In a final burst of energy, Gregory tries to take out the Yah-Thelgaad.
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In an absolute frenzy, Gregory rips into the Yah-Thelgaad, tearing strips of flesh from the beast.
It sways in agony, then floats back, and concentrates...
It then fires a devastating green beam at Gregory.
The Neh-Thalggu then continue their furious assault...
...and this time, one manages a glancing blow.
Round 5: Gregory(-63), Y(-180), Neh-Thalggu(-, -, -, -)
+++Error: System Approaching Overload. Warning: Biofeedback Will Be Initiated To Prevent System-Wide Collapse+++
Forced to slow down, Gregory still does his best to finish off the Yah-Thelgaad, before it has a chance to toss out any more disintegration beams...
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Gregory's first blow leaves the Yah-Thelgaad staggered.
His second sends it the ground, as he punches it straight through its main ganglion.
Turning his attention to the Neh-Thalggus, He delivers a series of punishing blows, horrifically injuring one of them.
All four Neh-Thalggus seem slightly shaken, but this does not prevent them from continuing their frantic attack.
However, none manage to land a blow.
Round 6: Gregory(-80), Neh-Thalggu(-80, -, -, -)
Feeling much more confident now the Disintegrate-throwing creature is gone, Gregory redoubles his efforts to obliterate the crabs!
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Gregory rips apart one crab with two claws, then rends his way into the flank of a second.
Seeing that melee is not working particularly well, the three remaining Neh-Thalggu float back, and try magic...
...hissing in satisfaction when their spells work spectacularly well.
Round 7: Gregory(-117), Neh-Thalggu(-70, -, -)
+++Error: Overload Threshold Reached. System Protection Protocols Engaged To Prevent Catastrophic Collapse. Biofeedback Initiated+++
Staggering under the volleys of force missiles, Gregory frantically tries to thin the herd...
Becoming increasingly alarmed by the punishment that he is taking, Gregory pounces on a Neh-Thalggu!
"DIE!"
Gregory attempts to turn the injured one into crab paste.
"Oh no you don't!"
Gregory pounces on the remaining alien crab.
Feeling increasingly drained and light-headed himself, Gregory frantically tries to finish off the Neh-Thalggu, before he loses consciousness himself.
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Gregory tears open the main carapace, and buries his jaws deep inside the creature's vital organs.
It spasms pathetically for a few seconds, before crashing to the ground, quite dead.
A thorough search of the room does not turn up any valuables, but Gregory is mildly disturbed to see that, every so often, out of the corner of his eye, he seems to words in Aklo rolling across the surface of the floor, but never anything that he can quite make out...
Swaying slightly, Gregory settles down to heal himself, and restore his shielding, before trying his luck on the Valve to the east, back in the central corridor.
The AI must be around here somewhere...
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The polished floor of this chamber is decorated with a complex symbol etched into the stone. The symbol has been stained an ochre hue and depicts an unnerving tangle of tentacle shapes.
At the far end of the room sits a low platform of dark brown metal supporting a one-inch-thick pad of yellow glass.
Of more immediate concern, however, are the four Ugothokras which rear up, and hiss, as soon as they see Gregory.
Round 1: Gregory, Ugothokra(-, -, -, -)
Damn. It looks like I will need to 'trade up' my door opener...
Gregory then pounces on one of the spider-bots.
Unperturbed, Gregory attempts to rip-up another spider.
Gregory keeps wading through arachnids.
Feeling a lot more confident, Gregory tries to finish-off the injured one.
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With three solid punches, Gregory squashes the injured Urgothokra against the floor, spraying ichor everywhere.
He then bites the last one.
For its part, it titters angrily, and then unleashes another barrage.
However, much to its dismay, it does not manage a single hit.
Round 5: Gregory(-5), Ugothokra(-17)
Gregory tries to squash the last arachnid.
"Finally!"
After topping up his shielding...
...Gregory heads back to the Yah-Thelgaad corpse, and retrieves a limb that he can use to activate the Teleporter.
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As soon as Gregory touches the Teleporter with the severed limb, he feels himself dissolving away, as if millions of tiny mouths were chewing him up into miniscule pieces, which drift away on a soundless breeze through a featureless void. For a split second, he feels like he is floating through a sea populated with billions of eyes, which are all looking *directly* at him...
...and then the moment passes, and he finds himself in one piece, in an entirely different location.
The walls of this room are made of cut stone polished to a mirror-like sheen. On one side of the room sits a low platform of dark brown metal supporting a one-inch-thick pad of yellow glass. The floor is etched with a tentacle-like symbol. A bulky, organic machine sits on this symbol, its numerous branch-like arms extending forth to attach to a framework of chitin and bone. This frame itself contains a small object: a sheet of semi-translucent blue material, ten inches wide and twenty inches long in a frame of black and coppery metal. The image of a beautiful woman, her face contorted into an expression of agony, is visible within the blue sheet, her mouth gaping in a silent scream.
However, Gregory barely has a chance to get his bearing before the machine unwraps from the chitin-and-bone, rises up to its full 20' height, and moves menacingly towards Gregory...
Round 1: Gregory, FG
Okay. Bad stuff happens when you get hit. Noted.
Gregory pounces on the golem!
Gregory keeps up his frenetic assault.
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This time, Gregory only manages to connect twice, but between the force of his blows and the electrical discharges that go with them, he manages to crack several large segments of bone.
The golem, emotionlessly and unintelligently, continues to try to slam Gregory...
...but continues to have no luck.
Round 3: Gregory, FG(-67)
Therace pipes up.
"Is... Is that an AI core? Is that what you came here for?"
"Not now, Therace!"
Gregory returns his full attention to the golem currently trying to kill him.
Taking a deep breath, Gregory calms himself, and attempts to break apart the golem.
Gregory continues to focus on breaking the golem up into inert fragments.
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A series of well-placed blows sends the construct reeling... and then Gregory delivers an almighty wallop to its central carapace, causing it to crack apart into half-a-dozen fragments.
It holds together for several seconds, and then collapses to the ground, pieces of fossilised bone clattering across the floor.
Gregory breathes a sigh of relief.
"NOW we can go and have a look at the AI..."
He moves over to where the AI is, and gently attempts to free it from the bone-and-chitin carapace that it is held by.
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Gregory is easily able to chip away the chitin holding the AI core in place.
As soon as he removes it, the image goes blank for a few seconds, then comes back, the woman's expression now free of the pain it showed earlier.
"I know you not, but I recognize you as akin to what I once was: A person . I am Casandalee, a prisoner here, most dreadfully inconvenienced until now by these worshipers of Emptiness. You have done more than rescue a prisoner though, friend, you have enabled your own survival. Silver Mount harbors a monstrous force. It must be stopped before it can escape, and with your aid and my advice, we can achieve this goal. We must achieve it. I worshiped Unity once, but now it must be destroyed."
Gregory nods.
"Pleased to meet you, Casandalee. Believe it or not, I actually came here looking for you... and it has been a long journey. Come on - let's get out of here; I have a feeling that we are going to have a lot to discuss..."
A thought then occurs to him.
"Oh, by the way, this," he says, waving the brain cylinder in front of the AI, "is Therace. He ran afoul of some intelligent extra-terrestrial plants called 'Mi-go'."
So saying, he picks her up in one of his claws, reactivates his chameleonware, and then bugs out.
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Gregory easily makes it back to Torch.
Khonnir is extremely interested to hear about Gregory's explorations within the Scar, and is utterly fascinated by Casandalee's AI Core.
"Imagine the possibilities inherent in being able to upload your mind as an AI..."
When informed that the goal is to enter Silver Mount, he shakes his head.
"That will be difficult; The Technic League jealously guards every conceivable access point. However... if they were in disarray, the confusion might give you enough of an opportunity to sneak in. I recommend going to Starfall, and finding the current leader of the League - a man by the name of Ozmyn Zaidow. If he were to be assassinated, the subsequent infighting between the surviving League Captains would be the perfect cover to get inside - not to mention that he probably has access to significant information about the Silver Mount - The League has been studying it for quite some time, after all..."
Realising that invading the stronghold of the League will require careful planning (and contingencies for what to do when things get... problematic), Gregory spends some time sorting stuff out.
In Summary:
- Get the Thoracic Nanite Chamber installed.
- Visit to Chesed to go shopping (including, amongst other things, acquiring a Scroll of Create Demiplane, Lesser; and a Scroll of Permanency, as well as upgrading my Amulet to Bane[Construct])
- Acquire Strands of hair from Khonnir and Dinvaya.
- Use the Scrolls to create a Demiplane, which will act as a private sanctum / bolt hole.
- Create Simulacra of Khonnir and Dinvaya, and install them in the demiplane
Once that is all sorted out, Sneak into Starfall under the cloak of Chameleonware, and seek out the leader of the Technic League.
Once he has been ganked, Plane Shift the hell out of there, taking the man's body with him, to avoid the nasty possibility of him being raised.
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Dinvaya and Khonnir are happy to give Gregory several hairs, although they are a little puzzled about the whole thing.
Gregory's Demiplane construction is able to proceed smoothly.
When Gregory is ready to set out for Starfall, Khonnir is able to offer him some advice.
"Be careful. Technically, all technological artifacts within the borders of Starfall are the property of the Technic League, so you will attract a *lot* of attention, fast."
The combination of 24/7 flight and overland stealth means that Gregory is able to complete the journey to Starfall unhindered.
En-route, however, Therace is able to give Gregory a reasonable run-down of the Technic League compound:
"There is one main entrance, guarded by laser turrets, but they are usually just for show - they are only powered-up in an emergency. The building to the northeast is where the apprentices live, whilst the central complex is the home of the Captains, as well as housing the better-stocked research labs. Traditionally, the current leader lives in the tower within the central building."
Starfall is a massive city, shrouded by a haze of smog, and surrounded by high walls, patrolled regular by flying robots. The main entrance for pedestrian traffic is via the Sovereign's Gate, an imposing affair guarded by a quartet of heavily-upgraded Gearsmen, each wielding halberd-like weapons, which crackle with electricity.
As each new arrival presents themselves, they dispassionately ask if they have any technological items to declare, before charging a silverdisc toll, and allowing the new arrival inside.
Fortunately, Gregory is able to silently float through the gates following immediately behind one such new arrival.
The streets of Starfall are crowded and dingy, the ever-present smog clouding visibility beyond a hundred feet or so. Most people just seem to be trying to survive - there is clearly a lot of hunger, and despair, amongst the general populace. However, it is also abundantly clear, based on the way that the robotic patrols that periodically sweep the street are given a wide berth, that everyone is terrified of the emotionless robots that serve the League.
The Technic League compound is easy to recognise - smooth glaucite walls rise a good 20' into the air, topped by battlements encrusted with sensors, and patrolled by junior league members, as well as heavily-upgraded gearsmen.
The only ground-level entrance into the Technic League compound is via a gate of gray metal built into a twenty-foot-high wall made of the same material. Atop the wall is a five-foot-wide walkway that encompasses the entire complex, attaching in several spots to outbuildings. The approach to this gate is lined with a strange series of what look like flowers sculpted from discarded metal and broken technological devices.
Fortunately, Gregory is not limited to this, and is easily able to fly over the wall without anyone being the wiser.
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At the north of the compound is a muddy, open-air stockyard, which currently contains six small, six-legged, golden-furred, badger-like creatures, which intermittently scratch speculatively at the walls of their glaucite prison, without causing any damage.
East of this is a single-story building worked into the exterior wall, from which junior League periodically leave, and re-enter.
"That's where the initiates live. Usually, the most junior League Captain is responsible for maintaining the dormitory, so I doubt Ozmyn will be there."
South of this, and likewise worked into the exterior wall, is a twenty-foot-diameter platform, which rises thirty feet off the ground. Several needle-like spires fitted with blinking lights extend from machinery on the platform, the circumference of which is surrounded by a five-foot-tall metal palisade.
More alarmingly, it is guarded by a large, vaguely-humanoid flying robot, with two unsettling tentacles where its 'mouth' should be, which turns to face Gregory as he approaches! Wisely, Gregory backs off, and the robot returns to its regular patrol.
"Those are the signal boosters - they allow the League to communicate with their agents across Numeria."
South and west of this area are several sheds and silos (each of which has a porthole in the side, which shows that they are filled with a variety of fluids and gases), and a large building topped by five smoking chimneys, from which echoes a low rumble.
"That's the foundry."
The central building itself, which rises two stories, and is topped by a tower which rises a further two stories beyond that, looms over the rest of the complex, although its forbidding appearance is somewhat detracted from by the large piles of technological garbage which are piled haphazardly around it.
Gregory heads straight for the front door, waits for someone else to open it, and then sneaks in.
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Therace quietly whispers to Gregory:
"Now remember, the door to the south of the main room on ground level leads to the guest rooms, the door to the east leads to the production lab, and the door north leads to the data core. You want to head up the stairs to the next level."
After about a quarter-of-an-hour, an apprentice comes hurrying out of the main entrance, and Gregory is able to quietly sneak in.
Trophies harvested from various technological wonders, machines, and creatures decorate the walls of this large chamber. The walls and floor of the room are plated in metal, while harsh lighting glares from panels in the ceiling above.
A total of eight upgraded gearsmen stand to attention at various positions about the room - two in front of each of the doors (north, east, and south), and one in front of each staircase (one going up, one going down).
Unfortunately, despite their vigilance, none manage to spot Gregory...
Grinning, Gregory quietly floats forward over the head of the gearsman at the bottom of the staircase, and then heads upstairs.