As Yazeloya's attack bites into Damon's armor, the solarian grunts in surprise and pain. For half a moment, the old soldier watches his own blood splatter across the floor. "Finally," he mutters, shaking his head.
"Finally! Someone who knows how to FIGHT!" With a roar, Damon tears into Yazeloya with his bare claws and an almost unnatural vigor.
Shabad's stomach turns at the sight of Filip. She fears there is little medical science or even mystical science can do for him. She studies him, keeping her video goggles recording, moving closer, keeping her weapons ready.
"Who is the lady of which you speak?" she asks. "Where can we find her?"
"Yazeloya!" Xio calls, banging her pistol against the door to get the vesk's attention. She raises her pistol with a grimace, but hesitates as she pulls the trigger, sending the shot wide.
Recorva sends two shots towards Yazeloya. However, her aim is off for both shots, resulting in a pair of smoking holes in the floor o either side of her feet.
Rain moves into position opposite Damonkayo, providing flanking support to the solarion.
Stefani steps up next to RAIN and continues to unload plasma on the remaining Buzzblade.
Xio's shot goes wide, but her clever feint is effective, throwing Yazeloya off enough for Damon to land two powerful blows with his fists. Stefani follows up with a blast from her plasma fork, but Recorva's shots both miss. The hulking Buzzblade is bloodied but unbowed.
Filiip chuckles to himself as he rattles his chains. "Oh, yes, doctor. The shadows are within you, too. The lady will find you soon enough..." There doesn't seem to be anything to be done for Filip except to perhaps put the tortured halfling out of his misery.
Yazeloya lashes out at Damonkayo again, but misses both swings!
"Will you f%&@ing go down! Stefani snarls as she fires again.
Recorva fires two more shots into Yazeloya, hoping with all of the firing directed at her that the group will soon be able to bring her down.
In a good position, Rain swings only once at Vazeloya with his storm hammer.
Damon deflects Yazeloya's chilling strikes with a concentrated burst of plasma before continuing to pummel the larger vesk with his bare hands.
"You're not a fighter!" he snarls, throwing a supernaturally-accelerated jab towards her chin. "You're just an entertainer! A clown for softies to gawk at!"
Xio moves through the doorway, dragging her gun along the frame to create a horrible screech of metal on metal. She fires at her lover again, but her heart just isn't in it.
Shabad moves resolutely to Filip, turns off her goggles-cam, and carefully aims her pistol at Filip's heart and fires.
Shabad's pistol blasts a hole in Filip's chest. He draws a shuddering breath and moans in something akin to ecstasy. "Oh, I see you, dark lady. Your embrace awaits." His eyes close, and he gasps. His bones crack, breaking like twigs as his body folds in on itself. He disappears into a whispering mote of shadow that vanishes with a sigh. Ice crystallizes on nearby surfaces as the temperature plunges to extreme cold.
Stefani blasts Yazeloya twice, and Recorva hits with one attack, but Damon, Xio, and Rain miss. Still roaring her defiance, Yazeloya lashes out at Damon again, scoring a solid blow that lacerates the wounded solarian!
Recorva takes two more shots at the back of Yazeloya.
If she is still standing, Rain will swing his hammer at Yazeloya.
While Stefani misses, Recorva fires two laser blasts into Yazeloya's back. Rain delivers a crushing blow, and at last, the mighty vesk collapses, clothes and scales smoldering.
Stefani lowers her weapon, the heat billowing off it in waves. She slings it back over her shoulder and looks around at the carnage. Seeing Xio, she looks down at the still body of the vesk. Without saying anything, she walks over to the Astrazoan and gives her a quick hug. "Sorry," she whispers. She let's go and takes a deep breath.
"This is f$$@ed up," she snaps out.
Xio returns the hug wordlessly, her eyes sliding over the bodies scattered around the room. Nodding at Stef's assessment, she adds morosely, "I'm tired. Let's finish this."
Shabad gawks a moment at the strange implosion of Filip, but hearing the fight still ongoing, she hustles around to try to help out put the last Buzzblade down. She's too tired to make a quip, just wanting the fight to end.
Ready to pounce on Yazeloya, Damon is caught flat-footed when Rain cripples the Buzzblade from behind. Now that the fight is over, the old soldier seems drained and weary. Wordlessly, he staggers to the corner of the room and slumps onto the floor, breathing heavily and staring at the scattered corpses.
Stefani then wanders over to put her hand on Damon's scaled shoulder.
"How ya holdin' up, old man? This is turning into a real cluster-f%~@," she says quietly to him. "It's tempting to just say 'screw 'em all' and do an early withdraw."
Stefani then wanders over to put her hand on Damon's scaled shoulder.
"How ya holdin' up, old man? This is turning into a real cluster-f~!!," she says quietly to him. "It's tempting to just say 'screw 'em all' and do an early withdraw."
Damon doesn't look At Stefani; instead, he stares at the smoldering corpse of Yazeloya. "I could've taken her down myself," he mutters, flexing an arm covered in frostbitten chain marks, "ten years ago, at least. Getting too old. Too slow. Gotta do something about that."
Shaking his head, the vesk gives Stefani a strained smile. "There's no backing out now, soldier! Not until we've solved this spooky s+%$show. Ain't that right, Doc?"
"And what are ya gonna do?" Stefani asks with a chuckle. "You either get old or ya die. Those are the choices, old man." She pats him again on the shoulder and then walks over to check on the screamer she dropped on the floor.
Stefani takes the time to swap out her armor for the tempweave and goes over the controls for the haste circuit.
Dr. Lominn's datapad grants you basic access to New Elyisum's servers. Basic access allows you to view only the resort’s schematics and basic personnel information, as well as a note that the resort is currently under quarantine with lockdown protocols in place that seal off the docking bays. In addition, you can see that the servers are connected to three data modules: financial, security, and an unnamed module.
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Shabad gives Damonkayo a gentle faux-punch on the shoulder, being careful to avoid his wounds. "I think you're fighting better today than you did when we first met. But of course, if you'd prefer to find a colony where you can take up farming, I'd understand." She gives a wink and gets out her medkit.
"Let's get you patched up. Recorva, could you attend to getting what information we can from these computers. I'll be over to help when I'm done here."
Most of Damon's wounds are easily treatable and when she's done all she can, Shabad looks around in the medkit before pronouncing with a slight grin, "This kit seems to be out of lolly pops."
She goes over to see how Recorva is doing on the hacking. If needed she offers some ideas on dealing with the firewalls.
Bringing Dr. Lominn's datapad over to the main console for the servers, Recorva begins trying to gain access to the currently sealed off modules. "Lets try for the Security module first. It looks to be as easy to get into as the Financial module, but I am currently less interested in money than anything else."
Failing to get in the first time, Recorva quickly shifts to a different method of attack.
Recorva's initial failed attempt triggers an alarm, but fortunately nobody is around to respond to it. The second attempt is successful!
Gaining access to the security data module allows you to observe the security feeds, which show several gruesome scenes of bloody carnage across the resort, along with people fighting or doing other terrible, irrational things. External cameras show the docking bays are clear of danger and that the your ship is ready to depart. More importantly, the security module allows you to deactivate the quarantine lockdown on the docking bays. Doing so will open the blast doors that lead there.
Ignoring the alarms that she triggered, Recorva continues working at the station, now directing her efforts at the financial module.
Recorva gets in on the second try. This module contains fiscal records from the resort dating back 7 years, from the planning stages of the resort until now. Among other mundane topics, such as gambling ledgers, these records reveal contracts Paradise Resorts signed allowing Eclipse Innovations to automate this facility 4 years ago. A hacker with access to Dr. Lominn’s datapad can convince the system to transfer her latest pay and bonus (2,500 credits) to an outside account with a successful DC 25 Computers check
Shabad gives Damonkayo a gentle faux-punch on the shoulder, being careful to avoid his wounds. "I think you're fighting better today than you did when we first met. But of course, if you'd prefer to find a colony where you can take up farming, I'd understand." She gives a wink and gets out her medkit.
Damon snorts lightly. "Farming. Right. You know me so well, Doc."
Most of Damon's wounds are easily treatable and when she's done all she can, Shabad looks around in the medkit before pronouncing with a slight grin, "This kit seems to be out of lolly pops."
"Darn, I was really gunning for grape." Despite the dry tone, Damon seems to be in a better headspace than a few minutes ago.
After taking a few minutes to collect himself, Damon walks over to Recorva to see how the data collection is proceeding. He watches the security footage with a mixture of awe and disgust. "What is happening here? I've seen people do some dark things, but nothing like this. Something ain't right."
If there is time, Shabad rolls back the monitor recordings (if any) to find the start of what led to the carnage in each section, making copies of the events for her research and report. If there is no time for this she just records a what she can see on each monitor.
She makes an extra copy of all the fiscal records and has a go at transferring the credits, figuring it's the only pay the group is going to get for its trouble.
Shabad transfers the credits to your personal accounts. Now, all that remains is to examine the unidentified module within the servers.
Once Shabad has finished recording what she wishes from the security module, as well as transferring the remaining credits over, Recorva gets to work attempting to break into the unknown module.
"How about we try a G-cypher attack?" Shabad suggests. "I've got one in my hacking kit. Let me try."
When Recorva fails to hack into the module the first time, the air in the room grows cold again and a feeling of dread settles over you all. The feeling passes quickly, thankfully, and it doesn't seem like it did any lasting harm...
Eventually, with Shabad's help, the strix gains access to the module. This is the control module for the shadow signal that has permeated New Elysium and driven the staff and guests to madness. Here, at last, you will be able to shut it down. In addition, the module contains many notes that refer to the resort and the Keys to Elysium app as a “test project,” with references to a larger project called the “Penumbra Protocol” in development on Verces in the city of Cuvacara. It identifies a verthani named Kaeon Rhyse as the Eclipse Innovations executive in charge of this project, and mentions a mysterious other person or entity providing “necessary backing and encouragement.”
"You can shut it down?" Stefani asks. "Then what are you waiting for? Shut the damn thing down and then let's blow this popsicle stand. I think I've had enough R&R to last a good long while."
Shabad makes sure she has two copies of the important notes and files. "Looks like our next stop is Verces. Somebody's got to answer for this," Shabad says with determination.
"Brace yourselves. I'm shutting the signal down ... now!"
"Let's book. This is one vacation that I'm going to need a vacation to recover from." She loads replacement rounds into her pistol and slots a fresh battery into her lightning gun and is ready to move out.
Tilting her head over to look at the live feeds of the various locations in the resort, Recorva tries to determine the safest route out of the station. Seeing that there isn't all that much in between them and the docking bays, with the major exception of the Green Fields room, she will also be checking to see if there are any current conflicts along the path they would need to take, especially in that large chamber.
"I agree that we should leave here, and soon, but lets see if we can do so without running into any more surprise challenges."
While Recorva and Shabad crack the module, Xio paces the room like a caged cat, looking exhausted and more than a little annoyed. She eyes Yazeloya's shadow chains, but nobody could ever accuse her of being sentimental; she leaves them where they fell and goes to sulk against a wall.
"I'm going to leave this place a terrible review," she grumbles, crossing her arms and glaring at nothing in particular.
Damon loads fresh batteries into both his longarms, holding the disintegrator rifle at the ready. "I'm all for minimizing surprises, but I would also like to get back to the ship sooner rather than later. I'm not feeling up to chit-chatting with the other 'guests'."
You face no further opposition as you exit the staff area and take the elevator up to the first floor of the resort. You start to make your way through the eerily quiet halls towards the docking bay, but you don't get far before being accosted.
"If it isn’t the troublemakers!" says security chief Kane Zaphol, lurching forward. Symmetrical, bloody gashes line his cheeks and forehead. His eyes are glossy black and surrounded with gray veins. His armor is damaged and dotted with gore. He makes a sweeping motion with both hands, one of which holds a grenade. "Where do you think you’re going?"
The lights begin to flicker, casting the scene in shadows. With a scream, Kane gestures with his wrist-bound comm unit, and two nearby security robots whir and spring to life!
"We think we're leaving," Stef snarls back moving closer to her target and trying to put space between herself and the others, eyeing the grenade in his hand. "And if you think we're gonna be stopped by a glorified rent-a-cop and a couple of tin cans, then you should get a real job. I hear food service is always hiring."
She lifts the screamer and fires off a blast of sonic energy torwards Kane and his bots.
Recorva takes aim at one of the robots, aiming with preference at any that Stefani damaged. She allows excess energy to pour into the shot before firing.
Rain moves up to the nearer of the two robots, bringing his hammer online as he moves. Once he gets next to it, he brings the hammer around in a downward swing onto them.
"Buddy, put it to rest." With a focused roar, Damon's jetpack lofts him high into the air. "You ain't winning this one!"
Shabad advances on the combat robots, pauses long enough to aim and fire her semi-automatic.
Damon's shot disintegrates a bit of the wall behind Kane. Stefani's sonic blast wounds Kane and damages one of the bots, then Recorva and Rain finish it off with a powerful laser blast and hammer strike. Shabad fires a slug into the other robot's body.
Kane activates a jetpack strapped to his back and hovers up near the ceiling. He hurls his grenade into your midst, where it explodes in a blinding flash of light. The remaining robot unleashes a jolting arc of electricity that zaps most of you before it moves into melee with Damon.
DC 16
DC 13