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"Aw, for crying out loud, JUST because Ms. Trux appears to have had pizza for lunch doesn't mean she's a cultist!" Arcalinte replies. "Nevertheless, she would be able to make use of this information. We can drop off this cretin there, too. I imagine he's at least guilty of assault," he say, indicating the ghoul.
Arc picks up the ghoul soldier, you say your goodbyes to Gretal, and you head back out into the dark and grimy Splice streets. Carrying a bound undead attracts even more attention than just walking around. But unlike more lawful parts of the Pact World's, no one protests and no law enforcement shows up to have a stern chat.
You make it back to the Ministry in time to see Waneda about to close up for the day. When she sees you carrying a bound ghoul, she tilts her head and gives a small bemused smile. "This seems like it has an interesting story attached. Come in. Tell me what violence you've been up to over some hot cocoa. I'll charge the overtime to the Ambassador."
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"Do you have any tea, preferably any that's NOT Felheed? I tried some in a cafe on Castrovel and it was NOT a pleasant experience," Arcalinte says as he deposits the ghoul.
"We followed lead you showed us regarding Ms. Rapinder's flatmate, to find this scumbag and two of his friends assaulting Ms. Rapinder. They'd ripped off and broken her arms before we intervened. The other two were unfortunately killed in the resulting fight," he explains. "The lead turned out to be QUITE valuable. We found this..."
He shows her the pic-capture they'd found.
"We were able to use this to determine a location out in the wild, and it corroborated evidence we found at the Fleshworks that a marrowblight somehow snuck into the city and robbed the place of an entire shipment of their...product. We thought you might have more information about what we're going into. Who's this woman, 'Commander Vesh' the note says? Rapinder said she didn't recognize the name so we figure her rank isn't in the actual Eoxian military, just a bit of Corpse Fleet vanity. What kind of undead is she, what defenses should we prepare should it come to more violence?"
"Ooooh, fascinating." Waneda preps some earl grey tea from a tin marked "for inconsolable breathers only" and then passes Arc an ancient chipped mug of a fragrant tea. "So a marrowblight involved with the Corpse Fleet and a whole crew of their troublemakers, is it honey? Can't say I'm surprised. Those Marrowblights are a menace, entirely uncivilized and prone to hateful outbursts. Back when we had some living in Orphys, the other Ministries would often get complaints and incidents. Nowadays there aren't any marrowblights living in the city."
"As for Commander Vesh, we've heard that name before. A mid-rank Corpse Fleet member. They have their own heirarchy, you know, doll." She brings up a list of ranks on her datapad. "The name Vesh has been associated with Corpse Fleet activity in the Orphys area for years now, on and off. Never caught footage or firsthand accounts of the Commander though. Must be operating somewhere else, I've supposed."
"Stories say she's a Jiang-shi vampire. If you think you'll come across her, make sure to keep your soul in your body. Other than that, you're all the experts at violence, not me." She grins a sharp-toothed smile.
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A likely story... thinks Isu.
He starts to talk a little TOO loudly. "YES, WELL THEN, we shall just be on our way to smash them up with the holy light of Sarenrae. But before we go, this one and this one's fellow breathers need a bit to eat; pizza is our preferred victual. Tell me, what is the best pizza place in Orphys?" He tries to wink at Spectre.
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"Ooooh, fascinating." Waneda preps some earl grey tea from a tin marked "for inconsolable breathers only" and then passes Arc an ancient chipped mug of a fragrant tea. "So a marrowblight involved with the Corpse Fleet and a whole crew of their troublemakers, is it honey? Can't say I'm surprised. Those Marrowblights are a menace, entirely uncivilized and prone to hateful outbursts. Back when we had some living in Orphys, the other Ministries would often get complaints and incidents. Nowadays there aren't any marrowblights living in the city."
"As for Commander Vesh, we've heard that name before. A mid-rank Corpse Fleet member. They have their own heirarchy, you know, doll." She brings up a list of ranks on her datapad. "The name Vesh has been associated with Corpse Fleet activity in the Orphys area for years now, on and off. Never caught footage or firsthand accounts of the Commander though. Must be operating somewhere else, I've supposed."
"Stories say she's a Jiang-shi vampire. If you think you'll come across her, make sure to keep your soul in your body. Other than that, you're all the experts at violence, not me." She grins a sharp-toothed smile.
Arcalinte sips his tea and reads the information Waneda gives them, trying to not look too put off by her fascination with violence.
"Why 'inconsolable,' Ms. Trux?" he asks by way of making conversation.
"You wouldn't happen to have any suggestions on the 'keeping our souls in our bodies' front? Several of our encounters with Corpse Fleet agents were pretty close calls, and we want to be prepared. 'Foreknowledge is both armor and sword,' as Sola Sverdan Tolama Noyd would say. He liked to prove it with surprise attacks on us students to keep us on our toes."
When Isu and Spectre begin asking about pizza and diminutives, he groans and facepalms.
"Please ignore them, Ms. Trux. My friends here have read too many infosphere conspiracy theories."
To Isu and Spectre, Waneda answers "Afraid you won't find any pizza around here, dolls. Undead don't have much need to eat and only do so for fun. And people around the Splice aren't rich enough for fun. I hear Pact Port has some places though."
And to Arc, she grins "I've found those few living visitors I have are often quite distressed by one thing or another, and a pot of old tea is enough to get them calmed down. It might have some sedatives in there too. Nothing too strong of course." After he adds a more serious question, she shrugs "From what I know, Jiang-Shi can breathe in the souls of the living right out of your bodies. A risk of getting up close. Doesn't do much of anything to us undead though."
Waneda shrugs at Spectre's first question. "They're wherever their unlives took them, I suppose. Hmm, a survey of ex-species and where they prefer to move after their transition could make for quite the interesting research topic..."
"As for transport, the Ministry could let you borrow a pair of exploration buggies. Back when the place was a bit better staffed, I hear they were used to investigate complaints and cases on the outskirts of Orphys. They've been gathering dust for quite a while now though."
Unperturbed by Isu's comments, Waneda gives your team keys to a pair of exploration buggies that are stored in a hangar at the outskirts of Orphys. She wishes you luck with your investigation, mentioning that corpses and captives is all the same for her - just so long as you come back with detailed first hand experiences for her to write down. She wishes you luck and shoos you out of the Ministry so she can lock it down for the day.
After you're done with any final bit of shopping, you head out to the eastern gate of Orphys - a massive door in the wall surrounding the city proper that includes both an airlock and radiation shielding. The bone troopers at the gates got notice from Waneda to let you through, so they winch the door open far enough to let you out. They stare their burning eye sockets at you with a morbid curiosity, seemingly fully expecting you to die out there.
As the door seals behind you, you see the hangar you're supposed to pick the vehicles up from in the distance. However, before you get there, you're intercepted by a two individuals in bulky space suits. They amble toward you with a jerky step. Their face plates are dark - you can't see what they look like.
"What a mistake." Your comms come to life as one of the individuals addresses you. "A mistake." The other echoes. "The ambassador can't help you here." They start towards you.
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----
|||| INIT ||||
Isu
Arc
Spectre
Sydney
Ted
??? Undead x2
Bold are up
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Isu smiles at the approach of two hostiles and flicks the power switch on his hammer. Whaaaa-waaa-waaa-waaaaaaa.....
"You should not delay us. This is the paramagnetic version. PARAMAGNETIC!"
The hammer is fully charged by the time Isu jogs forward 35 feet and swings at the enemy.
But he misses badly.
Sydney tumbles across the cratered rock ground and fires a tricky shot at blue as well.
Unfortunately, she stumbles just enough to send the laser bolt flying over the space-suited undead's shoulder.
Ted fires a rain of magic missiles at blue as well, bludgeoning the creature enough to cause it to take a step back.
----
-
The red undead swivels to Isu and begins pummeling him with its weighty limbs. While its first blow is easily fended off, it lands a vicious uppercut with its second! Isu's electric field shocks it in response.
The blue undead rushes towards Arc, swinging a wild haymaker and landing a heavy blow to his shoulder.
Both Arc and Isu feel a swell of vertigo as gravity seems to fluctuate around the two undead they're fighting. However, the natural gravity of Eox is strong enough that the fluctuations are little more than tugs in strange directions, and the effect doesn't interfere with combat. On the other hand, both Arc and Isu ALSO feel a pressure upon their lungs...
Arc feels the crushing pressure try to squeeze his chest, and the strain wears at him despite his endurance.
|||| INIT ||||
Isu (25 dmg)
Arc (8 dmg)
Spectre
Sydney
Ted
Blue ??? Undead (20 dmg)
Red ??? Undead (1 dmg)
Bold are up
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Fascinating, Arcalinte thinks as he feels the strange surges of gravity in the presence of the undead. It's almost like the graviton-manipulation I learned, but for them it's unconscious and instinctive. My own training is more than enough to resist it.
He's then rudely reminded of the fight they're in as he's walloped and constricted, and retaliates by drawing his own curve blade and taking a swing at the enemy.
Ted fires another wave of magic missiles at blue, trying to bring it down quickly in tandem with his allies.
Sydney rolls backwards and fires another quick shot from her corona laser pistol.
But the ray skims off the side of the creature's suit and scorches a rocky outcropping in the distance.
---
The red undead slams into Isu over and over, and while his armor deflects one swing, the other lands hard . The blue undead decides fighting Arc is a dangerous game and slips away from him ...
...but it gets only a few steps away before the solarian cuts it down!
|||| INIT ||||
Isu (35 dmg)
Arc (8 dmg)
Spectre
Sydney
Ted
Red ??? Undead (6 dmg)
Bold are up
|||| INIT ||||
Isu (35 dmg)
Arc (8 dmg)
Spectre
Sydney
Ted
Red ??? Undead (17 dmg)
Bold are up
Syd stays in place and sends a laser bolt right into the undead creature's face, blasting away the remnants of the spacesuit helmet and revealing a burnt husk of a withered head. The mouth remains open in a scream, but it now sports a laser-bolt shaped hole in the back of its neck.
---
|||| INIT ||||
Isu (35 dmg)
Arc (19 dmg)
Spectre
Sydney
Ted
Red ??? Undead (40 dmg)
Bold are up
Sydney dashes left and towards her target. Her right foot steps on a flat rock and she pushes off to reach a new height, firing at the peak of her leap.
As Isu finally gets into the groove of his new weapon, delivering a pair of powerful sparking blows as Sydney sends another shot clean into the undead creature's chest. With shattered arms and head and a burning hole in its chest, the undead assailant finally falls.
Combat Over!
>Payment for this mission. Rest comes upon identification of their corpses.<
A digital signature for 2000 credits is attached to the email on both comms devices.
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With the undead ambush out of the way, you're able to head to the buggy hangar and find the two explorer buggies that Waneda gave you the keys for. The rest of the hangar is largely empty, clearly not many people need transport out into the wastes of Eox. You fire up the buggies and drive them out into the Eoxian "wilderness".
Once you're situated in the buggies, you fire them up and head out after the coordinates that Spectre uncovered. The stretch of terrain you drive over is disconcerting and difficult to traverse even in the rugged buggies, with strange rock formations, deep twisting gullies, and massive fields of bleached bones jutting up from the dusty soil. You pass open fields containing the skeletons of enormous creatures that must have once roamed the surface in large herds, as well as deep pits filled with the skeletal remains of hundreds of humanoids.
At one point on the journey you drive through an imposing canyon with sheer cliff walls that are embedded with the skeletal remains of what must be thousands or tens of thousands of deceased Eoxians - the remnant of one of Eox's cataclysmic wars prior to the end of the Gap. The skeletal remnants are frozen, intertwined with one another as the whole mass on either side of the canyon reach in towards... something. Safety? Salvation from whatever weapon was used on them? It's not clear. Either way, its a macabre sight to have to drive through.
You make it out of the canyon safe (if a little mentally scarred) and drive another half hour before you start to get close to the coordinates. You drive over a rise and see a hovel of some kind off in the distance. As you get closer, you notice the structure is exactly that grisly hut from the photo. The bizarre hovel appears to be made from stretched, cured skin wrapped around a frame of massive bones
From a distance, you can see that the hut is surrounded by a field of scarecrows of a sort - flayed skins and flesh sculptures arrayed across metal poles and intertwined with thin, pliable bones. The entire array looks like mix between art installation and nightmare, but also strangely looks like a garden. Thin, pliable bones weave intricate patterns in clumps that might otherwise be living bushes, and flutes of skin and cartilage might be mistaken for flowers were it not for the disturbing shapes and absence of brilliant colors. There's even a hip-high fence of yellowed bone around the whole place, with sheets of cartilage serving to tie the whole fence together.
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"Quiet. Too quiet. No one move. Stay down. Don't make a silhouette of yourself."
Isu finds a decent area to lie down and sets his sniper rifle up with a tripod. He scans back and forth across the camp, looking for any sign of movement. He is patient, but... can't control what his impatient teammates might do.
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Spectre had spent most of the drive talking to Isu about how credits could help facilitate the spread of Sarenrae's light, as well as how they might infiltrate and take over the the halfling undead pizza cult.
"I find you to be the most intelligent member of this group--aside from me, of course," Spectre tells him.
Once they arrive, Spectre dismounts and begins to look around.
"A curious place--I will see if my sensors pick up any life forms."
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Arcalinte lets Sydney drive, taking in the macabre scenery as they pass.
"This...this feels very similar to our journey on Castrovel, and yet very different. Once again, we literally walk through history, but where the Temple of the Twelve and the markers leading to it were slowly being reclaimed by the jungle, even as the Temple itself was a monument to life...this is a monument to death, standing forever untouched by time. No doubt if the Corpse Fleet find their way to the Gate of Twelve Suns, the rest of the Pact Worlds will shortly resemble this place."
As they approach the coordinates, and Isu begins setting up an ambush, Arcalinte obeys his command, dousing the light of his mote and getting low to the ground.
"I'm not going to be much use fighting at this range, Isu," he whispers. "But I can perhaps try to sneak closer. On your signal, of course, you're the tactician here."
Isu, Ted and Spectre all eye the fleshy hut and its macabre garden, but see no movement or life forms. As the minutes pass, the landscape remains perfectly still. It's not clear if there's any
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"This one can stay here on the scope if others want to scout the surrounding area. No one should try to engage alone, and don't proceed to the hut until all are agreed."
Isu puts his eyes back on his scope. He pays particular attention to the scarecrows...it would be just like the undead to pop to life just as they got close.