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"I'm sure your 'jetpack halfling surprise' would net Astrianna's vlog far more new subscriptions than any other method." Prospero-4 states, while watching up the walls.
Keen to see a 'jetpack halfling surprise' in action, Cueta points to the nearest window and says, "Chinney! A surprise would be music. That one."
"All right!" She tried to swallow her nervosity and stretched carefully. Still uncomfortably stiff - but they couldn't wait! First she attached one end of her titanium alloy cable to her harness and gave the other end to Cueta. Then she readied her gear clamp. With a bit of luck she'd find something to attach it to. Otherwise she'd have to glue the cable stuck or something ...
"All right!! Let's do this. I'll radio you back when you can start climbing. Weeeeeh!" With those words Leila takes off towards the window. She hoped that her armour would be enough to protect her from the shattering glass. And *uh* that the glass would actually shatter!
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"Oh my gods." Astrianna says while looking at Prospero, a tone of wonder in her voice.
"That's exactly right! You finally understand!" The half-elf looked like she was so happy she was about to tear up. Through my long and arduous tutiledge they finally understand... views are everything! They're a real support crew now!
She eagerly awaits Leila's dramatic flight, rushing over to a spot near the stairs to get the perfect shot.
+3
Leila rockets up towards the glass closest to the terminus of the steps.
She smacks HARD against the beautifully painted picture of an elf with his hands raised towards the heavens.
Despite it being glass it seems for a moment that the weakened state Leila is in won't allow her to smash through but then it gives way with a loud sound of splintering glass.
Leila doesn't really have much time to see what the heck is on the other side as the arc of her jump carries her down about four metrons onto a beautifully tiled floor with intricate patterning. In front of her, bizzarely seems to be another, smaller building and right next to her is a beautifully patterned floor of what look like stars.
As she recovers she notices a large bruise on her forehead and some cuts and scrapes
Other than the superficial details of the inside she does notice, with some disappointment that there's no convenient hook on which to attach her gear clamp.
She does hear a lot of lashuntan shouting though she can't see anyone.. yet.
Outside the remainder of the group also hears a lot of angry yelling. In evlen. Astrianna recognizes a few words. It's stuff along the lines of knaves... barbarians... mongrels.....
I thought I got out of the cult of death worshippers Ralkawi mutters as rogue bits of glass fall out and tinkle down onto the steps.
"Oww..." Leila tries to get her bearings. There was an urge to rub her poor forehead, but she resisted not wanting to rub any broken glass in. Plus she could hear shouting so she doubted she had time for a leisurely recovery!
Seeing that there were nothing to attach her cable to she simply detached it from the clamp with the quick release and pressed it against the wall. Then she applied her Plan B, a generous squirt of Bonding Epoxy, to the cable and the wall. Harden harden harden!
Leila's early years were spent surrounded by all manners of technology that's been jury rigged and repaired time and time again. She is very familiar with duct tape and epoxy bonds. Sometimes it works fast, other times it works slower. Her expert eyes tell her that this application of epoxy is going to take about 12 seconds to gel.
Astrianna watches Leila blast off and arc towards the window, head tracking her flight as she captures the perfect shot of their halfling grappling hook busting through a priceless stained glass window.
The vlogger's heart races as she thinks of the Leila's already potent popularity soaring after this manuver! She will have to dramatically increase the number of plushies to produce.
Bits of colored glass tinkle down to the stairs while Astrianna laughs triumphantly and some old elf curses in the distance, She does't bother looking back at Panelliar, waving a dismissive hand to the rest of the group. "Don't worry about him. He'll get over it once we've saved the temple from a doomsday cult."
She taps a few buttons on her comm and brings up the group frequency, excited voice broadcasting in everyone's ears. "AWESOME job, Leila! Are you okay? What's it like in there? Can we start climbing?"
Closing her eyes, Cueta reaches out to her benefactor and feels the link strengthen, the soldier once again glowing with white-yellow luminescence. Placing her hand on the rope, Cueta waits for the command to climb.
"Eh'll go first. Give mio covering fire, yeah?"
Round 1
As the epoxy starts to congeal around the end of the cable Leila can hear the sound of running feet getting closer. The noise echoes around the inside of the temple making it hard for her to tell what the source of it is exactly.
Round 2.
Sweat starts to trickle down the halfling's face as the epoxy continues to harden. She can't move until it's fully set and her attention is drawn back towards the gob of glue as it sloowwly grips onto the cable.
The yelling and sounds of running feet grow closer and closer though and just as she senses the glue is finally set the noises resolve themselves into something far more dangerous and painful.
From the south from around the oddly curved building Leila glimpses a grinning lashunta with warpaint on her face dressed in some pretty styling maroon armor and matching headband pointing a huge machine gun at her and firing.
Even as the bullet slams against her armor's protective buffers she is beset from by two long swords slashing at her cruelly from behind.
She's hurt, alone, and almost surrounded by at least three hostiles seemingly intent on killing her.
On the bright side the glue is set.
Round 2
Astrianna's eyes widen to the size of moons when she hears gunfire start in the temple. "Leila!" She shouts, before pushing Cueta up the rope. "Go! You have to help her! Go!!!!" It wasn't entirely clear is Astrianna was concerned about the halfling's well-being because she genuinely cared about her or because her show's comic relief was about to be comic relieved of their life.
She rapidly waves an arm to Prospero to start climbing too once Cueta had started up the rope, desperately trying to get her heavy hitters into the fight.
"Going!" Cueta yells, even as she's already pulling herself, hand over hand, up the rope. Her arms corded with tension, the soldier lets her feet dangle as she climbs, and in a handful of seconds she's pulled herself through the window and stepped into the church...
Grunting, Cueta pulls herself through the window and drops, before she even thinks about how far the fall is...
Before she even lands, Cueta's doshko is in her hand.
Leila exclaimed as she tried to squiggle away from the longswords. The rope was set and she could already see Cueta rolling/falling/leaping out of the window. Pew! Now time for another sort of pew!
"Leila, report! What's happening inside?" Prospero-4 sends to the group's private comm channel, while waiting for Cueta to finish her climb.
Once the route is clear, the android grabs the cable to climb up to the window.
Leila scampers away from the cultists, one of them catches her with another deep gash as she gets away which draws blood. She responds by spinning around with the force of the blow during which she shoots him right in the face.
He drops down, dead.
Cueta drops down 4 metrons. She lands safe and on her feet with her weapon in hand and only a slight jar in her knee joints.
The cultist right in front of her snarls and swings wildly with his longsword. Cueta catches the first with her doshko but the second gets past her defense and scores a gash in her armor.
You're already too late you bastards. You might as well lie down and die! The lashunta to the south laughs and fires at Cueta now as Liela retreats out of line of sight. Another bullet speeds out and strikes Cueta.
"Aouch! Damned cultists with damned swords!" Leila comms back and then shouts at the talky one. "Why don't you just shoot yourself then?!"
Then she tries to help the swordy one a bit on that path. Pew pew!
In the last few days, Cueta had been stabbed, shot, bitten, egg-implanted, and almost died of heat stroke. [i]Not mio best run of things, yeah?[/b] Turning on the nearest cultist, the solder vowed silently to herself that these cultists would have worse days today.
Whipping the doshko over her head, Cueta brought it down towards the nearest sucker...
Round 3
Astrianna grabs onto the rope as soon as Prospero starts climbing, turning to look back at Ralkawi, voice serious. "If you think you can convince some of your former and hopefully current friends that maybe oblivion isn't so great, and it would be in their best interest not to shoot at us, tell the mule to stay and come along after Prospero and I are inside. If not, stay here and make sure our supplies don't run off. We'll be back!" It really didn't matter to Astri which course the Lashunta chose- either would be helpful in the long run.
Once Prospero was up the rope a bit, the half-elf starts climbing. Much less encumbered, she rapidly reaches the space directly below his feet. The android now has a very impatient vlogger below him who is uppset she is only capturing footage of his butt when a fight is going on inside. That armor might be badass, but it looks like it weighs about as much as a space station.
Unaware that close-up of his behind is starring Astrianna's vlog for the moment, Prospero-4 continues the climb and reaches the window.
Without a second thought, he heaves himself inside, and starts falling down towards the floor below. In the very short-lived moment on higher ground, Exocortex tracked down one cultist. So during the descent, Prospero-4 was able to pull trigger and deliver fiery death like an avenging, metallic angel.
Leila's shot and Cueta's swipe are more than enough to end the second cultist's life. Prospero's overcharged blast of fire is too late to do anything but his descent does end right on top of Cueta and his solid mass crashes right into the human woman. Prospero's fall is cushioned. Cueta does the cushioning
Oh I will you tiny coward! the lashunta to the south shouts back at Leila. I'm gonna end my own life as a gift to the Star Eater. But not before I send all of you to him to tell him I sent ya!
The lashunta draws what looks like an explosive charge and hurls it at the spot where Cueta and Prospero-4 are. It explodes but both of them are able to roll away from the explosion minimizing the damage.
Cueta's about to charge the remaining cultists when something hits her back - hard! Pitching face forward, the soldier smashes face first into the ground. Looking up dizzied, she just has time to register Prospero next to her, and for her tongue to flick over the now jagged half of a front tooth. "Oi! Watch--"
And then a grenade lands right next to her, and Cueta pitches to her side as fast as she can and rolls, wincing as the grenade singes burns holes in her new leather duster. Godspukkingdamnit!
Staggering to her feet, Cueta runs forwards, drawing her curveblade as she goes...
Leila pops back around the corner to fire off some pot-shots. She tries to taunt the homicidal cultist to draw some heat away from her prone companions. "So you are just stalling? Lazy!"
Round 4
Astrianna hauls herself up the rest of the length of the wall, pulling herself up and into the window. She immediately looks for Leila, and is estatic the halfling seems fine. "Leila, you're okay!" She shouts, tapping a few buttons on her comm to assume direct control over her Lifecorder systems.
She zooms in on the halfing as she starts shooting, then pans over to the machine-gun wielding Lashunta. "Your god is here, cultists! She's as tall as a dust bin and is going to KICK YOUR ASS!"
Deciding this is a great place to record the action AND shout at people, Astrianna doesn't jump down just yet. Besides, Prospero and Cueta seemed to be doing some kind of tactical dogpile below her and she really didn't want to mess it up.
"Apologies... " Prospero-4 says bluntly, laying now flat on the ground next to Cueta. He miscalculated Cueta's movement, and perhaps he could have said that aloud as well. But during combat there's no time for explanations - and long word count is more of Astrianna's field of expertise anyway.
The android gets up, has the Exocortex to lock onto the remaining cultist, and lets his laser rifle do the talking.
As soon as Cueta steps on the dark blue tiles with the starry design on them the prickly feeling of a concentration of magical energy raises Cueta's hackles. The warning is too late as a rain of glowing stars cascades from the ceiling onto the star pattern below. Cueta manages to duck and weave through most of the star storm but each one that hit simultaneously burns and shocks the human woman.
From the south the lashunta laughs out loud at the trap being triggered and fires her machine gun to add to the pain. The whirling chaos and Cueta's jukes causes her bursts of fire to miss though.
Prospero-4's exocortex on the other hand is able to filter out the lightshow visual pollution and his burst of fire hits the Lashunta square in the torso. She grunts in pain.
Wincing as the star storm comes out of nowhere, Cueta ignores the pain and charges forwards, even as one of her dreads lights and begins to smolder. Pointing the curveblade out in front of her, Cueta runs the blade's tip into the Lashunta, trying to twist the sword through the cultist's armor...
Round 5
Given that Prospero was still below her and she really didn't feel like falling on top of the android, Astrianna stays perched on the window where she can just continuously yell at everyone.
"Send that crazy b~!%* straight to her god! We have a temple full of priceless knowledge to save!"
Wary of other traps, Prospero-4 starts to carefully approach the Lashunta gunner - trusting his armor to protect should the cultist shoot him. He holds the rifle steady as he walks, stopping very briefly to make a snap shot once the he has the line of fire.
"Been better!" Leila pips and tries to take another pot-shot at the crazy machine gunner.
Cueta's wild charge misses the machine gun wielding lashunta but two shots to the temple courtesy of Leila and Prospero-4 are enough to blow the cultist backwards. Her laughter dies as she does. She holds onto her gun in a death-grip, causing her to land on the tiled floor of the temple in an awkward and unnatural half twisted posture.
As the echoes of the fight fade away a voice from the South calls out.
Hello? Who's there? Um, What's going on?
It's a voice that is from someone soft spoken and not used to raising their voice.
Breathing heavy as she comes out of her exertion Cueta sees a tall blue skinned kasatha woman chained to a wall at the south end of the temple. She's unarmed.
"Woo! Good shooting." Astrianna whoops as the cultist falls, swinging around to quickly slide down the cable hanging from the window.
Landing with a spring in her step, the half-elf looks around the inside of the temple and whistle, capturing a slow, wide shot of the interior and the ceiling.
She stops in front of the star-patterned tiles after having seen what happened to Cueta when she stepped on them.
"Prospero, is this floor still trapped? Can you tell?" Before the android can respond, she becomes distracted by the voice in the south.
"Who is that speaking?" Astrianna asks loudly of their pilot, hands on her hips.
Ah, I am Dr. Omehya Solstarni Wehir of House Raimar, Echo of Inshiri's dream. It's only the echoey quality of the sound in the temple that lets Astrianna hear the soft voice clearly. It's definitely a very kasathan name; actually shorter than most. You can come around the other way if you don't want to step on the trapped floor. Um, you aren't other Devourer worshipers are you? I don't want any more violence, please!
"Oh, there's going to be more violence, yeah," Cueta says, more to herself than the Doctor, as she flicks her tongue across her broken tooth. "Ultraviolence even. But not t'tuyo, Professor."
Making her way around the trapped floor, Cueta checks to see if there is a way to undo Solstarni.
"Pew!" Leila lets out a sigh of relief when the lashunta stops shooting. She takes a few moments to collect her wits and breath before she moves to check out this new voice. While she carefully moves forwards trying to follow the trap-avoidance instructions she quickly radios Ralkawi to let her know they were all okay. Mostly okay at least!
"Hello! We're with the Starfinders." Leila proudly announces once she can see the professor. She wanted to say a bit more, but suspected that Astri would love to make the grand declarations. Instead she settled for a smile and - "We're here to save you!"
"Dr. Solstrani!" Astrianna exclaims with glee, clapping her hands together in front of her. Leila said the most basic information, which kind of stole the half-elf's thunder, but she was so happy that the halfling was alive and that they found their target that she forgives Leila- this time. "Just one moment and we'll have you free. Can you believe this temple exists?! Oh, I am so excited to interview you and Panelliar together, you two must have SO much to talk about!" The vlogger chirps before she starts making her way around the trapped area.
The matter being brought to his attention, Prospero-4 looks at the floor and walls ahead and flicks through the different light spectrums of his vision, trying to detect any traces of possible traps.
"I am not an expert on this, but I will do my best to mark down the traps"
With Dr. Solstrani found, the android feels the group has reach one of the goals of this expedition. But he doubts it ends here, yet. Since the talkative ones are already engaged with the doctor, Prospero-4 feels he can avoid the communication for now.
Prospero-4 finds that the entire starry area on the east side of the temple where the stars came down is of a different make and colour than the other tiles of the temple.
The pattern of stars seems to be a constellation map.
Some of the stars are raised above the rest of the tiles in a pattern that the android can't quite fathom. It's not a mechanical trap though, there's magic at play here.
Following the Doctor's instructions Prospero-4, Leila, and Astrianna moves around counter clockwise around the odd building in the center of the temple while Cueta, already past the starfield trap, moves up to examine the chains on the kasathan academic.
They're really of pretty poor quality. There's a simple mechanical lock on the fetter on Dr.Solstrani's ankle and it wouldn't be very hard to break, or pick, or pull out of the wall. it was a pretty crude drilling job that the cultists have done to attach it to a wall.
It seems like Dr.Solstrani's kidnappers didn't have a high opinion of the professor's ability to break out on her own and it seems like they were right.
Now that they have time the rest of the group notes that the the temple, all the way from the floor to the six metron high ceiling above, is covered in sweeping arcs of constellations marked with delicate lines and elven numbers at regular intervals. This really is the work of obsessive dedication.
Three wooden doors line the west wall.There is also a three foot tall octagonal stone platform that seems to have served the purpose of an altar. Currently it holds a quite impressive amount of explosives, it seems like the cultists where right in the middle of setting them when they were interrupted by the group.
The southernmost part of the temple is a high ceiling ed sanctuary with tall, narrow windows, filled with foggy, discolored galss. The vantage point juts out over the cliff below, overlooking the stairs carved into the mountainside and the ancient abandoned pyramids of the settlement below.
Dr.Solstrani seems to have set up an impromptu study area. She has a few portable scientific implements on her and a few notebooks filled with scribbled notes.
Starfinders? Oh wonderful. Dr.Solstranis breathes in relief as she wipes away sweat from her high dome with the back of one of her four hands. Did the University send you? I'm so happy to see you. The last days have been... very difficult.
Her tone gets more excited though when she starts to talk about the temple. But yes, even under the circumstances, finding this place has been a dream come true. I t knew there was some buried truth to Zan's terrible writings and to find the temple and study it is... wonderful! There's so much to study just in this one part of the temple that I've been changed to that it would take months to decipher all of this let alone having a living being from the time this marvel was built to learn from as well. It's almost worth all the hardship and fear. I mean there is so much that can be learned even from the abandoned settlement below itself that we may be able to dedicate our time too now that you've defeated that terrible Thaomen person!
She talks quite fast when she's excited. Astrianna might need to put subtitles on.
Astrianna's perfectly plucked eybrows (which she had kept up even as they trekked through the jungle) shoot up when she sees the huge pile of explosives piled on the altar. "Damn, they carried those all the way through the jungle? Just to blow this place up? While I don't condone exploding ancient ruins, worshiping the Devourer must certainly be exciting."
"The university asked us to retrieve you, but we're here on Starfinder business as well. We have some pictures we'd like you to look at that we recovered from the Drift Rock." She says while standing by, obviously expecting Cueta to dothe dirty work of freeing the professor.
The word following vomit spewing from Dr. Solstrani makes Astrianna actualy stop for a moment, and she looks down at her comm to type out a note, pegging it to this timestamp on her recording. Subtitles.
She looks back up at the mention of Tahomen. "Ahhh... actually, where is Tahomen? We haven't dealt with him yet. He's on our s$&% list, and you saw what happens to people on our s+$% list." Pointing towards the wooden doors, the half-elf takes a wild guess. "I'm assuming he's hunkered down somewhere in this temple trying to create a black hole or something? We heard he was attempting to create some kind of... doomsday weapon? Do you know anything about that?" Astrianna taps a few bbuttons and zooms in on Solstrani's sweaty face as she anticipates a dramatic answer to her question.