"Is that it?" Booker says, incredulous. "That's all that's in there?"
He smack the machine with the butt of his cannon. "Lousy cultists can't even keep good field notes! Well, let's hope the rest o' this place has somethin' more useful. Dunk, I'll cover you."
The soldier sets himself into a firing position into the next room.
This kitchen and dining area seem as if they were abandoned in the middle of a meal’s preparation. Pots of meat slurry and festering dairy sit on the stoves to the west, and metal cups full of some sludgy, long-turned beverage sit on the tables to the east. Tiny flies buzz about the entire scene, flitting from place to place among the rotten smorgasbord.
Even from here, you can tell that the stench is going to be extremely awful.
Inside the mess here it looks like the people beat a hasty retreat out. It doesn't look like there's much of note in here.
Dunklezahn looks into the room and his sharp eyes spy a small lump under one of the sleeping pallets, which turns out to be a datapad and a credstick holding 1,400 credits.
Booker catches the 'pad with his off-hand and holds it behind him for the ysoki to grab. He keeps his eyes, and gun, trained to cover the vesk, and moves in after him to cover the next hallway.
Hack-It nabs the datapad with a jerk. "Yeah, yeah. Hack this terminal, disable those killer droids. Solve all of the mysteries. And never a please or thank you."
Despite his grumbling, the Ysoki lives up to his name.
"I'm busy," Booker snaps. "Niceties later."
Among the mundane data files, electronic messages, gaming applications, and other files on the datapad is a single video file labeled “Do Not Delete,” In the video, a verthani and a gnome are sitting cross-legged on the floor inside one of the base’s living quarters. Both are dressed in robes and wearing unholy symbols of the Devourer, and the verthani is teaching the gnome to sing a paean to the Devourer. Throughout the song, both cultists repeat the phrase “Nyara knows!” over and over
Booker keeps moving to keep up with the big alien. "Ready," he comms to Dunklezahn.
The next bedroom seems ransacked, though more likely just hastily emptied.
The final bedroom looks less emptied, like whoever left didn't get to finish the job...
Please, and/or thank you, Janzi says slyly to Hack-It, as he follows Dunk and Booker.
Joining Dunklezahn, Booker gives the room a look-see.
"Stop pandering, Janzi. And Booker, you aren't fooling me. Niceties never happen later with you, since you'd actually need to be nice," Hack-It says, getting wound up. "But I get it, you got priorities. First, you gotta find a way to pull that stick out of your butt. I know I can't help you. Sputter here has all the wrong attachments too. So fine, you just keep doing your thing."
The mechanic keeps pace with Booker and Dunk, so he doesn't get too far from the subject of his chirping.
Hack-it gets a series of amusing beeps out of Sputter as Booker checks the room. He finds nothing here.
Dunk has gone off half-cocked before and almost got himself perished, so Janzi doesn't let him out of his sight this time.
Janzi makes his quip at Dunklezahn as he begins searching the room. As he opens the dresser, a small generator charges and shoots a laser directly at the lashunta! It does .
---------
Once the injured Janzi is helped, the complete search of the room produces only what was guarded by the trap. Thankfully, it's not a let down: a brown force field, a mk I electrostatic field, a bleeding fusion seal (6th), and a vicious fusion seal (5th.)
Janzi takes the full force of the laser shot, which knocks him clean over and leaves him sprawled on the floor.
|
Dunklezahn puts his back to the far wall, grasping the hilt of his curve blade tight in both hands. He peeks around the corner into the next room to get a view of what lays beyond. As he does so, he hears laser fire ring out. He turns to see Janzi on the ground, his armor smoking from the laser burn.
Shit, Janzi. You OK? He offers a hand-up to the lashunta.
Booker ignores the whines of the ratfolk. "Need a minute, Torin?"
Vicious weapons have sinister appearances. A vicious weapon gains the boost special weapon property, but when you make an attack with the boosted damage, you take damage equal to the additional boost damage. This damage applies even if your attack misses, and it is not reduced by DR, resistance, or any other ability. The boost is 1d4, plus an additional 1d4 for every 6 item levels the weapon has. If the weapon does not use charges or ammunition, boosting it takes a standard action and does not expend any additional charges or ammunition. You cannot boost an attack made with the automatic, blast, explode, or line weapon special property. Weapons that have the boost special weapon property cannot be vicious.
Janzi accepts the hand up, riding gingerly and wincing in pain as he returns to his feet. Still here, he says with a weak smile. Lucky the ground was there to break my fall...
As Jaanzi works out the muscles pulled from his close call with the laser, Dunklezahn finishes poking his head into the final room.
Three rows of mostly bare shelves stand along the southeastern end of this wide room. Here and there, a dilapidated pistol or longarm sits on a dusty shelf. Three humanoid robots stand near the north wall; each is hunched over and covered in scorch marks, occasionally emitting puffs of sickly gray smoke.
The robots:
You identify the constructs as security robots and determine that gunfire—likely lasers—violently dispatched them sometime within the past week. (These were the same model from the other room.)
You find a small, strange technological device covered in leathery gore....
"Yuck," Booker offers, then shrugs at the gory thing. "I got nothin'."
Hack-It takes a look.
"Security bots. Someone put some laser fire into them though. Not recent though. Maybe a week back?"
Hack-It bends down to pick up something. "Interesting..."
"A necrograft! Gross. This thing is an augmentation using undead organs and necromantic rituals. With all this gore it looks like it was installed in an undead creature."
After Hack-it's description, some bells may ring:
Frackin' Eoxians, Janzi says. We've totally been set up. Let's grab the files and get out of here.
So the plan is to get out of Dodge.... to where?
"Yeeeeeah, we're not done here," Booker replies. "We still gotta figure out where the cult bounced to. Some ass-hat wiped that name from the audio clip... Hack-It, can you, I dunno, fix that?"
Hack-it thinks he's pulled everything he can. Currently you have no proof of their destination. Only small hints.
"Nah, this can't be it!" Booker protests. He starts pulling the place apart, room by room.
After an hour, once his mind is starting to clear, Booker gives up in frustration. He paces a bit, and talks out loud for a further bit.
"Alright, dead end here. Literally. I'm of two minds." He pauses. "No, three minds. We could skip back ta the 'Spire, and see if'n they've got a copy of the Entropy of Existence or whatever, and try to work out the location ourselves. We could pay a visit to the Eoxian embassy, too, since their fingerprints seem all over this."
"Or we could go back to Castrovel and try'n find whatever it is Tahomen was rantin' about."
"Or, we find the nearest fueling station. Ask around, see'n if anyone's been by recently that's undead-like."
The soldier stops suddenly. "Where are Verthani from?"
The party heads back to the Sunrise Maiden and powers up the engines. Once out of the atmosphere, Hack-it plugs in a course for Abs---
A pair of ships with intercept course show up on the view screen. They burst out from behind an asteroid!
They're Death’s Head Necrogliders! [ooc]If you pass a Culture DC 15, check out the embedded spoiler]
"Well, that was quick," Booker comments with mock surprise. "Almost like they're waitin' for us. Guns hot!" He slams the throttle.
The Necrogliders both head straight for the Maiden, and they split at the last second, using their thrusters to try and flank the ship.
Captain (Torin): Orders?
Science Officer (Hack-it): Action?
Engineer (Gig): Action?
Pilot (Booker): Go!
Gunner 1 (Dunklezahn): TBD
Gunner 2 (R1G5): TBD
Science: None
Grumbling about missing lunch, Hack-It gets busy scanning the red necroglider.
Hack-It scans one of the quick ships and rapidly grabs the information.
Tiny interceptor
Speed 12; Maneuverability perfect (turn 0)
AC 16; TL 16
HP 30; DT —; CT 6
Shields basic 10 (forward 3, port 2, starboard 2, aft 3)
Attack (Forward) gyrolaser (1d8), light EMP cannon (special)
Janzi tries to encourage his gunners' accuracy.
Dunk! The flak thrower is your friend! The flak thrower is good! Let the flak throw through you!