As Retzack removes various barriers he accidentally rips out a large power conduit leading to a control console. This causes a cascading failure that completely disables the central shuttle transport system.
Fortunately, soon after you realize that you've earned yourselves a nice long walk through unfamiliar, hostile territory, lights on the floor begin flicking in an unmistakeable come-hither pattern.
You move into a side corridor and begin moving quickly towards the front of the ship. Your feet clang rhythmically against the metal floor and soon you realize that the rhythm is picked up by the sound of a hundred smaller feet clanging very near by. 2BR, this sound is intimately familiar. From a side corridor, two dozen small, bug like robots pour out in front of you. They chitter menacingly, and spread across the corridor, and up the walls, and onto the ceiling as they rush towards you. It is immediately apparent that these things are working together, and have dedicated a portion of their number to each of you.
What does everyone but Sona do?
Sona, as you skillfully manipulate the ship's systems to guide your companions, you fail to notice a bright blue orb descending right towards you. It is mere moments from engulfing your head in a bright light.
What do you do?
Running around like a decapitated cockatrice was getting Dexter nowhere, so he changed tactics. after making his way back to the location of the skirmish. He picks up the biggest uniform, and puts it on over his exosuit (taking off the helmet entirely, and putting it in his FTS bag.
Then, he heads for a guarded section, lone guard, and starts giving terse orders "Straight from Melphits". He orders the man to take him to the prisoners, right now, because they need to be prepped for transit. No radio contact, our frequencies have been compromised. it works, briefly. the man goes to a nearby arming station, to change to assault loadout. then the radio informs everyone about Melphit's death, and unfortunately, he doesn't buy Dexters "we are broadcasting misinformation on compromised frequencies" BS, so it looks like a fight.
Dexter strikes first, as usual, driving the battlemaster's spear into the soldier, drawing a rush of blood, and taking a in the process.
No way in hell the suit trick will work again, so he sheds it, and goes back to plan A (see also, leg it!). and it works, somewhat, he sees signs for the brig up ahead. the bad news is, he's being pursued by a small group of guards, and is cut off from his allies.
After repairing his BoT's injuries by injecting the nano-machines directly into his biofeedback harness, Jamee makes his robot snap his fingers in a remembering gesture.
"That beamsword I took off Captain Huxton! I still have it!" relieved that he actually still has a weapon on him after his Vibrospear was taken, the elf boy taps his own thigh wearing his control gloves, and on the RAB, a compartment opens up to reveal the beamsword inside.
He pulls it out just as the party is attacked by a swarm of bug-robots! He had doubts as to how effective it would be, but he brandished the sword anyway, thankful to have something instead of nothing.
(RAE is still "healing")
They haven't secured the package yet. 1 need to say online.
Sona turns on her heel, heading toward a crowd. Throwing out her hand, she sends out a thread-like whip to encircle a nearby dancer's neck, trying to direct the packet into the blue ICE.
Running around like a decapitated cockatrice was getting Dexter nowhere, so he changed tactics. after making his way back to the location of the skirmish. He picks up the biggest uniform, and puts it on over his exosuit (taking off the helmet entirely, and putting it in his FTS bag.
Dexter takes out his plasma pistol, and starts gunning down the bugbots (The plasma bolts themselves won't do much, but the EMP created as by the field that holds the bolts together will do damage), he takes the front,
Dexter moves to the front, trying to get clear shots into the mass, but it means he will take the brunt of the bug's assault
How much do healing potions heal? I definitely deserve one of those.
Other than that, 2BR takes one look at the swarming, armor piercing, exploding minibots and cowers in fear behind Sona.
Well, cowering in fear in front of Sona, actually.
The malfunctioning tether harpoon attached to Muffet.ms arcs with electricity as she crawls out of one of 2BR's vents. She can't launch it, but she can certainly use it to discourage melee attacks.
Completely forgot where Sona was. Whoops! My time-honored tactic of "sit in front of the squishy and eat bullets" has been thwarted. Oh well.
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As Retzack pulls the wonderful scarf from Melphits' cold, dead hands, Dexter approaches him with the idea of a trade, and the two exchange goods.
Retzack, felling as though he has regained some of his lost powers, stares down at the elf's body. "Such a waste," he says, obviously talking about the dead elf and not anything else.
No one sees the mote of dust that travels from goblin to the corpse.
Retzack couldn't say he was really surprised when the bots showed up. Automated defences can prove so tiresome. "You are like the nails that continue to grow after the body is long buried," he says to the bots, standing stoically in the face of their appearance. "Though no longer needed, you continue to perform your duty, after the body has expired, not unlike a zombie, animated by a long-dead will."
As though his words were given form, Melphits emerges from the shadows, looking hale and hardy. Indeed, it could be said that he his keen gaze and robust figure appear to be in better health than he had an hour hence. The puncture marks along his neck are barely even noticeable.
Melphits stands next to Retzack and holds his hands up. "Halt thy attack, bots! These persons are my guests here, and you are going against orders by attacking them! I have promised them safe passage in exchange for surrender, and you place the whole of the ship at risk now!
Stand down, and await further orders!"
The pair stand shoulder-to-shoulder, showing no fear in the face of danger, as if they've been comrades in arms all their lives.
Which is true. From a certain point of view.
After repairing his BoT's injuries by injecting the nano-machines directly into his biofeedback harness, Jamee makes his robot snap his fingers in a remembering gesture.
"That beamsword I took off Captain Huxton! I still have it!" relieved that he actually still has a weapon on him after his Vibrospear was taken, the elf boy taps his own thigh wearing his control gloves, and on the RAB, a compartment opens up to reveal the beamsword inside.
He pulls it out just as the party is attacked by a swarm of bug-robots! He had doubts as to how effective it would be, but he brandished the sword anyway, thankful to have something instead of nothing.
[dice=Attack!]2d6+0
[dice=Damage]1d8 (RAE is still "healing")
BoT and Dexter, you slice and shoot down the first dozen spiders as they approach, but then the swarm is truly on you. Despite your valiant efforts, the swarming bugs begin to latch onto each of you. Plasma drills begin whirring ominously as you attempt to shake them off.
2BR and Miss Muffet charge into the fray to come to BoT and Dexter's aid.
Retzack, the spiders that have ignored your comrades and are approaching you along the ceiling slow down at Melphits' words. They gather in a bunch above you before dropping to the ground in a circle around you. One of the spiders stands on its hind legs and inspects you with a set of eight glowing red eyes. It sways back and forth as if considering your words while the others chitter excitedly.
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Sona, you disappear gracefully into the milling crowd as the light dashes back and forth over the area you were a moment ago. You sense the web tightening, but are otherwise unaffected.
What do you do?
Spend 1: Halving the effect by tearing them off and tossing them aside.
Can I spend another hold to grant +1 to Defy Danger? Narratively the same.
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Things were just starting to get intense for Sona. The music in the disgustingly ostentatious operating paradigm had transitioned into a tense violin movement. Dancers throughout the floor were being formatted into tracers, wandering the floor and looking for signs of the intruder.
From across the floor, Sona sees the familiar cluster of mobile dancers representing the command structure of the robot swarm. Her allies would be in danger again, and they haven't reached the brig yet.
Sona needed a system to aid her allies with, something untended and outside the security systems, so she pulled up a ship directory in the form of a playbill or hand-written menu, and looked for something suitably destructive.
There was one node left untended physically nearby her allies. It wasn't going to be terribly effective, and worst of all, it was at least as humiliating as this ornate dance hall, but working within limited means was Sona's MO. It was time to double-down on this matryoshka doll of infiltration. Daerol was going to be so pissed he missed this.
With a shearing of metal and a shower of sparks as cables pull themselves from the deck's ceiling, one of the Heirophant's private "masseuse" apertures tears itself out of its private room and begins barreling down the corridor, a mass of disembodied, plastiflesh-covered pistons and arcing sparks. Through it all, the machine emits an extended track of moans and affirmations.
Jumping from 2BR's shoulder, Miss Muffet dives into a cluster of swarming robots, knocking aside mandables and driving hot wires into their joints to hinder their efficient evisceration of the biological crewmates.
Dexter's limbs jerk violently as the bug-bots try to latch on, sending some of the bug bots flying. He grabs those who try to remain on making efforts to crush them with his robotic arm, before flinging them to join their comrades. He takes a few plasma drills to the [anatomy], blighters hurt!
After he is clear, Dexter will start trying to clear BoT (Normally, it would be comrades first, but as he is an avatar, organics first.) and activates his (sona's) lightsabre Phase Blade, ready to strike the bugs if they try to approach again
Even with Dexter's attempts to aid him, BoT is rapidly becoming overwhelmed. In his command chair back at the ship, Jamee is pelted on all sides by alarm klaxons blaring at him.
A particularly significant number of them are focusing their plasma drills on the back of the RAB's chassis and on the head. With a growl of rage, Jamee flips on the jetpack's thrusters and rams his own body into the ceiling! Hopefully, a few of the blasted things are crushed in the process.
Even with Dexter's attempts to aid him, BoT is rapidly becoming overwhelmed. In his command chair back at the ship, Jamee is pelted on all sides by alarm klaxons blaring at him.
A particularly significant number of them are focusing their plasma drills on the back of the RAB's chassis and on the head. With a growl of rage, Jamee flips on the jetpack's thrusters and rams his own body into the ceiling! Hopefully, a few of the blasted things are crushed in the process.
[dice=Unsure of which stat to use]2d6
2BR crashes forward as the spiderbots begin to latch onto Dexter and BoT. Like a robotic elephant of death, 2BR has not forgotten these things. He bats left and right with his remaining clawed hand, sending the bots sprawling into sparking heaps. From 2BR's shoulder, Miss Muffet leaps into the fray, like a soldering angel of death.
Inspired by 2BR, Dexter begins smashing spiderbots to pieces, and joins 2BR in ripping them off BoT before drawing his phase blade.
The bots are temporarily pushed back by this combined effort, and then stop in their tracks when Melphits addresses them. They are clearly confused, attempting to determine whether Melphits has authority to stop them. The hesitation comes to an end as an animated massage table bursts out of a nearby room and begins flailing at the creatures. Discretion is the better part of valor for robots as well as organics, and the bots flee down a side corridor.
Silence falls over the corridor as the party continues in the direction Sona indicated.
With a protracted wail of ecstasy, the massage table continues to hunt the swarm of defense bots. Meanwhile, inside the system, protocols are quickly coming to the alarming conclusion of exactly what fresh nightmare has been unleashed through the ship's corridors.
Drained, and truly distracted (having fed two autonomous units considerable portions of her native processor) Sona drags herself away from the access node. She can't track the whole system anymore. The dancers were becoming increasingly hostile, but her allies still hadn't found the target. For now, Sona does what she can to hide.
Miss Muffet hops down and considers the two automatons before her. The one, belligerently opposed to her doing her job, but utterly dependent on said help for continued operation. The other, a sleek, custom model with a proven regard for the care of "mere robots". Begrudgingly, she taps back over to BunkRBustR to find a relatively safe place to hide.
I'm pretty sure I recovered my jetpack! It's my most valued piece of equipment - I don't strictly remember getting separated from it. If I did, I will just slam my body against a nearby wall instead of the ceiling.
If he succeeds, he intends to strip off his backpack jetpack, attach it to the rear of the elf's armor, and activate its full output thrusters externally - thereby controlling the mage by sending him on a chaotic and uncontrollable flight until he collides with a bulkhead.
Should I roll something for that? :)
The Mage bounces once off the ceiling before spiraling out into the main corridor and turning towards the front of the ship. The barrage of elven curses suggest that he is clearly out of control. You find yourself on the ground near Dexter's melee.
What do you do?
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When you search for the prisoners on the Hierophant, describe how you search and roll +STAT (STR, DEX etc. as fictionally justified).
On a 6-, the GM will tell you what happens
On a 7-9, gain 1 hold and expose yourself to the dangers of the Hierophant.
On a 10+, gain 1 hold or gain 2 hold and expose yourself to the dangers of the Hierophant.At any time the party may spend 1 hold to come across a valuable location. This may contain a cache of valuables or resources, provide safe harbor, etc. Describe the area.
At any time the party may spend 3 hold to find the prisoners.
Retzack dusts himself off, re-poofs up his sleeves, and waxes musingly as the robots clear off in confusion and chaos. "Well now, that was invigorating! If we can be concluded with the phase of our adventure wherein we solve all problems by punching them, perhaps our new-found friend here can cut the Gordian Knot in twian...as i'twere.
Melphits, my bestest buddy! What know you of the prisoners contained herein?"
Oh crapola, I had used my jetpack as an offensive tool previously! whoops, totally had forgotten about it. Guess that's gone! I'll be slamming my body against the walls to crush the robots instead.
Melphits leads you away from the destroyed spiderbots down a dose corridor that heads to the outer hull. He stands before a locked door and takes a moment to center himself, as if it is difficult to speak. We kept prisoners near the hull so we could vent them if they caused trouble. He punches in a code and the door opens. There is a second hatch on the other side about 20 feet from the entrance. He motions you through (and thanks to a 6-) you proceed. Once you are all through, he steps in after you and punches in another code that seals the door behind him.
The zombie contorts his face in a mask of pain. We are abominations! He slams his hand on the control panel and the opposite hatch begins to open to reveal the purple glow of riftspace. Air begins flowing out, and it becomes difficult to keep your balance.
What do you all do?
2BR allows himself to be pulled closer to the hatch, ready to catch anyone who slips.
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"NO! You are NOT allowed free will! You are NOT allowed to self-terminate!! You will OBEY! You will enter the code to close the exterior hatch and let us out of this death trap
Retzack screws up his face in concentration and consternation. He forces the whole of his will to make the high-thinking, unliving Melphits obey his commands, as he was made to do.
Never trust a zombie, never trust an f@&!ing undead! Dexter thinks as Melphits betrays them. In the moments before the airflow gets to be too much, he seals the exosuit he is wearing, and grabs a mag-anchor and cable from his FTS bag , and jams the anchor to the wall, holding on with his organic hand.
and then sweeps Melphits legs out from under them, and follows up with the cyborg-fist to his chest, sending him flying towards the airlock.
Sona begins to push herself out into connected devices and logging back in, trying to obfuscate her physical location as the ballroom becomes more tracer packets than instruction.
As she begins to daisychain her signal through so many tiny disparate repeaters, it occurs to her that, had she not burnt out her processing partitioner, bringing the massage table to life, she might have been able to slave her body to her processor through the net. Slave Sona would have been a bit dim, but at least she'd be sure her body was safe. She'd have to continue counting on Thorne.
The train of thought hits a wall and careens off a cliff when Sona goes to log back into the network and finds the device she's in has a non-standard network interface architecture, and utterly lacks a data modulator. It only receives data. She's reached a dead end.
Not one to waste time panicking, she sets about getting familiar with the I/O ports of the device she'll be inhabiting until she decides to jack out.
Inputs seem to be feeding the processor with vitals: heart rate, blood oxidation, nutrient levels... the only technical data Sona refuses to understand. Outputs appear to be hot wires for inducing things like pain, pleasure, sedation, as well as a small suite of kill switches for neurotoxins and a combustion module.
She's in a prisoner's monitoring collar.
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Retzack screams in primordial rage and let's slip the flimsy bonds of humanity. Determined that his immortal existence will -not- be ended by so base a death cube as this, he extends the claws along his nails and tears into the joint where the base of the door meets the wall, scraping in to the metal, unheeding the cry of the metal as his hands lay waste to all they meet.
Somewhere not far from the chaos in the airlock:
A small female goblin sits in a holding cell. She appears despondent, and at rare intervals will raise her hand as if trying to cast a spell. Each time so does so, she yelps in pain, and reflexively puts her hands up to a thick collar before settling back against the wall. She sighs deeply and continues crying.
The camera pans in on the status lights of the controller, which begin flashing oddly for a few moments.
Sona, what do you do?
In the chaos of the airlock:
2BR gracefully falls back towards the open hatch and locks his magnetic leg clamps onto the walls. Yet, despite his size, he cannot completely block the exit. Air continues to blow out of the airlock around his sides.
Retzack and Dexter manage to hold on for dear life, before turning their focus onto Melphits.
As the vampire engages in a futile attempt to regain control over his pet, Dexter attempts to kill it. Unfortunately, Dexter's failed attack gives Melphits an opportunity to disengage the mag-anchor.
Both Dexter and Melphits fall towards 2BR and the airlock exit. 2BR, you have one arm, who do you catch at the very last minute?
Fiiiine I'll grab Dexter. You owe me one.
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//Something just happened. Looks like a sensor triggered the shock system.
C:\> sudo
'sudo' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\>su root
'su' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
//Is this not linux?
C:\>enable
'enable' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\>conf t
'conf' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
//What's kernel is this?
C:\>ping 4.2.2.2
Pinging 4.2.2.2 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 4.2.2.2:
Packets: Sent = 4, Recieved = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),
//Who runs Windows anymore? Plebs.
C:\>driverquery
Module Name Display Name Driver Type Link Date
====================================================
MThrm Medtech heartrate monitor Kernel 5/20/8845
ΘSaps Θ astral positioning suite Kernel 5/20/8845
***md ***** ** ***** ******* Kernel 99/99/9999
shock LiveWire pain actuator Kernel 5/20/8845
[...]
//Yeah, that's not suspicious at all, Association of Silence.
C:\>sc stop AoSmd
SERVICE_NAME: AoSmd
TYPE : 20 WIN128_SHARE_PROCESS
STATE : 3 STOP_PENDING
WIN128_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
CHECKPOINT : 0x0
WAIT_HINT : 0x0
C:\>
F$@~ing peice of s#$# anchor, f*%&ing zombie, f+&&ing Retzack Dexter thinks as he is sent spiraling toward the cold vacuum of space. he reaches out to 2BR with his cyborg-arm, steel to steel
he catches fairly, but the cyber-arm's socket wasn't meant to hold that much weight (already moving at 2 g's by the time he and 2BR meet). his arm is broken, and useless until he/Sona can repair it
Thanks friend He says to 2BR as his feet touch back on ships surface Now, what do you say we punch back in there, and massacre these f#*+ers?
"Affirmative", says 2BR, and launches Dexter back towards the control panel.
2BR deftly grabs Dexter as Melphits spins off into the rift void.
With ease, the killbot flicks Dexter back towards the control panel as the flow of air begins to lesson. With precise aim, Dexter has little problem shutting the outer door and beginning the pressurization process.
Soon, the inner hatch opens and you are free to continue on towards the brig. Within a few moments, Retzack turns a corner to see a guard station between your group and the cells.
As you count the five men standing guard, far down the central corridor one of the cell doors explodes outward. The guards all turn to face this unexpected sound.
What do you all do?
Meanwhile ...
In a lonely cell not far away, a diminutive goblin girl stops sobbing, and reaches her hand out again. A blue orb of light appears and the girl starts. A wicked smile plays across her lips as she stands. Defiance burns within her eyes.
Sona, your new sensors indicate a huge temperature increase towards the front of the collar, combined with a powerful shockwave. Something just exploded. The internal gyro picks up the unmistakeable pattern of footsteps, and suddenly the kill switch is activated.
What do you do?
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With the sudden appearance of five tasty guards, and an unexpected explosion of fire and violence, this seems like the kind of thing that is met by Retzack with a flurry of fury and lust and more fury.
Instead the vampire stands despondently, his hung low. "Someone, else...can...think of...."
He lunges heavily against a wall, and seems to melt down it.
"...something."
Okay, so that was effective, maybe I should talk with the Murderbot, he's good. anyway, 5 guards, 3 of us, and honestly, retzy seems to be having problems Okay, get him out of the line of fire, and line them up for 2BR..
He leaps out, away from the wall, into a roll, only coming up long enough to sink a few plasma charges into the control panels, forcing the guards to leave cover, leaving them very open to 2BR's barrage.
of course, this seals the door , but that is a problem for when Retzy's fit is over, and these guards are mangled corpses. I grab Retzy, and half drag, half carry him around a corner, away from the line of fire.
Are you okay? what's going on? I ask, kneeling beside him.
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Retzack allows himself to be dragged like a ragdoll. Looking up at the Survivor, he says, "Eh? My belly is empty, and I used all but the last of my sanguine power on that folly of an elf!
I...I can not single-handedly rush those mortals for fear of their primitive weapons!
Even now...the hunger begins to press against my ears, and I hear it's far off cry like the war drums of an orcish horde, just behind the hills of your little fishing village, and your brother and his score of friends can not help you, his face will be eaten and the arms of your father shorn off and you will abandon them and try to run but HE...he will find you and, and, and for days and days no one will stop him and he will...."
Retzack looks up. "Unless...you volunteer?"
The vamipres eyes leave Dexter's own gaze and slide down...until they stop at his neck, watching the bulging pulse of his carotid artery.