Glitch looks at Scrambles, then at the box. He walks over to the hovercraft and throws his fist at the box, to see if he can get a reaction from the inside.
"Are we doing it here, or do we have some walking to do first?"
The box thrashes violently as Glitch hits it. From off to his side, the dwarf chuckles through a cloud of dense cigar smoke, having leaned himself against the wall to see what Glitch was going to do.
"Watch yerself there, it's a feisty ...thing." He puffs another lung's-worth of smoke out. "Whatever it is," he mutters as the chuckle melts away. He doesn't make eye contact with Glitch as he walks away.
As if in answer to Caloo's question, a garage near the gate opens up to reveal a fleet of exploration buggies. "Two for the crew, one for the handlers," Scrambles says. "I lobbied for a ATT but Shurami said we weren't goin' that far and the show hasn't even aired yet so they're blowing the whole budget and all of these boring reasons that just meant I didn't get to drive an ATT." It's kind of amazing how he doesn't seem to breath when he gets on one of those long, frantically-paced sentences. "So hop in if you're all set!"
Hmm, why are handlers decked out in laser rated armor? We gotta be careful. Maybe the dwarf leader ain’t up front bout the thing in the box
Hey Glitch, careful. Don’t want you to lose a hand now. Anyone have any clue what that thing could be?
Blask will grab his pistol and ready it just in n case the thing breaks loose.
Glitch walks back past Scrambles "You got an idea what it is? Besides fast, at least four legged and angry?"
He enters the garage and jumps into the backseat of one of the buggies.
"So lemme guess... since it's gotta be a 'surprise,' an' we ain't really actors, they're not gonna let us see it in advance so it will be a surprise. Right?"
"So lemme guess... since it's gotta be a 'surprise,' an' we ain't really actors, they're not gonna let us see it in advance so it will be a surprise. Right?"
"Nah, I don't think they thought that far in advance, I just think that the handlers are ornery pricks who get off on withholding and the execs are airheads that never think anything important is worth passing on." Scrambles gives a beatific grin. "Ain't show biz a gas?"
Glitch walks back past Scrambles "You got an idea what it is? Besides fast, at least four legged and angry?"
He enters the garage and jumps into the backseat of one of the buggies.
Scrambles climbs into the shotgun seat of the same buggy as Glitch. "Nah, those tight-lipped eel-f***ers over in the other cart ain't said a word about what it is, so I'm guessing it's something terrible and terrifying and we all get to shoot it, some with lasers and some with cameras." He puts his feet up on the dashboard. "Who's driving? Let's move!"
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The three buggies drive until they're out of sight of Prosperity - even the heavy walls have faded behind distance and dunes. Once the crew has reached the location, the dwarf and the other handlers get to work, taking some sort of excavators out and preparing to sink the crate into the dunes. "They're gonna cover it up and put some small breaching charges onto the lid - setting that off will blow the lid off, letting the critter out and probably panicking it, and send up a spray of sand so it looks like it's unearthing itself from the ground," says Scrambles. "So I'll hand it to them - their special effects work isn't total sh**. Do whatever you gotta do, should just be a couple minutes."
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"I suppose we should look surprised when the creature bursts out, shouldn't we?" Caloo wonders out loud. He practices a couple times what goes for a surprised facial expression among bantrids--a slight widening of their several little mouth-holes. "How was that?" he asks everyone.
Glitch climbs on the buggy to get a good view on the action. "We're starting with a hard cut into the action, or shall we play some break in the dunes?"
Kitty clinges to the side of the buggy, away from Scrambles cameras while Glitch checks his weapons.
Scrambles looks at Caloo with a bemused look. "Well, if that's the best you can - "
The breaching caps detonate, sending a spray of sand and cutting off whatever else the cameraman was going to say. Flying out of the crate is a...
...thing isn't descriptive enough, and 'abomination' tends to get tossed around a lot. This is more or less a confusing and sickening conglomeration of humanoid parts, sticking out every which way.
Despite not seeming to have any eyes, ears, nostrils, or any other identifiable sense organs, the thing turns back and forth a few times before scuttling towards the party.
Initiatives:
Caloo, Kindu, Blask, Zhor
It
Glitch, Nilan, Jink
Blask doesn’t even flinch as the desert sand is blown sky high. As the sand settles back to the planet, Blask catches a glimpse of the twisted, almost formless creature wriggling before him. His battle instincts kick in, and he rushes headlong into battle, closing quickly towards his foe. He razor sharp claws, at the ready. He takes a single swipe at the creature.
How did they train it not to go for Scrambles or the Dwarf? Glitch asks himself. Seeing Blask ripping the thing apart, he waits how that turns out. More often than not the action never made it to his position. And he likes it that way.
Zhor's eyes go wide, and without thinking, he hurls his spear at the bizarre creature.
"Damoritosh's britches! What the devil is that thing?"
Nilan takes cover
He tries to find some cover so he can sneak up on the thing. He'll move until he gets a good shot at it.
"AAAAAAGGHHH!" Caloo screams. "It's a--"
"AAAAAAGGHHH!" Caloo screams. "It's a--"
You've never seen anything like this before, but you do know that nature does not produce things like this - it must have been man-made to some degree. The biotech work on this seems to be top-notch too, as you're not seeing any of the stitches or other joins that amateur work will show.
Zhor, unfortunately, does not know anything about the beast.
"--a nothing! I don't know, it looks like someone must have mashed it together in a lab!"
With no idea of any concrete information about the creature, Caloo pops off a magic missle, taking a few extra seconds to get an extra missile out and scorching the creature with arcane power.
Kindu and Blask both charge the creature - Blask's blow strikes home mightily, but Kindu's attack misses entirely, as Blask's strike knocks the creature out of Kindu's way with it's ferocity. Zhor's spear arcs gracefully, sticks the creature, and then floats back to the mystic's claws.
With the warriors right adjacent to it, the creature flails wildly with it's plethora of arms, tangling Kindu's weapon to disarm it, and bludgeoning the solarian indiscriminately.
Kindu's weapon goes flying out of his hands and blinks out of existence while the many fists of the creature savagely beat him.
Nilan ducks behind the buggy and moves to line up a shot for the next round - though his allies are standing in the way after the
Initiatives:
It [-35 HP]
Nilan, Glitch, Jink, Caloo, Kindu, [-10 SP] Blask, Zhor <---
Blask, angers and ferocity boiling over in the heat of combat, he continues to strike at the creature. He takes two swipes at the formidable enemy. His claws rip into the creatures mass of “flesh”, tearing at it before it has time to react.
Glitch watches the scene slightly amused. There is not much to do here for him, with all those eager melee fighters standing in the way.
damage: 1d4 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10 1d4 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7
Zhor shifts to the side to try to get behind the beast, and then hurls his spear again.
"Blast it! Whose idea was this anyway?"
While Zhor's spear gracefully loops overhead, Blask eviscerates the creature, his claws going through it's blubbery skin like butter. It gives a keening cry that sounds eerily like a child's cry. It's arms all begin to give out and it crashes to the ground limply, starfished out.
It's only then that you notice that the dwarf and his crew are all still holding their weapons at the ready - and they're pointed at you.
"Well, that's a right shame," the dwarf says through the cigar smoke. "Now we'll have to beat yah after we kill yah. I gotta admit though, since we can't have any footage o' this kickin' around, killin' the furry bastard with the camera is going to really tickle my pick-"
His monologue is interrupted by an echoing wail, and everyone freezes for a quick second. The moment is broken with a second spout of sand high into the air as a huge tentacle bursts from the sand, narrowly missing Blask and Kindu as it wraps around the creature's corpse and begins to drag it under the sand.
The dwarf and his crew are already in motion, diving into their buggy and taking off, the dwarf sliding into the pilot's seat and the rest of his crew climbing into their seats. He guns the engine and tries to take off, away from the tentacles.
Caloo looks on with interest as the many-limbed creature collapses. How strange a bit of life this is!
His mind is only starting to catch up to what the dwarf is saying when the sound of that piercing wail comes through. When Caloo sees the huge tentacle, his locomotive ball starts spinning. If it were the wheel of a vehicle, he'd be burning rubber. Caloo hops in the closest buggy and waits for someone to get in and drive.
Glitch slides from the roof onto the driving seat in one smooth motion. As he lets the motor rev up he calls out "Leaving now. Get in." The back wheels throw up sand, as Glitch turns the buggy in the direction of the Dwarf's lot on the spot with spinning wheels.
Kitty uses the momentum to swing into the buggy.
Nilan climbs into a buggy and hops in the driver's seat.
Let's Go! he shouts
Nilan guns the buggy forward in a spray of sand and rock!
As everyone of the team has a ride, Glitch floors the accelerator and the buggy shoots after the dwarf.
Jink tries to take aim at the driver but the quality of the ride makes it difficult.
From his seat in Glitch's buggy, Caloo sends three magic missiles all shooting toward the dwarf driver.
The dwarf guns the engine and attempts to pull away, focusing entirely on driving even through getting shot multiple times - but he guns the engine too hard and winds up spinning out, staying even with the party. As he pulls ahead unexpectedly, he cranks the wheel, spraying sand into the cockpits of the two pursuing vehicles.
The crew with the dwarf opens fire on Nilan and Glitch - one of them holding fire as a second one casts a spell on his gun.
The powered shot rips into Glitch, and Nilan just misses a shot to the shoulder - he can see the groove cut into his armor.
Dwarf: -12 HP
Kasatha:
Vesk:
Ysoki:
Actions: Caloo, Jink, Glitch [-22dmg], Blask, Kindu, Nilan, Zhor
"I'm out. Jink, take the wheel." Glitch tells and moves behind the seat to hide.
"Sure thing!" Jink says jumping over the seat and sliding behind the wheel.
Blask snarls as Glitch takes a very deadly shot. He sees Jink hop on into the driver seat and grabs his Shirren rifle.
I’ll borrow this til you get both arms back.
Blask takes the unwieldy rifle, and takes aim at the asshat who just shot Glitch.
Nilan fires his pistol at the dwarven buggy
Glitch [-22dmg],
"I'm out. Jink, take the wheel." Glitch tells and moves behind the seat to hide.
"Nice of you to block the entire beam to protect the rest of us," Zhor says as he crouches down over Glitch. "Hold Still."
Shor pushes a clawed hand onto Glitch's wound and his hand becomes burning hot. There is a sizzling sound as the wound cauterizes.
"I can assure you, it wasn't on purpose." Glitch replies through clenched teeth.
Nilan and Blask's shots both just miss, grazing their intended targets without doing any damage. Kindu actually goes so far as to stand up in the buggy, clearly angling for a good shot for Scrambles, as he opens fire on the fleeing enemies, clipping their driver for a little more damage.
From behind the buggies, a huge roar overwhelms the engines and gunfire. There are now four massive tentacles visible, thrashing mightily on the ground as whatever was buried beneath the sands fights to rise to the surface.
The dwarf floors his engine, intent on putting as much distance between the creature and himself.
However, Kindu's shot causes him to swerve erratically and he loses most of his speed trying to recover. "You idiots! You'll just get us all killed!!" he yells at the party's buggies as he attempts the same manuever again.
He manages to take off, the buggy careening from dune to dune as he tears away.
Dwarf: -17 HP
Kasatha:
Vesk:
Ysoki:
Jink adjusts his seat while bouncing along, he floors the gas in an attempt to close on the other buggy. He doesn't initially manage to get the seat in the right place though, and flooring the buggy throws him somewhat out of control. He quickly gets sorted though and closes the distance
Nilan grits his teeth and accelerates
Blask, reloads the Shirren Eye Rifle with another round. He takes careful aim once more and fires another round at the dwarf driving by the buggy.
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Caloo eyes the huge tentacles bursting from the sand, and then the buggy of the party's would-be murderers.
"You don't have to outrun the mountain eel," Caloo recites the old maxim, "just the slowest prey." He then whirls his hand-things about and mutters unintelligibly, casting Grease on the steering wheel held by the dwarf.