NBR: Ramos vs. Rasputina

[LoboStele]

The little guy clanked along, multiple arms waving in the air around him. Doctor Ramos might have been an old guy, but he was certainly no slouch, and it took quite a bit of energy for the little Mobile Toolkit, MT as Victor called him, to keep up. The Doctor stopped just ahead, and motioned with his hand out toward MT, but kept his eyes on the horizon ahead. MT knew right away which tool the Doctor was looking for, and immediately retrieved it from the storage bin, and placed it in his hands.

This was MT’s favorite part, to watch the amazing Doctor Ramos work. A swirling mass of spare parts seemed to coalesce out of nothing. They spun around each other for a few moments, and then finally solidified into a familiar form: a small spider. For some reason, the Doctor seemed to have a fascination with the things. MT wondered if maybe as a child, Victor had been frightened of spiders, and so as an adult, he channeled this fear as a weapon instead. MT had read about such things at night while the Doctor rested as all human’s required. Certainly a benefit of being an inorganic being and not being held back by things like sleep, MT self-processed.

Ramos spoke quietly to the strange woman beside him, “Be wary Alyce. I want to make sure this shipment gets to our friend Leveticus in one piece.” The semi-organic woman, which is how MT tended to perceive her, just nodded silently and checked the sights on her pistol. Her mechanical arm was very peculiar, but it made MT feel more comfortable around her. And the Doctor seemed to favor her, so that was enough for MT to accept.

One of Ramos’ lumbering Executioner-Class constructs lumbered a short distance ahead of the group, taking point ahead of the wagon of supplies bound for Leveticus’ Captivating Salvage and Logistics facility. The giant clawed monstrosity emitted steam in a steady cloud, granting some protection for the travelling group from wary eyes. The tiny arachnids ran close to each other and swarmed ahead of the Steamborg, taking the point position, and beginning to scout out the road ahead.

Luckily, the various arachnids did quite well in this area of Malifaux. However, Dr. Ramos and Alyce had a tougher time. “Remind me, my dear Alyce, why did we decide to take this ‘short cut’ through the bog again?”

Alyce laughed. Based on MT’s twilight hours of research, the laugh registered as something between a standard chuckle and insane. He wondered if perhaps she had a faulty logic circuit?

“This is a short cut. Besides, I spotted a guild patrol on the main roads this morning before I came to meet you. So I figured with this ‘special’ cargo here, you’d want to avoid them.”

Victor snorted. “Well, Levi is going to owe me a new pair of boots after this.”

As the caravan neared the center of the bog, Victor frowned, and held out his hand, signaling the group to stop. MT was deep in a calculation process, determining the amount of energy the Steamborg and the Arachnids were going to burn up traversing the watery terrain and whether they would need to re-fuel before the return trip. He nearly ran right into the back of the Doctor’s legs.

MT was always amazed at Doctor Ramos’ ability to sense things. MT was a pretty sophisticated little helper himself, but he had no idea what it was like to sense the ‘energies of Malifaux’, as Victor called it. And that’s what MT realized was going on now.

A chill wind began to blow across the water surface. Alyce drew her coat closer around her shoulders. “Something is not right here,” Ramos whispered. “This is winter magic. The work of December’s cult. I thought our dear Rasputina had these nomads under control.”

MT wondered if he would have been shivering if he had any organic parts. His temperature indicators certainly began to drop very quickly, and he began to flex his appendages in small micro movements to ensure the joints didn’t freeze.

Suddenly, two giant pillars of ice shot up out of the water directly in front of Ramos and Alyce, and to the left of the supply wagon and it’s Steamborg escort. Whoever this was, they were trying to cut off their path. MT ducked directly behind Ramos to stay as protected as possible. He was a brave robot, and eager to help, but he also knew his limitations. Alyce raised her pistol and calmly fired off two quick shots, shattering the giant ice columns.

A small figure in a fur cloak appeared around the corner of some old ruined temple structure. It’s arms moved, but no words escaped it’s mouth, which from what MT could see, appeared to be half covered with some sort of mask. The swarm of arachnids which were scouting up front abruptly stopped, seemingly turned to ice, right where they stood.

Then the storm truly hit.

The silent attacker seemingly went limp, but didn’t fall over, as if held up by an invisible force. Then her arms shot forward and a furious blast of wind screamed from the woman’s hands and smashed against the Steamborg. MT’s auditory sensors picked up the howling of the wind, and as impossible as it seemed to MT’s processors, they actually picked up something which sounded like words, generated by the wind as it tore across the landscape. It sounded like the wind itself was cursing the very existence of the Steamborg.

Wind and ice pummeled the large construct, and the swarm of arachnids next to it. Before long, the Steamborg collapsed, falling into the bog, and stopped moving. MT emptied all of his tool bins, handing Ramos everything he needed. MT had become quite good at this part of the task, having been Ramos’ companion for some time now. More arachnids seemed to rise right out of the swamp water, making use of the scrap left behind from the Steamborg’s demise.

Another fur cloaked, masked woman appeared to their left now, attempting to flank them. But this one was accompanied by more creatures. A small Gamin and a towering Golem.

Alyce shouted something to Ramos to alert him to the newcomers, and then she spoke a few words and thrust her mechanical arm in the direction of the Gamin. The Gamin staggered, wracked with pain, and MT could see small areas of rust starting to form on the Gamin’s body. MT was cared for very well by the good Doctor, and so he’d never experienced rust himself. But he had researched it enough to know that it could hurt a construct just as much as any typical gun could hurt an organic being. He didn’t exactly feel bad for the Gamin though, as it quite deserved it for mounting an attack against them.

Ramos followed Alyce’s lead and hurled a ball of energy at the Gamin, electrical arcs dancing all over the Gamin and first lighting the small minion on fire ,and then causing it to shatter into thousands of tiny shards. MT was certainly glad he was well away from that when it happened. The silent cultist and the giant Golem were not so lucky though.

The storm continued. More blasts of ice and wind came from the direction of the first masked woman. The swarm of spiders eventually succumbed to the freezing attacks, and they fell into the water, energy dissipating from them.

Ramos twitched. Alyce didn’t hear anything, but MT’s sensors were so attuned to Doctor Ramos’ habits, that he recognized the silent cursing under his breath. This fight was not going well, and MT didn’t need any advanced heuristics to understand that.

“These are December’s Silent Ones,” Ramos shouted above the wailing wind. “But I’ve never seen them work alone before. Blast it, what is going on?!”

Alyce looked over her shoulder towards Ramos, as she unleashed more of her own magic on the Ice Golem, causing it to crumble in a pile of blue-white ice and red rust. “Maybe ‘Tina does not have the skills you think she does.”

Victor grit his teeth as he summoned another arachnid to the fight, and then urged a different one to charge the Silent One on the left. “Well, at least you’ve been learning something from Levi lately. Keep it up! We have to get these supplies through!”

MT evaluated the battlefield. The two Silent Ones were still flanking them, at an approximately 137.4 degree arc ahead of them. This gave the two icy women a supreme advantage by allowing them to create a crossfire zone. However, both Silent Ones were now dealing with small Arachnids which were skittering around in front of them, disrupting their concentration for any spell casting. MT calculated this would decrease their effectiveness by 36.7%. A swarm of spiders plus the Steamborg had been lost to the icy attacks, but Ramos and Alyce had sent two Gamin and a Golem melting back into the bog. So while that trade seemed about even, the battle did not look favorable overall. The Doctor would have to rely almost exclusively on himself and the eclectic mechanical-armed female from this point on. Final calculation: estimated survival rate of 12% at this point in time. It’s a good thing Doctor Ramos had never seen fit to install any form of vocal communicator in MT. It meant he did not have to worry about calculating whether or not it was a wise idea to tell Ramos about his predictions. Little MT began to hope that there was an error in his processors and that his calculations were off.

As it happened, MT was not really even sure what to make of it. Through all his time at the Doctor’s side, he had never seen a more clear demonstration of what organics seemed to call Fate. No calculations he performed in the next few seconds seemed to make any sense regarding what happened. Alyce chambered fresh rounds into her clockwork pistol, and unleashed a salvo at the Silent One to the left. The bullets struck incredibly true, and the Silent One fell. The disruption being caused by the second spider was just enough, and kept the second Silent One at bay, giving Ramos and Alyce time to move closer.

Alyce then displayed a bit more of her magical aptitude and a creation unlike anything MT had ever seen rose out of the mire of the bog. This, abomination, yes, that’s what organics would call it, lumbered toward the last Silent One, causing more interference and trying to protect the supply wagon, which had finally reached the center of the bog.

It was at this point that MT’s lightning fast processors determined that December’s minions were not here to attack Ramos at all. The silent one ignored the arachnid and the abomination that were headed straight for her, and she moved to a nearby rock outcropping and then she retrieved an item of some sort from the brush. A ball of ice formed around the object, and then shattered, completely destroying the object. MT couldn’t determine what it was, but he was certain that no evidence would be left after destruction on that level.

Ramos didn’t seem to notice the odd interaction with the Silent One, and he brought his control of Malifaux’s energies to bear on the scrap from the Steamborg ahead of him. Another arachnid rose out of the water, and headed toward the Supply wagon and the other arachnid. And then, a wholly new creation, fueled by electricity and held together by Ramos’ sheer will rose out of the swamp. It floated in place, glowing and swirling.

Suddenly, a blast of snow covered the area to the left of the supply wagon, and like a storm cloud, began moving around the ruins at the center of the bog. Through the wind and sleet, MT’s optical sensors were barely able to make out two humanoid shapes. He matched one of the shapes to an image in his databanks of Rasputina.

“What is she doing here?!” Ramos exclaimed, recognizing his protégé’s form in the storm.

“Hoping this was merely rogue tribe members?” Alyce asked through gritted teeth. Ramos grunted, confirming Alyce’s question, which MT knew was one of Ramos’ favored ways to answer questions that had obvious answers.

The Electrical Creation floated right into the storm, seemingly unaffected by the winds and snow. Cries of pain came from within the storm, as the creation shocked Rasputina and the second essence which was following her.

As the storm began to die down, Rasputina ran forward, and just as the Silent One had done, she recovered something from the rocks at the edge of the ruin, encased it in ice, and then shattered it, completely destroying the item. MT still had no idea what was going on, but it was interesting to note that Rasputina seemed to be now ignoring everything else, and concentrating only on her objective of destroying that item. As she finished with that one, her eyes looked up, in the general direction of MT, Ramos, and Alyce, but somehow they seemed to be looking at something beyond them. MT swiveled his body around, his optical sensors scanning the bog behind him. He finally noticed an anomalous area, and compared it to the data he had gathered about the two other spots that the icy enemies had gone after. There was one more piece of evidence that they had their eyes on.

MT calculated that the likelihood of Ramos or Alyce understanding what was actually going on was only a 3% chance. But MT also knew that Ramos cared for Rasputina as a teacher would show concern for a student. Either piece of knowledge would likely result in Rasputina being stopped from completing this mission.

Ramos and Alyce took the opportunity of the dying storm and began shouting orders and directing the smaller minions around. The Electrical Creation floated away from Rasputina and the Essence following her, to provide clear shots for Alyce. The creation headed in the direction of the last Silent One, who was trying to hastily retreat. The mute woman was not fast enough however, and the Creation’s field of energy touched her and she fell unconscious into the swamp.

Alyce unleashed the fury of her clockwork pistol one more time, causing the Essence to evaporate into the ether, and then hit Rasputina in the leg, causing her to stumble. Ramos spoke words once again into the swamp and another arachnid rose from the swamp once again, and moved to join the other spiders. Three of the arachnids worked together to quickly sabotage a section of rock and create a trap of sorts, useful for further protecting the supply wagon. Then they skittered across the ruins, and landed a set of blows on Rasputina, enough to knock her unconscious.

MT would have exhaled if he had lungs. The fight was over. Rasputina’s forces had been routed, and the young woman lay against the rocks, unconscious. Ramos cautiously approached and Alyce reloaded her pistol, ready for anything. As the Doctor reached Rasputina’s side, he knelt down and began to inspect her. Eventually, she began to come around slowly.

Ramos spoke softly to her. “Rasputina my dear, are you all right? What are you doing out here, and more importantly, why did you attack us?”

She blinked her eyes, and though MT was not as well equipped as a machine programmed for medical purposes, he could certainly tell there was something different about her demeanor already. “Victor? Where am I?”

“That’s exactly what I’d like to know,” Ramos replied solemnly. “You don’t look so well. Do you not remember how you got here?”

Rasputina raised her hand to block the sunlight, which was obviously bothering her eyes. Her words seemed to slur together a bit. “The last thing I remember, I was in the Bayou, chasing that old Hag, and trying to finish her off once and for all. I think I got poked by something. Or maybe stung? I feel like I’ve been drugged. Ugh.” Her head dropped back to rest on the rock behind her, and she reached up to rub her face, and then pull her hat down to cover her eyes from the bright sunlight.

Ramos sat back on his heels, and sighed. He traded glances with Alyce who nodded her head, and then began looking around in all directions, checking for further danger. MT referenced his databanks for ‘the Hag’ and pulled up the file related to poisons and toxins. By MT’s limited assessment of organic science, it seemed as though Rasputina had been subjected to some sort of drug-induced hypnosis. Not deadly. Well, maybe to anybody who got in Rasputina’s way while she had been under it’s influence. Ramos appeared to have knowledge of this as well, and knew that she would recover. At least she had run into them and Ramos and Alyce had been strong enough to stop her.

“Well,” Ramos gently pushed her hat up a bit and brushed her hair out of her face. “We’ll get you fixed up when we get to Levi’s scrapyard. It will be all right. Luckily, you didn’t kill anything that I can’t rebuild. Of course, we might not be able to say as much for some of your tribespeople. But maybe that will teach them to make sure you are in your right mind before they follow you so blindly.”

Rasputina smiled as she tried to sit up. “December was never very fond of individual thinking.” She winced a bit and grabbed her leg where Alyce had shot her. “If you don’t say anything, then I won’t. We wouldn’t want to lose the support of the Silent Ones. They tend to be a bit jumpy anyways. Now, are you going to help me walk, or let me lie here and bleed to death?”

Alyce giggled, or at least that was the nearest thing MT could equate it to. He offered a sharp blade to Alyce from his toolbox, and she cut a swath of fabric off the end of Rasputina’s cloak, using it to wrap her leg and stop the bleeding. Ramos and Alyce then helped to lift Rasputina, and placed her on the supply wagon to ride the rest of the way. MT calculated a 96.8% likelihood that Levi would have the supplies to mend her up properly.

The crew began to trundle across the rest of the bog. MT let his optical sensors drift back towards the area where he was confident that the final piece of evidence Rasputina was after was still resting. This time, he did regret the fact that Doctor Ramos had not seen fit yet to install that vocal communicator yet. He had no way to tell the Doctor that he should turn around for a few minutes and at least investigate what was going on here. Maybe it could keep this from happening again in the future…

My crew was:

Ramos

Alyce

Steamborg Executioner

Steampunk Arachnid x3

Mobile Toolkit

Opponent’s crew was:

Rasputina

Essence of Power

Silent One x2

Ice Golem

Gamin x3

My strategy was Supply Wagon and his was Destroy Evidence. I took Bodyguard and Sabotage for my Schemes, while he took Hold Out and Breakthrough. So, I ended up with my full 8 VPs and he got 4 VPs. I honestly couldn’t believe that he didn’t get any attacks against my wagon. It helped that he didn’t have much in the way of solid melee attackers though, and I made a point of wiping out his Golem as early as possible to keep it from getting to the wagon. I honestly can’t believe I ended up winning this one, as after losing both the Steamborg and my Swarm by Round 3, I thought I was finished. Fate truly turned my way later in the game, plus Raspy had blown all her SS killing off those two pieces. So, that gave me a bit of advantage in the end game, and I think I finished with at least 2-3 stones still. I will probably end up just taking the 4th spider next time instead of trying to hang onto the extra stones.