[rednblack]

Vehicles do not have Hardened Armor by RAW, but I know it's house-ruled as such sometimes. 

I had originally intended for James to use the grenades on a timer, but just one HE grenade is 20P -1p/m so James would still be Soaking 10P -2AP, and that's not taking an increased DV from daisy-chained grenades into account.  James could "Sprint" underwater with STR + Swimming (14 dice) averaging an extra 4 meters, but that's not quite going to cut it.  So, yeah, that won't work.  James could conceivably use the sub itself as cover.  10+ meters a CT should be plenty to get underneath the sub, but depending on clearance between the sub and the mucky swamp bottom that could also be pretty ugly. 

We're going to belay that for the moment, and see if launching HE grenades at the pressure hull has any effect. 

James will spend CT8 IP3 taking a running jump at the conning tower.  He'll spend a Free Action to enable Wireless on his Hydraulic Jacks.  Buying hits should get him onto the conning tower no problem. 

On CT9 IP1 he'll Take Aim, and launch a grenade at the hole.  Next pass will be an Observe in Detail to see what the effects are.

James will let the Spirit continue to hold onto the Desert Strike for now.

[Tecumseh]

CT9 will have two passes.

James jumps onto the conning tower, no problem. Once he is up there, he sees the remains of the ork he blasted. The ork may or may not be dead, but the conning tower is slick with blood actively pumping out of his arm stump. There's a machine pistol nearby. James also sees the rope coming out of the conning tower hatch. The rope does not look severed. Without closer inspection, James is not certain if the rope is interfering with the hatch properly closing/sealing.

James fires the grenade on CT9 IP1. Instead of a Simple action to Take Aim I'm going to recommend a Simple action to Take Cover to represent leaning away from the blast being channeled out of the hole. James is only 3ish meters away from the blast location (say 2.5 for the conning tower plus 0.5 for the distance between the inner hull and outer hull), which is uncomfortably close for an HE grenade.

HE grenades are 16P –2AP –2/m above water. Underwater they will turn to 20P –2AP –1/m, but targeted area is not underwater yet.

On IP2 he looks down. Even with his vision magnification, it is a bit difficult to see through the smoke flung up by the exploding grenade. The grenade has made the hole in the outer hull somewhat larger; it has gone from softball-size to shotput-size. James cannot see any significant damage to the inner hull, but he has significant smoke modifiers. The smoke is thermal so his thermographics don't help reduce the modifier much.

You have another action for CT9 IP2. Then we can go to CT10, which will have 3 passes.

[rednblack]

While he's waiting for the smoke to clear, let's see if James can open that hatch.  Since the Alpha's sling is severed, there's no keeping it in hand, so he'll need to drop it, and give the hatch a good tug.  He'll try to stay behind the hatch as much as possible for cover.  I figure this is worth a roll.

CT9 IP1
Free: Drop Alpha
Complex: Lifting Test
I have: STR (8) + BOD (5) = 13 dice.
Lifting Test: 13d6t5 3
That's the same as buying hits.  James baseline lifting is 120kg, staged up to 165kg with hits.
Not sure if Hydraulic Jacks would effect this roll, but let's include them separately.  I can see it going either way.
Hydraulic Jacks: 6d6t5 4
That would stage the Lifting Test to 225kg.

[Tecumseh]

James lifts the hatch! In fact, it's not even hard. The hatch was not actually sealed due to the rope, so James has little difficultly in pulling it open.

I'm going to borrow a Simple action from CT10 IP2 for an Observe in Detail to move things along.

Looking down, James sees another hatch about two meters below. This hatch is at the same level as the inner/pressure hull. The hatch is closed and does not have any rope hanging out of it so James does not feel like he will benefit from an imperfect seal again.

The conning tower is thus not the conning tower (since it does not contain the conn), but is rather the sail, providing hydrodynamic stability. The sail also appears to serve as an airlock between the outer hull and the inner hull.

What James doesn't know is if the inner hatch is locked. (Do submarine hatches even have locks? Who would you be keeping out? But then again, a lock seems like a fairly simple thing to have. Things James doesn't know.)

[rednblack]

CT10 IP2
Simple: Observe in Detail
Simple: Grab Alpha
Move: Down to lower hatch
Free: Drop Alpha.

CT10 IP3
Free: Arm HE grenade (Motion Sensor)
Simple: Crack open hatch
Simple: Drop Grenade
Extra Free Action: Drop hatch

Plan here is to get down to the interior hatch, open, chuck, close.  If James can't have the extra free action this pass, he will Observe in Detail on the hatch, and wait to arm the grenade until he's figured out if he can open the hatch or not.  If it's a release wheel, it will probably take a Complex Action to open, so that may make the above actions irrelevant. 

[Tecumseh]

CT10 IP3 is a Complex to turn the release wheel.

The hatch does not open. The release wheel turns a quarter-turn before it stops. James would guess that either
1) there's someone on the other side who is actively counteracting his force. The surviving ork, for example, who had a strong, manual-labor look about him, is a good candidate; or,
2) something has been stuck in the wheel on the opposite side to prevent it from turning.

The enemy air spirit does not follow James into the conning tower. He does not have to go on Full Defense for CT11 and will have 3 IPs as a result. If the air spirit stays away for CT12, James will have 4 IPs.

The submarine is moving but still not diving. Illeana's air spirit hovers near the top hatch with James' Desert Strike.

[rednblack]

Let's toss in another Lifting test on that Complex Action to open the hatch.
I have: STR ( + BOD (5) = 13 dice.
Lifting Test: 13d6t5 8
Holy drek balls.  James baseline is 125kg staged up to 245kg with hits.
If Hydraulic Jacks count: Hydraulic Jacks: 6d6t5 2
Hitting Physical Limit for 275kg.  That would be a feat for even a rather robust but wounded ork to match.  Of course, a wrench stuck in the wheel would just kinda sit there.

Assuming that won't work, James will grab the Alpha (Simple) and climb back out of the hatch (Simple, I assume). 

CT 11 (2 passes)

IP1
See above.

IP2
Simple: Observe in Detail (on inner hull now that the smoke has cleared some)
Simple: FA burst on sub hull.

We'll go back and see if he can get any leeway.  Anything changing on the sub movement front?

[Tecumseh]

It's not a lifting test so much as it is a strength test to turn the wheel on the hatch. Hydraulic jacks will nor help, not am I really sure that they would help with lifting in general. (Lifting drives force down through the legs. I'm not sure that an upward force from the hydraulic jacks would improve a lift at all from a biomechanical standpoint.) We will keep the 8 hits.

Resisting the wheel turn: ?: ?d6t5 7 hits

Something or someone is fighting mightily to keep that wheel from turning. Even so, James overpowers them (barely) and the wheel turns.

The other party will now try to turn the wheel back. If they should fail to do so, James will be able to open the hatch the next IP, but he should be wary of being face-to-face with an aggrieved party in extremely tight quarters, where dodging will be very difficult. Of course, the reverse is also true.

Trying to turn the wheel back the other direction: ?: ?d6t5 7 hits

Someone or something strong is on the other end of that wheel.

[rednblack]

Yikes, those are some good rolls.  Let's see how James does.
Lifting Test: 13d6t5 4
James is feeling outmatched on this front.  7 hits twice in a row is well above what he can match, so he will head back up for the next IP, then do the Observe in Detail and FA burst as planned.

Any new developments with the sub's movement?

[Tecumseh]

The sub is continuing to accelerate. It is moving south. It has not yet begun to dive.

James emerges from the conning tower. The air spirit is gone, but Illeana's spirit is still nearby. James looks at the effects of the grenade on the pressure hull. The single grenade doesn't appear to have materially affected the hull, but it's possible that it shaved a millimeter or two off and that the difference is too small for James to detect at a distance. Sustained fire and/or grenading may have a positive cumulative effect. On that note, James does a Full Auto burst on the hull.

While he is doing that, an earth elemental materializes behind him! James knows that earth elementals are big and slow and that the odds of one hitting him are even lower than the odds of the air spirit connecting with him. (Unless, of course, this earth elemental has some new tricks up its sleeve.) James suspects that the elemental was intending to close the submarine hatch on him, trapping him inside the conning tower while the submarine dove.

[rednblack]

Tricksy, tricksy.  James is giving up on the sub. He's going to jump away from the Earth Spirit in dramatic fashion to the south, and pat down the woman for extra mags, any grenades that she may be carrying, and her link, if he can find it.  Then he's going to spend the next pass grabbing the Desert Strike and ordering the Air Spirit to make him fly.  He'll want to go up over the canopy and then some, probably 150 m or so, and then use Tracking to start tailing the air boat.  On his way up. he'll snap a few photos of the immediate vicinity with his cyber eyes, and once he's up a ways, he'll repeat the process trying to get some landmarks -- which should be plenty difficult in a swamp -- in view.

He's also going to be very weary of another Air Spirit being Summoned and sent after him, so let's throw in a Perception Test.
I have: INT (9) + Perception (6) + Visual Spec (2) + Specifically Looking (3) = 20 dice.
Perception + Specifically Looking + Visual: 20d6t5 3
Sub Par rolling, but an Air Spirit won't have much options for taking a stealthy approach.  Let's hope the magician on board doesn't see much use for a Spirit that can't hit him.

For Tracking I have: INT (9) + Tracking (2) = 11 dice.
Tracking: 11d6t5 2
That's fairly decent, I think.  Still sub par, but an audio imprint shouldn't be too difficult to detect.

Once he's up beyond 100 meters of the sub, James will reboot his link.

Do you want any rolls for taking photos?  I mostly see this being used to help James get back to the location of the fire fight, should he choose to try to save any of the contraband, even if it's just for identification if he strikes out with the air boat.

[Tecumseh]

Let's see, where are we... Let's stay CT12 IP1.

CT12 IP1
James jumps to the south end of the sub, where waves are starting to lap over the body of the human female that James lanced. I'm not sure we ever fully resolved the action required to jump, but I'm going to call it a Complex due to the distance covered.

The earth spirit uses Binding! This is a curious power that doesn't seem to include an attack or dodge roll. Unless I'm misreading or misinterpreting things, the test is to break free. James needs to make a Strength + Body test against the earth spirit's Willpower + Magic. (You're lucky this isn't another opposed test against the spirit's Body + Strength.)

Magic + Willpower: 12d6t5 6 hits

James does the superhero landing on the deck of the sub but then finds that there's a strange magnetic force that's making it hard to lift his hands or his feet from the deck of the sub! That's strange...

If and when James breaks free, and if he chooses to risk sticking around ("sticking" get it? haha) he will find one spare clip of APDS on the female human plus one clip of HE mini-grenades for the Alpha. He'll need a Simple to pat her down then a Simple to grab them. This does not include the ammunition in her Ares Alpha (presumably the same), which will require separate actions to acquire (Simple to pick up, Simple to eject clips).

The air spirit will regret to inform James that it has absolutely no ability to make him fly, nor is it strong enough to pick him up.

[rednblack]

The earth spirit uses Binding! This is a curious power that doesn't seem to include an attack or dodge roll. Unless I'm misreading or misinterpreting things, the test is to break free. James needs to make a Strength + Body test against the earth spirit's Willpower + Magic. (You're lucky this isn't another opposed test against the spirit's Body + Strength.)

Magic + Willpower: 12d6t5 6 hits

Binding is an interesting power.  By RAW, the range depends on the creature with the examples given on page 395 as:

The range of this power depends on how the critter binds its targets; it may shoot webbing (Range: LOS), have a sticky body (Range: Touch), or just be good at sticking to things (Range: Self)

While not explicitly stated, this makes me think that some sort of Attack needs to be landed for the power to take hold -- Ranged for webs, Melee for Touch, or what, Engulf for Self?  That's a weird one.  Double "Binded"?

If the Spirit can Bind him without making an attack roll, I don't see James sticking around on the sub for long at all.  Let's see how he does on resisting.  I have: STR ( + BOD (5) = 13 dice.
V. Binding: 13d6t5 7
Umm, wow, that was unexpected. 

Next steps will depend on GM interpretation of the Binding power.  If the Spirit can make it stick (ah, we are a pair of dads with bad jokes aren't we?) by spending a Complex Action, he'll forgo grabbing the Desert Strike, searching the lady, and just drive straight into the swamp.  If it needs to land an attack, he'll spend a Simple to pat down and a simple to grab the HE grenades on CT12 IP2, before heading into the swamp himself and begin swimming in the direction of the air boat.  He'll spend a Free Action cursing the Air Spirit for not being strong enough to make him fly.

Actually, maybe scratch that.  Is the air boat still in view?

[Tecumseh]

I'm going to interpret Binding in a similar manner as the Fear power, namely as a force to be resisted rather than dodged.

I'll use the examples of the book to require that there be something for the target to be bound to. If James were flying or swimming, for example, there would be nothing for the earth spirit to bind James to (nothing that that the earth spirit has dominion over, at least). But a magnetized sub sounds appropriate and should be somewhat alarming to James.

Good work on breaking free. I suppose you could drag the human female into the water with you and pat her down there (that sounds naughty).

The air boat is no longer in view. This portion of the swamp is particularly dense, which is likely why the smugglers chose to meet here (to limit visibility). James will have to surface if he wants to track them. Illeana's air spirit might also be able to find them, although it would go faster if it could ditch the Desert Strike.

[rednblack]

Cool.  As much as the women's gear could come in handy, James doesn't know exactly what she has, and pulling a bleeding corpse into behemoth infested waters might not be the best play.  Of course, dragging her into the sub's propeller may have a positive effects on stalling it, but it could just as easily be chewed up while the sub bobs along without a hiccup. 

So into the swamp James goes.  He's going to head back to the dry bag where he will decide his next steps.

I'll get an IC up soon covering the mess as it has developed.