With the visual references Tam is able to pull up for him, Ryo is able to create a credible set of disguises with his illusion card's magic. The trio now appears as fairly standard representations of the drow race - ebon skin, white hair, red eyes. Ryo and Tam also appear a bit shorter, again to stay inline with the 'average' look.
"Nice. Nothing to make us stand out from other ISPD. People should just remember the uniforms. Nice work as always, Ryo."
"Weird," she murmured, examining her own appearance as well as the other two.
"Okay, let's go catch a dragon."
"Alright, let's get these microcasters dialed in to our destination, and get moving before the dear doctor gets too far away."
Aananda checks all the casters one last time before nodding.
"Okay. Ready to go. Initializing jump....now."
Aananda checks all the casters one last time before nodding.
"Okay. Ready to go. Initializing jump....now."
Aananda sends the command code to the devices, and everybody feels a jerky sensation, like being in a slingshot.
A moment later, the comfortable quiet of the ship's mess is replaced by howling wind, the roar of massive machinery, and a dry heat that parches the trio almost immediately.
They are standing on an access stair above a platform jutting out of a massive rock face. A drop of well over a thousand feet looms large below them. Embedded into the rock to your right are a pair of massive turbines blasting out even hotter air at high velocity. There is no danger of being blown off the stairs, as they are to the side, but they can feel the eddies kicked up by the sheer thrust being produced.
Tam looks around to make sure everybody made it. He then pulls out a datapad.
"Awesome!! Okay - let's get inside before we get seen or blown off this blasted staircase!"
Looking around, there is an access door on the platform below you. It appears to go into the side of the mesa, parallel to the giant turbines. It is most likely an access corridor.
"Aananda, do you think you can sweet talk that door into opening for us?" ;P
"Well, it's made of metal, so probably, but it'll be quicker to just punch it in," she said with a wink.
She examined the door for a moment, noting its weak points before delivering a swift punch just to the right of the locking mechanism. That part of the door separated from the rest allowing the door to swing open freely.
"Okay, it's open."
"That'll work, I hope," as Tam comes down and peers into the access corridor.
"All clear. We can get inside from here and (hopefully) get to the starport unseen. I've got another spell for us to help with that, too."
They get inside, and Tam quickly casts a spell to repair the damage Aananda did. He then prints three sheets from the datapad, and rattles off some arcane words over each of them.
"Nondetection. Should give us a little more cover and credibility. Now if we can find an access terminal down here, we can pull down schematics and shorten our travel time. Let's go!"
"Okay - quick primer on drow personality. Mean, sadistic, massive superiority complex. Women run the show (and the ISPD in general), so we're deferring to you as our superior officer in public," Tam says as he points to Aananda while moving down the corridor.
"They're used to being obeyed, without question. So we need to portray that attitude as best we can. On the plus side, it should help us get to the Silver pretty quick, since most people would sell out their own family to avoid getting on their bad side..."
"Well, that could get tricky, but yeah, hopefully we'll be able to keep any conversations short and sweet. Or terrifying. Whatever."
She follows him down the stairs. Her stomach was feeling a bit queasy, but she was focusing very hard on keeping that from showing.
After following the corridor for about half a mile, the faint glow of a wall terminal casts it light onto the walls. Tam stops and hooks his datapad up to it.
"Alright, let's see if I can tap into the video feed for Pad 42 and get a shot of our guy..."
After a few moments, the menu screen on the wall changes to a video stream of a landing pad with the number '42' plastered in various places. A small ship (roughly the size of the Prism) is partially visible in the shot.
Tam hits some buttons, and the image begins to rewind at speed. After a short delay, the footage stops, catching an image of the Silver in his human guise stepping off of the ship. Tam copies the information to his datapad, then asks the others for the ones they got while onboard the Harbinger. He then copies it to those as well.
"Now we can show this around and look all official-like..."
a voice suddenly interjects from further down the corridor. Turning, the three see a large figure backlit by a service light.
Aananda nodded, studying the image carefully herself to make sure she'd recognize the man if she saw him.
"Then let's find this guy and get out of here."
"...when we have to actually talk to people. Which looks like it's going to be now," Tam whispers after the person stops talking. "Alright - looks like we're on," as he looks at Aananda expectantly.
a voice suddenly interjects from further down the corridor. Turning, the three see a large figure backlit by a service light.
Remembering what Tam had said, Aananda steps forward.
"Who are you to question us?" she asked in a crisp no-nonsense voice, doing her best imitation of Master Atreri, the librarian.
a voice suddenly interjects from further down the corridor. Turning, the three see a large figure backlit by a service light.Remembering what Tam had said, Aananda steps forward.
"Who are you to question us?" she asked in a crisp no-nonsense voice, doing her best imitation of Master Atreri, the librarian.
The figure comes forward, taking large strides. As he comes into view, he appears to be a large half-orc in a greasy machinist's jumpsuit.
"I'm the guy who's supposed to be here doing his job. Who the hell are...." and his voice trails off as he gets close enough to see them.
She narrowed her eyes as she glared at him. "A wise man would walk the other way and forget he ever saw us here. He would be grateful that I am currently too busy to be bothered with teaching him respect at the moment and hope I never saw his face again. This offer expires in exactly ten seconds," she said, managing to sound both annoyed and bored at the same time.
The half-orc's jaw moves, but it takes a couple seconds to get sound to go with it. :)
"Ahh....ahhh. I really should go check that rattle in the coolant line..." as he starts backing away quickly, then makes a break down a side corridor.
Tam waits about 30 seconds, then lets out a sigh of relief.
"Well, that was fun..." as he disconnects the datapad from the wall terminal, returning it back to its normal menu screen.
"Let's hurry and get after this guy. I'd rather not push our luck anymore than we have to."
"It's a good thing I remembered at least some of Master Atreri's speech about the importance of returning library books," she added in a whisper. "Turns out with slight modifications it's just as intimidating in other venues." :)
"Let's hurry and get after this guy. I'd rather not push our luck anymore than we have to."
"It's a good thing I remembered at least some of Master Atreri's speech about the importance of returning library books," she added in a whisper. "Turns out with slight modifications it's just as intimidating in other venues." :)
Tam chokes down a laugh as he nods :D
"I also got some schematics while I was in there, and was able to link up to the surveillance system for the port. Seems like the stuff down here isn't quite as well-guarded as the stuff topside. Hopefully we can pick up the trail."
They take a different turn than the half-orc, and make for a service elevator.
The group head onto the service elevator, following Tam's directions.
"The way I see it, we can try to do this one of two ways. We can skulk along and try to figure out where he's going, then get ahead of him and try to nab him. Or we can try to take charge of the port's security hub and have him brought to us. Both of them have risks. Which one do you feel like trying?"
She bit her lip. "I'm not sure I can pull off this act well enough to manage taking over the security hub. Plus, there's the risk that he might just run anyways."
She bit her lip. "I'm not sure I can pull off this act well enough to manage taking over the security hub. Plus, there's the risk that he might just run anyways."
"Well, unless we can tap into their security system unmolested, he might get away again anyway. It's a big planet. Hmmm."
"Unless..."
"Well, that sounds like you might have an idea. So what's the plan?"
"Well, that sounds like you might have an idea. So what's the plan?"
"We could just try to get access to his ship. Either by sneaking in and just waiting for him to come back, or briefly showing ourselves as ISPD in order to quietly 'commandeer' it under suspicion of it being used...Ooo!...being used to traffic in contraband surveillance equipment. Considering this system's focus on that kind of tech, that could get a very cooperative response from the locals."
"Well, that sounds like you might have an idea. So what's the plan?""We could just try to get access to his ship. Either by sneaking in and just waiting for him to come back, or briefly showing ourselves as ISPD in order to quietly 'commandeer' it under suspicion of it being used...Ooo!...being used to traffic in contraband surveillance equipment. Considering this system's focus on that kind of tech, that could get a very cooperative response from the locals."
"Well, that has enough of a ring of truth to it to hold up to scrutiny. I like it. It's a good plan."
"Well, that has enough of a ring of truth to it to hold up to scrutiny. I like it. It's a good plan.""Well, that sounds like you might have an idea. So what's the plan?""We could just try to get access to his ship. Either by sneaking in and just waiting for him to come back, or briefly showing ourselves as ISPD in order to quietly 'commandeer' it under suspicion of it being used...Ooo!...being used to traffic in contraband surveillance equipment. Considering this system's focus on that kind of tech, that could get a very cooperative response from the locals."
"Alright then - you ready to be the 'Queen of Mean' again?" ;D
"Yep. Time to channel my inner librarian." ;)
The elevator brings them up several levels, but not to the top of the mesa. They stop at a security sublevel, and disembark. The guards on the other side of the elevator doors almost draw their weapons, but freeze as they recognize the uniforms.
"Good life choice, maggots," Tam says with a sneer. "Now take us to the head of this security substation. Why are you still standing there!?"
Aananda tapped her toe impatiently as she looked at the guards in front of her as if they were something she had scraped off her shoe.
One of the guards quickly taps a radio receiver in his ear.
"Um, Sir? We have ISPD here to see you, and they need to see you now."
He motions for the trio to follow him. A moment later, he appears to get a response, and says:
"Captain Falkvin is meeting us at the substation now. It's right this way..."
"We know where the substation is, bottom feeder! Why isn't the Captain at his post? Is that why we were able to just waltz in here without any problem whatsoever!?"
She raised an eyebrow and smirked as if she were enjoying the guards' discomfort.
"Um, I don't...I don't know, sir. But he will be there to meet with you, sir," the guard stammers out as he picks up his pace, glancing briefly at Aananda as he walks. He seems very eager to get them to this Captain, and then return to his post for some reason. :)
Aananda walked briskly, making sure to keep to a pace that was uncomfortable for the guard to keep to so that he was red in the face and out of breath when they arrived.