Callidus moves forward, but stays a good 15 feet from the bodies. He examines the area to see if a Numenera based trap or security mechanism is at work here.
Trained
He also calls out to the injured man, "Sir ... can you hear me?"
Galahad remains aware and stealthy.
Trained
Amadeus runs forward any catches up to Callidus. While he attends to the wounded man, Aadeus will stay alert for any sign of the attacker.
Balon takes a few steps forward, then halts hastily when he sees the caution Amadeus and Callidus are displaying. "He looks in bad shape..." he comments.
Callidus moves forward, but stays a good 15 feet from the bodies. He examines the area to see if a Numenera based trap or security mechanism is at work here.
[Dice=Understand Function]1d20 Trained
He also calls out to the injured man, "Sir ... can you hear me?"
You detect no Numenera based traps or security mechanisms.
There is no answer from the injured man.
Nasir turns to his skills in crime scene investigation and starts looking for possible causes.
Tracking- trained:
Perception- trained:
Galahad remains aware and stealthy.
1d20 Trained
You gracefully sneak forward.
Amadeus runs forward any catches up to Callidus. While he attends to the wounded man, Aadeus will stay alert for any sign of the attacker.
As you tend to the wounded man, you only see a single puncture wound into his abdomen. Interestingly enough, there is almost no blood and the wound itself is almost completely healed over.
Balon takes a few steps forward, then halts hastily when he sees the caution Amadeus and Callidus are displaying. "He looks in bad shape..." he comments.
Balon reaches out with his mind and makes contact with the wounded man..."Your mind is my mind...your thoughts are my thoughts..."
You receive a blur of images...entering the structure with a group...seeing a man pulled up to the low ceiling and drained of his blood in the first room, the large room with the plants, a room full of partially dissected bodies, and then a 'monster' that ripped through his friends tearing and biting and ripping...then nothingness...
Nasir turns to his skills in crime scene investigation and starts looking for possible causes.
Tracking- trained: 1d20
Perception- trained: 1d20
Applying all your skills and training you're unable to determine what or where the danger is or comes from. Looking closer at the massacre scene and putting the pieces together you realize that there are no missing body parts so whatever killed this men it didn't take any parts to use as food.
Balon's mouth is set in a thin, grim line. "Whatever killed these men is an ambush predator that feeds on blood. It attacked them..." he glances upward at the ceiling. "From above. They appear to have found its lair and run afoul of its appetite. Keep your eyes on the ceiling, friends." he glances around uncertainly, then looks back to Amadeus. "This man means us no harm. If we can, we should try to get him awake. Anyone know first aid?"
"We need to get done and get out of here man ... do whatever patching you can and let's get moving ... heck, maybe if we leave this little snack-pack behind it will leave us alone for a little longer."
We came down here to find the missing people. I don't know if this is who we were sent to find, but we need to get him out of here. Na..... drit. No, we can't. What if it follows us back to the surface? We can't have it unleashed on the village.
This is terribly unsettling. We need to find a way to seal the furnace back up as well, but one thing at a time.
Callidus moves forward beyond the man to inspect the situation farther down the hall, attempting to ascertain our safety while we futz around with the wounded man ... his real objective to get the scene out of his line of sight.
Can we even move him safely? Balon wonders to himself. He checks the extent of the man's wounds and how critical his condition is.
Can we even move him safely? Balon wonders to himself. He checks the extent of the man's wounds and how critical his condition is.
1d20
1=Galahad
2=Callidus
3=Amadeus
4=Nasir
You all stand round for a bit looking down at the poor soul lying unconscious on the floor in front of you. Callidus wanders a bit down the hall to get away from the macabre scene.
Finally, Balon kneels down to check the extent of the man's wounds. Cutting his shirt away from his torso, you see that the man's abdomen has become shockingly distended. Putting the desire to help before a sense of self-preservation Balon moves his head even closer to the abdomen intrigued by the puzzle. Suddenly, the man wakes and cries out in overwhelming pain and fear "It's eating me! GET IT OUT!!" Balon watches in horror as two worm-like creatures burst through the man's stomach covering Balon with blood and gore. Immediately, one of the worms launches itself at Balon with stunning speed. The other launches itself at Amadeus.
-2 speed
Minus 2 speed.
[dice=Speed Defense, effort, shield]1d20
Minus 2 speed.
Amadeus interposes his shield neatly between himself and the frenzied worm. He is able to use his shield to fling the worm against the wall where it hits with a splat and falls to the ground stunned.
[dice=DEFINITELY EFFORT YES]1d20
-2 speed
Just before the moray eel like mouth of the foot long worm can reach your throat you manage to grab it with both hands. It struggles mightily in your group. Even as you watch in horror a smaller version of the worm extends out of the mouth of the bigger one reaching ever closer to your jugulars.
If Galahad could, he would like to aid Balon in defending himself. He is specialized in speed defense and trained in pickpocketing. perhaps maybe snatch it from his hands, or quickly twist the head off, or cut it off with his sword? If not, I understand.
Even as Balon struggles to hold the worm (and the worm within the worm) away from the soft skin of his throat, Galahad springs into action and slices the worm in half barely missing taking a finger off of Balon's hand. The bisected beast falls from Balon's suddenly limp hands and land on the floor next to him.
"DIE, YOU DISGUSTING THING!" Balon cries, firing an Onslaught at the two pieces on the floor next to him. It may be dead after being cut in half - it may not.
The two pieces were in fact not dead but they are helpless against your attack. You see them twist and writhe for a moment before ending up as burnt black blobs of worm on the floor next you.
Nasir tries to skewer the stunned worm with his verred.
Thrust attack:
Amadeus will go and step on the one that attacked him, igniting his fire while he has it pinned.
Nasir tries to skewer the stunned worm with his verred.
Thrust attack: 1d20
You manage to cut the worm in half.
Amadeus will go and step on the one that attacked him, igniting his fire while he has it pinned.
Amadeus stands on the two pieces of worm created by Nasir's attack. With a thought, he becomes a man on fire. You hear snapping and crackling sounds from under his boots and then nothing. Amadeus stepping back reveals charred worm remains with no signs of life.
Parasitic Pit Feind
"I've never seen these before... these... Rib-Chewers... Chest-impregnators..... Thorax-maggots.... Whatever they are."
That's unsettling. There are bound to be more around, and they must have come from something. I think we ought to try and find and destroy the others.
"Gut snakes?"
"Gut Rotter ... hmmm ... Tummy Beast!", Callidus says, resorting to black humor to stay sane.
"Gross..little..stomach...biters...worms..." Balon mutters. His recent brush with a disgusting demise has caused his wit to flee him.
Your minds are all invaded by a voice that you haven't heard in a whille..."Have you all heard the story of the Harrowing of Heartwood? Happened back in the 5th or 6th age...horrible, horrible story." says Boregal.
Amadeus winces, not used to telepathy aside from Balon. Do you think it has anything to do with these little critters?
"It's sad how much knowledge has been lost as the Ages pass." Boregal slowly orbits above your heads. Even though it's impossible you think that the disembodied brain looks incredibly unhappy.
"The Harrowing of Heartwood...now you need to understand that these events would have happened tens of thousands of years before I was born so may be nothing more than legends told to frighten children of evil from the sky."
Boregal stately orbit around your heads stops as he halts in front of you before continuing his tale. "The Heartwood was the greatest nature preserve ever created. It covered the entirety of a continent sized island. Technology controlled the climate so different zones could be created so that all of the animals could live in comfort. Humans did not intrude but could virtually visit using 4-D technology. Scientists had even cloned extinct animals returning them to the world. No wars were fought for hundreds of years as all countries settled disputes by calling on the spirits of the Heartwood. It was one of the most glorious times in human history."
Boregal resumes his orbit a bit more erratically than normal. "Then the SEEDSHIPS came. Looking back it's obvious that they knew to target the undefended Heartwood. Scientists thought that they were meteors at first but almost immediately electronic surveillance of the Heartwood was lost. Teams of scientists went in but communication with them was also lost. Finally, soldiers were sent. They found the Heartwood almost completely devoid of life, that is earth-based life. What they found was desiccated remains of human and animals and billions and billions of worm like creatures. The worms turned their attention to the soldiers. The soldiers tried to fight back but there were so many worms and they swarmed so fast. Then they started evolving, different worms would merge together to create new creatures. Intelligent creatures that controlled their cousins telepathically. The soldiers were overwhelmed. The smart worms starting building flying machines to take the fight to the rest of the world. The countries had no choice, they unleashed every weapon of mass destruction they had starting with hydrogen bombs and going up. The worms though had built some sort of shielding to protect their island. Finally, the earth peoples turned a giant asteroid against their own planet. Crashing into Heartwood island it ended the worm threat but also resulted in the deaths of billions of humans and ended the 5th age in a blaze of unimaginable destruction."
Boregal stops in front of you one last time. "In my day, there was a tale that a single damaged worm flying ship managed to escape and crashed somewhere on earth. No one ever found traces of that mystery ship so it's almost certainly just a legend but seeing these worms here brings the story back to my mind."
Balon goes pale at the recitation of the story, and glances down at the thing lying in pieces on the floor. "And you think these might be the same creatures? From that many aeons ago?"
"I know not friend Balon. Remember this was all a legend by my time. If these are the same creatures, if they are not destroyed immediately before they can spawn then likely no force in the 9th world could stop them."
"Truthfully, you could have told me that they fart rainbows and giggling babies. I'd still want to kill them all after they jumped and bit at me like that. Creepy little freaks. If they're a potential end-of-the-world threat, well, so much the better." Balon grumbles.
"So, we must kill these world-eaters where we see them. Are the wounds with these other soldiers consistent with having been eaten by them?"
Amadeus nods gravely. I'll take point. Callidus you're behind me to help with seeing things. Hound, you're in the middle. Then Balon, Galahad you're in the back. If you see any don't hold back, we don't leave until they're either jelly or crispy, got it?
"let's nuke the entire site from orbit ... It's the only way to be sure ... Or, yeah ok, right behind you ... Good plan as well."
You push forward down the corridor. It continues straight ahead, unadorned in anywat. After a few hundred feet you find yourself in front of a massive door filling the corridor and blocking your path forward. The door appears to be made of an unknown metallic alloy. There is a flat, unlit glass panel set next to the door.
Expecting the panel to be a touch panel, facial/retinal scanner or some such device Callidus inspects the door and panel to see how we may gain entry.