Sammad grits his teeth as Verrael shrugs off the electricity of his pistol, then switches weapons with practiced ease to his zero pistol. "I've had enough of you, traitor. Mind-controlled or disguised, I don't care-"
He exclaims as he snaps his weapon up to sight on her, "One way or another, I'LL SEE YOU BURN! TAKE HER, FRIENDS!"
With that outburst, he sends a pair of icy-cold shots towards her!
Flint moves over to Varrael’s side and tries to grab her and hold her in place so she can’t fly away. His eyes still blaze with fully attuned photon energy, but given her demonstrated fire resistance he holds it in check—for now.
Ordyt hustles through the makeshift medical station, past his allies and through until he can see ongoing struggle between Verrael and Flint. "You should've kept running," he advises the anassanoi, pointing a finger at her as a grey beam emits from the digit
-
[dice]
Seeing that she's getting surrounded, Verrael dips low and flies beneath Bel and back through the wall of fire. As she flies, she sends "So it goes. The remains of this rebellion will be crushed soon either way."
|||| STATUS ||||
Mari (8 dmg) x2
Flint (89 dmg)
Sammad (29 dmg)
Ordyt (133 dmg)
Bel (41 dmg)
Infested Mehhren (KO'd, stable)
Verrael (29 dmg, imp get em)
*Nyralaen Status: 39 dmg
Ordyt shoulders his rifle and sights, but can't bring it to bear before Verrael passes back through the sheet of flame. With a frustrated growl he lowers the weapon, looking to the others.
"I'm reaching my limit, but I might be able to clear the path," he raises a hand towards the burning barrier, reaching deep into that well of faith for Sarenrae's divine might.
[dice=Dispel Magic]1d20+8[dice]
Neither Flint nor Bel manage to strike Verrael as she slips into the fire. Ordyt's dispel magic causes the wall to ripple once, but fails to bring it down.
|||| STATUS ||||
Mari (8 dmg) x2
Flint (89 dmg)
Sammad (29 dmg)
Ordyt (133 dmg)
Bel (41 dmg)
Infested Mehhren (KO'd, stable)
Verrael (29 dmg, imp get em)
*Nyralaen Status: 39 dmg
”I’ll circle around the way she originally left the room,” says Flint on the comms. He activates his jetpack and zooms 30 feet to the south.
Mari slides to a stop just as Verrael darts back through the fire. With an annoyed huff, she turns and runs back the way she came, coming around a corner just in time to snap off a shot from her zero rifle.
You circle around, with half the party approaching from the west while the other half moves south and back up through the main cistern chamber. Mari turns the corner, expecting to see Verrael there... but the anassanoi is nowhere to be seen. Those of you with superior fire resistance brave the wall, but also find she's not inside or to the east or north of the wall either.
For a moment it seems she might be invisible, but Mari confirms that there aren't any invisible creatures slinking about. It seems she vanished!
Combat Over.
With Verrael gone, it doesn't take long for the wall of flame to vanish as well, and you're all able to safely make it back to Nyralaen. The anassanoi Protector is tending to Mehhren and the other anassanoi who had gone down to the first fireball Verrael threw. Two of the medics unfortunately prove to be already dead, but she has a third stable and still kicking. She looks up at you all as you return. "My deepest thanks. Thanks to your care, Mehhren remains with us, and I am confident that we will be able to extract this terrible parasite from him. But... Designation Verrael..." Her mental voice wavers in a tangled mix of fear and horror. "I do not know if it is simply my refusal to accept such cruelty from one of our own, but I fell that something was very strange with Designation Verrael, beyond just their actions. I did not hear their heart in their words. It was, disturbing."
Sinking down to sit with a pained groan, Ordyt considers the charred medics grimly as he rolls the fight over in his mind. I don't know what happened, but I don't think that was really Verrael. I'm switching back to the mind-control or possession theory--while she was fighting the captain, she told him 'You've gotten a little better. A shame you waste those skills on this cause.' Like she knew us, not just of us.
Whatever the truth, your people can't stay here. Verrael, or their rider, will have reported the location of this place. The Legion may not know exactly where, but it won't take them long to find it.
”Ordyt speaks truly. The mind within Varrael was not Anassanoi—whether it was a cleverly disguised legion soldier or a possessed unfortunate. Let us perform the surgery as quickly as may be while we pack up and prepare to evacuate. Once I rest a few minutes, I will go and help to stand watch against any Legion incursions,” offers Flint.
Looking at Sammad, Flint says, ”The Legion is devious, trading on our desire to help the people to sneak a spy into their midst. Let us be more careful to vet those we rescue before we let them join us in a sensitive location.”.
Mari comes stomping back into the room, cursing in half a dozen languages. "Let's get this over with before he roids out again."
Nyralaen's mental voice spikes with alarm as Ordyt speaks "You are right. I have no doubt that Designation Verrael will inform the Legion of our location, whoever or whatever they are. We must move from here as soon as we are able." She offers one last look at Mehhren before rising "I will coordinate my kin. We know of other places that may still be safe, but it may be best to separate our group in case any of them has already been discovered. Please, do your best for Mehhren. We will undoubtedly have need of him. I will join you again once the preparations are complete."
She rushes out, returning a minute later with another medic to help you with extracting the symbiend, then hurrying off to rally the rebels for the move.
Smiling after his short rest, Flint says, ”Those of you who aren’t helping with the surgery, do you want to join me setting up some nasty surprises for the Legion when they try to take this place?”
"Our energy might be better spent helping our hosts to pack. What can we do to the Legion here that would justify the time and resources?"
”They will come, sooner or later, to search this place. I was thinking a few traps might make them pay a price and be slower to raid our safe houses in the future…But I am no expert at underground resistance warfare. Helping pack up and keeping an eye out for any incoming Legion soldiers would be helpful as well,” responds Flint.
Mehhren's surgery proves as challenging as it seemed at first blush, if not even more so after the symbiend pushed his body to its limits to fight you. However, Mari is more than up to the challenge. With the assistance of two of the anassanoi medics, she opens up Mehhren's back, stuns the symbiend, and painstakingly extracts it without damaging Mehhren's compromised nervous system. The symbiend itself appears as a compact, elongated arthropod with countless long feathery legs. Once it's removed, it proves completely helpless, even after it recovers from the stunning.
Once he's sown back up, Mehhren falls into a far more peaceful sleep. It'll likely take him a while to recover from such an ordeal.
"Gods, it's hideous!" Ordyt exclaims in horror as the symbiend is revealed. Proferring an ammunition can, he ensures it's securely locked away for further study later. "What a vile tactic. Is it possible that a more subtle parasite was implanted into Verrael? Something that allows the implanted victim to be some weird sort of relay for another's intelligence?"
With the surgery complete, Ordyt sets to work helping to load up supplies and otherwise help with evacuation, unless his crew needs his help with something.
While you're plotting out your trap, Nyralaen returns to join you. "We are largely prepared to leave. You can join us if you wish, but I believe this may be a good time to strike at another of the Legion's weak points, while they are distracted by the news of our presence here." She closes her eyes and you see flashes of the other locations she mentioned previously. She adds "Although Mehhren may take some time to fully recover, if you can return with his Chariot, he should be able to pilot it even in his weakened state. We expect it is still kept at one of the occupation's bases. You have been pushing yourselves hard, but if you can still do more today, this may also be an opportunity to disrupt the Skate-rail network being used to send supplies to the Spire, or obtain medical supplies from the Archives that may help us wake designation Faefell."
A sound plan, Protector. We should claim the Chariot first--now that they've lost Mehhren for real they'll likely move it soon.
"Yes, that seems wise, Ordyt," replies Flint, "Let's move out as soon as the anassanoi are clear".
To Belmarniss and Ordyt, he says, "Let's do something simple with the remote detonation grenades you have, Ordyt. I would think we could trigger them to explode in whatever nasty way you can come up with, Belmarniss, perhaps when they are trying to enter? Say we lock this place up securely, and when they try to bypass the lock to get in we have a virus set up to invade their systems and trigger your trap? If we are fortunate, we can destroy any evidence of our work with the trap and hopefully infect their systems. If they think it is just a physical trap, they may not realize we have gotten into their systems until the virus has sent us valuable intel...What do you guys think?"
"Hand 'em over," Mari says, cracking her neck. "I'll take care of it, leave them some nasty surprises."
The anassanoi rebel sewer base is far from naturally defensible, with few solid doors to secure around the main chambers and many individual paths in and out of the cistern area and surrounding rooms. The anassanoi had clearly been relying on security through obscurity, which makes setting up bottlenecks tough. However, Mari is able to split up the Mk1 grenades Ordyt has and a few additional weaker explosives the rebels acquired, attaching them to water and steam pipes running through the various hallways. Bel adds an assortment of sharps and debris to the payloads to hopefully amplify any injury or confusion. Unfortunately your booms won't be quite big enough to bring the ceiling down, but it should deal some damage to any pursuers.
The anassanois are taking all the tech they can carry with them, but a few heavier machines are being left behind. You wire things up so that anyone tampering with the equipment will set off the array of traps, and add some physical redundancies for good measure.
Once the traps are set, Nyralaen lends you two anassanoi and a Skate to serve as drivers to get to the occupation base that houses Mehhren's Chariot. With earnest well wishes, she and the other rebels rush down the sewer tunnels toward their next best hidey-holes.
-----
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"With a little luck this'll bloody their nose. We should be elsewhere when that happens," Ordyt nods at Mari's handiwork as the last of the stragglers exit the complex--though he gently but firmly takes Bel by the elbow as she passes, pausing a moment to let the others keep walking.
"Hey, I wanted to ask you how you're holding up," he's tucked his helmet under his other arm so she can see his face, expression concerned. "That last fight was a nasty business... I don't mean to lecture but I'm worried about you, and time is short; we need you to keep your center, okay? The Legion are sadistic bastards and we'll fight them to the end, even kill them when we have to--but reveling in suffering isn't our way. We need our Starknight, Bel. A lot of lives hang on our actions here." He gives the drow an encouraging smile and a comradely pat on the back, and dons his helmet to move out once more.
|
While Marisol rigs up a physical trap, Belmarniss sets up a digital one, coding up a worm to hide in the base's computer system and attack that of anyone attempting to interface with it, similar to what Flint suggested.
When Ordyt pulls her aside before they move out, she looks down at the ground, away from him.
"I'm...I'm not doing well," she confesses. "You're right, I shouldn't be thinking like an Apostae boardroom b!tch. But I've tried everything else, and none of it was good enough. My spells weren't strong enough, my jetpack wasn't fast enough, my sword wasn't agile enough. We prevented Nyralaen from being assassinated and got Mehhren clean of...whatever that freakin' thing was...but we led the enemy in through the front door, because we fell for their deceit and weren't strong enough to keep them from retreating. Now innocent soldiers of a resistance already strained to the breaking point are dead and they have to abandon the securest headquarters they have, setting them back Iomedae knows how much? This is OUR fault."
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"No. It's the Legion's fault--and an important reminder. We're up against an enemy who is better equipped, more numerous, and is not stupid. We're lucky the cost of that lesson wasn't higher, but we are winning victories. Come on, let's go get that Chariot while they're distracted by raiding this place."
”Well-said, Ordyt. We will have to be more suspicious of those we rescue in the future, but we HAVE to believe we are weakening the Legion’s grip on these good people. Let’s go get a chariot!” says Flint.
Bel spends some time working on a surprise for anyone who tries to access the computer systems remaining in the cistern. The resulting worm is quite aggressive and should be able to make its way into the enemy's devices. Without specific knowledge of what device will be connected, you're only able to try for a broad kind of attack - attempting to delete files, toggle systems, and cause general havoc.
----
With everything in place, you meet with your drivers and head away from the rebel base on a different trajectory. About half an hour of winding turns and dark tunnels later and the skate slides up a small access tunnel to the surface. Your drivers let you out and pass along two small devices. One is a crystalline memory stick, for if you find any data stored at the facility that might help the rebellion. The second is a tiny platinum disk inscribed with an intricate sigil. The driver explains that if this can be placed inside Mehhren's Chariot, Mehhren will be able to re-establish his link with the vehicle from a distance and then pilot it back remotely. The drivers then return back to the tunnel to hide the vehicle.
When you turn the corner, you see your destination - a massive roughly-ovoid building up ahead that serves as one of many Occupation Bases. The smooth building has a bright silver color, gleaming in the light of the sun's plasma. Red and gold banners hang along its sides. It's clear immediately that this place is of Anassanoi construction, repurposed by the Legion. The building has just one door - constructed of two silver panels with a massive device of black metal and brass that seems to be acting as a seal to keep them closed.
Perhaps thanks to the flight of the rebels, there are no exterior guards or guard towers, and the building has no windows. Everything around the building seems quiet, at least for now.
"Alright, let's do this quickly. In and out." Ordyt advances on the door to the strange ovoid structure, examining the doors for signs of traps, confident in his companions' ability to handle any alarms or other tech hurdles.
"No way this place is up to code," Mari mutters, following close behind Ordyt.
While the others examine the doors, Flint watches the perimeter, alert for any threats that might seek to ambush them while their attention is focused elsewhere.
As you approach, you don't spot any traps or threats watching you or heading to intercept you. The door itself looks sturdily constructed. The black metal sealing contraption on the front has a slot on the side that could accept key cards, but is otherwise lacking in any kind of interface or readout.
"All right, I got this," Mari grumbles, getting to work on the door.
Indeed, Mari has it. Though the system is designed to accept keycards, she runs a couple of leads into the slot and fakes the appropriate signal. A heavy clunk resounds from within the seal and then it falls off the front of the doors. After that, its easy enough to just tap the doors open.
Directly ahead, you see a straight passageway that ends at a pair of doors, while curved halls arc to either side. Interestingly, the building's corridors connect all of the internal rooms directly, allowing you to bypass any rooms you wish. Closest to you are four quarter-circle shaped rooms, all of which are marked with tiny placards that state "Convalescence Room" in Anassanoi. The ceilings in the hallways and the rooms are all 15 feet.
Everything seems quiet for now. The hallways you can see are deserted.
As Mari handles the door, Ordyt shoulders his rifle and taps the sylph on the shoulder as he enters, sweeping left in a snap decision to search the curving hallways clockwise. When he comes to the first set of doors, the oread passes them, pausing just on the other side to overwatch the hall until it's time to clear the room.
"...Where is everyone?"