|
Ignoring the sarcesian's taunts, "Harrowed Jack" follows the curious shirren, who it seems has chosen to go off on his own in a recent combat zone where the enemy has admitted to using deception and sabotage.
"Stop." "Harrowed Jack" instructs the shirren as his fellow Starfinder approaches the bag. Pointing to a triggering sensor, the half-orc states only, "It is trapped."
The half-orc turns around and begins walking back toward the rest of the party. "Come." he barks to Popper, clearly expectingbthe shirren to follow. "There is nothing more of value there. If you wish to investigate it further, you may return with the others."
|
"Looks like Jack saved Popper's life! Which is kinda weird considering that Jack isn't quite alive himself... Hmmm.. Okay, I'm going to stop thinking about it because its hurting my head." says Ratatat.
"If you guys don't mind, I'm gonna hold onto one of these..." says Ratatat while he picks up one of the sniper rifles.
|
|
"Harrowed Jack" slips one of the serums into a duster pocket.
Then, approaching one of the sarcesians, he grabs ahold of the bound sniper, places the datapad in their face and plays back the message that his fellow agent had recovered.
"Tell who's voice this is." he demands coldly with a rough, whispery tone. "And where to find them."
|
|
Popper skids to a halt at Jack's words and rubs his forelimbs together sheepishly. Oh my goodness. That would have been very embarrassing.
He rejoins the others atop the hill and listens to their interrogation. The sarcesians appear awfully obstinate though, so he doubts anything useful will come of their interrogation. They did try to kill the team, though, so Popper sees no reason not to let them have their fun. Once they have satisfied themselves, Popper will start following the tracks Af'val pointed out.
|
Before the shirren turns around, he sees a glimmer of something silver. There! Something shiny has fallen into the sand in between the bodies. It looks like a credstick... But it is dangerously close to the trapped bag!
---
The sarcesians answer Daire proudly. "We are! We're here to keep down the undead menace!" They grin at each other, then the leader continues with a grimace. "She's a traitor! A coward, full of half-measures! She wouldn't do what needed to be done!" The purses his lips, turning to Jack. "He's the boss. And we don't know where he is! So, ha!" The second sarcesian looks at him funny, like, That's a pretty weird thing to brag about, being a pawn.
|
|
Before the shirren turns around, he sees a glimmer of something silver. There! Something shiny has fallen into the sand in between the bodies. It looks like a credstick... But it is dangerously close to the trapped bag!
Pointing to a triggering sensor, the half-orc states only, "It is trapped."
The half-orc turns around and begins walking back toward the rest of the party. "Come." he barks to Popper, clearly expectingbthe shirren to follow. "There is nothing more of value there. If you wish to investigate it further, you may return with the others."
The half-orc heads back up the slope where the party is holding the captive shooters.
Then, approaching one of the sarcesians, he grabs ahold of the bound sniper, places the datapad in their face and plays back the message that his fellow agent had recovered.
"Tell us who's voice this is." he demands coldly with a rough, whispery tone. "And where to find them."
|
|
Popper rubs his forelimbs. I could do it! he thinks to himself, staring at the credstick. I am very clever, yes! He sighs. But I have no idea where to start. Ah, well. After another moment of hesitation, he heads back up to the hill.
So sad. There is a credstick down there, but it is by the corpses and the trap. It would be fun to disable it, but I am not trained in such things. Anyone wants to give it a go, it is down there. He jerks a claw back down the hill.
He hunkers down by the tracks and waits for the rest of the group.
|
"A credstick?! You should have grabbed it!" Daire, despite being motivated entirely by credits does not have the skill to disable a trap of any kind. She noticeably does not go downhill to grab it.
Instead she looks at the boastful prisoners. "Fayetta was weak, hey? Couldn't make the tough decisions? And you lot and your boss left her group and took things into your own hands? So all these murders at the dig were you lot? Not that wimp Fayetta? What's the name of YOUR boss? He sounds like he's worth remembering..."
"What's the Roost?"
|
|
Suddenly you hear a voice that is both unfamiliar and unnatural, filled with the grinding of gears and the sound of a voice that is obviously computer generated. For the first time in this adventure Gizzmo-5 speaks for himself. "Don't risk your lives." With that he goes silent once again, his eyes roll back into his head just as the little bot Extension jerks as if being possessed. Extension floats over to the trap as little manipulator arms extend from it's shiny shell. They then go to work at a speed than you would think possible for something of it's capabilities.
Extension "grabs" both the backpack and the credstick and floats back to the group dropping them into Gizzmo's waiting hand.
Extension shakes as it comes back into control of it's own "body". "What just happened? Did I miss something?"
|
|
The drone works seamlessly, cutting the wires and killing the trap’s sensor. With the explosives dead, the drone flies over and picks up the credstick. Upon further examination, it holds 750 credits and is wrapped in a small note that says, ”FAMILY VACATION IN VERCES” With that situation dealt with, you are stuck with two surrendered snipers and a datapad listing a their home location.
|
|
There are big storms on the horizon. It looks like three more of eox's famous cyclones are building up.
None of the cyclones are coming towards you, or the Roost. At least one looks to be heading for the main excavation camp. This would be a usual occurence, which the camp had bunkers prepared for.
|
|
Studying the note Af'val speaks up
"I was expecting some sort of clue..but what good does knowing that someone wants to go on a family vacation to Verces..or maybe has been there already......"
"Everyone spends their credits somewhere." the "Harrowed Jack" mutters quietly in response. His thoughts seem to momentarily be elsewhere.
"We head to the Roost." the half-orc says decisively, apparently having snapped away from his mental diversion. His tone is more that of one giving orders than making a suggestion.
He reaches into his pack and pulls out a length of wire cable and begins to using it to bind the hands and feet of the sarcesians.
"We leave them for now." the half-orc remarks about the sarcesians once the task is completed. "They may later be of use to us. If they are wise, they will remain here out of sight of any Eoxians and await our return. Regardless, they will not be able to contact their leader before we deal with them. Once we understand what is going on, we will deal with them accordingly."
Once satisfied the prisoners are securely bound, the half-orc grabs his gear to start heading out toward the Roost. As he does so, he scans the horizon.
"Storms coming." he remarks gruffly. "Best signal the main camp to prepare for a cyclone." he instructs, making no effort to reach for his own comm unit.
"Come," he barks. Without looking to see if anyone follows, he begins the march to the Roost. "Our way is clear."
|
|
Popper looks from Jack to the sarcesians and back. His forelimbs rub each other in what appears to be a nervous tic, though his proceeding sending has no sense of nervousness. I do not trust them not to escape. I think we should return to the camp with them first. We can also warn them of the incoming cyclones.
|
|
I do not trust them not to escape. I think we should return to the camp with them first. We can also warn them of the incoming cyclones.
"The Eoxians will kill them..." the half-orc says curtly in response, before muttering more softly, "Or worse." "Harrowed Jack" does not look back as he speaks, seemingly determined to head forward. After a few more strides, he calls back, "Do with them as you wish. But do so quickly."
|
|
"No time," Daire counters Popper. "We need to get to the Roost before they kill more people. That's what we're here for. And Jack's right. These two won't last once we hand them over. You want to keep them safe you'll need to do it after the job's done."
Daire helps secure the prisoners, then adjusts her gear and heads off after Jack towards the Roost. She holds her rifle ready, in case of further violence.
|
|
After hearing that the storm is headed towards camp, Ratatat says, "Agreed, we should press forward. While the camp is prepared to weather the storm, we wouldn't want to get caught in the open and hit by the storm on our way back. Since the storms aren't headed our way, moving forward to the Roost seems the best course of action."
|
|
The group leaves to hike up the mountain, leaving the two sarcesians behind like strussed birds. Hallowed Jack leads the way up the mountain, following the tracks of the sarcesians while the others chime in with homing data from the datapad. As you begin to climb into steeper terrain, the rocky slope gets quite loose!
|
|
Gizzmo, Popper, Af'val, and Harrowed Jack all struggle to climb up the mountain face. In the front, Harrowed Jack takes a tumble, crashing hard into a rock. Looking down at his bruise, he doesn't notice the mini landslide he created! Several large rocks come tumbling down, crashing into the other three. Everyone comes out a little worse for wear.
Popper, incensed, heads to the front to help out Harrowed Jack. A few minutes of climbing later and they both see some mines hidden in the center of the trail! They would have created quite the explosion. Even if you had survived, it certainly would have warned off the sarcesians! The pair manages to find a way around the danger and you continue up the hill.
On the far side of the minefield is a ledge along the edge of Blackmoon that corresponds to the area marked on the digital map left by the Wings of Damiar sharpshooters. An innocuous cavern entrance is the only path available. As the group reaches the inside of the compound, local weather phenomena begin to spike around the primary excavation site. While this has no physical effect on you, the nearby cyclones wreak havoc with communication systems. It would seem you're on your own.
Entering the marked outpost, the area is almost entirely abandoned. The sarcesians have cleared out almost all of their equipment and belongings in the course of abandoning the outpost. It takes roughly an hour to search through the abandoned complex. You find telltale signs of a quick exodus, with indicators that several larger items such as a generator and mobile fortifications were expertly moved out of the cavern.
|
|
Seeing Jack point out the recording devices and holoprojector, Arratoi signals Popper, indicating that he should help us all talk telepathically.
Once Popper does so, Arratoi telepathically says, "Can anyone turn off the recording and possibly play back whatever is stored on those devices for us?
"And look at that! There is some Sarcesian artwork here. Looks like laser-cut rocks carved to look like sites of interest in the Diaspora and idyllic mock-ups of the destroyed world Damiar."
|
|
Popper brings the whole team into the telepathic link, doing his best to keep voices separate as six different people talk. Not I, he replies to Ratatat. I have never been very good with computers. Or machines. Or people. You know come to think of it, I am not very good with most things. He doesn't sound particularly upset by the fact; he sounds more like he's counting off an item on a grocery list. Then he pauses for a moment before adding, I am good at cooking, sort of. And I am very good with plants. He goes back to inspecting the recorders.
|
|
Telepathically, Ratatat says "Hey, lemme give it a shot!!"
Ratatat will try to disable any active recording of us so as to prevent anyone from continuing to spy on us. And then Ratatat will attempt to retrieve data from the setup. I.e. play back any audio and video (presumably through the holoprojector) recordings.
"Honestly, this tech is a bit beyond my capabilities...."
|
|
As Ratatat fumbles with the wires, he is not very successful, or sneaky. With a burst of quick clicks and green light, a projection above the holoprojector coalesces into the form of a large but lithe humanoid with an elongated neck, pointed ears, and dark eyes. A sarcesian! The figure’s head moves around as though appraising before speaking in strangely accented Common. “Greetings. I am Fayetta. I am sure you have many questions, and I would be glad to answer them.”