You manage to take some of the storage compartments to prop open the doors. Ratatat scurries back out to the Engine Room, and exchanges the battery to the terminal labelled Bridge. The lights go out in the Mess Hall, and the doors push against the crates with a horrid squeal, but stop with a gap large enough for a ysoki or human to fit through.
The ship’s bridge is alight in red warning screens. The nearing ethereal storm looms beyond the forward viewing platform, while the ship’s failing power causes each station’s panels to flicker intermittently. A battered captain’s chair oversees two tiers of descending operations panels.
Just stepping into the room, 0689 and Zatheses notice a bloodied corpse in one of the front chairs.
They also notice the corpse moving occasionally in a strange, subtle way.
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Ehdd stops and admires his good idea as the doors jam with just enough space to step through "That's way better than fighting some weird creature!"
He heads into the bridge and starts to panic a bit as he sees all the flashing lights and warnings. Gah I hope I never see this from the Captain's chair!
As 0689 approaches the console, the body slumped in the captain's chair gyrates erratically and a four armed, red-skinned creature throws the corpse off of itself. Looks like it's not a corpse at all!
-- Bold is up --
0689 & Zatheses
Red-skinned creature
Both Zatheses and 0689 fire rounds and energy blasts into the ceiling of the ship, and the red-skinned creature grunts as it stands from its chair.
As the creature stands up, the storm outside surges brightly, and two warning lights explode from the apparent pulse, showering the bridge in sparks. Some of your weapons jolt with electrical bursts as the pulse travels through them.
-- Bold is up --
The whole party
Monster
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Ehdd's antennae, followed by his face, turn and watch the creature get up off the ground "Cut that thing down! Quickly Get 'em!!" He moves into the room and a compartment opens on the leg of his armor, sending his arc pistol into his hand in an instant.
"What's up with this thing?" He says as sparks and jolts of electricity dance across the pistol's grip. He points it and fires it regardless. Eh, what could go wrong?
Get ’Em (Ex): As a move action, you can choose one enemy within 60 feet. Until the start of your next turn, you and your allies gain a +1 morale bonus to attack rolls made against that enemy. The bonus persists even if the enemy moves beyond 60 feet or out of line of sight or hearing. At 6th level, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to grant this bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls against all enemies who are within 60 feet.
Zatheses knows this creature is a xill, a four-armed insectoid from the Ethereal Plane. They're known to implant their larvae in the corpses of their victims.
They have the following special attacks:
A xill can make multiple melee attacks as a full action, as listed in the Multiattack section of the stat block. In this case, the xill can attack with its bite and two improvised weapons as a full action.
A xill’s bite causes its target to gain the paralyzed condition for until the end of the xill’s next turn unless the target succeeds at a DC 12 Fortitude saving throw.
As a standard action, a xill can use an ovipositor in its mouth to implant a paralyzed creature with xill larvae. This attack deals no damage, but the target must succeed at a DC 12 Fortitude save or contract the xill implantation disease.
Ratatat pumps the xill full of holes, and 0689 fires a blast of fire at the xill's face, setting its skin alight. Everyone else misses, adding a few holes to the smooth metal ceiling.
The creature lunges at its nearest target - Faraeon - with its jaws...
... It grabs the Grav-Run champion's shoulder in its mouth, its fangs leaking a poison into his veins.
-- Bold is up --
Faraeon (-9), 0689, Zatheses, Vandor, Ehdd, Ratatat
Feral Xill (-37)
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"EEEKK!" Rings out into everyone's minds as Ehdd watches the creature take massive damage and still take a big bite out of Faraeon.
"Keep firing! I'll help you out Fara!" His antennae twitch and spin. One to the left and the other to the right.
The Master of Motion does a little shimmy shake and hip thrust at Faraeon. Faraeon feels inspired by Ehdd. Ehdd is the coolest cat in the galaxy for sure.
Get ’Em (Ex): As a move action, you can choose one enemy within 60 feet. Until the start of your next turn, you and your allies gain a +1 morale bonus to attack rolls made against that enemy. The bonus persists even if the enemy moves beyond 60 feet or out of line of sight or hearing. At 6th level, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to grant this bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls against all enemies who are within 60 feet.
Inspiring Boost(Ex): As a standard action, you can signal an ally within 30 feet who has taken damage from any attack made by a significant enemy (see page 242) at any point after your last turn ended. That ally regains a number of Stamina Points (up to his maximum) equal to twice your envoy level + your Charisma modifier; at 15th level, this increases to three times your envoy level + your Charisma modifier. Once an ally has benefited from your inspiring boost, that ally can’t gain the benefits of your inspiring boost again until he takes a 10-minute rest to recover Stamina Points. At 6th level, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to add your envoy level to the number of Stamina Points regained.
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Vandor watches in terror as the Xill takes a bite out of Faraeon, and his eyes widen in terror at Zath's warning. "Implant it's eggs? What the $&#*!"
He tries to draw a bead on the beast but can't get a clear shot past Faraeon, cursing he ducks as best he can and cuts across the bridge in front of Swirzs. "Gods! I hope the rat doesn't shoot me! This is horrible!". Finally with a clear line of sight he takes aim and tries shooting the Xill again. "See you in hell, you four-armed freak!"
His hands shaking from nerves his shot misses and goes far above the Xill's monstrous head."Dammit!" Vandor shakes his head and glares at his pistol.
The bridge's equipment and chairs are riddled with holes when everyone's rounds and energy blasts fwoom past the Xill. Zatheses concentrates to cast, but finds his spell ineffective against the creature.
With Faraeon paralyzed, the xill extends an slimy ovipositor from its mouth and into a wound on Faraeon's neck, where it tries to deposit a ball of xill larvae.
-- Bold is up --
Faraeon (-2), 0689, Zatheses, Vandor, Ehdd, Ratatat
Feral Xill (-37)
When he's not busy dancing, Ehdd practices shooting, and shows his skill by finding a soft spot between the xill's eyes to fire at. The creature squeals as it falls back onto the bridge floor, several tumors on its body exploding in a mess of black goop.
Investigating the main computer, the bridge's hard drive is easily removable and should have the data you need.
There's also a silk kasatha mouth scarf that rests at the feet of the ruined pilot's body.
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Ehdd pauses and watches the xill fall in slow motion, hitting the floor with a thud. The Shirren raises his hands to the air and does the crab sideways across the bridge in celebration "Who's a crack shot? THIS GUY!" He says, pointing his left claw at his bowtie.
"Someone best look at gap jumper over there, it looked like that thing was making out with him, and that's never a good sign." He then goes about looking around the bridge for all the control labels to get an idea what he's looking at, but sighs unhappily as nothing's labeled.
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Vandor cautiously keeps the console he was behind between him and the Xill (and also Faraeon for that matter). He eyes the lashunta with a mixture of concern and discomfort.
"Don't worry Faraeon, I'm sure you'll be fine. It's probably not that bad. I'm sure someone here can you patched right up, good as new." then he moves over to where Ehdd is standing and whispers:
"That looks really bad, I'm not sharing a cabin with him on the way home."
Zatheses detects that Faraeon is infected with stunted xill implantation, a disease.
Zatheses knows this disease well.
Stunted Xill Implantation
Type disease (injury); Save Fortitude DC 12
Track physical; Frequency 1/8 hours
Effect The implanted xill larvae can be removed by succeeding a DC 18 Medicine check, ending the affliction. Each attempt takes 10 minutes. Failing this check deals 1d4 damage to the patient. At the impaired state and beyond, the damage from failing this Medicine check increases to 1d6.
Cure 2 consecutive saves
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Ratatatat grabs the body of the pilot and the scarf. He puts this in the container back on their ship.
As he passes by the Captain's room he pauses and then runs to get the others.
"Weneedtoopen...thelastdoor...thelastofthecrew...isinthere...shesacrificedh erself...sotheotherscouldlive...thestormwilldestroy...thisship...thebodynee dstobe...returned...Ivotewegetit."
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"You have some time, though, Faraeon," the ryphorian encourages the lashunta. "We can attempt to extract the larva on our way home. I will be painful, though."
He nods. "I agree, Swirzs. If they trapped the spectral creature, we should be able to search the room for the captain's body as long as we do not step on any wires."
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Ehdd happily starts walking down the corridor towards the docking station, and soon their own ship when a mutany starts to take hold with his crew "The Captain's Quarters? Are you both MAD? What part about 'avoid the captain's quarter's at all costs' didn't you get? We got what we came for and with the message on that laptop we can help honor them with the other's remains." Ehdd shakes his head and keeps tossing not so subtle hints towards the docking area.
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Vandor quickly scans the bridge for anything overlooked before hustling after the group.
Catching up to the gang he listens to the debate, looking back and forth between Ehdd and Swirzs and Zath. "Look no one wants to get out of here more than me, but we're all leaving together, so if it'll get us off this ship faster I'll go help you check it out. But I swear to Weylan, if there's one of those xill things in there I'm running."
Fara, we might need your force batons for this. You up for this?"
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Ehdd lifts his top head from between his antennae and holds it over his bug heart "I'm touched Ratatat, truly I am, but I'm pretty sure the bunch of you are adrenaline junkies, going from one high to the next." He replaces his hat on his head, tilting it to the left side just a smidge.
"Look, if you all insist on this let's at least get everything loaded on the ship and get the engines running so if we need to run away like an alley cat we can. I haven't invented my best dance moves yet, and I need years more to come up with something!"
When accessed, Vandor finds that the harddrive contains filenames indicating that they're all of the ship's flight records, mission details, and the Captain's log, but the data itself is so well encrypted even 0689 wouldn't be able to decipher it.
With some hesitation from Captain Ehdd, you make for the Captain's Quarters, where the keycard grants you access inside. The signs of struggle are visible throughout this room. A single bed in the northwest corner of the chamber is torn, with its comforter halfway on the floor. A nearby bed table and desk are in similar disarray, covered with shattered glass and hunks of broken ceramics. A pool of blood covers the southern floor, adjacent to the chamber’s sole entry point.
A lifeless kasatha in a suit of battle harness powered armor lies on the floor. The armor glows with a barely visible force field that projects around the armor at a range of about one foot, and a cable on the floor leads from a starship battery pack to the base of the suit.