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31
Roll To Dodge / Re: MOOK: Such sights to see
« on: May 26, 2022, 08:41:16 pm »
Quote
((This all feels oddly right. But I have Covid right now, so maybe I am delirious.))
((Damn. :/
Get well soon!))

"I am this, this close to gooping you all myself."

Look around for a place I could land that's away from ground zero. And not, y'know, otherwise compromised. Then fly there. If any squishlings want to grab on to hitch a ride, let them. If they're too heavy to carry all by myself, let the other flyboys help out.

EDIT: make sure all the braindeads are accounted for. Also that Bob is taken.

EDIT2: If possible this turn, try to think Summer into a better flyer. Immediate evac takes precedence still however. 



Spoiler: Yagyu d'Aubigny (click to show/hide)
"God damn it, I hate this place."
Activate my shield generator, then me and my robot friends try to catch a ride with Yagyu, if we can't just run in the same direction he's heading.
Spoiler: Is no longer dead! (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Things I've done. (click to show/hide)
"Uh-oh. Pushbot, time to skedaddle!"

Grab a hold of Yagyu since I should still be hiding behind him to catch a ride (or any of our other flying teammembers if Yagyu is gone already). Use my octopus suckers to hold onto him.
Tell pushbot to either catch a ride with someone if he can, or just leg it away from the giant incoming hand.


Spoiler: Edward (click to show/hide)
Quote
((This all feels oddly right. But I have Covid right now, so maybe I am delirious.))
((Damn. :/
Get well soon!))

"I am this, this close to gooping you all myself."

Look around for a place I could land that's away from ground zero. And not, y'know, otherwise compromised. Then fly there. If any squishlings want to grab on to hitch a ride, let them. Unless they're too heavy, in which case let one of the other flyboys handle it.

EDIT: make sure all the braindeads are accounted for. Also that Bob is taken. 



Spoiler: Yagyu d'Aubigny (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

hitch a ride. 
Ride along with Yagyu. ((thanks for the encouragement on staying alive and all, guys. I think I'll stick around a little longer after all.))

Spoiler: Bob (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Bob's Business (click to show/hide)
[5][3]


"Fuck.  Sorry."

"Ey, Yagyu,  you wanna think me into a better flyer?  It'd let you fight without people hanging all over you."

Force Field back on.

Carry as many people as possible and necessary.  Fly out of the mouth, trying to evade the giant hand, while keeping close to the body.

Does this giant pain elemental have the blue flame eyes?


Spoiler: Summer (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Sensory (click to show/hide)

Get away from the landing site.
Spoiler: Ji (click to show/hide)
[6]
(No, its eyes are normal. Well, normal-ish.)


"Damn.  Guess I need to fly closer and hit him with an axe.  Anyone got an axe?"

Ah well.  Pick up Kora, and anyone else who wants a ride, and fly out of the path of the big hand.  Then start flying towards the great big ball of blue fire.

Spoiler: Sheet (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Mission Achievements (click to show/hide)
[1]


Rocket away as fast as possible with my Jumpsuit to dodge the hand. Don't return until the hand has been dealt with. Also, remind the GM to update employees of the month

Spoiler: Baldwin Reborn (click to show/hide)
[4]
Scurry off to the big-elemental's shoulder, pull several tons on tnt from my pack and set it off with a big cartoon style detonator, blowing the gimp's whole arm off much like one would detonate a mountain pass.

"Hey guys! Demolition time! Someone give me a hand with this and don't question what I may have in my pack."

Spoiler: sensory (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: notes (click to show/hide)
[2]

Yagyu scoops up Bob and anyone else who looks a bit dazed while the majority of the rest of the team jumps onto him and clings for dear life.  The awkward ball of teammates rockets out over the teeth and back down into the mouth: its the shortest path to safety Yagyu can see.  The rocket pack isn't really designed to hold a half dozen people, neither in terms of aerodynamics or strength, so Yagyu guides the slowly descending clump of security staff onto the roof of the giant mouth. They wedge themselves in the puffy pink flesh and hold on tight.  Baldwin zips down into the mouth as well, but lands just inside, settling into the space between two teeth. Summer, looking more like some sort of freakish bat, snatches Ji up and dives back down into the mouth. She dives all the way back down to the bottom and lands on the swollen tongue blocking the throat.

Wilfred picks up Kora and activates his jump pack. He accelerates forwards a good distance before one of his legs get caught in a cracked bit of enamel. The mechanical foot wedges in at high speed and Wilfred goes whipping forward in a high speed trip, landing face first with a massive clang. Kora goes flying and lands a good 20 or 25 feet away, bouncing to a halt. Neither is quick to right themselves and the hand crashes down before they can move. [1][4] [4v62][12v20]

The hand slams down onto the lips and teeth like a falling mountain, sending a single ripple of force through the flesh and shaking the world. It sits there, covering the mouth for a few long moments before it begins to rise again. Mashed into the creases of the palm is a smudge of blood that used to be Kora and a horribly crushed and mangled chunk of metal that might still be Wilfred.

32
Roll To Dodge / Re: Magnum Opus: Welcome Home.
« on: May 24, 2022, 10:33:34 pm »
Everyone climbs onto the back of the giant ant. Its not exactly a comfortable seat: its too wide to straddle but not wide enough that they're not constantly fighting to stay on. The Ant's curved abdomen makes the most stable position to lay face down, spread eagle, clinging to it. This makes sight seeing somewhat difficult as they advance back into the tunnel the ant apparently bored to get here. Not that there's much to see: the ant skitters rapidly through glowing crystal tunnels like an organic subway train, with the biggest points of interest being branching tunnels that whiz past every so often.  The group half expected some sort of gigantic ant city or maybe a huge cathedral of crystal or...something different. Instead they get a very ant-like series of rough tunnels and paths until finally the ant takes a sharp turn into a connecting room and skids to a stop. Sitting in this room, attended to by hundreds of other ants of varying sizes, is an ant of even greater size. Its as large as a small building and seems almost trapped in this room considering its girth. Its got a massive pair of mandibles  that make up most of its head and its crystalline body is particularly sharp and brutal looking.

"Patriarch Lud, Ruler of the Blue Burrows, slayer of the Twin Tyrant...uh...it goes on like that for a while." Debby says to the group, translating what the little ant is telling her.  "Basically, he's who we have to talk to."

The rest of the team nods and then waits for Debby to do it. Debby looks back at them for a while before sighing and starting to talk with Patriarch Lud. She occasionally stops to whisper back a translation and update as Lud drones like an underwater church bell.

"He says that this place is under his protection and that his dynasty is the one that carved the tunnels and grew the crystals guiding the leyline and...Well its a lot of posturing mostly. He says we can get access to the area and do the work if we...Kill a rival of his. Another Patriach." She glances back at Lud. "I dunno if thats really something we should do."

33
Roll To Dodge / Re: DEEP SPACE: Space vampires and work safety
« on: May 21, 2022, 11:29:16 am »
Take a rest.

Spoiler: Xeriay (click to show/hide)
Rest the night.  Wake up early in the morning (letting Xeriay rest), and head out to do some shopping.  Try to find someone selling a guild helmet that would fit on a guild apprentice suit--like Xeriay's.  Hopefully for 320 or less.

Spoiler: Kander (click to show/hide)

Full and tired, Xeriay and Kander hit the hay early. The beds in the Pilot Light aren't exactly four star quality but they certainly beat the thin gel pads from the Freighter. Kander sleeps without dreams but Xeriay is a different story. She sees a great void filled with stars, a vision of the vast dark space between solar systems. The stars a shimmering and twinkling in a way they shouldn't when viewed from space. She hears the stars twinkling like gentle chimes or fragments of glass. She feels that they are singing, ancient voices drifting through the void like whale song through the ocean. Searching.

Kander wakes before Xeriay does and slips out, taking the elevator down to the ground floor.  The bar area looks very different in the morning; the lights are brighter, the barman is serving food off series of portable grills set up on the bar's countertop. The rabble from last night is gone, replaced with sleepy prospectors trudging out from their rooms to begrudgingly great the new day. The stage is empty but the audio system is softly playing some kind of classical music Kander doesn't recognize. Its little more than a flittering background hum to accompany the clink of plates and groaning of men with sore muscles and healing wounds. Kander grabs a paper cup of what they call coffee and heads out, sipping the black synthetic fluid as he goes. [1]

The marketplace is relatively quiet this early. The suns are just at the horizon and the sky is glowing dim red. Most of the lights are still on from the previous night and many of the shops are just starting to open if they're open at all. Kander leans against a wall and sips his "Coffee", waiting for things to open up a bit more. The coffee doesn't taste bad, as far as things go, but it definitely doesn't taste like coffee. Closer to peanuts mixed with sugar and powdered milk. Strange but not awful. After 15 minutes of slow sipping and watching he tosses the paper cup into a bin and begins exploring. He doesn't have any idea what kind of place would sell the helmet, so he just starts wandering to any place that looks like it might and asking. He's at the fourth junk dealer, in the middle of asking, when the dealer's face suddenly goes pale and she skitters back off the cushion she was sitting as a shadow falls over the both of them. Kander turns slowly and comes face to chestplate with a Guildsman in full armor. He's standing a good 2 or more feet taller than Kander and several feet wider. A face like a fist made of weather-scoured stone is looking down at Kander with a gaze as cold and pointed as an icepick.

"Why," The guildsman asks, slowly and carefully enunciating every word, "Are you looking for a guild helmet?"





"I'll try to relay any questions you guys have, within reason."
Jim will introduce the party as explorers, and ask if they may view the festival. Then he'll relay any reasonable questions the team has.
Spoiler: Jim (click to show/hide)

[1]
"I can't think of anything."
Start looking around the shore line to see if anything interesting has washed up.
"Would they be interested in trading weapons?"  Max says, while hefting his death ray around.

"This is great, but we can just buy them.  I'd love to trade it for something special."

Move onto the ground, since it's closer to the escape route.  Through Jim, try to negotiate a weapons trade offering my Death Ray.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
tell the bullet people (or have it translated through the dude who can understand them) about those tenacle monsters and give them a general idea of where they are.  then look for loot on the shore. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
[9][3][3]

Jim begins speaking to the bullet men, attempting to explain the purpose of the group and also ask their questions. He explains they're...he doesn't know the word for "explorers" so he makes a best guess. This seems to immediately anger the Bullet men who begin speaking back to him very quickly in raised hisses. Jim stammers and attempts to change the conversation to ask about the creators of the ship and then, when met with unrelenting hissing, to ask about the fauna of the swamp. The bullet men refuse to be distracted or dissuaded however and begin advancing  towards Jim with an increasingly aggressive series of sounds and hand gestures. The only thing that seems to distract them momentarily is that they notice Bob digging through the junk at the shoreline. Its hard to tell that they're "Looking" at him but they turn their entire bodies to face him as he suddenly rips a small robotic arm out of the muck and holds it aloft in triumph. 

Jim takes the moment of confusion to whisper to the rest of the team that he thinks he made some kind of translation error. He thinks the bullet men understood "Explorer" as something closer to "Raider", "pillager", "Thief" or something along those lines. Someone here to steal from their master's ship.  And Bob digging through the trash...well either he's confirmed this for them or maybe they're confused as to why he would want what they consider trash? Jim glances back at the still entranced Bullet Men and shrugs desperately.

"I can try and explain things but they're pretty riled up. Things might become...explosive."

34
Roll To Dodge / Re: MOOK: Such sights to see
« on: May 18, 2022, 10:43:11 pm »
Force field off.  I have the kind that has a use die.  Does it need to be rolled in this place?

Try to talk the pain elemental.. the one whom I'm inside its giant head.  Try to convince it to assist me via its willpower.

Spoiler: Summer (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Sensory (click to show/hide)
[6] Ya guys couldn't leave well enough alone.


Cool.  I think the elemental is well enough dealt with.  Take one of the smiles rifles, and aim it directly up at the giant star of blue flame.  Shoot it until it dies.

Spoiler: Sheet (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Mission Achievements (click to show/hide)

(I have returned after being without internet for a week.)

"I don't know if just teleporting that guy over here would be a good idea, we should at least wait until we're out of the mouth before we try that."
Stay with the group be on the look out for hostile things to kill.
Spoiler: Is no longer dead! (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Things I've done. (click to show/hide)
((This all feels oddly right. But I have Covid right now, so maybe I am delirious.))

Continue dealing with it.

Spoiler: Bob (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Bob's Business (click to show/hide)
(Try not to die, please)
Primary fire goop thrower, try to pin the elemental to the floor. Try to avoid also pinning Bob if possible, but if not that's ok, we can extract him later.
Secondary fire shotgun, in case the first one fails and the gimp is still a threat somehow. Still aiming to blow of limbs.

(Weakness Analysis protocols is at lvl2, "Increase damage dealt by 1 die level" and "Gain advantage on to-hit")

If we manage to deal with the threat this turn, then continue doing what I was doing before: using the drone and scanner (and plain looking around), see if I can spot any more signs of Friendly's influence. Try to determine if that blue star is the source of the infection or just a symptom. 



Spoiler: Yagyu d'Aubigny (click to show/hide)
Yagyu sprays goo on the corpse of the Pain Elemental. Well, he tries to. The body rapidly dissolves into a pile of steaming gore. Bob eats the thing's head. The fact that it melts doesn't bother him. Wilfred sprays bullets into the air to seemingly no effect. It doesn't seem to bother him. Burt and Night kind of just stand around, looking for people to follow or demons to shoot. Yagyu is in the middle of squinting up at the blue flame when he notices something. Notices might be the wrong word because it implies he could somehow miss it. And it is very difficult to miss a several hundred meter wide hand sliding through the air above them like a storm cloud and then descending with crushingly slow inevitability. A hand the size of a football stadium is descending towards the face the gavel of heaven. And the team is standing at ground zero for the landing.

35
Roll To Dodge / Re: Magnum Opus: Welcome Home.
« on: May 16, 2022, 08:24:40 pm »
"Alright! I won't take any more magic."

Grey slides his needle up his robe's sleeve into the inventory dimension to show the ant that he won't use it to suck up any more magic.

Spoiler: Grey (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Needle links (click to show/hide)
((Hello everyone I'm back, sorry for the delay my house got struck by lighting on the second and it killed the internet receiver thing and we just got the internet back today.))

"Sorry guys I zoned out for a second, anyway the ant says that artisan guy is apparently encroaching on their land, and that the hive is following a mission granted to them by the magi, but it doesn't seem to know what the mission is."
Ask the ant where we can find an ant in a leadership position to talk to so we find a way for both the ants and the artisan guy can complete their missions.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Needle Links (click to show/hide)

The ant- which is busy bopping Grey with his forelimbs in a rather adorably harmless fashion-looks to Debby. After a few moments it hops down off Gray's face and crawls back into the tunnel without a word. Huh.


"Sorry guys I zoned out for a second, anyway the ant says that artisan guy is apparently encroaching on their land, and that the hive is following a mission granted to them by the magi, but it doesn't seem to know what the mission is."

Ho! Ho! Ho!  Then it looks like we’re all on the same team here!  Hopefully, diplomacy will solve this problem.  And if it doesn’t, then it’ll be a matter that the Magi will have to attend to…”, Hugh replies before squeezing Debbie’s shoulder.  “I pray that your negotiations go well, my girl!

After this, Hugh continues to accompany Debbie but attempts to look more friendly then threatening.


Spoiler: Hugh (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Needle Links (click to show/hide)

Edit:  added action.
Hugh flexes and looms as best he can, but if the ant even notices him it makes no indication of it. Perhaps they are simply immune to his grandstanding.

"I'll try to figure out something about the Magi that are behind this part of their work."

Aaron attempts to know which of the Magi the artisan works under, and which the ants answer to.


Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[?]
Your head is filled with white noise and your nose starts bleeding. Thats...different.









As the team mills around, trying to figure out what to do now that the ant has left, they notice something. The ground is shaking. They notice this about 10 seconds before the wall explodes outwards and a crystalline ant the size of a train engine with a head like an enormous battering ram bursts into the room. It looks around the room, its giant crystalline mandibles clacking in thought before zeroing in on Debby. It stomps over to her  and lowers itself down to look at her with one crystalline compound eye.  As it does so, the small ant from before skitters up and onto the top of its head, looking down on the team with what seems like gloating satisfaction. Maybe. The emotions of a rock insect are difficult to detect.

The giant ant makes a sound like windchimes crossed with a pan flute before ending it with a hang drum solo. Its very pretty but no one understands a bit of it aside from Debby.

"She says  we should get on." Debby tells everyone, pointing at the ant .

36
Roll To Dodge / Re: DEEP SPACE: Space vampires and work safety
« on: May 14, 2022, 10:51:12 am »
Dammit.

Spoiler: Xeriay (click to show/hide)
((Huh.  I thought I posted an "Assist Xeriay" action.))

Go get a room to share with Xeriay, resting through the night.  Also buy Xeriay a good meal, splurge a bit to buy her something particularly excellent.  She did a great job today, the girl deserves a reward, and a good rest.  Make sure she knows her father is proud.

Spoiler: Kander (click to show/hide)
Together Xeriay and Kander head back to the Pilot Light with the intention to get a nice meal and a relatively clean room. They wander through the bar over to one of the walls where a desk and receptionist have been installed. The receptionist is, like the bartender, a machine. This one looks like a young woman with a holo-projected face. That face isn't exactly human, sort of a overly cute version of a human with mildly exaggerated features and blindingly happy enthusiasm. She tells you that there are two kinds of rooms available: Temporary and Permanent. Temporary rooms cost 30 credits and are good for one night while Permanent rooms cost 1000 and are good for as long as you want to stay. Both kinds of rooms grant a "Well Rested" bonus upon spending the night in them.  Xeriay and Kander spend 60 for a temporary room.

The pair take a framework elevator up several floors and then follow signs until they find their rooms. The room itself is quite nice, compared to previous accommodations aboard the freighter.  No window, but there is a large view screen with an option for different camera angles of outside. There's a library of recorded movies and media as well, though nothing live other than a local broadcast. Apparently someone in town is running a studio of their own. Otherwise the room is 8 feet tall, ten wide, and 10 long, with the bed taking up most of the center space. Viewscreen is on the wall at the foot of the bed, dressers and storage to the right of the bed, doorway on the left. Shared facilities for cooking and other bodily necessities. There is a second identical room accessed via a connecting door and their 60 credits have paid for both.

Kander dumps his pack next to the bed and heads back downstairs. He wanders out and searches the area for a food vendor that looks particularly good. He eventually settles on something called "Rockshell Kabob", apparently a local dish using things harvested from the jungle to the south. Its a pleasant spread of cooked skewered meat, flat bread, and a salad of local plants along with something vaguely like ice cream but more glutenous. Kander pays 20 credits for a pair of these meals and carries them up to the conjoined rooms.  They eat while flipping through the view screen library.  The meat is the strangest part of the dish: under the roasted and herb colored exterior the meat is almost completely clear and has a consistency more like fruit than flesh. Tastes like shellfish though. The ice cream stuff is pleasantly cool after a day in the hot sun.

(Rules note: Permanent rooms allow characters to be "Stored" and new characters created.)






"hey, or uh, SSSSSSSSSS."
Jim will write down about the bulletmen in his log book,, then try to speak snake to them, a flawless plan with no weakness
Spoiler: Jim (click to show/hide)
[8] [Knowledge leveled]
"At least they seem friendly."
See if my hobo powers give me the ability to speak to the bulletmen.
[1]
"Well, this is certainly new."

Try and think if I've ever picked bits up the snake language or one of the other languages they spoke somewhere. If so, try my best to translate for Ganbatta and co.

If not, just observe the interaction between Ganbatta and the bullet people and try figure out a way of communication from there.


Spoiler: Hlaine (click to show/hide)
[1]
figure out language.  request bullet people to repeat whatever they just said.  translate for friendlies. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)


[7]
Bob screams middle Galactic at the Bullet men, demanding that they speak "Like civilized people". Hlaine makes a lot of hissing noises and vocal fry that doesn't mean anything at all. 

Jim, in preparation for this expedition, researched the language of the local inhabitants of the planet. Though he was far from fluent in "Forked Tongue" -it might be impossible to actually become fluent without surgery- he knew enough simple phrases and basic vocabulary to hold a conversation. He speaks to the bullet men in a halting series of hisses and whistles, translating their responses as best he can. And though he's not actually familiar with the language, Anton quickly picks up a bit listening to the conversation between Jim and the bullet men. Though he can't detect exact meanings he can get the gist of an exchange.

"Greetings, friends! You recognize the language I'm speaking right now? Pretty popular up on the surface, gyahahaha!"

Try to talk at them enough to recognize and switch to our language.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Look around for a way out in case everything goes badly.

Spoiler: Maxwell (click to show/hide)
[1][6][max wis up]
Gambatta just starts jabbering away at the bullet men, talking very rapidly about nothing whatsoever. Its the sort of display that would be difficult to understand as a fluent speaker let alone as someone completely disconnected from the language. Max stands around silently, inspecting the area for a quick means of escape. The quickest means he sees actually involves running straight past these bullet men and onto the shore, then around towards the east or west. An on foot sprint would be quicker and have more maneuverability than a slow dragging retreat in the boat.



Through Jim's efforts a fragile line of communication seems to be established. Jim's translations are full of holes and best guesses based on context, but a general understanding can be derived none the less. The bullet men, who appear to have gained an immediately negative opinion of this gaggle of jabbering bipeds, are proud warriors. They have constructed a fortress worthy of their stature and are holding a festival in honor of their brothers who have died in glorious battle. They too wish to die in glorious battle for the good of their creators, but they have been denied this opportunity. They are currently considering a method of getting this chance at glory but have so far been unable to agree on anything. This discussion has been on going for...Jim isn't sure but it sounds like a very long time.

37
Roll To Dodge / Re: MOOK: Such sights to see
« on: May 12, 2022, 07:22:29 pm »
Need to get tougher.

No, not batlike, dragon-like.  Look at the wings around me.. they're growing thicker, becoming covered with bright, shiny scales.  Take the itchy feeling of that and spread it to the rest of my body, as I turn into a dragon-like creature, strong and tough, not a fragile bat.

Larger too.  Dragons are big and it'd be easier to dig myself out of this if I were only buried up to my knees or something.


Spoiler: Summer (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Sensory (click to show/hide)
[3]


Drift upward. All shall be swamp. Locate snacks, allied or otherwise. eat snacks.

Spoiler: Bob (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Bob's Business (click to show/hide)
[11]

Summer squirms in the muscles and tissue of the giant mouth, trying to reform her own flesh. It doesn't work. Meanwhile Bob floats up out of the mouth on an island of bloody swamp water, small waterfalls pouring out around him though the water in the swamp never seems to diminish. He croaks and grumbles, bites flesh from around him, and does general gator things. These are all normal gator things to do, after all.


"SLOW!"

And they'll stay there, hanging in the air. Still moving, still deadly, but their movement nearly imperceptible.

Also throw dozens of grenades of various kinds at the gimp.


Spoiler: sensory (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: notes (click to show/hide)
[1]

"Well shucks."
Eh all of this is only psudo real anyway just imagine a projectile shield then eat some more metaphysical saltine crackers

Spoiler:  Jack Blackwater (click to show/hide)
[2]

Assist in thinking 'slow' at the projectiles to stop them.

If that fails, brace for impact! Be a giant metal ass for those in need.

If we can still attack after all that: primary fire shotgun (2d12), secondary fire other shotgun (2d12).
(Weakness Analysis protocols is at lvl1, "Increase damage dealt by 1 die level", so it's d12)



Spoiler: Yagyu d'Aubigny (click to show/hide)
[4]

activate my optical camo and stick to Yagyu's back/behind his metal ass. Get him between me and the elemental. Also have pusbot do the same.
If I can't get behind Yagyu in time, activate my personal shield generator for this round.

Then do 2 things:
- Think real hard about these projectiles being soft as cotton candy. I mean, coming from bone fragments means they're white, right? So naturally they'd have the consistency of cotton candy/soft foam.
- If possible without getting out of cover or after waiting for the projectiles to impact, both me and pushbot will attack (OMNITECH Microwave Gun (d6 + d12 tech skill. No use die.) & OMNITECH Generic Personal Sidearm (d4 ranged attack))



Spoiler: Edward (click to show/hide)
[5]



[10][9,5][3][5][12+6, 7+2]



The scouring wall of bone shards suddenly slows down from homicidal to merely maiming velocity. And then it softens, quite literally. The shards blur, their outlines becoming hazy and expanding. What were once deadly spikes of bone have become loose clumps of cotton. These fist sized pillows of fluff either hit the ground and roll to a stop or bonk off the team impotently.  The team, now no longer facing deadly acupuncture, retaliates. Kora goes to pull grenades from her bag but ends up spilling them and spending the time chasing after the rolling explosives. Ji misses. Baldwin...well he seems to shoot the Pain Elemental but if he does anything, it isn't clear. Yagyu's contribution is a lot more clear as his double barreled fury chews through the tail end of the cotton barrage and directly into the pain elemental's chest and abdomen. Wilfred runs over to the edge of the tooth, snatches Bob off his hovering swamp, and hurls him towards the Pain Elemental just as the gunfire slows. The pain elemental, his entire center of mass ripped into swiss cheese, one arm missing and the other just barely hanging on, is bowled over as Bob flies mouth first into the thing. Its head disappears down bob's throat and they both flop to the ground in an undignified mess of blood and deathrolling.

38
Roll To Dodge / Re: Magnum Opus: Welcome Home.
« on: May 09, 2022, 08:26:13 pm »
Grey rejoins the group.

It is here creating an expansion to the cave and working on some of the underlying mechanisms, as well as doing other work nearby. The other work is why it came here; it needs some help.
He asks the Artisan what exactly does it need to do within the ant's territory.

Afterwards he tries to catch some of the wisps of magic with his needle, outside of the main flow. Best not to stick the needle in there lest it do something unpleasant.


Spoiler: Grey (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Needle links (click to show/hide)
The artisan spells out that it needs to "Create a new crystalline lattice for the redirection of leyline current to planetary stabilizer number 280."

[6]
You wave your needle around with the intent of gathering some of the wisps of magic that are floating about. Your needle fills with magical energy and you're halfway through going "Huh!" When a crystalline ant jumps onto your face. It doesn't bite or harm you, but it does clamp down hard on your head with its legs.

"There is vast amount of magic here in this cave, but it is much more wild looking than even the stuff used by the black homunculus. I think it is the ants' very own magic, or else truly ancient. The crystals seem to direct its flow."

Aaron attempts to know what the original source of the magic river is. He also looks to see if there are any loose fragments of crystal nearby, and picks one up if there is.


Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[?]
This magic is the magic of the planet itself for lack of a better word. It comes from every stone, every plant, every animal, from the water, the wind, and the shifting magma deep within. Like a river it has no distinct source, rather endless trickles from all around which run down into it. This river is a Leyline, blood of the planet.

You reach down and pick up a fist sized chunk of crystal. When you look back up the crystalline ant is gone. Huh.

Hugh puts his hand on Debbie’s shoulder, looks at her, and asks:  “Soooo!… What’d they say?!


Spoiler: Hugh (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Needle Links (click to show/hide)
She apparently says nothing.

"I wonder if they are trying to siphon off the weird extra magic that is infecting the Homunculi Cauldron and causing all those guys to be loonies?"
Inspect the ants through the eye of my needle. Fondly recall my murderlance.
" I only really stabbed that one thing with it, and she didn't even die, really."

Spoiler: Genesis (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: links (click to show/hide)
[2]
The ant appears to be nothing but a shining mass of magic through the eye of your needle. Magic in the shape of the ant, oddly. Perhaps it is so suffused with magic that its all you can see?

39
Roll To Dodge / Re: DEEP SPACE: Space vampires and work safety
« on: May 06, 2022, 04:14:16 pm »
I had a dream of playing a PW game like this, but the world was all jungle. Tried to remember which stat I'd invested in, turned out to be a skill specifically for using pets? Which turned out to be pretty useless because there weren't any pets available at the start. Classic PW.
Anyways, jungle pokemon game when.

"Apparently I'm a genius so now just diving into the Enigma doesn't seem like my best shot. I should clearly get a thinky job."

Pester the stellar brotherhood to hire me. Or at least let me put them on my resume.

Spoiler: Xeriay (click to show/hide)
[1]
After all the good work you've done for them, you figure you can talk the solar brotherhood into hiring you on full time. You give it your best shot at convincing them of this but come off pretty arrogant and disrespectful of not only their beliefs and mission but of the individuals involved. The phrase "If It wasn't for me you morons would have been cooked rotisserie style" gets thrown out at one point. Its not technically inaccurate, they totally would have been fried had it not been for your intervention, but its also not the best way to put it. They eventually ask you and Kander to leave, stating that they will be in touch if they need your help. The way they say it though, seems very unfriendly indeed.

You walk back outside. Its gotten somewhat dark now; early evening it seems. The town is still bustling but less so than before: everyone has made it home or to their bar of choice, the shops are winding down for the evening, and strings of LED bulbs are lighting up to illuminate the rough streets.



Spoiler (click to show/hide)

help haul us to shore.  once there, get out of boat and look for loot, while following team. 
"Well look at those guys they've got themselves a castle and everything."
Help move the boat towards the aliens.
"Half hour by slow bug," Gambatta points out.

"Anyway, doesn't this place keep surprising! First robolife, now natives! Or cannibal shipwrecks. Either way, bet the food'll be interesting!"

Help haul us to shore if someone shoots another filament line.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
"we were at least a half hour away from the central island."
if the bipeds don't seem particularly aggressive, Jim will shoot out a filament line towards the shore.
Spoiler: Jim (click to show/hide)
"Why'd you stop me?  I've got a line gun and would have made it, easy."

Talk to the figures, trying to learn who they are.

Spoiler: Maxwell (click to show/hide)
Jim waves to hopefully show a lack of killer intent and then fires a line onto one of the other docks. Together, the group drags the boat towards it while the bipeds move round to that other dock to meet them. They make no aggressive moves so the team continues towards them.  As they get closer the forms of the bipeds become more clearly visible. They are mechanical and it takes a moment to realize what they are. They are bullets.  More specifically they are shells; enormous shells sitting within a sort of metal frame. Attached to this frame are their stumpy arms and legs.   They have no faces, no distinguishing features other than perhaps their caliber, they are each as uniform and pristine as you'd expect from something like this. The shells are upside down from what you'd expect: the flat end of the casing is where their "head" would be while the actual projectile is down between their legs.   There are 6 of them here at the dock 2 of the same caliber while all the other 4 are different. The largest one is over 3 meters tall while the smallest is about a foot and a half.

The bullets help drag the ship up to the edge of the dock and begin speaking. Their language is a strange lilting thing almost poetic in the way it flows, as though it has a set meter that must be followed. Its made all the stranger by the fact that their voices are quite gruff and aggressive. Its not even clear where the voice is coming from, as there is no clear speaker anywhere. [2] Maxwell, apparently having recovered from his suicidal tendencies, attempts communication. He has no idea what the language they're speaking is, but he attempts hand gestures, charades, and the last ditch effort of shouting. None of these seem particularly effective.  The Bullets begin cycling through languages by the sound of it; making a variety of unknown noises with different structures and tones. [4][Max Knowledge leveled] Though he doesn't understand a word of what they're saying, Max does recognize one of the languages.  He's heard it spoken before on the surface, by the native snake people.

40
Roll To Dodge / Re: MOOK: Such sights to see
« on: May 04, 2022, 02:28:53 pm »
"Yeah I'm out."

Do the peace out symbol then think about how im currently in my security office and how enjoyable it is to watch the team go through near suicidal death missions rather than experiencing them personally myself.

Spoiler:  Jack Blackwater (click to show/hide)
[1]
Jack throws out a piece sign and immediately gets rooted into the bone. His feet literally fuse into the bone. He's going nowhere.

Activate my force-field.  Jump away, out of the path of the bone splinter, diving down with my arms out in front of me.  Also cover myself with a pair of large, leathery wings, which I, apparently, now have.

Spoiler: Summer (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Sensory (click to show/hide)
[6] Summer, now looking an awful lot like a bat with giant membranous wings instead of arms as well as giant ears and a somewhat warped face, is still mostly buried in meat so she simply tucks her head back in to avoid any conflict. Forcefield is active too. Just in case.

"Hey!  Bastard!  I'M the only bonegod here!  FUCK DERP!"

Catch the giant chunk of bone with both ghost-god powers and powerful hardsuit arms, spinning it around and throwing it right back at the elemental bastard.  If it or something else kills him, trap his soul.

Spoiler: Sheet (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Mission Achievements (click to show/hide)
[8][9]
While everyone else is ducking, diving, and flying away Wilfred instead steps forward and braces himself. He doesn't so much catch the giant slab of bone as he simply stops it; shoving both hands into the projectile and skidding 10 feet back as he absorbs its momentum. As soon as that energy has spent itself against his great bulk he charges forwards and shoves the bone back the way it came. The slab tumbles towards the Pain Elemental for about half the distance before the elemental makes a gesture and the bone detonates into tens of thousands of shards that rain down harmlessly.


Use jumpjets to dodge the bone.

The firing distance seems close, so primary fire shotgun (2d10), secondary fire other shotgun (2d10).

(If the firing distance is rated as long instead, primary fire cutting laser and secondary fire ferromagnetic.)

Either way, the aim is to blow of the elemental's legs to immobilize it, dead space style. If I can blow off the arms as well that's a nice bonus, but legs have priority.


"Don't forget, disable not destroy!"


Spoiler: Yagyu d'Aubigny (click to show/hide)
[9][8][2d10 x 2]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

shoot elemental.  follow team.  pray to eldritch gods for magical power.
[2]

Duck the bone, then shoot the PE
Spoiler: Ji (click to show/hide)
[11][2d8]

Go into an explosives frenzy. Explosives are the best, they're all that is, PRAISE WIL FUCK DERP PRAISE WIL FUCK DERP!!!

DO YOU KNOW WHO THE FUCK YOU'RE MESSING WITH!? I AM THE DANGER! ET CETERA!

PAIN DIMENSION DELENDA EST

FUCK DERP

FUCK YOUR BONES

I DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT SUPPLIES IN THE DOOM DIMENSION KILLING THINGS GIVES ME AMMO

I HAVE AN EXPLOSIVES POWERED CHAINSAW AND IM GONNA SAW YOU IN HALF BIG GUY

YOU HAVE HUGE GUTS YOU HAVE HUGE GUTS YOU HAVE HUGE GUTS

PRAISE WIL FUCK DERP


Spoiler: sensory (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: notes (click to show/hide)

[7][d12]

"Why would you wish for that?"
Get me and my robot friends out of the path of that thing then shoot the gimp.
Spoiler: Is no longer dead! (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Things I've done. (click to show/hide)
[9][d8]

[10v8], [7v10], [1+7v10],[3v12] [1v1]

With the threat of the bone slab dealt with the team is free to open up on the Pain Elemental. As  they do so the Elemental makes another gesture and a wall of bone rises in front of it. Slugs and rounds bite into this barrier in bursts of white splinters before everything is obscured by the blast of one of Kora's frag grenades. The smoke and powdered bone dust clears within a few seconds, revealing a badly mulched wall of bone. Holes have been punched through but behind them is nothing but the red sky. The only bit of flesh that is visible is a buckshot shredded chunk of thigh peeking out where Yagyu was aiming.

The badly mulched wall tumbles forward and the pain elemental steps, limping slightly, on top of it. He makes a wide sweeping gesture and the fragments of bone left from Wilfred's counterattack suddenly surge forward.  They come together into a huge cloud of enamel flack, each a needle sharp blade. Dodging the cloud would be impossible without moving huge distances within a matter of seconds, and its flying directly towards the team.

41
Roll To Dodge / Re: Magnum Opus: Welcome Home.
« on: May 02, 2022, 04:49:18 pm »
"I was actually expecting them to be bigger."
Ask the ant what it's doing here and why they're preventing the chime guy from working.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Needle Links (click to show/hide)

You ask the ant what its doing and why the hive is preventing the "chime guy" from working.  The ant, a bit confused as to why you can speak to it,  says that this is the hive's territory and that that thing is encroaching on it. Interestingly, it further states that its hive is following a mission granted them by the Magi. When you ask about that, it says it doesn't know specifics.


Ask the artisan if it dug into the ants' nest, or if the ants expanded into our territory. Then wander a short distance into the raw cavern - far enough to explore, not so far as to lose contact with the team (aka within shouting distance or so).

Spoiler: Genesis (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: links (click to show/hide)
The artisan "Says" that he dug into this area and discovered the ants. When he attempted to continue his work they swarmed him and carried off his charms. This didn't harm him but he did have to keep reassembling himself, which made working impossible.

You walk little ways off on your own. The cavern is certainly nice, all these glowing crystals and such, but doesn't seem particularly special. At least not from what you can see here. There does seem to be a lot of ambient magic around though.

(Well, some light activity won't hurt.)

At some point Grey replaced his torn robe and gloves.

Grey goes back into the library to pick out a book on crystalline ants, looking for information on their capabilities and whatever motivates them aside from their queen.


Spoiler: Grey (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Needle links (click to show/hide)
[4]
There are no books specifically about the crystal ants, but in a book entitled "The astrodynamics of the planetary vessel" it does make reference to them. Specifically it states that they are responsible for the "Maintenance of leylines" and that they have complex and vast subterranean dynasties which trace their power back to the  Magi.

Hugh waits beside Debby while she speaks with the ant.


Spoiler: Hugh (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Needle Links (click to show/hide)
Hugh tries to look friendly and intimidating both at the same time.

"It would probably be best to negotiate with the leader or queen of the ants. This just looks like a guard."

Aaron looks around at the cave and crystals through his needle while he waits to see the outcome of Debby's negotiation.


Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There is a LOT of magic here, and it is moving. It doesn't have the distinct "flavor" of magic used by mages or your kind, its something more primal and raw. Below you can see it in a flowing current so dense and bright its hard to look at while out here you can see wisps of that current drifting by like the gentle water at a river's edge. The crystals here don't seem to be absorbing the magic so much as they're directing it.

42
Roll To Dodge / Re: DEEP SPACE: Space vampires and work safety
« on: April 30, 2022, 01:11:24 pm »
Interrogate some of the people who helped work on the suit, trying to get an explanation of what this plasma monster is, and why they want to speak to it.  Also, is there any way to remotely communicate with Xeriay?  Radio in her suit, maybe?

Heal by 1 each turn.
Spoiler: Kander (click to show/hide)
[2][4]
You know the suit has a radio, but that it isn't functional while the suit is in full protective mode. The standing wave shielding doesn't entirely deflect radiowaves but it does distort them to the point of uselessness.

You ask the one who seems to be the leader around here about the plasma thing you see out there near Xeriay. You ask if its dangerous, why they want to speak to it, what she is supposed to do out there, etc.  The man, his eyes glued to the end of the walkway, gives only curt replies. The "Plasma Monster" is apparently a group of entities that appears to live within the power core of the enigma. They are difficult to define by human terms but are effectively living plasma. The Solar Brotherhood seeks to communicate with them not only to learn the secrets of the Enigma but potentially of transcendent life and the universe itself. After all, if they live in this sort of artificial star, then perhaps their kind live within real stars as well. Perhaps they ARE stars!  At this point he begins offhandedly rambling while not really paying attention to you.

(Xeriay knowledge up)
((SHE CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS.
No really, Xeriay has gone from level 15 to 25 by basically just walking around and talking to people.))

Xeriay stares at the magnetic field's readout. This whole experience has been bizarre, yet... encouraging? Months of lectures and education from Kandar which she'd never really paid attention to or understood had all of a sudden clicked, she basically helped make this suit, and now she was wearing it and standing face to face with... some sort of plasma creature? Zeriay Jattle traveled to the Enigma in order to continue a life of violence, but fate put her here instead.

She takes a deep breath and shouts in the hope to communicate over all the noise.
"HELLO! ARE YOU TRYING TO TALK TO ME? SORRY, I DON'T UNDERSTAND! I WILL RETURN!"

Attempt verbal communication, but if that doesn't work go back and tell the engineers to install a universal translator into the magnetic field generator. That's a thing you can do, probably.

Spoiler: Xeriay (click to show/hide)
(The dynamic between her and Kander is pretty funny)
[6] You attempt to speak to the strange amalgam of plasma. It doesn't work, even when you shout through the external speakers. Not surprising, really. As you attempt this though, you make sure to record all the magnetic waves the plasma critter is throwing out. After about a minute the plasma loses that transient shape and becomes simple random spurts and splutters again. You watch for a moment more, just to make sure, before turning around and slowly walking back to the main building. Once past the airlock and out of the suit, you tell the members of the solar brotherhood that you've recorded the "communications" of the "plasma men". They shove another 500 credits into your hands and immediately begin working on the recording, bickering among themselves over the best course of action while ignoring both you and Kander.





"well uh, fuck"
Jim might as well write down a description of the giant louse in his log book
Edit: also save Hardberger's ass if it's not too troublesome

Spoiler: Jim (click to show/hide)
Run and leap for the safety of the wall.

Spoiler: Maxwell Hardberger (click to show/hide)
(what wall? What safety?)
[8v6][Jim speed leveled up]
Max, apparently misunderstanding his situation and surroundings (suspended quite high in the air with nothing around him other than boat and bug), decides he's going to leap out of the boat. Perhaps he has simply had enough of this shit. Regardless, Jim catches Max by the waist just as Max is jumping over the lip of the bowl and drags him back into the boat. Max continues trying to leap to his probable death so Jim sits on him while writing a quick description of the giant bug. At least as much as he can see of it.

"Gyahaha! Looks like we're going for a ride!"

Try to figure out how the debris is anchored to the shell. Otherwise, enjoy the ride!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
You lean over the edge of the boat and look at the debris and the shell. Its a bit hard to tell without getting closer, but You think the shell grew up and onto the debris. The shell around the debris is distorted but not visibly damaged and seems to encompass the debris.

"Oh shit what do we do about this?"
Keep a hold of the boat and see where this thing takes us.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

cower in boat
"Do you think this is one of those things where someone flushed a pet down the toilet and it grew massive in the sewers?"

Hang on tight and stay in the boat.

Spoiler: Hlaine (click to show/hide)
The bug, and by extension the boat, lazily menders north. It seems in no particular hurry nor does its destination readily present itself. After several minutes the group begins to calm down a bit, and after close to a half hour of movement they become somewhat bored even. Perhaps it is simply a contrast to the terror of before, but this lackadaisical pace isn't enough to keep their adrenaline up. As they drift further north however, they notice something. Through the chemical fog and darkness they pick out the glow of lights and the sound of voices.  The voices sound like they're chanting but what they're saying no one can tell. Its sounds like a different language and the voices themselves sound strange. Some are much louder than others, too loud to be an unamplified human. As the bug gets closer, the light is more easily seen to be a flame, and a massive one at that. A bonfire of great size the base of which hides behind harsh geometric walls that are only seen in silhouette, backlit by the flame.  They appear to be the same cargo containers as before, but much more evenly and intelligently stacked and aligned.  In fact...they resemble the walls of an ancient fortress or castle, complete with towers of vertically stacked containers. 

The bug stops rather suddenly and begins to lower itself back down into the muck. It settles back to earth much more slowly than it rose, given everyone time to look around. The swamp over here is much the same as everywhere, a sludge of chemicals which hardens as it gets further out from the center. Here, where the bug is settling in, the sludge is thick but not hardened. The shore to the north is visible through the chemical fog as a dull metal gleam. What look like crude piers or walkways jut out through the hardened sludge and into the more syrupy stuff. There are what look like crude mechanisms of a sort rigged up on the end of these piers; they look to be designed to pull sludge from the swamp into containers on the pier. The details are inscrutable through the fog so everyone has to simply guess by the vague shapes they can make out. Among those vague shapes are several bipeds who are assembled at the end of the longest pier. They seem to come in a variety of sizes, most look about 3 feet tall while others are over 10. They seem to have disproportionately small limbs to the size of their bodies. Their bodies are flat at the top and taper downwards with no visible heads or waists or really any distinct body sections. These silhouettes, obscured by fog and lit only by the fortress bonfire far behind them,  appear to be watching as the bug settles down.

With a final surge the bug sinks back beneath the sludge until only the scattered islands of debris are visible again. The boat is lifted up and off the debris as it dips into the swamp again, popping free with a grinding crunch of metal.

43
Roll To Dodge / Re: MOOK: Such sights to see
« on: April 28, 2022, 11:10:15 pm »
Stop trying to mess with heat for now.

Try to break free by using my presumably increased strength to push at the flesh surrounding me.

If that doesn't work..

More size fuckery.  Repeated size fuckery.. try to get bigger, then smaller, then bigger, etc.  Alternate.  Start with larger, since that actually did something.  If I grow bigger, try to use strength to open up some open space in the fleshwall.  If I grow smaller, I should now have open space.  Either way, I should break free eventually, it's only a matter of time.  Keep trying until I break free or size fuckery stops working.


Spoiler: Summer (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Sensory (click to show/hide)
[4]
You rip and tear until you suddenly break out into daylight...or whatever passes for it here. You're poking out of the gums, not too far from Yagyu actually.

Perceive Swamp. Float in wait. Await incentive to remember Frienderp's existence.

Spoiler: Bob (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Bob's Business (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
[5]
The flesh around bob becomes a rather bloody pool of swamp water which he immediately sinks into.

Where's the Doom? The slavering hordes? The brutality and character loss? All I see here is heavily armored vets standing around and using their expensive info-gathering toys! Show me something more PW! Show me your huge guts so that I can blow them to pieces!

Otherwise stand around behind armored asses and wait for our fearless leaders to come to a decision.


Spoiler: sensory (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: notes (click to show/hide)
[3]
stick with Yagyu. Use one of my camera drones to circle around our current position and keep an eye out for trouble.

Spoiler: Edward (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

i pray a silent prayer to the eldritch gods, following the team.
Use the enviro scanner on the blue flame. Probably will just be gibberish but might as well try.

Using the drone and scanner (and plain looking around), see if I can spot any more signs of Friendly's influence. So far we've only seen the gimp giant and that blue flame overhead. Try to determine if that blue star is the source of the infection or just a symptom. 



Spoiler: Yagyu d'Aubigny (click to show/hide)
Be up top with Yagyu.  Use the psychometric reconstructor to measure this place's history of death.  Do things count as dying here?  Or is it really some changing forms mumbo jumbo?  Use Subspace Library too, if that would be more appropriate.

Spoiler: Sheet (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Mission Achievements (click to show/hide)
"So how do we get down from here?"
Head up the rope to Yagyu the wait for everyone else to climb up the retrieve the harpoon gun.
Spoiler: Is no longer dead! (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Things I've done. (click to show/hide)
"Huh neat."
Get up to Yagyus position once up eat some of the metaphysical saltine crackers
Spoiler:  Jack Blackwater (click to show/hide)

Everyone climbs up onto the tooth. They get up onto the surface of it, a wide, flat area of white enamel pot marked by divots of decay.   This goes fine. Some Saltines are eaten. Some prayers are made. This all goes fine. 

As the various veterans begin unzipping their sensors and binos and scanners a newbie wishes something aloud.  "I wish there was more to fight." she says, looking wistfully at the nightmare world with a hint of bloodlust. And as though the very world itself was listening to her, her wish was granted. Not more than 20 feet away a slab of tooth goes flipping up into the air like someone door-kicked it straight up. A pain elemental rises from this hole on a plinth of bone that seems to be forming under him. He is dressed in an ornate suit of human bones with a huge head dress of rib bones that seems to be embedded directly in his skull. Blue flames are literally jetting out of both his eyes like blowtorches. 

The Pain elemental gestures and a jagged chunk of bone the size of a semi-truck tears out of the tooth and spins towards the team like a gore combine harvester.

44
Roll To Dodge / Re: Magnum Opus: Welcome Home.
« on: April 26, 2022, 11:38:21 pm »
"That sounds reasonable enough. Debby, I hope you can resolve this peacefully."

Aaron attempts to know how large these crystalline ants are, tells the others, and then goes to help, staying with Hugh.


Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Hugh follows Debby.


Spoiler: Hugh (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Needle Links (click to show/hide)
"That sounds easy enough I'll go talk to the ants and see what they want."
Get the wind chime guy to show me where the ants are so I can talk to them and find out what they want.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Needle Links (click to show/hide)
[?]
Aaron considers the ants and thinks they're probably larger than normal ants.

The "Wind Chime Guy" reconjoins with the floating pieces and then splits a chunk of himself off again. This one, about the size of a human head, hovers off down the tunnel without a word. The group follows along behind it. The tunnel leads into a large room thats been smoothed but is clearly made of a combination of normal gray stone and gleaming blue crystal.  Further on the tunnel becomes more of a raw cavern and the crystals jut through the stone in glittering spikes and columns. Eventually the floating ball of charms stops  in a largish section of cavern and hovers in place. The group looks around for a few moments before noticing something moving. Inside a crystal near them is a small tunnel, which exits through a hole in the crystal's side. An ant the size of a house cat is sitting at the entrance to this tunnel, waving its antennae. It looks a lot like a normal ant save for two distinctions. First is the size, while the second is the fact that it seems to be growing small clusters of crystal across its black exoskeleton. It has apparently noticed the group but hasn't moved from its position.

45
Roll To Dodge / Re: DEEP SPACE: Space vampires and work safety
« on: April 24, 2022, 03:53:17 pm »
Wake up from old man napping and help inspect the suit.

Heal by 1 each turn.
Spoiler: Kander (click to show/hide)
"Eh, why not?"

Drag Kander out from wherever he's hiding to examine the modified suit. He has d8 Kno.

Spoiler: Xeriay (click to show/hide)
[4][6](Xeriay knowledge up)
Xeriay returns to the Pilot Light, forcibly drags Kander away from a waitress he's chatting with, and the two return to the Solar Brotherhood building. There they assist the rather sickly plasma enthusiasts in reconfiguring their suit. Kander catches a few problems here and there, but Xeraiy seems far more on top of things. She sits on a couch while the men huddle over the suit on a raised worktable, muttering to themselves. Occasionally she interjects with a correction or addition and once or twice even walks over and points out a mistake.  It gets to the point that, after finishing a section the entire table looks back at her unconsciously to see if she has any commands.  Finally, the new and clearly improved suit is ready. Xeriay gives it a final look before slipping it on.

The suit isn't a powered exoskeleton like guild armor, but its something more than a simple environmental suit. The polarization of the helmet shifts dynamically to dim lights, the cooling system seems highly adaptive, and standing wave magnetic fields deflect particle radiation while molecularly dense shield foils deflect energetic photons.  It couldn't stop a bullet to save its life but against the specific hazards of plasma, its top notch.  She makes sure all the cuffs are sealed and the deflection protocols are active before stomping out through the modified airlock and onto the walkway beyond. The walkway is a long line of ventilated metal plates held up on thick rods of what looks like tungsten. It has no handrails, though its at least 10 feet wide so that's not a real issue. Directly in front of her and down the receding path is the plasma spring still belching strange gouts of fluid energy and light.

She sets off slowly, monitoring the suit's readings and her own vitals carefully as she moves. Everything is theoretically sound, but extreme environments like this are where expensive well thought out things come to break. The walkway rumbles and vibrates slightly as she passes the halfway point, the force of the plasma spring reverberating through it. 75% of the way there the suit's dynamic visor is already almost entirely darkened and only getting darker; the world before her is plume of solar light. In fact, as she nears the end she has to be extremely careful not to simply walk right off the unseen edge. She stops maybe 5 feet from the end of the walkway and waits a moment. The suit's heat regulation is performing well, radiation shielding isn't 100% but its well within tolerance, and the visor has successfully prevented her from going blind. Through it all she can see is solid black and the white form of the plasma. 

She looks up from the instrument displays by her chin and notices something in that churning sunfire.  The plasma seems to be holding its shape in an odd fashion. To say it forms a humanoid shape is wrong. Like Non-newtonian fluid on a speaker its shape is never constant, but within the shifting forms certain patterns can be seen. Suddenly the suit's magnetic fields lose their standing waves and wobble erratically. Xeriay searches for a cause but realizes moments later its not a fault in the suit but due to magnetic interference. The thing in front of her is "Broadcasting" magnetic waves that are distorting the suit's own waves.




"Never been one for randomly searching through unsecured crates the risk is very often not worth the potential reward."

After giving a small chuckle over the guy who blinded himself head to the ship

Spoiler: Steve Goldwin (click to show/hide)
"...you ever feel like the universe forgot what gender you are? No, just me?"

Head back to the boat with gambatta and the others. Keep an eye out for potential trouble/nasties.

Spoiler: Hlaine (click to show/hide)
"Blegh, might be a good time to call it. We appear to be gathering more injuries than treasures."

He glances over everyone else almost... hungrily.

"Say, uh... anyone got more blood than they need? I have a medical condition, you see..."

Head back to boat, leave if everyone else does.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
"Huh, alright let's head back soonish, before we all find a way to cripple ourselves."
Jim will put the mechanical gizmo in the specimen container, or if it won't fit just leave it on the raft. Then he'll grab the  box and also put it in the raft
Spoiler: Jim (click to show/hide)
"So I'm gonna go back to looting if anyone cares."
Go back to looting, but be careful of anything that looks hostile or deadly.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

look for loot.  follow team. 
The team, a bit worse for wear but their pockets a bit heavier, returns to the boat. Jim loads the box on separately, as he cannot carry it along with everything else, setting it in the center of the bowl shaped boat. They push the boat out across the hardened sludge for a few feet to get it out of a shallow divot its weight has formed before climbing in. Together they pull the boat back west, across the sludge of the fuel swamp. They're about halfway across when one of the islands of debris near them begins to move. At first it looks like its just shifting or collapsing into the muck but  a moment later is lurches forward and up, along with a good deal of muck and debris around it. The island of debris runs into the side of the boat, scooping it up onto the rough metal and fungus surface. One of the outriggers gets wedged in some scrap and suddenly the boat and its occupants are rising up out of the muck. Everyone scrambles about and clings to the vessel in a panic as it rapidly ascends 30 or 35 feet into the air. 

After the boat stops rising and the team gets a moment to gather their wits they immediately look around. As the sludge slides off the island it reveals what lies beneath. The Island is just one of two or three small outcroppings of debris atop the back of a huge chitinous shell. It looks something like the segmented shell of a woodlouse, though longer and shaped more like a diamond than the lazy oval of a woodlouse. From their position, wedged atop whatever this is, they cannot see anything of the beast but its shell and a hint of long, thin limbs stretching out below it. After a moment the creature begins to move, rocking slowly forward like a lethargic stilt walker. For the moment it seems to be headed north. 

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