“Besides, I would never blow up a school,” Clara says. “Do I look like a demolitionist? My specialty is guns.” She looks curiously at you. “Are you suggesting that I explore the rock with you? You have not hired me.”
Then she looks at Cade’s glaring face. “On the other circuit, you have not killed me, either.” She pauses, as she weighs alternatives. “Well, I suppose that I am already in trouble with my employer for not killing you, so it’s not like exploring the Drift Rock will get me in more trouble with them at this point. Very well. Do you want me to go in front to shoot akatas?”
Red looks indignant. “NO! That’s our job! We got salt water guns!” To prove this, he shoots Clara in the face.
SPLOOSH!
Clara 247 looks at you, dripping. “I appear to missing some context here.”
Returning to Absalom Station, as previously programmed. Have a nice day.
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Distractedly, Zeyram answers Clara “According to the information we looked up, salt water acts like acid to Akata.”
Staring back the way the group came, he mutters “Well, that is an unwelcome surprise.”
Looking to the rest of the group, he explains “The shuttle was preprogrammed to return to Absalom Station. I would guess it got the recall signal once they determined we were in the Drift Rock.”
“That is interesting data. I wonder if my employers want to strand us here to die.” Clara 247’s voice is unconcerned. “That would be unfortunate. But perhaps we can find survival equipment. Since you cannot lock me up, we should go forward, yes?”
She grabs her rifle, which is floating where she dropped it, and pushes gracefully off a wall. “It’s time to see what the rest of this rock holds.” She turns to Red. “You shoot akatas. I shoot everything else. Deal?”
“Deal!” The goblins say, excited.
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Xyklik growls through the mic in his helmet. "Bureaucracies. Our mission is now instantly more complicated by fools pressing buttons."
He takes a moment to think. He flexes his long arms and mandibles, rotates them, working the scarred muscles beneath. Finally, he says, "We can't retrieve the shuttle. The only thing we can control is the mission. Yes, we go forward."
He draws out his laser rifle and stalks on through the caverns.
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Hawthorne frowns inside his helmet while the decorative Pregenitor mask remains impassive. "You're an experienced hunter, so lead onwards."
I can't believe someone stole our ride home!
"We could always steal the Acreon. Release the rock and make our way to the station."
What about the blockade?
"We just found an ace pilot, didn't we?"
The mechanic moves to the side to let the others pass as they re-organize their line.
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We killed some gangers and a few ditzies got twisted ankles: all to find Steelhand’s killer. How is that like her admitting she’d happily shoot up a school class for money?! Ah, well, hopefully a space lion will eat her...
Cade makes a non-communal grunt and loiters at the rear of the group, fretting.
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Jim and Buster keep moving forward "Our ride home left? No problem, there's still a perfectly good ship here, she just needs some tender love and care...and some repairs" Jim is obviously thinking a last minute montage of repairing the ship with a pile of Goblins would make a swell Jims Jams!
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I wonder if this is the Ambassador’s doing or the station’s so called guardians? He did say the shuttle belonged to them.
Note to self: Next time I’m loaned a ship, ask the best hacker in the group to make sure there is no recall or other programming in it.
Zeyram takes his place in the parade. He does respond to Jim’s comment with a nod and “Good idea! The Acreon is also someplace we can hopefully retreat to if things get too nasty.”
The Captain’s Log did include something about a different monster here.
With the ever acrobatic Clara-247 in the lead, your group begins exploring the Drift Rock. The next chamber leading off the main tunnel contains nothing more than a dead humanoid body floating, still hanging on to his survival flare gun.
The corpse is that of a human male. It’s still wearing an estex suit with a patch that reads “ACREON,” identifying it as a member of the mining ship’s crew.
There is another tunnel leading out of the chamber.
Click. Whirr.
“This man has no hint of the Void Zombie contagion. He was lucky... he died of his wounds.”
Clara had her rifle trained on the floating corpse, then loses interest. The goblins shoot it three or four times with salt water just to be sure.
SPLOOSH!
SPLOOSH!
SPLOOSH!
Clara watches them, impassively for a few minutes, and then says, “We should move on. Take what you need from the corpse, or give it to me as payment for helping you. He certainly doesn’t need it anymore.”
And with that, she pushes off into the next room.
★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★
Four tunnels exit this cavern to the north, south, east, and west. Strangely, however, while the south and west passages are hewn rock, the north and east passages are finished and lined with some sort of polished, metallic plating on the walls, floors, and ceiling.
Wandering through the cavern is a prospector that’s wearing a space suit. He turns as you come in, and you can see that the lower half of its helmet is shattered, and a repulsive, bloated blue-gray “tongue” hangs from the remnants of the prospector’s lower jaw.
Blood Drain (Ex) If a void zombie hits a living creature with its feeding tendril, it drains that creature's blood, dealing 2 Strength damage before the tendril detaches.
Mindless (Ex) A void zombie has no Intelligence score and is immune to mind-affecting effects. Any DCs or other statistics that rely on an Intelligence score are calculated as if the creature had an ability modifier of +0.
It opens its jaw to scream, but it’s in the void, so all you see are its jaws opening wide and its “tongue” waggling as it pushes off the wall and rushes at you!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 1
Active conditions: None
Xyklik
Hawthorne
Cadence
================================
Void Zombie
================================
Big Jim
Red & Green Goblins
Simagus
Clara 247
Zeyram
================================
Bold is up!
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Looking over the body, Zeyram checks for any identification and makes sure their hovering skull gets an image of the corpse.
After hearing the results of Simagus’s examination, he says “At least now we know what happened to one crew member.”
——
Seeing the moving suit in the next chamber, Zeyram is at first hopeful that they had found one of the crew alive. He is slow to react when it reveals what it really is. This is bad. I wonder if that thing retains anything of what is was?
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Xyklik’s military instincts take over as he surges into action, raising his rifle and firing on the nearest void zombie as it approaches. He moves closer to the rest and keeps a close eye on his companions, and makes sure none of them get attacked as well.
Attack!
Guarded Step South
Bodyguard on any team member that is attacked. +2 AC for them, -2 AC for Xyklik until his next turn.
Cade identifies the creature expertly!
Then Xyklik shoots, but his shot goes wide! Still, he is using his bodyguard ability to protect everyone in the party.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 1
Active conditions: None
Xyklik
Hawthorne
Cadence
================================
Void Zombie
================================
Big Jim
Red & Green Goblins
Simagus
Clara 247
Zeyram
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Bold is up!
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Hawthorne takes a few moments to disengage the back-up generator from the suit. He slips it into a belt pouch.
"Interesting," the Triunite comments. "This material isn't in the Pact World catalog."
Sophia scans the material and makes digital notes for later comparisons.
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"Poor soul," Hawthorne says. He takes one of the salt water balloons from his belt and tosses it at the corner of the hall next to the void zombie.
Swift: Change grip
Move: Retrieve salt water grenade
Standard: Throw salt water grenade
The Void Zombie jerks back a limb as the salt water hits, burning its flesh!
Then the Void Zombie pushes off the wall, attempting to slam into Clara 247, but misclaculates its trajectory and misses badly! It looks surprised as it bounces off the wall, though its blue "tongue" waggles menacingly in Clara's direction!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 1 / 2
Active conditions: None
Xyklik
Hawthorne
Cadence (2 actions)
================================
Void Zombie (-2)
================================
Big Jim
Red & Green Goblins
Simagus
Clara 247
Zeyram
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Bold is up!
Click. Whirr.
SPLOOSH!
SPLOOSH!
Both hit!
Clara vaults over the Void Zombie, does a flip in the air, and shoots him!
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Xyklik looks down at his rifle, the energy within it barely contained by the metal. Arcs of red curl out of it this way and that. He pushes off and floats away from the creature, attempting to dodge its counterattack. Then he levels the rifle's sights and jams the butt against his shoulder and fires again at the creature.
Acrobatics away, 5 ft. north
Attack!
The goblins hit the Void Zombie for pitiful damage!
Clara does seven damage to it!
Cadence supercharges a weapon, and hits the goblins with a water balloon!
SPLOOSH!
A dripping Green rolls her eyes at Cadence. “HEY! Me not baby Space Cat!”
Xyklik triggers a slam from the Space Zombie...
...but then literally blows it away with his supercharged gun! Bits of zombie flesh float like confetti in this room.
“Yeah, good shot!” Red calls to Xyklik. “That kill him dead!” Then Red thinks about his statement. “More dead than before!”
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
You search the body, but find no intact or usable gear on it.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Clara and the Goblins once again lead the way into the next chamber, which is similar to the last one you entered, with its weird mix of hewn rock and metallic plating. As you enter the chamber, it at first looks empty. Then you see a translucent creature with a broken helmet, long black hair, glowing pink eyes and sharp claws staring malevolently at you phase through the wall as she enters the room. She moans, and you somehow hear it through your space suit speakers. “OOOooooo!”
“Aaagh! Take that!” Red bashes himself with his water gun.
Clara shakes her head. “Goblins. So tempermental.”
Incoporeal creatures are immune to all nonmagical kinetic attacks. All energy attacks and magical kinetic attacks deal half damage (50%) to it.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 1
Active conditions: CONFUSION unless you make your DC 11 will save
Big Jim (need will save)
Hawthorne (need will save)
Clara 247
================================
Drift Dead
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Red Goblin (-3, confused)
Green Goblin
Cadence (need will save)
Simagus (need will save)
Xyklik (need will save)
Zeyram (need will save)
================================
Bold is up!
Click. Whirr.
“That’s an incorporeal drift dead! She can rip us apart! Hit her with energy weapons!”
Simagus makes his save and identifies the creature.
Clara drops her Shirren Eye Rifle and pulls out her Azimuth Laser Pistol.
Half her damage affects the incorporeal creature!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 1
Active conditions: CONFUSION unless you make your DC 11 will save
Big Jim (need will save)
Hawthorne (need will save)
Clara 247
================================
Drift Dead (incorporeal, -3)
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Red Goblin (-3, confused, 2 rounds)
Green Goblin
Cadence (need will save)
Simagus
Xyklik (need will save)
Zeyram (need will save)
================================
Bold is up!
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Hawthorne scans the corpses as they pass and accumulate them for identifying names or serial numbers, storing them for later identification and notification of family.
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"Be careful, this is like entering the Drift," the Triunite warns ineffectually, although he does manage to keep his wits about himself due to his training and Sophia's balancing calibrations. Inside his helmet, the datajack's LED turns red, and Sophia begins feeding him positional data on the specter.
As he begins to squeeze the trigger, one of the goblins hops into his sights, and he jerks upwards quickly to avoid friendly fire.
Both Jim and Buster shoot with harrying fire!
Then the Drift Dead attacks! She hits the one person who damaged her so far, Clara.
Clara 247 gasps in pain as some of her insides are ripped out!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 1 / 2
Active conditions: CONFUSION unless you make your DC 11 will save
Big Jim
Hawthorne
Clara 247
================================
Drift Dead (incorporeal, -3)
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Red Goblin (-3, confused, 1 round left)
Green Goblin
Cadence (This round 1d8 damage + str mod, then 1 round confusion left)
Simagus
Xyklik (need will save)
Zeyram
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Bold is up! Use energy weapons or weapons with fusion seals!
Xyklik becomes confused and babbles to himself.
Hawthorne hits the Drift Dead twice, as does Zeyram!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 1 / 2
Active conditions: CONFUSION unless you make your DC 11 will save
Big Jim
Hawthorne
Clara 247
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Drift Dead (incorporeal, -14)
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Red Goblin (-3, confused, 1 round left)
Green Goblin
Cadence (This round 1d8 damage + str mod, then 1 round confusion left)
Simagus
Xyklik (1 round confusion left)
Zeyram
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Bold is up! Use energy weapons or weapons with fusion seals!
Click. Whirr.
A Confused Cadence does damage to himself.
Green Gobin does harrying fire! “Stupid ghost! Eat salt water!”
SPLOOSH!
Then Clara attacks!
Then Simagus shoots!
Noticing the laser rifile, the Drift Dead rips at Simagus this time.
Her eyes glow evilly as she rips him from the inside!
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 2 / 3
Active conditions: CONFUSION for Red, Cadence, Xyklik
Big Jim
Hawthorne
Clara 247 (-3)
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Drift Dead (incorporeal, -16)
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Red Goblin (-3, confused, 1 round left)
Green Goblin
Cadence (-1, 1 round confusion left)
Simagus (-4)
Xyklik (1 round confusion left)
Zeyram
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Bold is up! Use energy weapons or weapons with fusion seals!
Red is still confused!
“What is going on purple is my favorite not throwing away my shot yeah gobs are the best and ghosts are scary like gobs and Big Jim’s the best want a drone like Buster and we gonna fight, right?” he babbles, semi-incoherently.
Clara 247 decides to full out shoot again.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
The drift dead falls to Clara’s barrage and the phantom fades away! You search the chamber, but find nothing interesting.
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Xyklik shakes his head, and then, seeing the undead creature floating clumped and limp without the magic that animated it, he growls, "This mission is becoming more dangerous by the minute. Good."
He hoists his rifle onto his shoulder and waits for the others to recover.
"We should be ready for more creatures like this to come at us."
Once all your teammates have recovered their sanity and stamina, you head cautiously southward. Two passages exit this cavern, one to the northeast and one to the northwest. They lead to the rooms you have left behind. An incongruous door, more akin to what one would expect to find on a space station, stands in the south wall.
As Clara steps in, she says, “More void zombies... These, we can shoot!!! Time to make things wet!”
There are in fact two void zombies in Acreon uniforms in this passage. One looks very much like the Captain of the Acreon, or what the captain would look like if he were a) dead, b) had a missing jaw and c) a giant blue “tongue” hanging from his face.
♫ Spray em, whack their knees
Make em run to zombie mama please
We be Big Jim’s salty fix-it gobs
We kill those Void Zombies
‘Cause they be unsafe slobs!
Shoot em up
Make em wet
We’ll disrupt
They’ll regret
They showed up
Gobs not be slow
Ready? Ready! Set
And Go-o-o-o-o ♫
Both goblins are so excited about getting to use their salt water guns that they wave them around a bit in a pre-victory song and dance that means they lose their intiative to the monsters. Clara stares at them in disbelief, also missing her turn. “Talk about unprofessional!”
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
Round 1
Active conditions: None
Cadence
Big Jim & Buster
Xyklik
Hawthorne
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Void Zombies
================================
Zeyram
Red Goblin
Green Goblin
Clara 247
Simagus
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Bold is up!
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"I wonder who that was." Zeyram muses as the drift dead is finally destroyed.
"Her uniform looked different than the one we saw on the crew member we found."
During the time the others are resting, Zeyram swaps batteries in his arc pistol.
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Over the open comm, Zeyram tells the goblins "When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't dance."