THE INFINITE BROOD (Starcraft/Supreme Commander Crossover Quest!)

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THE SWARM SHEET
  • Informational
    • The Brood of Blades
    ​
    Cerebrate Prime: Samantha Clarke
    LEVEL: 5
    XP: 205/210
    TRAITS
    Strategic Genius: Once per structured encounter, Sam can create a piece of the environment that is in her favor as a sticky spark. Roll a d3 for its value.
    Empathetic: upon meeting an NPC, learn their motivation!
    Legendary Commander: Gain 4 Command sparks at the beginning of each mission/combat. Command sparks may be spent to give NPCs orders, which they may either obey or refuse to obey (doing nothing instead.) Command sparks may not be regained via skills or powers.
    Hunted: Something wants her - but for what? +1 Danger to all scenes​
    SKILLS
    CLOSE COMBAT (2): Brawling, Edged Weapons
    PERSONAL (2): Awareness, Resilience
    SOCIAL (4): Charm, Empathy, Leadership, Taunt​
    MASTERY
    ACU Pilot (2): Nanofabrication [Mass], ObSat Operations [Range]
    The Hilt (4): Biomorphic Spawning (People), Regeneration (Durability), Physical Perfection (Speed), Telepathic Dominion (Range)​

    POWERS
    The Living Swarm
    Vent: 4-0
    Effect: Gain 1 Living Swarm spark, +1 per vent reduction.​
    The Living Swarm: While this swarm exists, move in three dimensions and through anything smaller than a keyhole, reforming at will. You may expend these sparks to cause 3 Hit Sparks in a Area 2 radius.​
    Area Upgrade: +1 to Area Characteristic​

    Biomorphic Reinforcement
    Vent: 4-0
    Effect: Create 1 Biomorphic Reinforcement spark, +1 per vent reduction, which can be given out to anyone within Range 2, or to yourself
    Biomorphic Reinforcement: +1 to Damage or Mass characteristic for the purpose of raw physical strength/feats.

    Back to Back
    Vent: 4-0
    Effect: Choose 1 ally (+1 per vent reduction), within Range 1. Each can take one action using one of your skills, any of them that you wish. Once they have done so, you may make a free attack with your melee weapon, getting +1 to your skill per ally that acted.​

    Adaptation
    Vent: 4-0
    Effect: Create a number of sparks equal to the enemy's difficulty, narratively based on turning their abilities against them. Works on enemies of Diff 2>, +2 per vent reduction.​

    Just as Planned…
    Vent: 6-0
    Effect: Vent 6 heat and create 1 Planning Spark for her or an ally, +1 Spark per vent reduction.​
    Planning: The person holding this Spark can expend this to get +1 to a skill check as a free action. Using this Stack counts as you are helping for the purpose of relationships.​

    GEAR
    Zeratul's Psi-Blades
    Adds: +0 (Edged Weapons) | Characteristics: Damage [Speed] (4)[1]​
    Shadowstep (3): Can expend as a free action to move without crossing intervening space.
    Guarded Space (3): Can expend to use Damage as a secondary characteristic for Durability, reducing incoming Damage characteristics.​

    GALACTIC WAR
    Victory Points: 5    ​
    RESOURCES​
    TERRAN DOMINION [Background] (1)​
    The men and material of the Dominion - limited, but they're mustering as we speak. ​
    ALLIANCE EXPEDITIONARY FORCES [Mastery] (1)​
    While you have access to several ACUs of every faction, they lack economic and technological support to be fully effective. ​
    ZERG HIVE [Mastery] (1)​
    The scant few Zerg you control that are free of Amon's influence. Mostly Zerglings. ​
    AEON FLEET [Background] (1)​
    While half a dozen CZARs seem impressive, they're not actually well made for ship to ship combat. ​
    ALLIED COHESION [Motivation] (1)​
    The alliance is fragile and weak.​

    FRONTS​
    Trade Sector-34-51 [Pirate Activity]
    Pirates Raiding 6 (Supply Lines in Disarray 1)
    COMMAND: Jim Raynor | ARMY: Raynor's Raiders
    RESULTS: Pending

    Braxis [Zerg Invasion]
    Borealis Siege 6 (Zerg Rampage1)
    COMMAND: General Samantha Clarke | ARMY: Brood Clarke
    RESULTS: Pending

    Typhan II [Active Xel'Naga ACU]
    Typhan II Occupied 6 (Xel'Naga ACU Spotted 1)
    COMMAND: Lt. Colonel Mathew Horner | ARMY: UEF Armored Command Unit
    RESULTS: Pending

    Deep Space Sector 981 [Hive Fleet Identified]
    Zerg Hive Fleet Spotted 6 (Kerrigan? 1)
    COMMAND: Citizen-Commander Dostya | ARMY: CN Armored Command Unit
    RESULTS: Pending
    ​
    ENEMY ASSETS (Currently Known)
    ​
    THE GOLDEN ARMADA
    ACTIVITY: Unknown | Threat Level: 6​
     
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  • Informational
    • Adhoc vote count started by DragonCobolt on Mar 30, 2024 at 12:56 AM, finished with 16 posts and 11 votes.
    • [x] Try and talk them down. (This will get one on your side, but also will cause one wound effect.)
      - [x] Precarious: During the fight, you end up with the other Ghost's gun to your head.
      [x] Have Sarah jump Crone - while she's distracted, short out Tora's concious brain with a smash from your psionic powers.
      [x] Try and talk them down. (This will get one on your side, but also will cause one wound effect.)
      - [X] Real Bad News: You talk her around and then the GM adds 60 Danger to the scene. This does not increase the XP value
    Click to expand...


    You know, I just noticed the two quests I'm running have the exact same title structure - involving infinity/endlessness

    Though, tbh, I'm thinking of renaming THE ENDLESS GATE to "The Absolute-Ketheric Affair" but that'll reveal the twist that I've turned the plot of Balder's Gate 3 into the Iran-Contra affair. Orin is in the CIA. Colonel Gortash is selling magical weapons to death squads to finance anti-communist activities? Wild.
     
    ACT TWO, MISSION SIX: To Open the Way (0.8)
  • Threadmarks
    • Tension boiled in the room. You could feel it about to snap. And yet...the only thing you could think about at this moment?

    It was the look of that haunted, scared kid - who you had left on Haven, who you had fought and killed Aldaris to protect, even if you'd never gotten a chance to tell them, directly. You squared your shoulders, lifted your head, then grabbed onto your helmet. You yanked it up and off, tossing it to the side with the carelessness of someone from Earth, who had never known a tool that couldn't be replaced. Glass crunched and Sarah actually winced. You could feel it behind her mask. Crone and Tora both snapped their heads to look at you, clearly waiting to see what came next. You grinned, slightly.

    "Fuck this," you said. "I've killed enough people for one expedition. I'm going to see if I can avoid adding another." You looked Tora square in the eyes -easy, thanks to the fact you were both the same height. "Do you know about the blocks?"

    Tora hesitated for a moment.

    "Memory blocks? Of course," Crone said. "They're vital for our continuing...operation. Sanity cracks awfully fast under pressure."

    "Morality comes up faster than you'd think too," you said, simply. "I can take 'em out."

    Are you sure you can? Sarah asked.

    "I've been practicing," you murmured, not taking your eyes off Tora.

    "Don't talk stupid," Crone said, her voice bitter.

    "...I am curious though," Tora said, slowly.

    "Tora!" Crone snapped her gaze to her. "We're here to gut these two, not play twenty questions about your fucked up childhood."

    "I don't even know if it was..." Tora said, her voice soft. She slid her from her side to her face - but rather than tugging the whole mask free, she pulled aside her respirator. Her mouth was heavily scarred - cross hatched by clawmarks, like someone had repeatedly tried to dig her mouth out with knives. She smirked. "Really it's less the childhood I'm curious about. More about the Zerg. I know I fought them. But I want to know why. And when. And how. The plastic surgeons did their best, but I need to know who is responsible for this." Her finger touched her lips, slowly. "And this. And this. And this." She glided her hand along her body - touching places that were concealed by her skintight black on black bodysuit. You wondered at how much was scar tissue, how much was cheap colonial cybernetics.

    You almost offered her a stint in a nanotech medical bay, but first things first.

    "Oh fucking god," Crone said, drawing a knife. "Screw this." She stepped forward. Sarah grabbed her wrist.

    You reached out with your mind.

    And several things happened at once.

    Crone dropped her legs, swung under Sarah, then flipped her onto her back with a twist and a thrust of her leg, hitting Sarah's knee hard enough that her bones shattered and her leg cracked in half. Sarah half fell, hissing softly, as Crone came up to her feet, then slithered around behind your back. The knife went right against your throat and was joined by her pistol - the heavy, cold weight of it pressing to your temple.

    Sarah dropped, rolled, and came to her feet. Her knee joint popped back into place with a sickening crunch and she stood with her hands raised into a fighting stance - tense, ready, and holding off. The pistol you couldn't see out of the corner of your eyes, but Sarah's eyes widening made you think it might not just be loaded with normal bullets. Who knew what Zerg killing gear they had - even if they thought you were Terrans...or...had thought you were Terrans until Sarah's little leg trick.

    And, as this all happened, your mind went into Tora's head and found all the blocks. They were thick and heavy, sour with the flavor of artificial neurotransmitters and stinking of psychic bullheadedness. Like licking a corroded battery, touching them with your thoughts made you want to recoil. Instead, you grabbed one and yanked. It wasn't exactly...brain surgery...

    You froze, hands up, and Sarah tensed.

    Tora, meanwhile, had what appeared to be a seizure. The tall, lanky ghost dropped to the ground, twitched, writhed, trembled. Her legs drummed against the ground and her spine arched as her mouth frothed and foamed. Crone tightened her grip. "Let her brain go," she growled in your ear.

    "I did," you said.

    "God, you're bad at this then!" she snapped and you, Sarah and Crone all focused your minds on Tora. The psychic touch was a bit like pressing your hand to a warm stove with the warning light on. You still did it - but you gritted your teeth...and found that her brain was washing with stimulants and artificial levelers. Her suit had registered the change and was trying to mediate it. Sarah, though, was the one who knew what she was doing: Her psychic fingers coaxed certain hormone producing glands and repressed electrical fields with precision and skill that left you feeling like a child trying to mimic their father at some esoteric task - making all the gestures, but producing none of the results. The seizure passed and Tora groaned low in her throat.

    "F...Fuck my head..." She whispered, sitting up, her hand going to her helmet and yanking it fully off. Her features were even worse without the goggles - it looked like someone had taken a machete to the side of her skull and it left one of her eyes bigger than the others - the replacement cybernetic in the ruined socket was clearly as cheap as possible and closer to Mira Han's than to anyone else. Her skin had a sicky purple-gray cast, like she was more cadaver than human being. She started to stand, slowly, then said. "...huh."

    "You remember?" Sarah asked.

    "Yeah," Tora said, slowly, her brow drawing in. She considered.

    "You ready to get back to this?" Crone asked, her knife pressed against your throat.

    "No," Tora said. "Is Raynor still taking hires?"

    "Fuck it, she dies," Crone said.

    "If you touch a hair on Sam's head, I will make you wish you could die," Sarah said, her voice level.

    The impasse couldn't last.

    ---
    HEAT: 3/6
    HIT SPARKS: Held Hostage 9 (Precariously 10)

    [ ] Grab onto Crone's arm, flip her over your shoulder, ignore the knife cutting your head almost entirely off, and choke her out with your knee.
    [ ] Try and talk Crone around too. Talk fast, it sounds like bad guys are coming.
    [ ] Have Sarah take her down while you focus on staying alive.
    [ ] Write In

    So, you removed Tora from play, taking enough heat to overheat to do so. This puts you in Precarious, creating a 10 hit spark on you, and hten Crone attacks you and stacks her own 10 hit sparks atop that. This puts you at 2 minimum heat, and they decay by 1, putting you at 3/6 heat.

    Seems pretty spooky, huh folks?

    Plan one: Take an action using your Regeneration miracle to slap away Held Hostage and Precarious. Then, Vent 0 heat to use Adaptation, which lets you use Crone's difficulty to create sparks - use those sparks to take her down. Done and done!
    Plan Two: Take 6 heat to take her down with Charm. This will lightly overheat you and create 8 heat that will spawn some more goons to fight.
    Plan Three: Vent 2 heat to let Sarah use one of your skills three times, which is enough to take Crone down.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Just walk to extraction with Crone still attached, and heal off all the stabbing.

    We're doing this now. Just sheer unmitigated honey badger energy.
     
    "You know, you aren't actually accomplishing anything."

    "SHUT... <stab> UP... <stab>"

    "<shrug> It's your energy to waste I guess."

    "Are you sure you don't want the memory blocks removed? Our side was pretty bad."

    "I'll do it... <stab> later... <stab>. She just grabbed me... <stab> and took me... <stab> with you guys... <stab>. At this point it's... <stab> the principle of the thing. <stab>"

    "Whatever works for you. Oh, we're here."
     
    [X] Just walk to extraction with Crone still attached, and heal off all the stabbing.
    -[X] Extol the virtues of non-shit augmentation on the way out. Seriously, who doesn't get their elite killers good optics? Maybe their former superiors are stupid, possibly, and should be shot repeatedly.

    "See you stabbed me in the eye, which would normally suck, but my medical department isn't run by fascist morons so I can pick up a good replacement! Like your coworker couldn't before now!"
     
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    [X] Just walk to extraction with Crone still attached, and heal off all the stabbing.
     
    I was just making a joke about how we don't necessarily need to render friendly or unconscious to kidnap someone.

    But if you guys want to run with it. Cool. 😀
     
    just 2b clear, that will cause extra danger (since you will overheat, since you're narratively justifying using your Regeneration skill - 4 - to use against a diff 10 enemy, so, 6 heat plus 3 heat is 9 heat, which is OVER heating! dun dun dunnnn!)

    But, like, it's really funny to be carrying a girl stabbing you while you kung fu your way through a bunch of marines
     
    Probably better to talk her into joining.

    We will still most likely overheat but she at least would be on our side instead of hilariously stabbing us.
     
    Could we use the Living Swarm vent ability to just no-sell the being held hostage sparks by dissolving into a bunch of little critters?
    I'm thinking along the following lines:
    Use the voices of the scientists from the ghost facility we witnessed to give Crone an order to stand down, while she's confused dissolve into a bunch of bugs and reform free from her, then talk her down
    So basically use a command spark to tell her to let us go and when she elects to do nothing instead, vent using Living Swarm and talk her down using charm, but idk if living swarm can be used like that.
     
    [X] Try and talk Crone around too. Talk fast, it sounds like bad guys are coming.

    [X] Just walk to extraction with Crone still attached, and heal off all the stabbing.
    We came here to disable the disruptor, not leave suddenly. But if we can do all that while she's stabbing us, sure, ok.
     
    sheep-dodger said:
    Could we use the Living Swarm vent ability to just no-sell the being held hostage sparks by dissolving into a bunch of little critters?
    I'm thinking along the following lines:
    Use the voices of the scientists from the ghost facility we witnessed to give Crone an order to stand down, while she's confused dissolve into a bunch of bugs and reform free from her, then talk her down
    So basically use a command spark to tell her to let us go and when she elects to do nothing instead, vent using Living Swarm and talk her down using charm, but idk if living swarm can be used like that.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    We can, but then the zerg have invaded, probably Sarah Kerrigan etc. Probably best not to use our powers willy nilly in a tense situation.
     
    [X] Try and talk Crone around too. Talk fast, it sounds like bad guys are coming.

    [X] Just walk to extraction with Crone still attached, and heal off all the stabbing.

    I think talking Crone around is the better option, but the stabbing option is too funny to not vote for it.
     
    [x] Grab onto Crone's arm, flip her over your shoulder, ignore the knife cutting your head almost entirely off, and choke her out with your knee.

    As funny as the Zapp Brannigan school of kidnapping would be, I like this better because it sets up an opportunity for a "break the badass" scene. Maybe it's where Tora is being all empathetic and appealing to Crone's emotions while Sam shows her how far peak human performance is below the perfection of the Zerg. Possibly sexily.
     
    We haven't actually dealt with the psi-gizmo yet, have we? We shouldn't be extracting.

    [x] Grab onto Crone's arm, flip her over your shoulder, ignore the knife cutting your head almost entirely off, and choke her out with your knee.

    [X] Try and talk Crone around too. Talk fast, it sounds like bad guys are coming.
     
    Adhoc vote count started by DragonCobolt on Apr 1, 2024 at 1:18 AM, finished with 22 posts and 10 votes.
    • [X] Just walk to extraction with Crone still attached, and heal off all the stabbing.
      [X] Try and talk Crone around too. Talk fast, it sounds like bad guys are coming.
      [x] Grab onto Crone's arm, flip her over your shoulder, ignore the knife cutting your head almost entirely off, and choke her out with your knee.
      [X] Just walk to extraction with Crone still attached, and heal off all the stabbing.
      -[X] Extol the virtues of non-shit augmentation on the way out. Seriously, who doesn't get their elite killers good optics? Maybe their former superiors are stupid, possibly, and should be shot repeatedly.
    Click to expand...


    They're speed holes, they make Sam go faster
     
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