is.

This means:
Blandy is taking the Impossible Route
Ravana, Chandra, Harmeet, Rax, Cyborg, Ilana and Marcelina are taking the manufactory
We don't give a singular fuck about Brownworld Canyon.

Vote is for [X] Get Dangerous, Rax has used Clever Maneuver to give you a -3 to this roll, soooo

9d10, stunt your heart out.

Channel Options....

Pick One:

[ ] Channel 4 Dot Principle (Indrajit. Costs one Willpower.
[ ] Channel 4 Dot Principle (Fly. Costs one Willpower. three uses left.)
[ ] Channel 3 Dot Principle (Show Off. Costs one Willpower.)
[ ] Channel 2 Dot Principle (I Will Win the Seven Canyon Race. Costs one Willpower.)
[ ] Channel 2 Dot Principle (Applaud Me. Costs one Willpower.)
[ ] No Channel (You keep all channels and don't add any more dice on top of the stunt)
 
havocfett said:
9.9 votes (Post Weight) for Death-Run
11.7 for Hailax Manufactory
0 for Boringland McFPSMap
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Minor thing, and I apologize if I've misunderstood somewhere, but shouldn't it be 10.8 for Hailax Manufactory? 9 x 1.2 = 10.8. Was it suppose to be x1.3 in the first place?

Or have I just horribly misunderstood the voting system?
 
[X] Channel 4 Dot Principle (Indrajit. Costs one Willpower.)
 
Crap. I missed another vote. Ah, well, I can still vote for channeling, which, yes, is a limited resource, but utterly useless if we never actually use them. I also want to end up fare enough ahead again that we have time to convert hazard.

[x] Channel 4 Dot Principle (Indrajit. Costs one Willpower.)
 
havocfett said:
Blandy is taking the Impossible Route
Ravana, Chandra, Harmeet, Rax, Cyborg, Ilana and Marcelina are taking the manufactory
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well, we're officially blander than Blando McBlanderson. We're taking the same route as his damn fangirl. I hope you're all happy! We could have spent our extra successes on slapping some Hazard on him and getting his shiny overpimped ride blown out of the sky. Instead, we're going to have to actually beat people at flying rather than just trusting to absurd luck, and what kind of racer's ethic is that?!

[x] Channel 4 Dot Principle (Indrajit. Costs one Willpower)

Given our current goal, I can't help but feel that Indrajit-channels will be more useful down the line than Fly-channels, but Indrajit's an easier stunt here, and I don't know how many more legs are left in this race, or how often we can regain channels.
In any case, we've already beat the difficulty with three threshold successes (Diff3, 4 sux, +2 sux from Get Dangerous), so any dice from Principles and Stunts are a lovely bonus rather than a necessity to staying alive.

........

Ravana can practically feel his luck straining under the pressure of who-knows-how-many near misses. Actually, that might be his ship straining, which (given that he doesn't need luck) is rather more worrying. How long can it keep up this kind of pace?

Blando Blandy of the O'Blandy clan shoots him a challenging smirk before swerving off toward a cramped, twisted and frankly suicidal shortcut, clearly intending to beat the race's current star at his own daredevil game. With that open challenge, as blatant as blasters at dawn, Ravana's mind is made up... and with the subdued grace of a falling leaf, he curves off on an entirely different, far more conventional route. He can just imagine the look on that guy's face when he realizes no-one's bothered to follow him into that deathtrap. If he's lucky, there'll be close-ups available when they sell the track-camera recordings. If he's really lucky, Blando won't even come out the other side.

Haliax Manufactory is ahead, an industrial ant hive, built into and between the battered cliff-faces like a particularly ugly breed of mould. Old pics suggest most of the larger buildings used to be white and smooth, part of some "blanque chic" amongst the leaders of industry, but there's no trace of that anywhere - acrid fumes eroded and stained when the place was running, and slum-dwellers scavenged and repurposed when it died.

Even now Ravana can see little forms scurrying between shacks and great hollow engine-corpses, looking for cover from the oncoming race. Or possibly a good viewing spot - that was always his priority back in the day, even as Indrajit urged him to find an intact section of sewer and lie low. Now he's back, this time swooping through the air on wings of fire and metal.

The urge to grin and wave rises up, and Ravana doesn't bother resisting, merrily tacking between the rusted towers of factory chimneys that stick out at every angle. This route's not hugely dangerous if you're not blind or panicking, but it's still more interesting than just gunning it in a straight line for a couple of hundred miles. The main threat comes from the other racers, which is why it's wiser to stick to the edges. The obstacles are slightly denser, but the factories break up line of sight, making firefights a tricky prospect.

Ravana's nostalgic good mood is interrupted by a sudden screeching retort of blaster fire. A glance shows it's not aimed his way. In fact, it doesn't seem to be aimed at anyone... until the smoke clears, revealing the silhouette of Rax's ship, like a particularly aerodynamic lobster had a torrid affair with a pack of razor blades, its guns visibly charging for another shot. His target? The sprawl of patchwork shacks between the central factories. Anyone with half a brain will have already tried to head for sturdier cover, but Ravana remembers being refused entry to a strong shelter dug into the cliff face at least once, slum strongmen guarding the doors and charging for safety. Someone almost certainly died down there. What's Rax even trying to do?

The answer's a cold finger on the back of Ravana's neck. Lobster-boy's calling him out. Has to be. The guy probably knows Ravana's from around here - hell, he might have let it slip himself while smack-talking - and after that stunt with Abhas he's gambling that the race leader will give up a bit more of a lead to pull another bit of heroic sacrifice stupidity. That'd be clever if it weren't totally sociopathic. Fucking aliens, seriously.

Ravana could let it go, play it safe, make it through with nary a scratch... but Indrajit would never forgive him, even if he busted him out. This slum was their home, and Indrajit stayed to fight for it even when Ravana was headed for the skies. Honestly, Indrajit would make his brother's life a lot easier if he were just a bit more of a bastard. Time to take the bait.

Darting out into the open, Ravana rises almost to the limits of what the course allows, the open space letting him accelerate like no-one else in this section of the course. Of course, it also opens him up to fire from the lobster and cybitch alike. His grin returns, savage this time, as he roars through great steaming clouds of vented smog, clouding his position for brief precious moments each time, dodging obscured obstacles on memory alone. They think this place is their ally? Ravana was born in the slums. Moulded by them. He didn't reach the skies until he was practically a man, and by then it was nothing but...

...freedom.
 
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