"Bel, you can overload the nanites with electricity. Everyone else, don't let it grab you, and know it can reach further than you expect." With that, she steps back and designates the ooze for her exocortex.
Sammad hears Marisol and responds with a curt nod. He moves to get a bead on the ooze, and draws his pistol as he waits for it to make a move.
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Now free, the ooze rapidly expands out into a hazy grey cube, its corners wiggling with pseudopods that manage to find technological tools and gear sitting all over the shelves nearby. It hungrily begins consuming the scattered tech, though that only gives you a precious moment or two before it turns to attack the group of you instead!
Marisol and Sammad are the quickest to spring into action.
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Marisol
Sammad
Assembly Ooze
Ordyt
Flint (3 spdmg, 6 hpdmg)
Belmarniss (3 hpdmg)
Bold are up
Mari fires off a shot from her rifle at the ooze and backs up against the wall behind her, determined to keep her distance.
Sammad moves closer to the ooze and Ordyt, aiming at the heaving gray glob. Making sure to avoid his comrade, he fires on the ooze!
The assembly ooze grabs a nearby multi-tool with another pseudopod and drops it into its body. As you watch, the tool rapidly dissolves into the grey mass.
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Ordyt (10 dmg)
Flint (3 spdmg, 6 hpdmg)
Belmarniss (3 hpdmg)
Marisol
Sammad
Assembly Ooze
Bold are up
Flint moves up to stand next to Sammad (“north” of him) and readies a strike with his solar blade if the ooze gets close enough (photon aligning). Calling to Ordyt, he says, ”Let’s form a line here, Ordyt, so the others can have a clear shot.”
+1 electricity
Frustrated, Mari quickly chambers another round, sights carefully, and pulls the trigger.
Sammad sees Ordyt take a strike from the ooze, and yells out in response, "Ordyt, get back! We can't have you falling now!"
Sammad rallies Ordyt even as Marisol's rifle punches a hole in the storage container rather than its intended target. Before Ordyt or Flint swing in with their weapons, Belmarniss dashes forward with a hand charged with electricity. A pseudopod begins extending towards her junksword, only to be met by her hand. The resultant flash of electricity runs through the ooze from end to end, blackening the nanites within. The ooze rapidly dissolves into a puddle of gray fluid and loose electronics.
Combat Over in one hit!
Ordyt (1 hpdmg, 4spdmg)
Flint (3 spdmg, 6 hpdmg)
Belmarniss (3 hpdmg)
Marisol
Sammad
With the hungry ooze dealt with, Marisol and Belmarniss are able to return their attention to the tech around the room (or whatever is left after the ooze began snacking).
Inside the storage container that the ooze vacated, you find a number of completed technological items that the ooze must have manufactured. Some of these items are simple tools and personal items with strange and unusual designs. Marisol and Belmarniss identify the purpose of two of these items - one is an armor upgrade that functions as a Mk1 agility enhancer, the other is an emergency beacon.
On the tables, you find a variety of esoteric tools for analyzing the magical and physical properties of objects. Among them, you recover a set of tools that you think you can use as an Engineering Tool kit. Additionally, you locate a crowbar, a Mk1 glass cutter, a chemalyzer, a grappler, 90ft of titanium cable line, and a set of microgoggles.
Furthermore, Belmarniss is able to get the glitchy computer console here to respond. Although the interface is highly insensitive to her touch (she recognizes it's a heat-based control system), she's able to get past a pattern-based lock and into the computer proper. She finds that the computer is an isolated system, not connected to the rest of the ship's devices. While it has taken significant damage from the inferno whale attack, she's able to deduce that it once controlled a synthesis device not unlike the UPB-based synthesizers found on some larger starships. Unlike UPB based tech, this device sent magical and electrical pulses into an assembly ooze to direct it to synthesize specific items and gear from unneeded and unused pieces.
Sammad looks from the blackened lump that was once an ooze, to Belmarniss, and back again. "The Knights trained you well, old friend. I'm glad you were at our side."
He then looks to the others, holstering his pistol now that the threat has passed. "No doors to travel further through this room. Where should we go next?"
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Belmarniss stares in disbelief that she just managed to end the fight so quickly.
"Heh...haHA!" she laughs. "Um...thank you, Sammad," she says, straightening up and trying to regain her decorum.
After analyzing the tools, she regards the others.
"I already have an Engineering Tool kit of my own, so if one of you would like this, you may have it. We may need to divy up the other tools based on who's best-trained to utilize them. Doctor Taeress will want to take a look at this 'assembly-ooze-based-synthesizer' too, I imagine. It seems incredibly impractical from my standpoint, though, considering the ooze was able to escape when its container was damaged and probably could have wreaked a LOT of havoc on this vessel had we not been investigating it. UPBs are MUCH safer."
Clearing some of the tools off a nearby bench, Ordyt sits with a small groan and watches the others work. "So they magically controlled an ooze to craft tech for them? I'm with you Bel, that seems unnecessarily complicated."
Mari's frustration at her poor aim evaporates when she sees Bel's incredible strike against the ooze. "That was amazing, Bel! Way to go!" she cheers.
Flint looks at Belmarniss with undisguised awe, "That was truly amazing. We are fortunate to have you on our side."
Moving over to the port-most unexplored door, Flint waits for the with skills to check it if they wish before he opens it.
Marisol heads over to the remaining door and examines it for any more death traps.
"Right behind you! Gonna have a hell of a bruise from that assembly sludge thing, though."
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Marisol doesn't spot any traps or hazards on or around the door heading towards the port-fore wing of the ship. Relatively confident, Flint and Belmarniss open the door to reveal a very different looking chamber!
This long wiggly-shaped room is very clearly a combination galley and dining room. And a classy looking one at that. A wraparound grill occupies the center of the room, designed for chefs to stand behind while diners sit at the bar or the nearby tables and watch their food being prepared. Pristine brass cabinets line the walls, though several of their doors are currently open with their contents (foodstuffs and cooking utensils) strewn across the floor. The floor is its own piece of art, with gold and silver checkered tiles giving the room an incredible feel of opulence. Above, twin almond shaped domes in the ceiling provide a view of the starscape above the ship.
A quiet, but audible sound of giggling fills the room. Two doors exit the room to the port and fore sides.
Flint looks into the room and doesn’t immediately see anything alarming, although he is curious about the giggling he heard. He steps into the room and looks around for the source of the giggling, saying in Ignan, “Hello, is anyone there?”
Peering over Flint's shoulder into the room, Ordyt frowns at the giggling but doesn't say anything, listening for a response to Flint's query.
Sammad also hears the giggling, and a look of annoyance crosses his face for a moment before he composes himself. Hearing Flint's question, he steps up behind the Captain and speaks as well, raising his empty hands.
"Reveal yourself, please. We mean no harm."
Mari steps in after the others, gawking at the overdecorated cafeteria. As she glances about the place, her eyes catch on the port side door. Her eyes widening with realization, she taps Ordyt on the shoulder repeatedly and points to it. "Hard vacuum through there. Don't let anyone open it!"
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While not much of a woman of culture, Belmarniss recognizes a ritzy kitchen set-up when she sees it.
"Impressive!" she coos. "Teppanyaki-style! You don't see kitchens set up this way often, even in fancy restaurants here in the Pact Worlds...my parents once had me attend a dinner at a place like this with some high-up Rycast board members. For someone to furnish a kitchen like this on a SHIP? They're CLEARLY loaded, probably even MORE loaded than high-up Rycast board members..."
The giggling of hidden friends or foes brings her back to the situation at hand, and she nods at Marisol's warning about the door. She lets the Ignan speakers take the lead in negotiating.
The giggling is high pitched and frenetic rather than creepy. To Ordyt's ear, he doesn't detect anything malicious in it, but at the same time there's a certain wildness to it. Guiness notices that as the giggling starts and stops, the grill on the center island turns on and off right at the same time. It's hard to tell, but the giggling seems to be coming from... the grill itself?
Guiness and Sammad hazard a diplomatic introduction. While they sound quite reasonable, there's no intelligible response from the gigglers, whoever or whatever they are.
"Bel, remind me to invite myself along the next time you go to one of these. Though hopefully yours is less haunted."
"Er, I think someone's...in the grill? Or under it? Bel do you know if these things are gas-fueled or something similar? Maybe they're huffing..."
Feeling a little foolish with everyone wedged in the doorway, Ordyt steps into the kitchen. "Want me to knock on the grill and see if anyone's home? I don't think they heard you."
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"Bel, remind me to invite myself along the next time you go to one of these. Though hopefully yours is less haunted."
"I dunno, Marisol...drow grills could be even MORE haunted, considering some of them probably burn living sacrifices to demon lords on them, usually the most underperforming employee that quarter," Belmarniss replies, the grimace clear in her eyes, even if her mask hides it. "Be careful, Ordyt. Teppanyaki grills are propane-fueled, so whatever's in there, might try to flame you with it, or jury-rig a gas-leak explosion."
As you come up close to the grill to see what exactly is going on with it, the giggling abruptly ceases, only to be replaced by a chorus of huffing noises. Ordyt leans over to inspect the grill's surface before knocking on it. Suddenly three flames pour forth from the grill's burners.
The flames swirl around for a moment before each taking the form of a tiny lizard with a bulbous onion shaped head. They chirp in rapid succession, speaking in Ignan. They start firing jets of flame from the tops of their burning onion-heads.
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Marisol dodges as the tiny fire lizard sends a jet of fire at her legs. Ordyt and Belmarniss are not as quick on their feet.
|||| INIT ||||
Ordyt (1 hpdmg, 5spdmg)
Flint (3 spdmg, 6 hpdmg)
Belmarniss (3 hpdmg, 5 spdmg)
Marisol
Sammad
Fiery Lizard around Marisol
Fiery Lizard around Ordyt
Fiery Lizard around Bel
Bold are up
Flint quickly draws his solar dueling sword and swings at the nearest fire lizard (the one on Belmarniss), his eyes glinting with the adrenaline of battle (photon attunement 1). "Must everything here try to burn us?" he says with exasperation.
Flint's solar dueling sword cleaves straight through the grilling lizard, extinguishing it with a squeak.
"Coo-coo-c..ook..."
Sammad sighs deeply as he draws his pistol, then fires at the lizard near Ordyt! "Flames take you, little pests!"
Ordyt hops between the countertop and the stove as the little monster burns him. Distractedly trying to keep the creature away from him with an armored boot, Ordyt lashes out at the little lizard thing menacing Marisol.
Mari watches the tiny creatures emerge and take shape with a look of amazement. "What cute little lizards! I wonder if--"
She cuts herself off with a cry of alarm as she stumbles backward from the flames. With a look of betrayal, she raises her rifle and fires at the nearest fire lizard.
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Belmarniss raises an eyebrow as the lizards take shape.
"They bound elemental creatures to be their oven's heating element? They MUST be wealtheeeEEOUCH!" she shrieks as one of the little beasts burn her.
She jumps back and reforms her junksword, trying to chop its funny little head off!
Sammad's icicle shot shish-kabobs a fiery lizard through its onion-shaped head. And while Ordyt's pike glances off the beautiful tiling on the floor, Belmarniss and Marisol work together to end the last one. The smoldering remains of all three little fire lizards disappear in puffs of smoke.
Combat Over!
Once the fire lizards vanish you realize that the giggling you heard before sounded a lot like their high pitched voices when the trio squeaked in Ignan. Other than yourselves, the dining area is now silent.
”Well, that was unpleasant,” quips Flint, looking around the room. ”Let’s see if there are any useful supplies stocking this kitchen,” he adds, starting to look around and open cabinets and such.
Sammad bends down to look at the smudge on the floor where one of the lizards once was. "What a nasty surprise...I suppose this vessel's original inhabitants must have found them pleasant, but what does that say about them...?"
He then rises, pistol still in hand as he watches the others, alert for further attacks.
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"Just for the record, we helped save this ship from being eaten and came aboard to offer assistance to the survivors, and there's only been one room in here that hasn't tried to kill us."
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"Just for the record, we helped save this ship from being eaten and came aboard to offer assistance to the survivors, and there's only been one room in here that hasn't tried to kill us."
"It wasn't made for us," Sammad replies, reaching out a hand to touch the nearest wall and feel its gentle heat. "And the more we go in, the more curious I am about who it was made for..."
And afraid, Sammad thought, but he knew better than to show fear.
"If the creators hail from the Plane of Fire, as seems very likely, they come from an environment that is inherently dangerous to creatures like us. Perhaps I'm too optimistic but it may be that they just didn't consider how dangerous a fire-heavy environment would be to beings like us." Ordyt gingerly tests a step on his burned foot, grimacing at the throbbing pain but pushing it aside for now.
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Belmarniss nods.
"That makes sense, Ordyt, especially since, as Sammad can probably attest, denizens of the Plane of Fire tend to be really bloody rich. Rich enough to have a fire-elemental-powered grill in their fancy kitchen at any rate...I imagine if the ship weren't so damaged, the little creatures would have been better behaved."
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"I think you're probably right, I can't imagine that 'lizards made of fire jump out and attack diners' is part of the intended experience. Sammy, have you ever seen a ship from the Plane of Air? I've always wondered what they're like."
"I think you're probably right, I can't imagine that 'lizards made of fire jump out and attack diners' is part of the intended experience. Sammy, have you ever seen a ship from the Plane of Air? I've always wondered what they're like."
"I have not. The Cooperative doesn't deal overly much with entities of Air...that rivalries run deeper than even you or I will ever know."
Sammad and Flint set to searching the room. The cabinets in the room are largely already open and surprisingly messily organized inside. A quick look through them reveals an assortment of foodstuffs, some familiar and some rather odd. In fact, one cabinet seems entirely dedicated to a plethora of opaque plastic baggies labeled 'Ash Curls' in Ignan. The text on the back of the bag describes them as a "hit snack", but offers no clue to their flavor.
Integrated into the cabinets is a compact machine with dozens of slots, funnels, switches, levers and a rugged display.
Removing this machine from the cabinet without damaging it requires a successful DC20 Engineering check.
In addition to your search of the cabinets, Flint overhears a faint muffled thump from the door in the fore direction.
Flint can't make heads nor tails of the complicated kitchen machine, but he happily leaves it to the more technically minded folks to take a look. Motioning that he hears a sound behind the forward door, he moves to that door and puts his ear up to it, listening carefully to what might be on the other side.
Mari, fascinated by the cupboard and its contents, single-mindedly focuses on the machine, trying to work out its secrets. Unfortunately, she doesn't get any closer to understanding the complex inner mysteries of the device.