Keskodai tries to climb out again...
Fail
Lucky tosses the cable line in to help her allies climb out and Sparky braces itself against the weight of multiple climbers. Gear is the first one to attempt the climb, but despite the help of the cable line, her boots slip against the rocky surface and she doesn't make any progress. Boytoy on the other hand zips up without much of a problem.
All that half-melted chocolate weighs Piggy down and he's not able to make any progress either. Keskodai similarly struggles, though more to his lack of practice climbing than due to any dietary challenges.
0689 tries to move carefully across the bridge, but he's caught by a blast of gravel at the last moment and loses his balance. He tumbles off the bridge and into the chasm, though he manages to distribute the impact of his fall a little more evenly than the others.
The hail of gravel continues to bludgeon the group, with Gear, Piggy, Porker, Keskodai and Sparky unable to fully protect themselves.
Gear: 0/20 SP
Boytoy: 12/30 HP
Keskodai: 11/28 SP
Lucky: 16/21 SP
Sparky: 24/30 HP
Altronus: 32/32 SP
Piggy: 1/18 SP
Porker: 27/30 HP
|||The Bridge of Doom encounter moves into Round 4|||
All may act.
Keskodai refuses to quit...
Success
Porker lets out a mechanical moan and makes his way back to the cliff.
Altronus makes his way into the former building.
Using the cable line, Gear and 0689 haul themselves up and out of the chasm successfully. Keskodai follows soon after, scrambling up with barely a need for the cable at all. Only Piggy remains stuck at the bottom, the cable proving to hardly be much of a help for him.
Lucky looks around the ruined circular building and finds that the lack of a roof and general structural instability make it a poor place to take an extended rest. Eddies of floating rocks regularly infiltrate it and swirl around dangerously. Looking for alternatives, she notices that not all that far away to the east (just off map) the storm of stones appears to be weaker. If the group can make it there, they'll be safe.
Altronus easily crosses the rest of the bridge and takes up shelter on the other side.
A brief wave of fist sized rocks blows through the air, striking Gear and Keskodai as the two of them haul themselves out of the chasm.
Gear: 0/20 SP 19/22 HP
Boytoy: 12/30 HP
Keskodai: 8/28 SP
Lucky: 16/21 SP
Sparky: 24/30 HP
Altronus: 32/32 SP
Piggy: 1/18 SP
Porker: 27/30 HP
|||Round 5|||
All may act.
Keskodai moves towards cover
|
Piggy wipes his greasy hands on his pants. Just like gym class. But this time, the jocks are rooting for me! He squats and leaps up onto the rope.
Imagining an extra large chocolate bar at the top, the chunky ysoki shimmies up the rope to the top. He gasps for air, and flops onto Porker's back. "Take me away, noble steed. "
Porker allows Master to climb on top, then runs towards safety. "OINK. OINK. OINK. " It wiggles it's ears as it runs.
Altronus sighs in relief to see everyone across the chasm. He rushes across the former outpost to try to find a place with less stone rain. He turns back to encourage the others, "Come on, we can make it!"
With oinking encouragement from Porker, Piggy manages to climb up the cable line! At the same time, everyone else runs for safety. Some move more boldly and sprint across the open terrain, while others stay within the relative safety of the ruined buildings.
The wind shifts direction and starts bringing back some of the fist sized rocks that flew just a few moments ago. Keskodai, Altronus and Boytoy are each caught by an unpleasantly jagged rocky missile.
Mercifully, as that wave passes, the storm's fury seems to temporarily abate. From looking at the sky, you might have a couple of minutes to move in relative safety.
As Lucky and Altronus head eastwards, Altronus hears the sound of a crackling moan coming from the ruin to the north of him. He peers over the crumbled wall and sees that a body lies within the remains of the decaying structure. And not just any body, but the body of a Khh'tekh. Rubble pins its legs and from its appearance it looks gravely injured. Another crackling groan escapes it as the storm launches one last salvo of rocks, this time impacting it in its chest. It twitches from the blow, then goes relatively still. You can tell that the rise and fall of its torso grows more shallow with every breath.
Gear: 0/20 SP 19/22 HP
Boytoy: 10/30 HP
Keskodai: 5/28 SP
Lucky: 16/21 SP
Sparky: 24/30 HP
Altronus: 29/32 SP
Piggy: 1/18 SP
Porker: 27/30 HP
Keskodai will move eastward towards his allies. When made aware of the injured creature, he will rush to it, and once within 30’, he will activate his life link and heal the creature for 4hp of damage, taking that damage upon himself. He will continue healing the creature in this fashion, until it awakes. This does not take an action, so he will also check the creature over...
If Keskodai gets to the point where he has 20hp of damage from healing the creature, he will stop for a moment and heal himself.
0689, Piggy and Keskodai see that the alien's legs were badly crushed by falling debris, leaving it unable to free itself (and likely experiencing excruciating pain if these aliens have nerves anything like most Pact Worlds races). Piggy and Keskodai evaluate that it might be able to free itself if its legs were healed, and Keskodai quickly does so.
By the time he's transferred 8 HP, the alien has awakened and its legs have been fully healed . With a powerful heave of its claws, it dislodges the masonry and pulls itself to its feet. From the way it looks at the group of you, you can all tell that it's overwhelmed with awe. It tries to say something in its crackling language, and then upon your lack of comprehension, it switches to hand signs. It points to you all, makes a big circular motion, points to itself, makes a hurrying motion, and then looks off into the distance to the north-west.
It reaches a claw underneath the rubble and pulls out a worn and damaged backpack. It rummages inside and takes out a few objects, then passes them to Keskodai and Piggy. The objects look to be ancient Pact Worlds technology, at least 200 years old. There is a bulky fusion seal , a bulky gauntlet and a satchel of luminescent gems .
It pulls the backpack on across the front of its body, puts on a couple of armored pads to protect against the worst of the storm, and then heads bravely off to the north west.
”My lady shall be coming for that one some day, but today was not to be its day.”
Keskodai takes a look at the rest of the Starfinders...
"I don't think we can afford to travel through here any more than we have to. I think we should finish our business and then return to check on him. They exiled him but surely they wouldn't kill him if he tries to come back. Would they?"
|
Gear stops for a moment thinking then runs out in front of the other, waiving her arms at him. She thinks for a moment and tries to convey to him the danger of returning. She repeats the mayors name, puts on a grumpy face, points at the wanderer, then crosses her arms in a x and then points into the distance, before returning to a worried face.
I don't want you to get hurt buddy... I wish I could communicate that better...
--------
You all proceed eastwards after your encounter with the Khh'tekh traveler. A few minutes of walking is enough to push through into a calmer region of the storm with enough sizable rocky outcroppings that you could potentially rest. From your safe spot, you can see a cluster of rugged metal domes connected by blocky passages between them. The entire structure is emblazoned with badly worn symbology belonging to Ulrikka Clanholdings.
Once you've rested, you proceed to the Clanholdings outpost. A single large automated door would normally block entrance into the complex, but someone has crudely forced it open, allowing enough room for a medium sized creature to slip in. Peeking through the opening, you can see an entrance chamber badly damaged by exposure to the elements.
Keskodai rests and recovers Stamina,
Instead of resting Altronus meditates for a minute before moving forward.
"I can go first." He closes his eyes for a second and the golden mote by his head dims. He slips through the opening.
Piggy doesn't spot any hazards or traps around the door and Altronus slips into the wrecked room. Debris litters the floor of this otherwise empty chamber. The floor paneling has been ripped up in several areas, revealing hard rock. Two doors, one to the north and one to the south lie sealed shut on either side of the chamber. Looking straight ahead from the entrance, the wall has been carefully designed to look like a natural cavern with sections carved out in a runic style.
Piggy peers into the room and also notices what appears to be a security camera attached to the center of the 20ft high ceiling and protected by a transparent aluminum enclosure. Contrary to initial impressions of the site, the camera blinks with a red light, indicating that it still has power.
0689 heads for the left side door. A quick inspection reveals that the steel door is secured with an ancient control panel that nevertheless seems to still be functioning. While probably very advanced for its time, the technology is old enough that it should be relatively straightforward to manually override the controls by prying off the face-plate and 'creatively adjusting' the wiring underneath.
However, before 0689 can consider doing so, you all hear an unpleasant scraping, grinding sound coming from the eastern wall . With a rusty creak, a small panel opens up among the runic carvings on the wall. A stubby, large bore laser rifle pokes out of the opening and fires at 0689! The bright red laser blasts the android square in the chest, After firing, it retreats smoothly back into the wall and you hear the audible crackling of its ancient power circuits as it begins to recharge.
At the same time, from elsewhere in the complex, a loud siren begins to sound. It seems your presence has been noted.
Keskodai prays to Pharasma to delay claiming the android for her own and touches 0689 casting mystic cure I taking all of the extra damage into himself.
Lucky, Piggy and 0689 quickly work together and identify that the laser trap is controlled using cunningly hidden motion sensors scattered around the walls of the room. A few smears of melted chocolate later, and the set of them are completely blocked off. As soon as the last one is covered, the buzzing and crackling subsides and the laser trap seems to power down. The siren dims slightly in intensity but doesn't quiet down entirely.
Above the sound of the siren, an intercom somewhere in the complex buzzes to life. A voice filled with almost as much static as the intercom itself reverberates through the walls. "I knew you would kkkhhhhome! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! Troubles always khhhome in thhhrees! Skhhhhy travelers, YOU ARE NOT WELKHHOME HHHHERE!" The voice rasps with poorly contained anger "You hhhhave ruined enough already! Leave now or I'll be forced to makkkkhe you leave!!!"
"A warm welcome, just what we needed. Shall we continue?" Altronus gestures at the door 0689 had started towards earlier.
As you contemplate finding your new acquaintance, you hear various grinding, rumbling sounds echo through the walls of the outpost (just barely audible over the still-droning siren).