Molly gives out a gasp as Fifteen is struck, but knowing the surest way to protect her is to the end the threat, she continues to fire and ignores the shaking in her hands.
Fifteen looks down for a moment at the hole that is appearing in her stomach and then carries on attacking. "Your destruction is the most efficient outcome." She informs the creature.
"That's terrible, but we are not going to die without fighting back Fireday" Holg swings his blade beaten up by the listlessness and ennui feelings.
With another furious assault, the strange colour evaporates into nothingness!
Exploring the rest of the cave uncovers the color-drained body of a half-orc man that crumbles to dust when touched. Among his remains are 3 potions of cure moderate wounds, 2 potions of cure serious wounds, a wand of displacement (10 charges), a +3 chain shirt, a +2 spell-storing longsword (currently empty), a leather pouch containing a dozen amethysts worth 100 gp each and 10 batteries. In addition, a timeworn robojack (4 charges) sits at his side.
Molly's focus is on Fifteen's welfare and hovers around the android like a tiny mother-hen until healing for her girlfriend is provided.
"I am perfectly functional." Fifteen attempts to reassure her girlfriend. "I have lost only 17.4% of my skin and no major organs. The pain is tolerable and will not prevent my fighting. There is no need to worry. Death will not occur for at least sixty two hours if left untreated, assuming no further injury."
As the color evaporates, Fireday shakes his head.
"What happened? It's as if a fog has lifted from my head and my eyes! Was that thing the source of the taint here?"
His tone sounds much more engaged and alert than it was during the fight.
"Perhaps... it operates in a way that our minds have difficulty understanding," says Viv. "Perhaps it 'feeds' somehow on psychic energy. Regardless. We've seen other bodies... this might not be the only one."
"It felt horrible...like Iomedae's light was growing further and further away with each step I took forward. How could my faith have not been strong enough to resist it?"
"I am perfectly functional." Fifteen attempts to reassure her girlfriend. "I have lost only 17.4% of my skin and no major organs. The pain is tolerable and will not prevent my fighting. There is no need to worry. Death will not occur for at least sixty two hours if left untreated, assuming no further injury."
Strangely enough, Fifteen's assurances don't seem to relieve the halfling of her concern.
"Can we get some healing over here?" the woman demands.
"Oh, right! Sorry, Molly!" Fireday replies as he rushes over, hastily pulling out his wand.
"Thank you." Fifteen says once healing has been applied. "My nanites were not able to achieve a repair rate to offset the damage done."
She crouches down and takes Molly into a hug. "I am well. Don't worry."
"Thank you," Molly also thanks Fireday. "I'm sorry I was a little ... demanding. I just start to freak out a little when she gets hurt," she says, the flush on her face emphasizing the splash of freckles across her cheeks.
"It's gone?" Holg looks around making sure the thing is not there anymore.
Examining the spell-storing longsword he comments "If someone is interested, I could store some spells in there for your use"
"Let's see what else is here..." once everyone is healed Holg directs himself to the southern side of the caverns "It seems there are more caves here"
The last cave contains an empty spiders’ nest, the oversized arachnids having long ago fallen victim to the colour out of space. The restless spirit of another of its victims haunts the place too, but you quickly overcome its attack and put it to rest.
It seems you have finished exploring this area of the Scar of the Spider. Your next stop will be the dropship of the Dominion of the Black, on the way to their alien hive!
"Thank you," Molly also thanks Fireday. "I'm sorry I was a little ... demanding. I just start to freak out a little when she gets hurt," she says, the flush on her face emphasizing the splash of freckles across her cheeks.
"No apology necessary, Molly. That you care so deeply for your fiancee's safety speaks well of your honor and integrity."
After putting down the spirits, Fireday makes the sign of the sword.
"Lady of Valor, guide these wayward souls safely to Pharasma's judgment seat. So let it be."
After resting overnight once more in Paetyr's grove, you make your way towards the western reaches of the Scar of the Spider. Soon, you approach the remains of the Dominion of the Black's dropship. The enormous hulk rots in the sun, the vile odor aggressively assaulting the air around it. The thing is over four hundred feet long, its bulbous body rising half that height into the sky. Vast folds of rugose fat, coils of thick mottled tentacles, greasy bulbs and slippery knobs, spiny ridges, and stranger organs lie sprawled in every direction. Patches of red fungus grow in the shady nooks on the thing, but in most places its hide is reminiscent of an elephant’s coarse skin, with patches of shiny octagonal scales and tufts of wiry hair-like growths. Pustules are scattered on its leathery surface, some of which have burst, oozing a viscous yellow-green liquid. The water around it is stained and foul, and no plant life grows within a few hundred feet of the remains.
Viv pauses some distance from the dropship.
"Is this a machine or an organism? I can't tell."
"I guess organisms are machines," she then comments to herself.
"Or I am a machine that thinks it is an organism."
"Whatever it is, it is horrible."
"Oh, gods, that smell!" Molly exclaims, one hand holding her nose with the other holding her musket. "Shouldn't that smell have gone away by now?"
A look of horror crosses her face.
"Please tell me that we're not going ... inside it?"
Before sleeping Holg provides healing for all the party, then meets with Viv for another night of passion together.
On the morning he prays for his divine magic and eats carrots and apples.
SPELLS
CL 11 (CL 12 with cold spells), Concentration +14 (+15 with cold spells)
Orisons (4)
light
divine guidance
mending
detect magic
Level 1 (6/day + 1 pearl of power)
true strike - D
bless
2x shield of faith
remove fear
remove sickness
Level 2 (6/day + 1 pearl of power)
bull's strength - D
surmount affliction
supress charms and compulsions
defending bone
delay poison
tears to wine (10 min/level, +5 Int/Wis skill checks)
Level 3 (6/day)
magic vestment - D (+2)
channel vigor
resist energy communal (10 min/level)
dispel magic
invisibility purge
+1 open slot
Level 4 (4/day)
divine power (+3)
air walk (10 min/level)
freedom of movement (10 min/level)
greater magic weapon (+2)
Level 5 (3/day)
flame strike
holy ice (+1 CL, component: holy water)
breath of life
Level 6 (2/day)
blade barrier (Ref 19)
cold ice strike (swift, CL +1, Ref 19)
The night's rest seems to have made good on Holg's mood. Back to his former self he laughs openly at the notice of the smell "This... well you have to check what a mine full of men and orcs smells like after a couple of months and this will be not that bad for you"
"I have to admit it is a rather intriguing sight... is it alive?" the Kellid searches around trying to find out if there is any entrance to the place.
"The smell is unpleasant." Fifteen agrees, adjusting the sensory input from her nasal cavities to deal with the situation. Seeing Molly in some distress she roots around in her pack and produces a piece of cloth which she tears into small pieces and rolls them up before handing them to the halfling. They smell pleasantly of spices when Molly puts them up her nose.
"I hope that helps." Fifteen offers, looking fondly down at her fiance.
Fireday barely manages to resist the strong stench.
"If it IS alive, it should probably be euthanized, Holg."
Searching around the exterior of the ruined dropship, you see an immense squamous stalk that ends in a foul-looking aperture, connected to a 5-foot-diameter tube beyond. The fleshy tunnel enters a damp chamber. The air inside is cloyingly warm, and bits of rotting meat glow softly, providing dim illumination. The moist floor is irregular, a deep green with grayish tumor-like growths scattered across the surface. It has the unsettling appearance of moist folds of skin within some grotesque beast’s mouth. To the west, the walls cinch down into a tangle of pink, dripping fibers that seem to mostly, although not entirely, block passage into an area beyond. The fibers are easy to smash through.
The smell of putrefaction in the adjoining chamber is overwhelming. The damp chamber itself appears empty, save for a tangle of ribbed gray cables—or arteries—that hang from rotting walls. Another fibrous tangle blocks a passage on the far side of the area.
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"This might be some kind of hybrid... partly organic, partly mechanical," says Viv. "We should make sure we do not become... digested in some chamber."
With a wave of her hand Viv pushes tendrils aside like parting a curtain with a giant's fist.
"I see. At least we can eat our way out if necessary" Holg prepares his greatsword and faithful defenses casting greater magic weapon, magic vestment, defensive bone, bull's strenght and shield of faith.
The Kellid follows Viv, placing a hand on her back softly and waiting to see what happens with her attempt to move the tendrils as a curtain.
If that does not work, he comes to help cutting the fibers passage to the west area.
Viv's telekinesis works to push the tendrils aside. The android hovers above the floor, but Holg stomps along behind her, and a few seconds after he enters the room, the entire floor ruptures! Beneath the floor is a foul pit filled with decay, razor-sharp chitinous projections from the rotting carcasses of hundreds of strange alien creatures, and blasts of pressurized air. This pustule explodes in a blast of gas and shrapnel!
"I hope that helps." Fifteen offers, looking fondly down at her fiance.
"I hobe so doo," Molly replies.
"I see. At least we can eat our way out if necessary"
The stoic halfling had been doing ok up until then. At Holg's words, though, her hand flies to her mouth and she turns away abruptly. A wet splattering sound follows as the contents of her stomach vacate their container explosively.
Fifteen shoots Holg with a very sour glare and turns around to crouch behind Molly and give her some privacy from the rest of the group.
"There, there. You will feel better shortly." She says quietly, trying to channel Khonnir when Val had a cold.
"There, there. You will feel better shortly." She says quietly, trying to channel Khonnir when Val had a cold.
"Gods, I hobe so," Molly replies wiping her mouth. "Dhanks, Love,"
~~~~
The halfling has her weapon in hand almost instantly, watching for any other threat as Holg teeters on the edge of the hazardous pit. When nothing else appears, she relaxes just slightly. Just enough in fact to now be angry.
"Are you delling me that dis fegging blace is gonna exblode every dime we dake a sdep?!" she snaps out.
Surprised and unwilling to lose his sword Holg fails to grasp the edge of the pit and falls to the bottom with a noisy crash.
Slowly the man stands up and recovers "What... was that? Oh well..." he casts air walk and climbs the air to reach out of the pit.
"Hehe, well, I guess that means we should mind our steps going forward" with a quick scan he assess the state of everyone and raises Gorum's holy symbol to patch some of the wounds "No worries, bleeding is a honor and we are rewarded with more healing"
"GAH!" Fireday cries when Holg causes the floor to erupt in their faces. "Inheritor preserve us!"
After Viv lifts Holg out of the pit, you continue on through the next fibrous curtain. The drooping ceiling of this elongated gallery rises thirty feet high in places but hangs down to only five feet from the ground in others, sagging like a partially collapsed tent made of rotting flesh. The air itself swirls with multiple motes of various colors of light—what at first seem to be fireflies but, upon closer inspection, appear to be more akin to floating jellyfish-like creatures.
Of more immediate concern, though, is the monstrous crablike creature that hovers in midair, its three clawed tentacles snapping aggressively. One tentacle grips a timeworn pistol!
"Flying gun-crab? How odd," says Viv, though that doesn't slow her down from a kinetically-amplified shard.
As Holg is lift to the side of Viv he approaches his face to her ear to whisper "Have I ever told you how sexy it feels your mind pulling me up?"
Before continuing on the Kellid asks for the air walking blessing "I do not want to have another surprise like that" he walks from there on 5 feet over the floor.
Holg is astonished at the sight of the creature "An otherwordly jellyfish sniper? This is getting more and more strange"
With an opponent in front of them, Molly is less concerned with her stomach as she takes careful aim at the strange creature.
Fifteen hurries forward, pulling out her swords as she goes and wishing that she was just a little bit faster, and good enough to block laser blasts...
Viv blasts the alien while Molly shoots it with four bullets. As Fifteen rushes towards it, it maneuvers to line up her and Molly and casts a spell, sending a bolt of lightning at both women!
Observing the powerful blast of electricity Holg walks in the air over the heads of his companions "Gorum protect your heralds from that blasted pistol!" touching everyone with communal resist energy.
Fifteen ducks the lightning bolt entirely and finishes closing the gap to lash out with her weapons.
Even with her reduced effectiveness, Molly easily dodges a large amount of the energy, reloads, and continues to fire.
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Viv flings another aetherically-propelled shard, smashing it through the crab creature's carapace with extreme force.
Fireday begins running towards the creature, staff in hand.
Viv and Molly blast and shoot the alien again, but its barbed carapace protects it from Fifteen's blade. It fires off another lightning bolt, unaware that Holg's spell has rendered that tactic all but useless.
Molly, again, dodges the worst of the effects and what she didn't dodge was absorbed by Holg's magic.
Using Rapid Shot adds one more best attack with -2 on all to-hit rolls.
Fifteen is caught by surprise but her innate reflexes and Holg's magic ensure that she doesn't suffer much. She sidesteps to break the line of the creature's electricity and starts attacking again.