Gregory continues to jump around the room ,doing his best to destroy another poltergeist.
Gregory pounces on the last geist.
|
...and with that, the last poltergeist is destroyed.
A thorough search of the room reveals the following:
43 silverdiscs
A heavy hollow cylinder, which appears to have a shoulder mount, and a triggering mechanism.
Three grenades.
A small, pod-shaped device on a tripod.
A bright red plastic cylinder, 6 inches wide and 2 feet long.
A small, 2-foot-long egg-shaped device, with a button at the tapered end.
Three small cubes of a soft, neon-green, clay-like substance.
Gregory easily identifies the grenades, and the emergency beacon, but is unable to venture a guess on the weapon, or the strange plastic things.
Nevertheless, he crates them up, before moving back through the door, and on to the room to the East.
Gregory wisely decides to leave the fluids alone, and backs out into the corridor, before going into the room to the South.
|
|
The air in this compartment is choking and stale. The dust here is inches think - nothing has disturbed this area in years. To the west, the wall is partially crushed and melted, leaving a five foot wide, two foot tall gap that opens into another chamber beyond. Four large coffin-shaped objects made of glass and metal sit against the walls - one to the north, and three to the south. The northern pod and the central southern pod are partially broken. Each contains a skeleton clad in fragments of strange, bulky armor.
The other two southern pods appear to be only slightly damaged. Inside are a human male and a human male, clad in the same bulk armor. Both seem to be perfectly preserved - allowing the determination that they are of an unknown ethnicity with dusky skin, reddish hair, and delicate features.
The air is thick with a rancid scent, like old meat gone bad.
Gregory gives a low whistle.
"I wonder how long these bodies have been here? They look so well preserved - perhaps Gentle Repose? If so, they could probably be raised; I wonder what they would have to say..."
So saying, he moves to give the pods a closer look.
|
|
Suddenly, Gregory is surrounded by a howling cacophony of screaming voices. Both intact pods crack open, and the bodies inside step out... but as they do so, they swiftly decay, their flesh cracking and rotting, until only skeletons remain, clad in broken suits of armor. Blue-white light glows in their hate-filled eyes as they focus their attention upon Gregory.
In tandem with this, the stink in the room, which had previously been simply intolerable, instead becomes wholly unbearable.
Gregory manages to retain control of his stomach, and pounces on one of the skeletons.
Wincing, Gregory retaliates the only way he knows how to.
|
|
Gregory's first attack fractures several ribs, before continuing on and shattering its spine, and it falls to the ground, the light in its eyes dying.
He then turns around and bites the other skeleton.
The remaining skeleton continues its assault...
...but without any ally to aid it, it is far less effective.
Round 3: Gregory(-8), Skeleton(-9)
Gregory, emboldened, attempts to finish-off the injured skeleton.
Gregory breathes a sigh of relief, and, after restoring his shielding...
...squeezes through the gap in the wall.
|
|
Squeezing through the gap, Gregory finds himself in front of a door with a card reader beside it; however, this one does not have the familiar red light next to it illuminated, and swiping any of the access cards that he has does not have any effect.
Gregory pulls out his tools, and attempts to open the door.
|
|
After several minutes of work, Gregory manages to force the doors open. As soon as he does so, a blast of stale, foul-smelling air hisses out of the chamber.
A massive black window, spiderwebbed with hundreds of cracks, graces the western wall of this chamber, half-buried under rubble and twisted metal. Curved consoles of strange controls line the walls, with three chairs made of an unidentifiable off-white material facing them. A figure dressed in red fabric of an unusually fine weave sits slumped over the console in the westernmost chair.
As fresh air fills the bridge, these remains slump and slowly crumble away until nothing remains but a few brittle bones and a pile of dust within the armor. As this takes place, Gregory becomes suddenly overwhelmed with a series of powerful visions - flashes of emotion mixed with the sound of screaming and explosions, sudden feelings of vertigo, and the conviction that gravity has gone mad.
More alarming even than this, however, is that as the body crumbles away, a seething vortex of shadows and crimson dust rises up, coalescing into a vaguely humanoid shape with long, thin fingers that wisp away into smoke. This figure cries out in despair and pain as it drifts forward to attack.
Round 1: Gregory, W
Gregory manages to retain his feet...
..and quickly identifies the wraith, which causes the color to drain from his face.
Oh, s*#~.
Resolute, he pounces forward.
Gregory manages to fight off the creature's attempt to drain his life force, and responds with a frenzied assault of his own!
Gregory snarls in rage and pain as he feels his life-force draining away!
Gregory manages to resist the assault upon his life force.
Gregory cries out in pain and fear, as he feels more of his life-force drain away.
+++Error: Power Core Reaching Critical Nadir Point. System Failing. Recommend Reboot.
His suit's power-output fluctuating wildly, Gregory does the only thing he can do: Retreat!
Sobbing, Gregory shakily pulls out his wand, and restores his flickering shielding...
...before stumbling drunkenly back to Dinvaya's place.
|
|
Dinvaya is perfectly happy to use the Scroll for Gregory, and is quite interested to hear his tale, and glance over the items that he found.
"Interesting... It sounds like the crew never made it out alive, and their tortured spirits still haunt the vessel. Perhaps if you put all of them to rest, it would make a difference?"
When shown the items that Gregory was unable to identify, she nods, casting a spell, and looks them over.
"Huh. This is an Emergency Raft, and that is an Emergency Shelter. Both useful when you are in trouble. That cylinder-object is a grenade launcher, but it has seen better days. Ooo! Cylex! This can be a lot of fun - this stuff is a powerful explosive, but don't worry - you either need a detonator box, or a fair whack of electricity, to set it off."
Gregory pockets the Cylex, but is perfectly happy to sell the priest the other items that he has found.
He then heads back to the wreck, to try and finish-off the wraith.
"Not again!"
Gregory feels his suit's motive force being disrupted. In a panic, he lashes out wildly at the wraith!
|
|
This time, Gregory manages to shred the wraith's dust and smoke form, and with a final wail, it disappears.
The oppressive weight that had been bearing down upon Gregory ever since he entered the vessel suddenly lifts, and when he peers outside, he discovers to his surprise that the fog has completely burned away.
Searching the forward chamber reveals the following:
A gun-like object with a small dish where the end of the barrel should be.
The finely-woven strange red suit.
What appears to be some kind of, for want of a better word, muzzle, made of a strange, silvery metal.
A fine silvery web of incredible strong metal 'thread', at the base of which is a small rectangle with an input 'slot'
A length of crystal about the size of a human thumb that is adorned at one end by a metal cap fitted with prongs and plugs. The crystal's interior contains sparkling veins of glittering light.
"Huh. So, a device to mess with an opponent's mind. Useful, but it doesn't seem to have weather the test of time particularly well."
"Ah! A scatterlight suit. This could prove useful if I encounter any more robots."
Gregory immediately changes his armor.
Looking at the muzzle, he shrugs.
"No idea. Why would a crewman be muzzled?"
"Huh. A skillslot. Useless without a chip, though..."
Faced with the final object, all Gregory can do is shrug.
"This item is beyond anything I have ever seen before... Perhaps Dinvaya will know."
Crating up his finds, Gregory then heads back to the eccentric Brigh-worshiper.
+++Stage VI Integration Achieved. Chameleonware Online+++
Mindful of what happened yesterday, Gregory is quite glad that he now has a stealth mode.
Once he has completed his morning meditation exercises, he goes to see what progress Dinvaya has made.
|
|
Dinvaya's eyes light up when she sees Gregory.
"Ah! There you are. I must say, the things that you brought me were quite fascinating. I was unable to make any progress with the crystal, until I happened upon what the other object was - an 'Envoy's Mouthpiece', which is a device that translates one specific language into another (and vice versa). It can also keep a record of what the wearer says."
So saying, she pushes a near-invisible button of the side of the 'muzzle', causing a tiny voice speaking a melodic (but otherwise incomprehensible) language to seem to blossom out of thin air.
Dinvaya makes a gesture of apology, when she sees Gregory's confusion.
"Ah right. The language is known as Androffan, and is what the crew of this ship spoke many thousands of years ago. Here," she says, pulling out a pencil and some paper, "Let me transcribe it for you..."
She then reverently lifts up the small crystal.
"This, my friend, is a priceless technological artefact known as a Memory Crystal - a device which can be used to modify the programming of sentient machine intelligences, which are known as 'AIs'. More specifically, based on what Captain Valako said, I would infer that this is an inhibitor facet, which can be used to temporarily 'off-line' the processes of such an AI - a mighty fine ace to have up your sleeve in a pinch! Of course, I would love to hold onto it, but I imagine that you will want to hang onto it yourself..."
Gregory gently pries the memory facet from Dinvaya's (only slightly resisting) hands.
"Thank-you. I think I will hold onto this. I would be happy to part with practically everything else that I found in that vessel, however..."
Once the transactions are completed, Gregory decides to go on his way: This time, to strike fear into the hearts of the 'Lords of Rust'...
|
|
An enormous battlefield sprawls here - a fighting arena that measures several hundred feet in diameter, ringed by mounds of junk and refuse, stacked in tiers for seating. The ring has an arched opening in its westernmost end to allow access to the arena, while against the eastern side, a large metallic structure akin to a squat tower protrudes from the hard-packed earth. A wooden stairway wraps around the tower's sides, and a twenty foot tall stage protrudes from its western facade, overlooking the arena below.
As Gregory strides across the arena, a loud chucking can be heard coming from the stage.
"Well now, fresh meat!"
With a snarl, a horrific troll, wielding a spear-gun leaps from the platform, landing on the ground below.
"Time to go hunting!"
The troll then fires its spear-gun at Gregory...
...and is very surprised when it bounces off his shielding.
"Huh. You will be a tough one to digest..."
Round 1: Troll, Gregory
Without another word, Gregory pounces on the troll.
|
|
Gregory manages to land two solid blows, but the troll's wounds immediately start to heal with horrifying rapidity.
The troll grins toothily.
"Well, if you want to make it personal..."
Dropping its gun, it then tries to rend Gregory to pieces.
However, much to its surprise, it only manages to land one blow.
Round 2: Troll(-19), Gregory(-9)
Gregory continues his frenzied assault.
Gregory grins.
"Time to die!"
|
|
In a sickening display of pure fury, Gregory tears into the troll, ripping its belly open.
However, the troll simply scoops its gut back up, and shoves them back in; seconds later, its belly is whole again.
"Fool! It is you who will die here, but I promise that it will not be a slow death..."
It backs up this claim by dragging a claw across Gregory's shielding, causing sparks to fly.
Round 4: Troll(-57), Gregory(-19)