"Remind 'im that he shot first," Booker growls, reloading. "And ask 'im what he means by 'brought true friends.'"
I believe you shot at us first, Janzi points out with a half-smile at Booker. We've been defending ourselves against violence and death. And what true friends have you brought here?
"Sick. Sick friends. They went in for rejuvenation. If their spirits are pure they will be cured. If not, the spirits will punish them and we will euthanize them. We shot because you invade our sovereign land. It is our right."
I see where this is going, Janzi says, seeing where this is going. So if we submit to rejuvenation, can we be friends too?
”How do we know if our spirits are pure? I don’t want to find out the hard way.”
Hack-It shrugs. "They need us to some stupid test? Fine. We figure out what dumb superstition drives it, neutralize it, and then we've got fewer Kish taking shots at us."
"No. Outsiders are never pure. They cannot!"
|
To the Kish, hoping Janzi will translate, Well, if we're not pure and we attempt rejuvenation, we'll just end up fertilizer anyway. No harm in letting us try, right?
To the others, I'm with Hack-It. It's all tech that these surprisingly resilient primitives have confused with mysticism. We approach the test, Hack-it and Gig do their thing, and we're all friends. We find out what we need and got off this stupid rock and after our real quarry. Though, I'm not opposed to just killing our way to the info we need either.
Euthanizing is an option, Janzi says to Dunk. They've indicated as much themselves.
Turning back to the kish, Janzi tries again: How do you know outsiders are never pure if you don't give them a chance to rejuvenate? You can't know that, then, can you?
"Then prove it. We will laugh at your liquefied remains."
It appears the way forward is, for now, peaceful...
The kish scoffs at you, but doesn't do anything else. The hallway beyond once led farther into the building, but 10 feet in the ceiling and walls have collapsed, making progress impossible without working for days to clear the rubble. There are doors to both the left and right.
"Left." Booker motions for the others to check for traps.
The door looks safe enough, so Booker opens it with the barrel of his gun. Dusty shelves holding the occasional empty box line the walls of this walk-in supply closet. It appears as if very few people have been here in quite some time.
"Let's see what we have..."
Hack-It searches the closet.
Hack-it barely looks in the closet, not bothering with a detailed look. Thankfully R1G5 is up to the task. The android finds a mk 2 ability crystal lying forgotten under an overturned empty box marked “Sprayflesh” in Kishaleen.
Huh, look at that, Janzi says. I bet we could feel rejuvenated with that pretty quickly. He gives a sidelong glance at the uncooperative kish as he secures the crystal away, then follows behind Dunk, as he's learned that it's always good to have a beefy Vesk between you and potential liquefacation. Right it is.
The party snatches up R1G5's find and opens the door to the first real room of the complex. The western side of this area is occupied by a tall desk built into the wall, half of which is under a large window blocked by a panel of opaque crystalline material. There are doors to the north and south, and stylized eyes are painted on the walls.
The art has some clear symbolism. The kish believe their ancestors’ spirits begin examining and judging them here, as represented by the depiction of eyes on the walls.
Judgment, Janzi says, pointing out the eyes. Not at all creepy.
The hacker begins nosing around for any kind of digital panels that he can interface with. He starts with the desk area.
Hack-it gives the room a solid look, but there's nothing that fits the bill in here.
"There doesn't seem to be much here, are we sure this is the rejuvenation area?"
Gig lingers near the back of the party, looking around lazily to see if the others missed anything, but feeling quite certain that the others have had a better look.
Indeed, Gig sees little else. It appears there is but one way forward.
Hey, R1G5, Janzi says, pointing to the south door, give that a look, yeah? No sense in not being a little cautions if we're getting rejuvenated.
The door seems harmless enough, and unlocked. Two rows of lockers made from a ceramic-like material occupy the western end of this room, while the lockers that line the walls of the eastern half are covered with murals depicting sick and injured kish being bathed in a greenish light and stepping away completely healed. Other more beatific-looking kish look down from the top parts of the walls and the ceiling. Fresh charcoal drawings cover the door to the northeast, while the southeast corner of the room is filled with a large mass of rubble.
So far this has mostly been a test of boredom, Janzi says, peeking around Dunk into the room.
Booker takes up a firing position behind Dunklezahn, also waiting for the others to complete a thorough search.
The party moves through the quiet room, taking in the sights:
the murals show the watching kish as being either ancestral spirits or deities who are evaluating the wounded kish.
Dunklezahn takes up a position by the door, and sees some more recent art on it. It crudely depicts a humanoid figure that vaguely resembles a kish with its face covered in a mass of black lines.
The kish absolutely refuses to go through the door. Dunklezahn has to drag him. The prisoner looks like he'd rather fight Dunklezahn while unarmed than go through the door....
Warning of some sort, I think, Janzi says, looking over the drawing. He turns to the prisoner. What is this supposed to warn us of?
"It doesn't always work. We set up a trap to stop the monster our friend could become. Going through the door will trigger an IED."
"Sounds like a job for our cyborg friend. Hack-It!" Booker calls.
"I'm right here," Hack-It replies, the typical annoyance at Booker showing. He moves closer to the door, then starts scanning the area with his wrist-mounted custom rig.
Remembering that these guys are practically prehistoric, he mutters and then looks around for a more mechanical form of trap.
Should he find anything, he'll try to disarm it.
Gig proceeds to help out Hack with the finding and disabling of the trap.
”So, Hack, do you think there is a pressure plate, a thermal presence sensor or some motion activated scanner involved? I have trouble believing that it is some kind of divine judgement sensor.”
Neither Hack-It nor Gig manage to find whatever trap the kish is talking about.
The prisoner snickers.
"What an ass," Hack-It says of the snickering Kish. "It's obviously safe, but fine. Hum, check it out."
The drone noiselessly floats through the door...
"Hey, RIGS!" Booker comms to R1G5, "Come do your scan thing. These bozos can't find the trap."
Janzi looks over the android's shoulder.
R1G5 easily finds the mono-filament tripwire which the others would never ever find on their own. He then has little trouble pointing out how to get past it.
There is no remaining sign of whatever originally occupied this room; it has been cleared of all furniture and decorations, save for a simple square cloth mat measuring four feet to a side. The walls, floor, ceiling, and even doors have been painted an inky black. There is a disgusting pile of mutated and altered kish flesh in the center of the room.
Janzi follows Dunk into the room. Friend of yours? he asks the kish, pointing to the pile of leftover kish. ...they've looked better.
Now that he sees the tripwire, Hack-it takes his time and does the needful to disarm the trap using move conventional tools from his toolkit.
Hack-it gives it a quick look over and decides cutting the line should work. With a quick snip, the danger is thwarted. The kish snorts in frustration.
As two living members of the Starfinder team enter the room, the flesh begins to move!. The husks of the former kish are horrific. They immediately start to come at you.
They amble awkwards towards Dunklezahn and try to batter him with what's left of their fists:
for
for
They each score a hit, the second catching the vesk hard.
Round 1:
Hostiles: ATK
R1G5: Go
Booker: Go
Gig: Go
Dunklezahn: Go
Janzi: Go
Hack-It & Hum: Go