As the others fight toe to toe with the alien creatures Sterne keeps his distance and once more takes a shot at the one closest to him.
Sterne's pistol gives a flat retort in the enclosed space and sounds like an incredibly loud hand clap followed quickly by the whine of a ricochet as the bullet flies wide and skids off tiles on the wall
Ebon with an action this round
Ebon jumps forward and as he moves he slams into the creature with two quick jabs. Aiming for its head.
Ebon aims for the thing's head, soon realising that it is more or less all head. His fist glows with power through as he drives it into the thing's skull and it comes back dripping in filth even as the thing topples onto the old tracks.
Slowly lowering his pistol Sterne watches as Ebon punches his fist through the last of the aliens and he shudders.
Are they all down? he asks as he moves cautiously closer and climbs up onto the platform
strange looking things, god knows what else is lurking in this city. Are any of you hurt ? he asks as he holsters his pistol.
"No more than usual, Doctor," Spore rumbles, as his vines start continue stitching themselves back together, "and maybe less, even. I heal faster than your people do. No offense." He smiles.
"That's why I stand in the front."
As they all relax, Spore refreshes his lights and sends them around the room, allowing them all to take in some details.
occupational hazard I guess Sterne says with a smile as he watches the wounds on the plant like creature begin to heal I guess the accelerated healing comes in handy Spore. This is my first alien encounter, well apart from some of you. he says glancing at Midnight Trysst, you said these things eat garbage? We should have a look around it’s nest it could have gathered something the Punisher may have discarded, a lot of times people’s trash reveals much about them he says as he begins to look around the platform
The filthy nest of the Otyughs comprises of the combined garbage and refuse that these creatures have probably gathered from the myriad tunnels that adjoin this one.
The heaps are almost entirely as expected, just full of trash. However, it does appear that there are some items of value that have somehow found their way here.
Ebon looks around the areas as the Doctor digs around the nest. "I hope you find something worth wild."
While Ebon and Dr Sterne poke around, Trystt returns to the tracks. She follows the bootprints for another fifty feet or so before she realises they come to a complete and utter dead halt.
There is ample filth and dirt for more tracks to present themselves, but the bootprints simply stop. As though the wearer should be stood at this very spot.
Napalm grimaces as Sterne pulls a jumpsuit out of the garbage. "Ew, doc. You're going to wear that? Just dont expect me to sit next to you until you clean it. Twice."
"I strongly recommend growing your own armor, Doctor," Spore says, before moving to catch up with Trystt.
I don’t think it is quite my colour Sterne says as he tosses aside the protective suit
there isn’t much here unfortunately, We should carry on following the tracks he says and looking ahead he can see Trysst standing still about 50 feet further on and he follows the others as they move to catch up with her.
looks like the end of the trail, very curious he says as he sees the prints end abruptly.
Trystt carefully examines the ceiling, the walls and the surrounding area around the tracks but finds nothing to explain the sudden disappearance.
She does notice however, that the final few sets of prints look ever so slightly wider and deeper than the rest.
Judging by the slightly deeper imprints, it looks as though whoever has left these has stopped here and with extreme patience and skill, back-tracked and left a false trail - directly into this otyugh nest.
"He can't fly, can he?"
When Midnight starts to reply, Spore cuts off very-serious reply with a laugh. "Joking, friend. Let's take a closer look..."
"Ok, it felt a little easy. We just track back and see what we missed. He says looking around.
"Careful, Ebon. It seems he was more prepared than we thought. He might even know we're coming."
The group retraces their steps back through the tunnels for several minutes, diligently following the tracks backward this time.
Napalm follows along where Trystt points, looking for any clues.
The group retrace their steps and find themselves not lost, but at a loss as to where the Punisher could be. His bootprints lead all the way back to the main tunnel entrance and it presents the group with a definite quandary.
That is until Trystt's sharp eyes catch sight of something in one of the small, off-shoot tunnels. It is choked with rubble and looks completely impassable. But upon closer inspection, there is a very narrow passage way that leads through, obscured by a heavy sheet of leather or tarp that in itself is disguised as just more detritus.
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Trystt is mumbling curses at the Punisher, letting her opinion about being fooled be well-known to those in her immediate vicinity. Just as she is about to suggest something creative with "...braided dwarven nipple hair...", she stops at a pile of rubble. She brings her globes of light in for a better look. "This might be something," she says as she passes her hand over the tarp.
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Following cautiously behind , Sterne watches as Trystt locates the concealed passageway and as she moves through he holds his breath fearing some kind of trap and expecting to hear gunfire at any moment.
be careful trystt he whispers as she moves in
Napalm nods when Trystt finds the entrance. He is about to say something when she begins searching efficiently for traps. Instead the scientist pulls out his epipen and injects himself with the modified goblin formula. Immediately he feels his heartrate quicken and his vision swims for a moment. Then thing sharpen and he begins adjusting to an almost preternatural reflexes.
Spore shifts nervously as Trystt examines the entrance, then moved forward to be at her side as she advances. He wanted to be close enough to protect her if anything else surprised them.
The tarp is pushed aside to reveal a smaller access tunnel that adjoins the main transit system.
Perhaps protected by the rubble choking most of the entrance or just because it is a deeper and declines at a steady angle, but this tunnel is in much better condition than the previous one. The tiling is all but intact and shows the art deco style of the time. You get the feeling that some of the nerds from the NY transit museum would lose their minds upon seeing this.
The tracks resume beyond here, if anything easier to follow than previously. You also notice a series of lamps that look far more modern than the rest of the environment strung along heavy electrical cabling on one wall.
The lamps are extinguished and the tunnel runs off into darkness.
Ebon turns to look at the others. "This has to be it look at the lamps." He whispers. "We should be carefully, check for traps at every turn."
The narrow corridor continues for a minute or so before entering a wider room that was probably used to store a variety of repair equipment for the track.
Now however, the stacks of machinery and replacement lengths of steel are rusted and almost unrecognisable.
As soon as you enter the room however, there is a sudden high pitched beep and then the whirr of gears as something mechanical springs into life on the other side of the room.
that does not sound good Sterne says as he draws his pistol and cocks it, holding the gun low he waits for the others to move into the room.
Spore conjures his lights again, and sends them off into the room, hoping to shed some light. "He knows we're here...". Stepping forward just a bit, Spore hopes to give the others some cover.
Napalm flicks open his baton and then grabs a canister off his belt. He slowly walks forward, looking into the darkness.
Spore sends a series of glowing motes into the room. They dance on the air, sent skittering here and there as the occasional breeze from a rushing subway train wafts through the tunnels.
They light up the rear of the room, revealing the source of the noise. Mounted on a broken support pillar is an automated machinegun turret. The dull grey metal of the long barrel scans back and forth before latching onto the group and and aiming directly at them, black oblivion at the end of that barrel.
Ebon moves forward and into cover, staying close to the group. "That would maybe give us an idea that we're in the right place."
In addition to making ranged attacks normally, a weapon with this special property can fire in fully automatic Mode. No action is required to toggle a weapon between making normal ranged attacks and using automatic Mode.
When you make a full attack with a weapon in automatic Mode, you can attack in a cone with a range of half the weapon’s range increment. This uses all the weapon’s remaining ammunition. Roll one attack against each target in the cone, starting with those closest to you. Attacks made with a weapon in automatic Mode can’t score critical hits. Roll damage only once, and apply it to all targets struck. Each attack against an individual creature in the cone uses up the same amount of ammunition or charges as taking two shots, and once you no longer have enough ammunition to attack another target, you stop making attacks.
For example, if you were using a Tactical X-gen gun with 27 rounds remaining, you would target the nearest 6 creatures in the cone and use up all 27 rounds.
If more than one creature is equidistant and you don’t have enough cartridges remaining to shoot at all equidistant creatures, determine randomly which one you target. You can’t avoid shooting at allies in the cone, nor can you shoot any creature more than once, even if you have enough cartridges to fire more shots than you have targets. Attacks in automatic Mode take the same penalties as other full attacks.