|
"Arc, most of us got pretty messed up today. You seem to have been infected twice. I can help with some of that tomorrow in the morning, but I can't take care of it all myself unless we stay here for at least two days. Can you ask the kish if they have any healers that might be able to work with me?" Jellico has little energy for diplomatic niceties. He'll leave that up to Arc.
|
Isu is hurt. "So.... SORRY.... Arcalinte Soter. This one thought the codes were for some doomsday device, not a door. This one wasn't paying attention." He says that with finality as if it excuses himself.
"No, the doomsday device's codes are in the Temple/Foundry itself. We hope," He pauses and then his expression changes to annoyed confusion. "Are you making fun of me, Isu?"
|
You can use Medicine to treat a creature suffering from a disease. This takes 10 minutes and requires a medkit, a medical lab, or a medical bay on a Starship. Every time the diseased creature attempts a saving throw against the disease, you can attempt a Medicine check. If your result exceeds the DC of the disease, the creature receives a +4 bonus to its saving throw against the disease.
Ted and his top spend some time examining the afflicted, "We should probably be wearing masks."
The advanced medkit adds more-advanced and specialized tools to diagnose and treat ailments. The advanced medkit can be used in the same way as a basic medkit, but the DC to treat deadly wounds is only 20, and you gain a +2 insight bonus to Medicine checks to treat drugs, diseases, and poisons. Additionally, you can use an advanced medkit to set up a temporary one-patient medical lab, though this requires 10 minutes. You can then provide long-term care to a single patient using the temporary medical lab, with a DC 30 Medicine check.
|
|
"We were wearing masks, Ted. Our suits have environmental protections. This stuff got in by attacking us," Arcalinte replies.
He gives a heavy sigh at Isu's words.
"For the Starfinders and Sarenrae," he replies. "I'm exhausted too. Hopefully the dawn will bring new light and the Dawnflower will lift our ailments."
---
Ted expertly treats the group, removing hundreds of little white filaments from people's bodies and feeding most of the party a generalized anti-rabies treatment that should bolster them against the infection. The following morning his efforts partly pay off. He wakes up feeling fairly healthy.
However, the same cannot be said for Arc. When he awakens, he immediately notices an unpleasant white furriness to his exposed skin and a dull, throbbing pain along with it. Tufts of white filaments have grown in overnight, wriggling slightly as he moves around. Pulling them free is relatively easy, but does little to abate the pain and discomfort.
------
As you start gathering your gear and getting ready to leave, Tzayl appears at your sleeping quarters with a bundle wrapped in furs. She touches her forehead in acknowledgement and then says "You are undertaking a dangerous task here. Should Xavra not be willing to listen to reason, I don't doubt that they will do everything they can in their power to destroy you all." She passes the bundle to Arc, who opens it up to find a pair of very fine furred boots and an extremely beautiful longbow. "These treasures have served my more recent ancestors well. Maybe they will do the same for you."
------
Parting ways with Tzayl, you head to the side entrance of the Foundry. The service entrance here is little more than a recessed ceramic panel roughly the size of a large door with an egg shaped ceramic terminal on its center. When you touch the interface, you hear no response other than a low buzz, similar to when other terminals the group has come across have been interacted with incorrectly. The behavior suggests that the egg-terminal needs a particular input to activate.
You spend a moment to search the terminal more carefully and find a tiny slot that may accept the security fob that you gained from the Archive.
Isu's magic settles on Arc and alleviates the sensation of burning nausea from the developing disease. Unfortunately, it does little for the small growing white tufts.
|
|
Arcalinte bows to Tzayl as she presents the gifts to them.
"We're honored, Tzayl. Thank you for your kindness and your hospitality."
As they travel, Arcalinte wobbles a bit from his ailments until Isu alleviates them.
"Thank you, Isu."
At Spectre's comment, he just shrugs.
"Perhaps. Maybe Xavra will kill me. Maybe a freak meteor will fall out of the clouds and smash me. We can't predict the future. All we can do is observe the Cycles that have passed and wonder at the ones to come. The Dawn Brings New Light."
The alleyway you're in that provides access to the service entrance features a large pile of ceramic detritus, possibly evidence of some other structure that once abutted the much more solidly build Foundry. You hear only the distant calls of kish from the front of the building, sounding off and reporting in. As Tzayl described, they appear particularly agitated by recent events. Thankfully, none have thought to extend their guard to this ancient entrance.
|
|
"Nothing is this easy...," Ted states to no one. His top busies itself trying to prevent more stupid mistakes.
Detect Magic
School divination
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range 60 ft.
Area cone-shaped emanation
Duration concentration, up to 1 minute/level
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
You detect all magic spells, effects, items, and objects (including those on or affecting creatures you can see), as well as hybrid items, in the area. You can’t detect magical traps in this way, as they are created with additional magic that wards them from this common spell. Each round you concentrate on the same area, you can determine if one magic source you detect is from a spell, magic item, or other effect, and the caster level (or item level) of the effect. You can’t determine if there are magic sources in areas you can’t see, or if there was a magic source in an area at one time but that has since expired.
Ted doesn't spot any stray magical auras and Spectre doesn't notice anything hidden or trapped, so Isu goes ahead and inserts the security fob into the door. There's no response for almost a minute before the surface of the door gains a soft yellow glow and then the door itself slides to the side.
The passageway beyond is surprisingly whole and undamaged by the passing of years, likely no one has come this way in many centuries. You open an inner door and all pile into the larger room beyond. Unlike the pristine entryway, a faint layer of slime covers every surface of these connected chambers. The largest open area contains a set of lockers, one of which seems likely to have once held a collection of guns and ammunition. Bits and chunks of metal and ceramic are scattered everywhere. One side room contains a small, round table, another a metal desk, and a third, a few rows of chairs and a podium. A door leads east.
Just as you're peering into the room with the podium for any threats, a sudden *shhhlorp* grabs your attention. A bright orange ooze spills from several of the closed lockers and rolls into the junk scattered across the floor. Other junk from across the room flies towards it and surrounds it, giving it a hard metal shell. In moments, the armored ooze extends a crackling plasma weapon from its exterior and points it toward you!
-----------------------
|||| INIT ||||
Spec
Ted
Jelico
Isu
Arc (fatigued)
??? Oooozy Ooze
Bold are up!
A trio of stars pummel the ooze, sending sprays of goop out across the floor. Isu's powerful blow strikes a plate of its armor and almost cracks it. Unfortunately, the improvised armor holds and deflects the blow.
|||| INIT ||||
Spec
Ted
Jelico
Isu
Arc (fatigued)
??? Oooozy Ooze (8 dmg)
Bold are up!
|
|
Ted shakes his head, "Don't let it give you another disease, Arc." Ted grabs his floating top, swirls it between his hands and fans it towards the party.
LIFE BUBBLE M1 T1
School abjuration
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Targets up to one creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart
Duration 1 day/level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
You surround the target creatures with a constant and movable 1-inch shell of tolerable living conditions customized for each creature. This shell enables the targets to breathe freely in a variety of atmospheric conditions (including in corrosive, thick, thin, and toxic atmospheres), as well as underwater or in a vacuum. It also makes the targets immune to harmful gases and vapors, including inhaled diseases and poisons as well as spells with a harmful gaseous effect. In addition, the shell protects targets (and their equipment) from extreme temperatures (between –50° and 140° F) without having to attempt Fortitude saving throws, as well as extreme pressures.
Life bubble doesn’t provide protection from energy damage, negative or positive energy (such as found on the Negative and Positive Energy Planes), or radiation; it also doesn’t provide the ability to see in conditions of poor visibility (such as in smoke or fog) or the ability to move or act normally in conditions that impede movement (such as underwater).
Despite the creature menacing it up close, the ooze fires the technological weapons incorporated within its body. A rippling laser beam strikes Isu in the chest and what looks like a steel javelin fires out from the goop and slices Arc across the leg.
|||| INIT ||||
Spec
Ted
Jelico
Isu (20 dmg)
Arc (fatigued, 14 dmg)
??? Oooozy Ooze (20 dmg)
Bold are up!
|
|
Ted unholsters his pistol and fires.
You are on fire. As long as you have this condition, at the start of your turn each round before you take any actions (or attempt the Reflex saving throw described below), you take the listed amount of damage as fire damage (or 1d6 fire damage, if no amount is listed in the effect that causes burning). Fire damage from multiple sources that inflict the burning condition is cumulative.
At the end of each round you are burning, you can attempt a Reflex saving throw to remove this condition. The DC of this saving throw is equal to 10 + the amount of fire damage you took this round from the burning condition. If you succeed at this saving throw, you lose the burning condition. You can attempt a new saving throw each round you have this condition, and you receive a +2 bonus for each previous saving throw you’ve attempted in consecutive rounds.
You can also automatically end this condition by jumping into enough water to douse yourself. If you don’t have enough water on hand, you can spend a full action to roll on the ground or otherwise smother the fire to attempt a new saving throw with a +4 bonus (plus any bonuses from previously failed consecutive attempts) to end the condition.
|
|
Jellico reaches out with his mind, trying to connect with the mind of the ooze on the far side of the room. When he finds it, a shudder moves down his spine. It is a nasty thing, the ooze's mind. It's just as sticky and single-focused as it's exterior.
Having identified his target, he mutters a prayer to Desna and sends his own mental energy hurling toward the disgusting mind of this ooze.
|
|
Arcalinte, seeing the creature seeming to resist the blows they'd given it, decides to change tactics, closing his eyes for a moment before the light vanishes and his armor ripples a bit. His eyes are now the black of a lightless night.
Then he strikes at the creature again, hoping until he can bring more specific powers to bear, brute force will do in the meantime.
From a distance, Spec keeps up his sonic assault.
-----
Ted's laser pistol shot is cannily aimed, but the ooze lacks any precise weak points . Not only that, but the plasma-jelly interior of the creature absorbs the laser without injuring the ooze.
Isu's powerful swings on the other hand crush through armor plates and tear goop free from the creature's core. Arc follows with his own slash that tears through into the ooze's body with little difficulty. You notice the ooze reforming slightly after the weapon blows have passed through it .
Spec's first sonic blast proves effective, while the second explodes a locker behind the ooze. Unfortunately for Jelico, his psychic attack finds no mind within the ooze to attack. The magic dissipates without finding a target.
The ooze unleashes an insistent attack with its weapons, scoring a direct hit with a laser blast against Isu while narrowly missing Arc with the lance-like projectile.
|||| INIT ||||
Spec
Ted
Jelico
Isu (42 dmg)
Arc (fatigued, 14 dmg)
??? Oooozy Ooze (92 dmg)
Bold are up!
Jelico's magic makes everyone speedy . Spectre's attacks strike among the goop, but don't manage to hit the core and damage the ooze. Arc's quick slash rebounds off its armor, and it seems to resist his gravitic attack.
The ooze starts wriggling away to the east , then fires a shot back toward Arc with its laser cannon.
Arc is struck in the chest by the crackling beam.
|||| INIT ||||
Spec
Ted
Jelico
Isu (42 dmg)
Arc (fatigued, 14 dmg) (+23 dmg if ooze isn't destroyed)
??? Oooozy Ooze (126 dmg)
Bold are up!
Isu and Arc deliver a pair of powerful attacks as the ooze attempts to slink away. A devastation blade tears off a protective plate moments before Isu's hammer smashes in to pulverize the ooze's gelatinous core. Moments later, its nothing more than a goopy orange puddle amid a treasure trove of technological junk.
Combat Over!
Searching the remains of the ooze, Spectre is able to extract some of the weapons it was using to attack you. Amid the ruined armor plates you find a Foundry flux laser with 16 charges remaining, a Foundry bloodlight plasma lancer with 20 charges remaining, and a Foundry twin boltcaster . Additionally, you recover a still functioning piece of ancient kish tech amid all the other junk, which Spec is able to determine will work the same as a haste circuit armor upgrade.
The ancient kish weapons retain enough charge to function for a while longer, but should you want to keep using them, you'll need to convert them to run on modern Pact Worlds batteries.
Their more advanced weapons must have been far more dangerous.
|||| Post combat status ||||
Spec
Ted
Jelico
Isu (42 dmg)
Arc (fatigued, 14 dmg)
|
|
Jellico sifts through the recovered weaponry, but isn't able to tell much more about them than what the group already knows.
He goes from person to person, making sure any damage suffered was superficial and offering to help anyone who needed healing. "Those things are monstrous. Nothing made of gell without a mind is any sign of good things. Hopefully, it was the only one of it's kind in here."
|
|
The battle finished, Arcalinte joins the others in taking a closer look at the things their fallen enemy left behind.
"In the modern era, anyway, Spectre. These weapons certainly look powerful, but I've grown up around enough cheap castoffs on Akiton to know mass-produced when I see it. If these are an example of how powerful the ancient kish's most common armaments were...that can only mean their more advanced technology would be terrifyingly powerful..."
With only one door leading deeper into the complex, you head east and open it up. You find a set of emergency or service stairs leading up. The deep steps must be appropriately sized for kish feet, but they feel awkward for everyone other than Isu.
You head up the stairs at least three stories before they end at another door that you also find to be unlocked. The room beyond has a high ceiling and the look of a warehouse or storage area. The southern half of this chamber is divided into two large metal containers that run from floor to ceiling and that have almost no gap between them. The containers are fronted with large corrugated steel doors, which have been painted with crude symbols that look like they must have been left by modern kish. The doors are latched shut, but not locked.
To the west you see a hallway that continues toward what looks like an office area, from a distance.