Look at the guide, then touch the pillar with one finger.
Nothing happens. It's just a stone pillar.
Yeah, thats gonna need rolls so...
Wait, what were we even trading for?
((Never mind.))
Since the suit is not really isolating heat from the woman, try to lift the faceplate, open up the suit's face. Does the level of heat change in any way?
In any case, have a bluesmoke. Have several, and listen to the sounds of the night, seeking insight on matters all around me, including the Eater of Cold if I find the time to think about it.
It seems to get hotter that way, though not by a whole lot. Apparently this lady is pretty toasty.
You start chain smoking, burning through a half dozen cigarettes. You are feeling very...distant. You aren't feeling much of anything, honestly. You think about the eater of cold. Clearly alien. Maybe divine. Maybe demonic. Perhaps ancient alien astronaut deity trapped in flesh suit? Maybe humans were bred to be a vessel race, a species of organic space suits for an incorporeal alien race? Maybe thats what we actually currently are. Maybe the soul humanity seems convinced of is actually that incorporeal alien, maybe our minds are that creature. Maybe we've just grown so accustom to these suits that we've forgotten they're not us? Is the concept of astral projection some sort of half remembered method of leaving the suits which has become mythical and perverted over the eons?
HMM HMM.
Identify laws of common decency that we've violated so far, follow group/help set up if that is the group's choice.
Mostly dress codes.
Gorat radio's Steve. "Sir, do you know the background of the attack back in town?"
Ask.
Set up for the night?
"We should be able to make some more distance before the sun goes down. Perhaps not to the next pillar, but I doubt it makes any difference. The earlier we are at that pit, the better."
Str 3; Dex 3; End 3; Cha 10; Int 6; Wil 15//Spe 0; Int 1; Han 0 (-1); Con 4; Unc 0; Exo 12; Aux 3 (+1); Med 0
Mk II Suit; Microwave PK Amp; Mass manip PK Amp; laser rifle (fired once); 0 tokens: normal cigarettes; blue smokes; datapad (with platformer shooter); nanoghosts; shock trigger (with Morul); white skin-tight node-covered black-shell stasis suit worn under Mk II.
Appearance: 5'11'', 170 pounds in a rather unmuscular frame, shoulder-long brown hair, short goatee, brown eyes, a rather long chin that earned him his nickname. Age 32
Half a robot foot. Robot right arm. Wears basic clothes when not in the Mk II.
>Someone probably did something shortsighted and angered the locals. Examine closely the designs on the pole. Make sure to capture them using the camera on my suit, if they seem interesting. Observe the woman. Is her skin any redder? Her behavior any different? Continue moving with the group.
The stone pillar is covered in fairly generic geometric designs: lines of triangles, circles, intersecting diamonds, and the like. Nothing which strikes you as terribly important.
The woman seems much the same. Her skin is darker now, though thats probably because of the lighting, but her posture hasn't changed. She's still standing there, ram rod stiff, trailing her former anchoring ropes .
I'm glad all those hours spent learning how to make notes is coming in handy.
Continue making notes. Notes! Notes Everywhere! For !!Science!!
Also follow the group.
Notes about? Writing shit down is like the one action you can actually personally do in this format, what do ya want to write down?
Basically, making notes on the woman, temperature, time etc. every ten minutes.
A whole lot of nothing for now.
Or a whole lot of nothing new at least.
You called it a big and powerful generator. Liar.
Be near the center of the group. Watch for trouble and charge a dynamic con bonus.
It's big and powerful for them.
You could use it to recharge batteries but it won't power anything actively.
(("I performed a blatant act of thievery, and all I got out of it was a free bullet to the faceplate."))
The t-shirts are being printed as we speak.
Follow group, stay near the fringe and out of line-of-fire. Continue intuitively scanning for trouble. Do signs point to bad nights too?
Signs beyond the fact that this thing wants cold, lives in shadows and that it's about to get colder and darker?
Buck the trend by hanging around near the middle of the group. Check if the Captive's near-body temperature has changed. Assuming that nothing changed, wave my magic wand of thermomising around to record ambient temperature, how hot the sand is on the surface compared to below, etc.
((Not hugely interested OOC in specifics for the non-host readings, in case my science is annoying you.))
'We gonna park here like, heh, sand hogs, or move onto them other ruins up there?
Everything is holding steady for the moment. Ambient temp is dropping, away from the lady at least, and the sand under the surface is cooler.
"I reckon we keep moving. Probably a good place to set up a trap, these pillar things. Wonder if the posse back at town is just tooling up to kill us when we get here? Actually, other than pointing people in the general direction of the pit 'o ghastly beheadings, what the fuck are these for? Not like what we're doing is a full-time job requiring pillar craftsmen.
Hey Steve! Can you do some translation work for me? Chuck a message through me suit speakers, like, in their lingo, then translate whatever gibberish this guide-bloke garbles back? Ask him what the fuck the pillars and ruins are for and where they lead to? What ruined 'em? Also, how many of the damn things are there between here and the hole? Where's the damn hole in relation to 'em? But nicely, like."
Sambo walks over to the guide, motions for him to listen, and lets Steve do the talking. He also examines the pillar a bit, trying to look interested while in a space suit, but really just keeping his laser rifle ready in case of any reaction by the woman to this information. With pillar based cover.
If this is a long stop-over, then keep an eye on the woman, but keep scanning everywhere for signs of trouble. Mostly the horizon and the ruins though.
Steve speaks, then the guide speaks, then steve speaks, and back and forth for a minute or two.
>He says these are the remains of a covered pathway that used to lead from the city you were just in to different city. He says it used to be the capital of this area. It was destroyed the last time an Eater of Cold came. He says this place wasn't always a desert. He doesn't know how many are between here and there, and he says the hole is visible from the path. That it will be obvious.
"Seeing as that is on the horizon that is approximately seven miles... Ill go and check it out"
walk towards the next pillar
You start walking. It is uneventful, but considering the speed the rest of the group is going you might be walking for a while.
"Indeed. So, the guide leaves now, unhindered. In fact... Steve, is there anything you can do to make sure this poor man gets home unharmed?"
Ask Steve.
"Idea - flesh people stay back and rest for some time when needed, some robots remain to guard, some robots continue on path, check areas we will go to. So we can tell if landscape changes as we pass with Eater of Cold."
"We should keep the group together as well as possible. We could use a vanguard tomorrow, but for the rest of today and each night, the whole team should be close together."
Str 3; Dex 3; End 3; Cha 10; Int 6; Wil 15//Spe 0; Int 1; Han 0 (-1); Con 4; Unc 0; Exo 12; Aux 3 (+1); Med 0
Mk II Suit; Microwave PK Amp; Mass manip PK Amp; laser rifle (fired once); 0 tokens: normal cigarettes; blue smokes; datapad (with platformer shooter); nanoghosts; shock trigger (with Morul); white skin-tight node-covered black-shell stasis suit worn under Mk II.
Appearance: 5'11'', 170 pounds in a rather unmuscular frame, shoulder-long brown hair, short goatee, brown eyes, a rather long chin that earned him his nickname. Age 32
Half a robot foot. Robot right arm. Wears basic clothes when not in the Mk II.
He'll be fine. So long as no one here shoots him or something. Guardinate the prisoner. Maintain vigil. Discern motives of rocks.
The rocks clearly have ill intentions. Evil, Evil rocks.
"If only everyone had that level of restraint, things would be much easier."
We keep going for now.
Str 3; Dex 3; End 3; Cha 10; Int 6; Wil 15//Spe 0; Int 1; Han 0 (-1); Con 4; Unc 0; Exo 12; Aux 3 (+1); Med 0
Mk II Suit; Microwave PK Amp; Mass manip PK Amp; laser rifle (fired once); 0 tokens: normal cigarettes; blue smokes; datapad (with platformer shooter); nanoghosts; shock trigger (with Morul); white skin-tight node-covered black-shell stasis suit worn under Mk II.
Appearance: 5'11'', 170 pounds in a rather unmuscular frame, shoulder-long brown hair, short goatee, brown eyes, a rather long chin that earned him his nickname. Age 32
Half a robot foot. Robot right arm. Wears basic clothes when not in the Mk II.
The team sets off, chasing after the guy who is scouting up ahead. It's not a hard trek, though slogging through sand is tiring after a while, but the sun sets rapidly and they're still a ways off from the pillar when the evening dark envelops them. The world gets noticeably cooler and darker very quickly.
Author
Topic: Mission 18: The final sunset (Read 171488 times)