The soldier moves towards the figure in the corner. "You're going to lose, Rhissona," she says as she switches back to her plasma-fork.
Xio moves up behind Stefani, keeping to the blind spot created by Rhissona's empty eye socket. "You've already lost. See?" she jeers, and bangs on an exposed pipe with her pistol before turning it on the Verthani.
Recorva fires off a shot at the remaining officer, before sending Rain updated instructions.
Receiving updated commands, Rain swivels at the waist to face the remaining security officer. Swinging his hammer down towards their shoulders, he then pulls it back before pistoning it towards their chest.
Shabad recognizes the spell Rhizzona cast at Damonkayo, and moves away from the Solarian, warning, "En garde, Recorva, Xio. Damankayo may get confused and attack one of us."
She trains her pistol on Damankayo and will fire if he starts to make to attack others. Her weapon is set to stun.
Damonkayo does succumb to the confusion, but ends up only bashing himself in the face with his rifle. Xio and Recorva both miss with their shots but Rain delivers two solid blows. Seeing the officer badly wounded, Shabad takes him down with a stun blast.
Rhissona grins broadly as she levels her corona laser pistol at Stefani and fires off two shots. Stefani's armor barely absorbs the first blast, but the second is way off course.
Shifting aim to Rhissona, Recorva takes a single shot with her laser rifle. She then takes time to update Rain's orders.
Seeing that Rhisonna is the only remaining threat, Rain rushes up towards her. Careful to keep his path from getting to near her, he brings his hammer swinging towards her center mass.
Stefani gives a questioning glance at Shabad as if confirming that lethal force is acceptable before triggering her weapon in Rhisonna's direction.
Xio scowls at the Verthani and tries to throw her off balance by dragging her pistol along the wall, creating a horrible screech of metal-on-metal, before firing at her again.
Shabad shrugs in response to Stefani's questioning glance, not happy about the situation but recognizing that the verthani, if that is really what she is, was out of her mind at the moment. Still, she left her lightning pistol on stun as she sent another bolt at her.
Rhissona dodges shots from Recorva and Stefani, but her body rocks and jerks as Damonkayo, Xio, and Shabad all score hits. Rain delivers a powerful blow with his hammer, leaving the verthani bloodied and badly wounded.
Despite her injuries, she gasps not in pain but in pleasure. "Yes! Good! Hurt me more!" she moans. Her body shifts to take on more of a reptilian cast as she slashes at Rain with her claws.
Recorva will fire off a pair of shots at Rhissona, aiming to subdue rather than kill.
Rain brings his hammer around in a quick swing at Rhissona.
Stefani's eyes narrow at the disturbed verthani. "Well, aren't you just the kinky b~~#&," she grumbles as she fires again.
Rhissona rocks back with the impact of Stefani's shot. Then, with a sickening crunch, Rain's hammer smashes her skull, caving it in. She drops to the floor, her body twisting as it reverts to its natural form--that of a scaly green humanoid.
Stefani grabs one of the batteries and stows it on her belt.
"So what in the hells is she?" she asks, prodding the cooling body. "And do they all got off on pain like that?"
She looks towards the still fans. "We should keep moving before the other security goons decide to come back."
Moving up to the fan, Recorva glances at the fallen body. Not particularly knowledgeable in regards to the different races, however, all she can do is shrug. "No idea, on either account. And I second the motion to leave, but wait just a second." She then quickly places her left hand on one of the claw marks Rhissona left on Rain. After a few seconds, the metal of Rain's body knits itself back together a small amount. Placing both hands back on her gun, Recorva nods to the others. "Ready now."
Rain will move to pick up the loose gear (weapons and batteries) from the fallen combatants, removing the armor upgrades if given enough time. Only if the team wants to wait and help remove the enemies armor will he help do so.
As you are picking over the bodies, you hear footsteps approaching down the corridor. The androids Romi and Indigo-13 arrive. Indigo-13's hair turns yellow as she gazes upon the aftermath of your violent altercation, but Romi retains their usual expression of detached curiosity.
You have an uneasy feeling of deja vu as Romi begins to speak. "I am not entirely surprised to find you here. You are savvy individuals and no doubt have noticed the strange goings-on the past few days. It seems things are coming to a peak. Violent incidents are occuring all throughout the station.
"Indigo-13 and I were invited to this resort with the express purpose of acting as a control group for Paradise Resorts' new initiative. We have not been using the Keys to Elysium app. They wanted to see if it affected our enjoyment of the facilities in any way. After discovering Cthesa's fate, I acquired a copy of the app and studied its code.
"There's some kind of... signal coming up from the abandoned mines beneath the resort, focused through the Keys app. It is disturbing people's minds. Indigo-13 and I were heading down here to investigate, but since you are already here, we could use your help."
Shabad cautiously holsters her pistol and edges closer to the corpse of Rhissona. She recognizes instantly that she was actually a reptoid.
She explains this as she checks the security guards to see if any are still alive, making sure any that are are stabilized.
She'll take any batteries that others don't claim, plus the laser pistol. She has no interest the armor.
When Romi and Indigo-13 arrive, Shabad offers to give Indigo-13 a comforting hug before responding to Romi's information.
"You were the control group, but not for the reason stated. That software altered the firmware to amplify that signal, which I detected as well. We were on our way to search the old mining tunnels for the source and some answers. Have you two been having nightmares and difficulty controlling yourselves?"
"No. We are both in our right minds," Romi says.
Indigo-13 takes comfort in Shabad's hug, her hair returning to its normal blue hue. "What about you? Have you felt any odd compulsions or seen any strange hallucinations?" she asks.
Stefani watches the newcomers warily, lowering her weapon but not putting it away.
As Shabad answers Indigo-13's question, she returns to Rhizzona's body and looks for any communications devices, including any data storage jacks that might be incorporated into her body.
"I've had some nightmares and minor hallucinations. But one thing I thought was a hallucination, a shadow seen in the corner of my eye, turns out to be real. We found security recordings of it near me and also near Cthesa. And if you don't know, I'm sorry to have to tell you Cthesa was killed as she seemed to be pursuing a phantom down in this area. She was killed by a creature that normally exists in the shadow plane. That's a place where people who dwell too long there find themselves consumed with immoral obsessions. Sound familiar? So I'm thinking something in the interior is not only sending these strange signals but giving access to the plane of shadows. If we can interupt the signal and block to portal or whatever it is, we might be able save those up here who are losing their minds. "
Once discussion of the situation slows, Shabad asks, "You said you needed our help?"
Rhissona has no communication devices on her or any incriminating information. It would seem she just got caught up in the the madness affecting the resort.
"We are going to try to shut down the signal, but we are not warriors," Romi says. "We will need protection from any dangers that dwell below, planar threats or otherwise. Will you assist us, doctor?"
Shabad makes eye contact with Stefani and glances back toward the access tunnel and then looks back at Stefani, all the while holding the laser pistol she had picked up so as to keep it hidden from view from the direction of the tunnel. As she does this, she answers Romi, "The more the merrier. You're programming expertise would be most helpful. Our team is more than capable of defending against threats. I'd like to think we've seen worse."
She gives Stefani a signal and points her laser pistol toward the door while standing where she might derive some cover. "Tok! Step out of your hidey hole and let's see what you're doing!"
Tok curses loudly and slowly steps forward, hands raised. "Hey, chill out, Doc! No need to shoot me--again! This whole place has caught a serious case of the crazies! I heard you guys are gonna go down into the mines and kick some ass. You gotta let me come with you and record it all. Footage like that's gonna break the frikkin' infosphere!"
Shabad scowls at the ysoki voyeur. "We are fighting for our lives here! If you come along, you have to fight too. What kind of weapon are you prepared to use? Also what other survival skills and technology can you contribute? Does your rig allow you to see IR or UV?" Are you good at getting past security measures? "
"Uh, one of the guards upstairs dropped this gun," Tok says, waving a static arc pistol in the air. "I can shoot anything that comes at me. I've got night-vision on these cameras, and I'm pretty good at being sneaky. I'm a decent hacker, too!"
Stefani nods when the Doctor gestures towards the tunnel and keeps her weapon trained on where she knows the media rat is hiding.
When he finally moves into the open, she raises the plasma fork into a firing position. She trusts the ysoki about as far as she can throw him.
"So, waste him or take him with us?" she asks Freebairn with a subtle wink.
"Well, we don't take him unless the rest of you agree. I can think of only one advantage."
She addresses Tok again, "You were recording some of the fights. How much do you have on the evolution of the sickness that was making people do crazy things? And have you yourself been affected?"
Back to the others, "If we can stop the source and escape with our lives, we may need evidence of what happened. Tok could provide that for us. So if you shoot him, don't damage his gear." She winks back.
"So fry the meat, but don't damage the tech - got it," Stefani responds, looking over the ysoki appraisingly.
"So long as he can carry his own weight, I say that we let him come with us. Even though he is an annoying little pain in the rear." Accessing her custom rig's comm-unit, she then sends a quick text-only message to the others members of the Spirit's crew. However, if necessary I can have Rain be ready to hammer him.
Tok taps his camera-goggles. "Got the whole thing in my data banks, from the first freak outs to full-fledged crazies! I'll share it with ya and make this s+&*show go viral."
He quivers nervously as Stefani continues to keep him in her sights.
Shabad looks sternly at Tok. "Are you suffering from nightmares or hallucinations? Are you keeping control of yourself? If you endanger us, we have no loyalty toward you and will consider you a hostile threat and deal with you accordingly, unless you behave and prove yourself worthy."
Shabad addresses the group, "Everyone should discard or destroy any device that has or had the Keys app on it. The firmware will have changed so deleting the app won't help."
"Let's be on guard for hallucinations and don't fire at things unless more than one of us confirms we see the same thing. How about we use a code word for when we think we might be hallucinating or having other problems with reality? I suggest quix. It means anomaly in Azlanti. Let's take breaks at regular intervals to keep stress levels from spiking."
"I believe we all have darkvision, so we can move without making obvious light, but likely our enemies will too. I'll establish a telepathic channel for us to use and renew it as needed. Let's put our stealthiest people up front and let them scout ahead. We know there are hostile creatures from the Shadow plane getting into our plane, and Eloritu only knows what else we'll find, so stay frosty and keep in touch."
She pauses, concentrates and then everyone hears a telepathic message, <If you copy this message, reply in kind.>
"No nightmares or nothin' like that. I ain't crazy!" Tok insists.
As you make your preparations, Romi taps several buttons on a handheld computer. It beeps, and the northern blast door grinds open noisily. Beyond, a dark tunnel slopes sharply downward before splitting off into several similar-looking passages. The air within is stale but breathable.
"I'll watch the geology," Shabad volunteers. "How about Recorva helps Romi track that signal, Xio watch for instability in the tunnel, with Stef and Damon watch for other hazards."
"Sure, sounds good to me." Moving over towards Romi, Recorva will see if she would be able to assist in creating a makeshift triangulating device in order to locate the source of the signal. If so, Revorva will turn on her wrist-mounted computer while at the same time bringing her custom rig's in-built computer online. Utilizing the two computers in tandem with Romi's handheld one to ping the signal, she quickly works with her on using the resulting information to begin determining the approximate location of the signal's source.
Stefani nods in Shabad's direction, keeping her eyes peeled for any threat.
You make your way through the dark tunnels, navigating as best you can. It''s slow going, however, and you find yourselves backtracking a bit and moving cautiously to avoid unstable stretches of rock. After nearly an hour, you come across a large, open chamber. A large silk cocoon is attached to a pillar here, exuding a supernatural gloom that seems to absorb any light shined upon it.
As you are taking in your surroundings, two tenebrous worms surge forward from adjoining tunnels. Unlike the hatchlings you fought earlier, these are a full six-feet in length, barbs of shadow exteding out through gaps in their chitin!
"More of those gloomwing spawn! And they're bigger!" Stefani calls out as she fires off her longarm at the one slightly closer.
She then moves to a better position.
Shabad moves forward into the intersection and back slightly from the worms, seeking a vantage point where they are in line. As she moves, she calls out, "Jolting Surge coming. Don't say I didn't warn you."
When she gets in position she sends magical energy into the sheet lighting pistol in her hand and a moment later a lightning bolt much larger than the gun usually projects zig zags its way toward the two worms, accompanied by a high frequency roll of thunder.
"Gross!" Xio yelps as she sees the worms. She scoops up a rock and tosses it at the nearest worm's chitinous armor, following it up with a burst from her decoupler.
"I am firing at the worm further to the rear. Just letting those in the way know." Aiming around the wall and her friends, Recorva will take a single shot at it with her laser rifle.
Moving up to the worms, Rain will power up his hammer as he moves. Positioning himself adjacent to both the worms, he will target the one next to Stefani if it is still standing. Otherwise, the hammer will head towards the one that Recorva targeted.
Recorva scores a good hit with her laser rifle. Rain moves in and swings his hammer, but fails to connect. As the drone attacs, the worms shadowy bristles reactively shoot off at him!
Damonkayo fires his microfusion rifle, but it misses the worm. The creature dodges Stefani's two shots as well!
The first worm dodges the worst of Shabad's spell, but the other one thrashes and jolts in pain as electricity courses through its body.
Xio throws the closest worm off balance before blasting it with her pistol. Unfortunately, the corrosive weapon seems to have no effect on the worm! Its bristles shoot out at the envoy.
One of the worms bites at Stefani while the other attacks Rain! Each of them gets hit once, and while Rain takes the hit stoically, Stefani feels her flesh dissolving painfully into wisps of shadow from the monster's mystical acid!
Indigo-13 and Romi hang back, but Tok scurries forward, taking cover behind the pillar with the cocoon on it. "This is great! Got the perfect angle right here!"
Shabad takes a guarded step east so both worms are in line to eat more of her tasty electrons, gets both in her sight and lets out another jolting surge.
”Second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a whole lot worse.”
DC 19 reflex save for half damage
Rather than move, Stefani takes a moment to steady her grip on her weapon using the attached bipod and fires again.