[SFS] GM Bigrin's Table 3 - Enter the Ashen Asteroid (Inactive)

Game Master bigrin42

3 successes

And I'll give everyone else a +2 to ttheir rolls this round for Talc's amazing critical success!

Talc took charge of combing the area for information and managed to get the others into some kind of organized search team. It was much more efficient than simply everyone doing their own thing. Talc even managed to find a working hover-scooter which he flew around in as he directed the others. While doing so, he found a passageway unnoticed from teh ground, and in it a working computer.

Rei follows Talc's directions to the working computer and begins to plug away.

computers: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 7 + 2 = 13

"I am trying, but I think I must be interfacing with this wrong. I will keep working on it. I just need more time"

Harrac gives up on the missing pottery and walks around aimlessly for a few moments, looking for anything out of place. A small flash of light catches his eye when Talc zooms by for the 50th time. He walks over to investigate and sees something shiny under a piece of the fallen bridge. Putting his years of crossfit to work, he gets his hands under the stone and lifts it like an all-terrain transport tire. He grunts loudly to let everyone he's crossfitting in their presence.

Athletics: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21
Strength: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

Jena, following Talc's orders Maybe he knows what he's doing? begins rummaging around the machinery looking for clues.

Engineeering: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

Seeing she is not getting anywhere with her datapad, she puts it away, and quickly takes interest in what Jena is looking at.

"Hrm, this is interesting what you found here. lets see what we can do with this"

engineering: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Rei begins throwing random bits of wire, electronics, circuit boards making nothing but a ruckus.

"This is all nonsense. let me take a closer look"

engineering: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

Sifting through one of the buildings, Rei finds a set of blueprints for a special forge using the Solarian Stone as a power source. From what she can gather, the duergar were making hybrid items of both technological and magical power.

It took several hours to comb through the abandoned area, and you are sure that you must have missed things, but the drive to push on was too great. Eventually, you met back up to discuss your findings at the far end of the complex, in front of a wide tunnel leading further inward. In a pile on the ground was what you had found, including: a 10' length of adamantine alloy cable, a handful of mostly empty credit chips, a battered but still functional suit of golemforged armor plate (type I), and a never-before-installed mk 1 gravitation harness. Not a lot, but enough to make this job profitable.

You also compared notes and came up with a plausible story that fit the clues you found. It appears that the site was a duergar facility dedicated to creating military technology that combined magic and science using the harnessed energies of the Solarian Stone. Much of the physical labor used in the ore mining and processing was done by a large insectile slave race (the monsters you fought?) that rebelled at some point. The virus that Rei found in the computers seemed to date from around the same time as the slave rebellion and a mysterious cave-in that damaged much of the infrastructure of the duergar facility.

**********************************************

The tunnel's ceiling was high here, about 20', and the flooor showed clear signs of heavy machinery moving along it. Likely transport vehicles of some sort. The tunnel wasn't very long, and after only a few minutes of walking, you come to a large set of double doors.

Talc zooms down the tunnel and then moves back to the group informing them there is a closed door ahead. He then slowly moves along with the group on his hover scooter, making sure to throw in a few extra loops "just to be sure the tunnel is clear".

Talc hops off his hover scooter and gets his weapon ready, unsure what's on the other side. He listens for sounds of movement and then turns to his buddy, nodding to Harrac. "There you go big guy, those are vesk-sized doors. Use your head and get those open, eh?"

Perception: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Harrac watches Talc and wishes for the days when you could throw a spear into a scooter's Mecanum wheels and make it seize up. Now all the kids were hovering around like the Swarm.

He approaches the doors and takes a good look before trying to open them.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
Strength: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13

Rei joins the others, impressed by the giant doors.
"Hang on a sec there Harrac, let me see if there are any unexpected frienemies on the other side"
Before Harrac tries to push open, rei focuses her eyes against the double doors, attempting to detect magic from the other side.

Rei casts detect magic on, and through the double doors, attempting to interpret whats there. Do I need a roll to go along with Detect magic here?

Rei does not detect any magic on the doors themselves, and of course the spell doesn't work beyond them. Harrac didn't see anything of concern, either, so he pushed open the doors. A promenade of gray stones overlooks a jumbled mess of conveyer belts and broken machinery. Stairs descend toward the factory floor flanking a balcony where sits a magnificent shard of convex crystal resembling a gigantic mirror on a swivel-stand. Tunnels slope downward to the east and west.

The cosmic energies from the Solarian Stone have obviously been directed here, as the asteroid's metallic veins pulse with light and faint heat distortions. Most of these miss the large lens on the swivel stand or strike it at a shallow angle, with the latter causing a stuttering beam of light to shine from the lens toward the floor. From the layout, it seems clear that the lens was supposed to focus the energies on the enormous forge at the other end of the room, or on other of the now-buried equipment.

Harrac looks around in wonder, "this is amazing. Does anyone remember watching one of those kids short blurās about the purple hero who tried to save the universe from starving to death? He had a bunch of strange sidekicks. One was a giant midget with no hands!" He claps Talc on the back, "I know you remember it, friend. It was one of the last beatnik films, there was lots of snapping." He points to the forge at the end of the room, "that looks like the same forge, come help me move this mirror so we can direct the light down to power it up!"

At the mention of the midget, Talc waves Harrac off. "That's not important right now." and turns to point towards the lens. "What IS important however, is that lens. It's really in rough shape. Any attempt to manipulate it will cause it to go boom. I'm in no hurry to make more things go boom, so yeah, don't freaking touch that."

He looks to Rei in particular. "I know you want to, just don't."

Rei gasps in astonishment. "Attempt? I do not attempt. I do, or I do not. That is all there is to decide here."

She turns to look towards the lens, pulling out her datapad and adjusting her tools. As she approaches the lens she retorts back. "And Talc, what exactly is it you do?", before getting to work.

engineering: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

Rei adjusts and cleans the lens, working it magnificently.

"Hrm, as expected. Quality craftsmanship yet again." Turning back to Talc, with an emotionless gaze. "Did you really expect anything less?"

S@@!.

Talc gets far away from the lens, diving for cover.

Rei's efforts disabled the lens mechanism entirely, making it impossible to move or manipulate. It also made the area safe to work in. With the lens mechanism stabilized, you can see more of the area in the chamber. To the left and right of where you stand, tunnels lead off into darkness. They look partially collapsed, but navigable. Ahead of you if the main factory floor, and it looks to have been the center of activity for this asteroid mining complex.

Where do you want to go?

Harrac jokingly snaps his fingers while Rei gets to work and subsequently misses Talc diving behind a rock pile. He looks around a moment later and runs over to Jena, screaming, "WHERE'S TALC? I DIDNT MEAN TO KILL HIM!!! WHAT DO WE DO?!?!?" Tears stream down his face as he sinks to the ground, "what did I do?, what did I do?

Rei turns to look at Talc diving for cover while Harrac starts crying. she stands in bewilderment for a moment, her jaw agape.

"I.... I do not understand you two."

She turns and takes a look over the area before pointing towards the main factory floor. "Come on children, we have much more to explore" as she takes off looking for another terminal to hack into for more information.

If she finds a terminal on the factory floor, she will try to extract more info.
computers: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

Talc lay on the ground, his hands over his head, waiting for the explosion.

And waiting.

And waiting.

After five seconds have gone by, he popped his head up and watches Harrac begin to cry. He looks at him, confused and then his eyes go wide. "It's an invisible gas affecting your nervous system! It's making your eyes water!"

He looks over at Rei who seems to be unaffected by the invisible nerve gas and furrows his brow. "Androids must be immune. Seems to target Vesk in particular."

"HARRAC! WE NEED TO MOVE, LET'S GO! IT'LL BE OK, FOLLOW REI!" he shouts as he moves down onto the factory floor with Rei, pulling his weapon again.

Harrac jumps back as Talc runs toward him, the mote racing down his arm to form a blade, "GHOST! AHHHH!!!" He turns and runs down to Rei. By the time they reach her, there's an almost audible click as Harrac realizes what's happened and turns around to embrace Talc, "I THOUGHT I LOST YoU BUDDY!" He smiles and stops yelling, "let's go see what she found."

Rei moved down to the lower level, with the others in tow. A partially buried factory floor sits quiet amid the remnants of oil-stained machinery and twin conveyor belts that emerge from the area’s wreckage. Near the northern collapse, a pulsating polyhedron attached to scores of wires hovers above an exposed control station amid several banks of computers. In front of this control center, a hastily constructed archaic stone forge scavenged from the collapse’s ample stone and metal debris sits anachronistically amid its technological neighbors. The forge still glows dimly with ancient heat,

Rei found the remnants of the same computer virus that destroyed the control systems in the entry chamber, as well as production documents and personnel rosters for those duergar that worked here.

The production documents cover a variety of projects such as weapons, armor, and starship components, all of which combine magic and technology in ways that would have been cutting edge a few centuries ago. Although the projects are largely obsolete compared to modern technology, there are nonetheless unconventional and potentially innovative techniques among these blueprints and diagnostics. These files also describe the Solarian Stone by name, noting the basics of how it can control light and gravity in ways that facilitated ongoing scientific experimentation.

The personnel rosters include extensive lists of duergar, trox slaves, and a few miscellaneous captives. The last recorded date is the 327th day of 40 ag—corresponding with the uprising—with numerous duergar and trox labeled as deceased that day, and more duergar slated for evacuation. Of note among the captives is a male dwarf wearing a boar-headed pendant, whose limited dossier notes that the duergar didn’t know how he entered the station. However, his records note that he was tied to a slave uprising, is a spy, was tortured for information, and was to be executed “by fiery submersion".

Everyone was intent on Rei's work with the computer, except Harrac, who had gotten bored by about the third sentence. That's why it was the vesk who saw the for climb out of the mostly inert forge. It was humanoid, roughly dwarf shaped, and wrapped with chains from head to foot. Smoke poured out of its mouth, nose, and eye sockets. It clutched a large wrench in both hands and it did not look friendly at all. At all.

Talc was very interested in the information that Rei had uncovered and the story that it told. Once Harrac calls out that trouble is inbound, he tears his attention away from computer and focuses on Hot Stuff. Training his pistol on it, he looses a round and says "Does anyone know how the hell this guy just climbed out of a forge and didn't melt? What takes him down?"

Tactical semi-auto pistol: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
Damage P: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Jena moved forward to get a better angle at the enemy. She fired at the chain-wrapped creature with her hunting rifle, though her aim was off

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11
1d8 ⇒ 7

Jena and Talc moved in for the firing angles. Jena missed her shot, but talc landed his. A gout of smoke and flame erupted from the creature's shoulder as Talc's shot hit. More smoke poured from its mouth as it screamed and rushed towards Jena. The chains wrapped around its body took on a life of their own as they lashed out at the android.

Harrac yells, "MOVE OUT OF THE WAY REI" as he charges the creature, trying his best to move it away from Jena.

Stellar Bull Rush: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10
Fire Dmg: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 6) = 10 DC 13 Reflex for half

Acting after Rei moves and I have a clear path.
Photon Attuned 1

Talc sees the smoke-chain monster coming for Jena, his eyes widening in horror. "Get out of there, I'll cover you!"

Talc is about to blast the creature twice when Harrac yells and charges right in front of Talc, causing him to yank his arm up else shoot his friend in the back.

"Dammit Vesk!" he curses.

Talc pistol: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Talc pistol: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Rei's curiosity quickly turns to concentration at the unexpected visitor. She does not even need to face the vesk to know his intention as she quickly sidesteps and begins to power up.

"Be sure to move your tail vesk! I need a clear line of fire!"

Rei Round 1
5' Step
Casts Supercharge Weapon - Target self.

Harrac run forward to slam into the undead creature, but stumbled at the last moment. Hands flailing, he noticed his fiery burn wash over the creature, leaving it unharmed. Talc fired off two quick shots into the floor, even as Rei powered her weapon up for a heavy shot. Jena's bullet also went wide as the creature belched more smoke in her face. Turning to Harrac, the chains flicked out, swinging at the vesk from all directions. One caught Harrac on the back of the head, making him see stars for a moment. The chain ends continued writhing around the dwarf, looking like a cloud.

"What do you want Talc? Can't you see I'm setting this guy on fire? Err MORE on fire?" Harrac cries out as someone taps his head. He shifts around to the side as his blade appears in his hand,

Solar Weapon: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15
Dmg: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
Bleed: 1d1 ⇒ 1

Photon attuned 2
4 days left guys - we can do it!

Talc looks over at Rei at the corner of your of his eye. "Rei!" he shouts at her. "What the f*$% are you doing just standing there? For the love of the Gods, shoot it already before it chains Harrac to death!"

Turning his attention back to the chain dwarf, he fires two quick shots.

Attack Pistol: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4
Attack Pistol: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

Rei takes a side step and then lines up her shot.

atk laser rifle: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (7) + 3 = 10

"Talc! You cannot rush this! Look what you have done!" as Rei's super charged blast misses wide.

Harrac's wepaon bounced off the armor of the dwarven figure, and the writhing chains deflected all of the shots from Talc and Rei. Jena just lodged another slug in the floor. She dropped her rifle on its sling and pulled he dagger, getting into place to offer some flanking distraction for Harrac. The creature wasn't nearly as incompetent as its foes, and the writhing chains lashed out at Harrac before dropping still again. Harrac looked down to see yet another wound bleeding from his chest, the latest in a long series of injuries on this mission.

"How you holding up over there buddy?" Talc shouted to Harrac. He thought his last two shots were decently placed, but this thing was harder to hit that he first imagined. He takes a different stance and tries to fire two more shots before it devours Harrac with its chains.

Pistol: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7
Pistol: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

Harrac chances a glance at Talc, "Alice here keeps whipping me, but doing I'm ok other than that, you?" The dwarf seems confused by Harrac's super-topical musical reference and Harrac steps in to bury his blade in it's side. "Hah! Gotcha!"

Solar Weapon + Flank: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 6 + 2 = 24
Dmg: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10
Bleed: 1d1 ⇒ 1

"Enough of this game. Targeting systems engaged!"

Rei's shoulders spread as 3 glowing blue orbs of magical energy emerge and blast the target.

Rei Round 3
Magic Missile - Full Round
FireDeMissiles: 3d4 + 3 ⇒ (4, 2, 3) + 3 = 12

See Cory? That's how you hit! Good job, Dan!

Harrac took advantage of jena's distraction and drove his sword deep into the monstrosity. Several links of chain pinged off the floor as the sword cut in deep, but the creature, though wounded, seemed to feel no pain. It did, however, turn to glare at Rei as the magical missiles slammed into its head, one after the other. Chunks of undead flesh scattered around, but the creature merely looked angry. It stepped back and breathed out a cloud of smoke and embers. The burning air withered membranes and dried skin, and caused Rei, Talc, and Jena to each start coughing. The soot and smoke hung in the air, blocking sight as well as breath.

Jena takes a guarded step out of the smoke, but assumes a total defense next unwilling to take an exposed point blank shot.

Coughing but undeterred, Rei rushes through the smoke and takes up position to let off another round.

"Don't forget the battle cries that Talc taught us! Arrrrrgggghhhhh!"

Rei Round 4
Laser Rifle: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (13) + 3 = 16
dmg: 1d8 ⇒ 7

Harrac is pleased he finally did some damage and cuts a wide path to stay out of the creature's reach as he gets behind it again.

Solar Weapon + Flank: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 6 + 2 = 19
Dmg: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6
Bleed: 1d1 ⇒ 1

Move 30'
Photon Attuned 3

Talc can't decide if he wants to shoot the dwarf or Rei. The damn fire gets to him and he is racked with a coughing fit that causes both of his shots to fly several feet off the mark.

Pistol Chain Dwarf: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10
Pistol Dwarf or Rei: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Rei's laser hit the creature squarely but failed to do any damage. She too realized that a creature living in the fires of a forge was probably immune to fire. coughing and spluttering, Talc sucks in a lungful of the embers and soot, which burns his throat and lungs and makes him cough even more. Undeterred, Harrac slashes through more of the chains to cut into the creature.

The chains shot out again, slashing and poking at Harrac, but not able to find a chink in his armor this time.

Harrac dodges the chains and slides his blade into the creature's leg. He releases his stored photon energy and plans to gather graviton, fire won't hurt him but maybe he'll try and run."

Solar Weapon + Flank: 1d20 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 6 + 2 = 22
Dmg: 1d6 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8
Bleed: 1d1 ⇒ 1

Talc fires once more, missing horribly. Growling in frustration, he knows that they need to put this thing down before it puts Harrac down. He takes an extra half-second on his second shot to steady his aim and pulls the trigger when he has center mass.

I need to get a bigger gun.

Attack: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Attack: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21
Damage tactical semi-auto pistol: 1d6 ⇒ 4

A combination of sword and gun finally cut down the monstrosity. The corrupted dwarf lay motionless on the ground, it's once glowing eyes dark once more. The only movement in the room was your heavy breathing and the occasional twitch of the chain wrapped around the dead dwarf.

"Well this is highly illogical" Rei mutters in a deadpan tone. "Does anyone have any idea who this guy is, or was?"

She holds up her datapad and takes a photo, attempting to do a reverse Groodle image search to try to find out more about this guy.

computers: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

As she searches, without lifting her head she speaks. "Talc, you need to do something about that cough. It sounds unhealthy"

From within the asteroid, Rei can't get a connection to the Omni, but she does see a nearby computer system that controls some of the forge's more advanced tech. There were numerous files on both personnel and equipment, especially designs for hybrid techmagic weapons.

The personnel rosters include extensive lists of duergar, trox slaves, and a few miscellaneous captives. The last recorded date is the 327th day of 40 ag—corresponding with the uprising—with numerous duergar and trox labeled as deceased that day, and more duergar slated for evacuation. Of note among the captives is a male dwarf wearing a boar-headed pendant, whose limited dossier notes that the duergar didn’t know how he entered the station. However, his records note that he was tied to a slave uprising, is a spy, was tortured for information, and was to be executed “by fiery submersion.”

The equipment here consists of many valuable parts, including numerous ones that consist of precious metals and expensive crystalline capacitors. The value of some of these components is readily apparent from the damaged computers’ exteriors, and several broken circuit board casings reveal hints of the valuables within.

Ignoring Rei, Talc coughs loudly. "I'm fine. It's just the smoking fire destroying the oxygen that us humans need to breathe."

Talc looks through parts and tries to find out what looks expensive and value, deciding it all looks expensive. "So uh, some of this stuff might be valuable. Should we take it back for examination?"

After the items of value are taken, Talc rallies the troops. "Alright folks, let's get back to it." he gets Harrac to lead the way into the next area.

Harrac peruses the room but agrees with Talc's assessment of what's valuable. As he looks for a new area to explore, he comments to the others, "we may have enough to satisfy Thromkendal, but let's give it some more time. I know they said there are 3 days, but I'd rather make sure we're far away before they initiate the next stage!"

Perception Room: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
Not sure where else we have to explore?

Harrac takes some time to reexamine the personnel roster and his eyes open a bit wider as he turns toward the beast they just defeated. Walking over, he begins to move the chains aside, looking for the boar head pendant, "guys, I think this might be the spy we keep seeing mentioned in the files."

Perception body: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

Harrac finds no signs of a pendant on this dwarf, though he remembers seeing such a pendant on the dwarf corpse in the crucible. He finds no identifying items or marks on the chain-wrapped corpse here.

As you discuss what to do from this point, you recall the tunnels that were at the sides at the beginning of this chamber. Backtracking, you find that iron gates once closed these off, but the collapses that had occurred elsewhere in the facility had also twisted and crushed these, allowing entry into the partially collapsed tunnels beyond.

Within the tunnels, you find the crushed remains of the same giant insectile creatures you fought at the doors in the Solarian Stone chamber, as well as sets of manacles inset into the stone.

Harrac looks around the tunnels but finds nothing of interest.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5