Zulu nods to the group, stows his plasma rifle and hefts his laser.
"Might as well push on, if possible. Get this done."
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The group slowly makes their way back across the floating islands, with no one falling to their death. You make your way west then around the large park, to avoid the kish settlement. Just in front of the Temple Found is a large plaza. The front plaza features an elaborate fountain with a hammer-and-anvil motif. The fountain no longer sprays water, and the rainwater in it's basin is covered in a thin layer of grime. The sides of the fountain are carved with simple carvings of kish drinking from the fountain.
From the drawings, it seems like the Kish believe that the fountain's water has healing properties. There is one picture of a kish getting sick from the fountain's water and heading to the House of Renewal.
Beyond the plaza you can see the large front door of the Temple Found, emblazoned with blacksmith imagery and free of Kish graffiti. It is quite sturdy, and you can see kish standing atop the building armed with longbows.
"The return trip was far too easy...I don't like it!" Zoran jokes as they get back on mostly solid ground.
"Looks like the Kish think the fountain held healing water yet it shows one getting sick from it and heading to the House of Renewal. Hard to pin the mindset of these Kish." he adds after examining the fountain.
Turning his eyes upward he sighs.
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Looking at the imposing front of the Temple Found, it is clear that Herald Tzayl is right. The place is a fortress. A few hundred feet ahead of you, beyond the plaza, at least a dozen kish rest and roam the roof several stories off the ground. None stand on the ground, where the twenty foot tall doors appear to be barred from the inside. You take a good long look at the place, scoping it out and looking for the mysterious side entrance that your Admin Key will unlock.
Running along the eastern side of the building is an unassuming alleyway. Looking behind a chain link fence, you can barely make out a door handle sticking from the side of the Foundry!
Pippimi rolls back and forth outside of bow range, trying to spot the keypad that would let the group in. "Maybe if team come in from back? Pippimi worried that have to fight all kish in way... not good strategy for cultivating customer base."
"Ew, who would want to drink that?" Davrin grimaces at the fountain and moves in. "Hmm, what are we looking at..."
"Oh look! There's a door handle at the side! Let's take a look." Davrin gestures and he paces across, quite curious.
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Davrin spots the handle, around the east side of the building. He leads the group in a circuitous route, avoiding the sightlines of the kish atop the building. A few turns through a number of back alleys later, and you end up in the alley bordering the east side of the Temple Found. The unassuming side street ends in a 20-foot-tall metal fence; a closed and locked gate blocks your passage! The fence seems pretty sturdy, it seems like it would be nearly impossible to break through with force. The lock seems more available. You guess that you could quietly pick the lock, or loudly smash it to bits.
Pippimi briefly contemplates absolutely crushing the lock in her little furry paws, but realizes that she hasn't recently proven a very good role model for the judicious application of strength. That and, most likely someone with a bit of finesse could probably do everything more quietly. She steps aside for Davrin, Zulu or Clank to take a take a stab.
"I definitely prefer this to the front door but have we considered what happens when we are inside with all of them?" Zoran muses quietly while the others work on the gate.
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Zulu's deft fingers quickly shift the tumblers of the lock, swinging the thick door open with ease. You get a better look at the alley between you and the door into the Temple Found. Weeds poke through cracks in the ground in this long, narrow alley shadowed by the large, blocky building. A broken bench sits next to a simple but imposing metal door with no visible handle or hinges. A sign is affixed to the door above a digital keypad. The Herald's magic changes the letters in front of your eyes from ancient kishaleen to Common. SECURITY ONLY, it reads.
After putting in the Admin code, the door swings open to reveal... Congrats, you have reached 8th level!!!
Pippimi checks her equipment and reflects on the experiences on Istamak so far.
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Looking up at the enormous building, you are taken aback by the sheer size of the Temple Found. Taking up nearly three square city blocks, the building is by far the biggest structure on the floating island. From your research, you've learned that the Temple Found was actually The Foundry, likely some sort of advanced manufacturing plant when the kish civilization was at it's peak. Whatever this place built, it built a lot of it! You guess that even if several scores of kish are protecting this building from outsiders, they are likely at the entrances and won't be patrolling the inside of the large structure. Your secret entrance should avoid most of the ignorant guardians.
After a moment of brief self-discovery, you open the door to reveal an antichamber. Moving through the second door, you see that a faint layer of slime covers every surface of these connected chambers. The largest open area contains a set of empty lockers, one of which seems likely to have held a collection of guns and ammunition. Bits of metal and plastic are scattered everywhere. One side room contains a small, round table, another a metal desk, and a third, a few rows of chairs and a podium. A closed door leads east. You look around the room, searching for something of value before moving on.
squelch...
Davrin's ears perk up, his head moves on a swivel, to see a slow moving ooze pour around the corner! Covered in scrap metal, the orange gelatinous mass has several plastic and metal chunks floating inside and a number of rather frightening looking guns poking from between slots in it's metal "shell". He has a brief moment to act as a weapon within the mass begins to glow!
A large laser blasts out of the orange mass, straight into Pippimi's chest!
Clank x2 SP: 33/49, Latent Writher Infestation
z45719 SP: 30/47
Davrin SP: 49/49, HP 27/44
Zoran SP: 57/57, Latent Nejean Rabies
Lenny SP: 63/63, HP: 45/53, Latent Writher Infestation
Pippimi SP 35/64, Latent Nejean Rabies, Latent Writher Infestation
"This planet is full of surprises. Awful surprises...Take it down!"
Seeing the ooze appear and somehow, inexplicably, open fire; Zulu snaps his rifle to shoulder and sets his exocortex to Target the thing. Setting his weapon to overcharge, the Android notices that his readings were unusually high on the power pressure matrix.
"Interesting. New modifications yielded an extra 50%. Success."
Briefly hoping the rifle wasn't going to explode in his face, Zulu nevertheless aims and fires.
Davrin fires a quick shot as soon as he spots the pulsating mass.
He then dives past Pip, and with more time to control, fires a trick shot into what he hopes is a vulnterable spot of the ooze.
Pippimi yelps in pain and surprise as the ooze blasts her. "What team do to deserve that welcome!?" "Grrr..."
She doesn't know much about such weird beasties, but reasons that their goopy bodies are likely to dislike axes as much as most things do. She rolls forward and slashes twice with her massive kishaxe!
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Zoran and Zulu's shots ring off the ooze's armored metal plates. Lenny's sword slices right through the gelatin, missing any important portions. Davrin's first shot also ricochet's off a scavenged rusty plate, but his second hits a pink liquid bubble near the edge of the ooze, popping it! The fluid begins to slowly bleed out in a disgusting trickle. Pippimi's axe slashes twice, connecting once with the ooze's form. The axe performs well against the ooze's shoddy armor, but the cut seals back slightly as the weapon passes through it.
The ooze slides backwards from the pain, charging up another blast. The artillery laser, absorbed by the ooze, explodes outwards in a spray of orange droplets. The blast hit's Pippimi's shoulder, leaving a solid blast mark.
Clank SP: 33/49, Latent Writher Infestation
z45719 SP: 30/53
Davrin SP: 56/56, HP 27/44
Zoran SP: 65/65, Latent Nejean Rabies
Lenny SP: 72/72, HP: 45/53, Latent Writher Infestation
Pippimi SP 22/64, Latent Nejean Rabies, Latent Writher Infestation
Mystery Ooze - 43 damage, Bleed 8
"Did you just say chunky bits?"
"Bleh! Chunky? All bits looks chunky to Pippimi..." She reels from the laser blast but regroups and rushes forward once more. "Take this, goopy ooze thing!"
Frowning at the shot not taking effect, Zulu begins chanting prime numbers in a strange order.
Davrin purses his lips not being able to find a clear shot. But on the other hand, with Lenny and Pip standing in the way, it means the ooze can't get to him. Win some, lose some. He attempts to fire at the ooze between Lenny's legs.
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Frowning at the shot not taking effect, Zulu begins chanting prime numbers in a strange order.
"CHUNKS!", Zoran cries out, pointing out a few of the weak points of the ooze. He follows up with a shot of his own, but Lenny moves in front of the shot and absorbs it with his own thick armor! Thrown off by the blast, his swing misses the weak point by inches. Pippimi, leaping into the gap, slashes twice at the hard spot. Small chunks of orange gelatin fall off onto the floor, coating the area with slime. Davrin, thrown off by Zulu's non-stop muttering of... MATH, sends his shot into a scrap plate atop the beast's back.
The ooze twists in place, slapping at Pippimi's armor with a pseudo-arm of slime. It hits with surprising force, denting her plate in one location.
Clank SP: 33/49, Latent Writher Infestation
z45719 SP: 30/53
Davrin SP: 56/56, HP 27/44
Zoran SP: 65/65, Latent Nejean Rabies
Lenny SP: 72/72, HP: 45/53, Latent Writher Infestation
Pippimi SP 0/64, HP 56/58 Latent Nejean Rabies, Latent Writher Infestation
Mystery Ooze - 87 damage, Bleed 8
Finishing his arcane calculations, Zulu raises his weapon, freshly empowered with the magic of MATH he takes aim and fires.
"Keep at it! Especially you Pip!" Zoran calls out.
Pippimi huffs, but Zoran's encouragement fills her with renewed determination. "Right Zorazora, time to finish off!" She leaps at the beastie with a flurry of swings, then hops back with a guarded step.
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Lenny SP: 72/72, HP: 45/53, Latent Writher Infestation
Lenny winds up to slash at it again like he's chopping at a frustrating tree root. He shouts at Pippimi, Back away, I'm about to unleash solar fire on it but I don't want to burn you!
He then turns back towards the ooze. Oh... I think I see some of the chunks in there...
Finding a clear shot, Davrin pops his weapon out from behind Pip and fires again.
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Pippimi's blade cuts into the ooze twice, slicing off a huge chunk of the ooze. It hits the ground with a metal bang, the armored plate falling off. Then she pops out of the way, making way for a blazing trail of MATH! Zulu's shot barely skims the edge of the ooze's unprotected flesh, burning a trail right along it. The empowered blast seems to eat away at the ooze for a moment, sweating off more gelatin than it even touched! As the evaporate clears, you can see that the exposed ooze skin has cauterized. Lenny doesn't wait for visibility, instead slicing away at the ooze with his energy blade! Huge blobs of ooze drop to the floor, splashing onto his boots. Then, as Davrin aims at the ooze, it seems to contract into itself. With a disgusting SPLURSH sound, the ooze then explodes over everyone! The metal plating, and the several weapons contained within, fall to the ground with muted clangs.
COMBAT OVER!
Clank SP: 33/49, Latent Writher Infestation
z45719 SP: 30/53
Davrin SP: 56/56, HP 27/44
Zoran SP: 65/65, Latent Nejean Rabies
Lenny SP: 72/72, HP: 53/60, Latent Writher Infestation
Pippimi SP 24/64, HP 58/58 Latent Nejean Rabies, Latent Writher Infestation
Mystery Ooze - 204 damage
Zulu's lips twitch for a microsecond in what maybe, could have, if you squinted, been the beginning of smile as his supercharged shot didn't completely miss this time.
Seeing the blob drop a pile of weapons, he moves forward to look them over.
"Bleh. Just when Pippimi think things not get more goopy." She carefully extracts bits of ooze from where they're stuck to her armor, tossing them over her shoulder. In a cleaner section of the room she sits down and catches her breath. While she rests, she looks at the weapons getting salvaged from the ooze to spy if there's anything neat looking.
"What do we have over here?"
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Zoran and Zulu look the goop over but are unable to identify what breed of ooze it was. But, the group is able to help Zulu identify the useful bits from the sopping mess! You first pick up what was once a crystalline haste circuit armor upgrade. The connections are a little different than Pact Worlds standard, but you feel like it could link together with a little bit of work. Then Zulu finds a number of ancient Kish weaponry that appear similar to a Pact Worlds aphelion artillery laser (with 16 charges remaining), a red star plasma rifle (with 20 charges remaining), and a dual crossbolter (with 4 arrows remaining). The batteries are crystals, similar to those you've seen elsewhere in this city. Zulu thinks he could modify each of the kishalee weapons to accept modern-day batteries with about 1 hour of work .
After splitting out the weapons, you look around the area. A break room, small office, and a meeting room fill the sparse space. You make your way over the slimy ground but are unable to find anything else of value. It seems this area was looted and then abandoned by the kish a long time ago.
You make your way east, and open the door. You are met with an industrial staircase without frills that leads upwards. You move up the stairs, continuing your search for whatever it was that the death cult found on this odd planet. At the top of the stairs you see an identical doorway. Pippimi, seeing Lenny is feeling a little tired, opens up the door and leads the way through.
The southern half of this spacious chamber is divided into two metal containers that stretch up to brush the ceiling. Large corrugated doors on the containers’ fronts have been painted with crude symbols. The area opens into a hallway to the west, where it splits into three other hallways.
Clank SP: 33/49, Latent Writher Infestation
z45719 SP: 30/53
Davrin SP: 56/56, HP 27/44
Zoran SP: 65/65, Latent Nejean Rabies
Lenny SP: 72/72, HP: 53/60, Latent Writher Infestation
Pippimi SP 64/64, HP 58/58 Latent Nejean Rabies, Latent Writher Infestation
The ever curious Davrin pads over to the nearest containers and listens through the door in case something suspicious is on the other side.
Once convinced it is safe, he then opens it.
"Great, I wonder what these symbols mean. Mostly have the language understood at this point some things elude me." Zoran says while getting close to the other container and listening.
Pippimi points at the symbols on the two mega storage units. "Hm hm. Based on extensive experience, companies never expend effort for big symbols unless for either marketing or to warn about safety danger. Second one entirely for liability." She tries to determine if the symbol looks alarming or attractive prior to Davrin opening it up.
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Davrin stops the group before opening the containers. "That symbol..." You all take a closer look at the symbols. "It appears to show a Kish falling into a...wormhole? This is a warning, of danger. Whatever is inside these crates... scared the kish quite badly."