Esh's shot does the expected damage.
Quinn continues firing her laser.
Top of Round 3
Isis shoots at it. for electricity damage plus for trick attack damage.
Catching the attack on a thick section of armour plating, Sharlavaka snarled and attacked back again. Long, armoured claws with worryingly needle-esque points hunted for a weakness in the enemies armour.
Between Isis' sneaky attacks and Sharlavaka's brute force, the giant centipede-like beast is finally brought down.
Irina runs a medical scanner over Sharlavaka.
"Mostly just surface damage. You should be okay," she notes, staunching any minor bleeding wounds the Vesk sustained.
As you continue downward, the land becomes more and more cut off from the surface light, and the air takes on an eerie green-purple hue. The life that has developed here, an oasis from the over-developed technology of the surface, is alien and different from the mechanical life of Aballon.
After about another hour, you come across your first confirmation that you're on the right track; a section of jet wing is lodged into a tree overhanging the trail.
Nodding at Irina's assessment, Shalravaka replied, "Minor surface burns and abrasions. Armour took worst of it. Already healing. Thank you for concern."
Finding the damage fighter wing made Sharlavaka click in annoyance. "Hope we had not paid for that one." He looked around, seeing if there any hints of what happened. Like more fragments nearby, or the pilot. Even the angle of damage to the trees could tell them if it came from above, or if it crashed while flying out. And how old it was. If this crash site was more than a few days it was likely nothing to do with them.
Isis: Perception , Engineering
Well, it definitely came in from above, though the angle of descent is less obvious than it should be due to a rubbery quality some of the plantlife seems to possess. It is POSSIBLE it was attempting a landing when it crashed.
The ambassador's signal is coming from quite a bit further down, though you still have a tough time telling how far, exactly. So, obviously the cabin wound up dropping quite a ways.
Give me an athletics check for climbing during the next hour of travel. The climbing is getting a bit more difficult at this point.
Isis climbs down. Athletics
It seemed odd that it came from above - perhaps an attacker, rather than a defender? Whatever was happening here it seemed like someone had decided to put the entrepreneur into a grave. He began to suspect there was going to be a lot of dead people down below.
Keeping his objectiona to a minimum, the fairly outnof shape elf continued his pace as he msde his way downward. Always at the back of his mind was an emergency casting of flight to save him from a brutal fall-related death.
Athletics:
Athletics:
Disaster! As you're working your way down a long ravine, Quinn slips on an icy rock and loses grip on the rope. She drops all the way down to the edge of the ravine and flies off, hitting a tree about 30' down.
Isis and Esh are the first ones to make it safely down to the next section of trail.
This was why they needed to use gang ropes, so Sharlavaka could anchor the less climby in the group. He continued down as fast as he could manage to see how much was left of the captain.
Isis suggested "I have a grapple gun and line. I can descend first and fire it up to the rest of the group so we don't have this in the future."
His eye twitched. "We've been at this for hours. If you told us this sooner I could've been floating down. For us all with that and saving everyone the threat of impending death."
"I know, my bad. Let's just concern ourselves with the future." Isis checks Quinn for injuries. "How do you feel?" Perception
Isis suggested "I have a grapple gun and line. I can descend first and fire it up to the rest of the group so we don't have this in the future."
Isis manages to grab Quinn, who's not severely injured (mostly if not totally SP), and climbs back to the trail with her.
Irina inspects the Captain as a professional, and treats her wounds:
Medicine:
"Fortunately, no broken bones," she smiles at Quinn. "You'll feel better once you walk it off."
The day is starting to fade the lower you go, and while you have artificial light, it might cause you to miss something crucial while climbing. On the other hand, the angle of the rocks to your side are lessening; soon, you might be able to move among the trees and almost slide your way down.
Do you want to continue using the natural "trails" or try to take a quicker route? Does anyone want to perform other actions to inform this decision?
Sharlavaka looked down the quicker path. He'd rather laser anything in the way than keep climbing, but it wasn't his call.
If you go down the incline, you'll basically be slide/climbing, but there are so many trees, it's not like you'd fall far. The path itself is clearer, but also much much longer, having to orbit the hole several times and keep looking for easy ways between striations.
Cons of staying on the path: slow, eventually have to climb some anyway,
more chances of an encounter
Cons of sliding: chance of scrapes and bruises, maybe poison flora/fauna (though your suits should protect you from such), if you have to fight here, it could be rough.
Isis immediately slides down the hill. Athletics check . Since this is sliding, her Acrobatics are much more favorable. She does have low light and darkvision.
Sharlavaka started as Isis suddenly ran off. "I suppose we follow?" he asked, and headed to follow.
I'll allow either Athletics or Acrobatics on this one; it's kind of halfway between climbing and brachiating. Low light vision is more useful, since you're moving pretty quick and things will pop up you'll want to know about sooner than 60'.
Isis is moving more agilely than Sharlavaka, but he's getting by as well.
Eventually, after a few missteps resulting in no more than some cuts and bruises, you make it down into a bowl shaped bottom where you are mostly just walking. The undergrowth is thick, and you're moving at half-speed. There is almost no light coming in from the upper levels.
Esh gets a clear signal from the ambassador's comm unit at this point, though there's still no answer. The comm reads as 3 miles away. An acrid smell fills the air down here, as if something were aflame, or had been recently.
Perhaps most concerning, you hear a fierce roar every now and again, something very large stalking through the frosted jungle.
Shalavaka's fingers flexed at the roars, looking for it in preparation. Perhaps it would make a worthwhile trophy. But hunting it wasn't the job. Instead, he moved in the direction of the com signal, his long claws slashing out to like scythes to hack apart any undergrowth that seemed particularly stubborn. His head kept swinging side to side as well, hunting for dangers...and anything else.
You finally approach what appears to be the crash site of Mesk's private jet. The vessel is torn asunder, the Alset logo ripped in two on its side. Several plants in the area are burned or partially burned, and the rear of the vehicle is blown out as it the power cell exploded on landing.
Smoke is billowing from inside the structure. As the team approaches, Sharlavaka steps on something he takes to be a log, but looking down, perceives it to be the remains of a humanoid leg.
Sharlavaka picked the leg up to examine it. It was, technically, a survivable wound if the target didn't die of shock or blood loss, and Mesk's vehicle would no doubt have had the finest emergency supplies available. "At least one injured," he informed the others before dropping the leg and moving towards the wreck.
He was not hopeful.
"Astute observation." Replied Esh, not feeling a single ounce of pity nor grief for the injured and possibly dead. Limbs can always be replaced after all, he should know.
Tapping the external portion of the implant visible around his ear, he triggered the casting of a spell. Magic swarmed across his neurons, slightly enhancing them to a degree as well as doubling his visual range. Any edge was a good one.
Shalavaka finds more bloody matter of various sorts that leads him to believe the leg as not the only wounded organ. A lower jaw, with thick Dwarven hair still attached, pretty much confirms Ambassador Thomdock has not survived.
As you move, Esh is the first to notice a low rumble. Something is tunneling just below you.
Initiative.
His hand leaped for the gun at his hip. "Below us!""
Sharlavaka dumped the body parts he'd been examining and swung his laser around on its strap.
? Initiative:
Irina Initiative:
Quinn Initiative:
So, initiative order:
Quinn, Irina, ?, Sharlavaka, Esh, Isis.
Quinn draws her pistol and prepares to act.
Irina also draws her weapon and holds her action.
From the ground, two strangely symmetrical tripedal creatures burrow up in close range and close to attack, claws flying everywhere and horrible teeth impractically on the tops of their heads.
creature 1 (to Sharlavaka):
creature 2 (to Quinn):
Quinn steps back from the nasty gash the creature has caused and activates her Black Dragon Gland and breathes acid on the creature.
creature save:
acid damage:
Irina shouts "Really, attacking mole-men? Didn't I see a holo about this?"
Anyone attacking Sharlavaka's opponent gets +1 to hit until next round.
Sharlavaka and Esh may act.
"As if the dwarves weren't bad already..." mumbles Esh, before twisting his hands in a strangr pattern. Motes of technological energy are gathered together by his will. All at once, thousands of tiny creatures are borne of it. Nanobots he would descrive them as if asked. They all at once swarm forward and around the creatures, a nuisance to distract rather then harm directly.
The creatures appear similar to Xorn, but their coloration and body proportions are off; some alien variant of said delving creatures. They are likely resistant to electricity and cold.
Well, Sharlavaka wasn't especially interested in inflicting cold or electric damage at this moment. Instead his claws appeared and he lashed out.