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It's a heavily injured team that slowly retreats back through the ship towards the transport shuttle. Flint, as usual, leads the way. He touches an irising door in the luxurious rec room and as it opens up, you suddenly notice something rather... unpleasant. The crystal winged creature whose name kept changing waits for you there.
A big, big toothy grin splits its face when it sees you all looking badly injured. It starts flexing its long arms as its three eyes flash from blue to white. It giggles at you.
"But you're not good worshippers either. Oorix left thinking... hmm... maybe you better off dead while I look for new, better, worshippers."
The crystal-winged creature flaps up higher to look down at you... it seems to be trying to be menacing.
Flint looks up wearily, but strides into the room as he slowly draws his solar dueling blade and points it at the stowaway with fire in his eyes.
"Lorix-Opipol-Lucus, I grow tired of your prattle. You are on an uncontrolled starship hurtling off into the void of space, and we are your only hope of rescue. If you want to die, then by all means attack me. Otherwise get out of my way."
Sammad squints his eyes at the stowaway's prattle. He draws his pistol and points it at the tiny creature before replying in Ignan.
"Aside, gnat. The red one and black one stood against us and fell, and I'd lose no sleep at adding you to the list."
With a resigned sigh, Ordyt twirls the pike in his right hand and hefts the icy hammer in his left, staring steadily at the irritating creature. "Come on then."
Mari gives a disgusted sigh and addresses the creature in Ignan.
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Lorix, Borix, Jorix, or whatever its name is, recoils in trepidation as you show to not be easily cowed by its threats. It flaps up towards the ceiling, trying to get out of your reach. It stutters out nervously in Ignan.
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With that irritation dealt with, you return to the shuttle. The little shuttle's sensors are some of the least capable Flint has ever seen, but even so, he's able to confirm that there aren't any hazards of significant size within your expected path away from the sun. By this point you've gotten fairly far away from Far Station, with the Breath of Embers drifting at a considerable pace towards deep space. Nothing you can't make up in a few hours once you're done.
You rest as well as you can in the cramped quarters of the little ship's bridge (and sole livable space). You seal the ship's airlock to ensure you won't be interrupted by any remaining surprises aboard the Breath of Embers. When you wake, you notice the shuttle has picked up a message from Dr. Taeress over on Far Station.
"In any case, we've tapped a Dawnshore-based rescue squad to stand by in case we don't hear from you in the next 12 hours."
Groaning as he stretches after a necessary but uncomfortable rest, Flint watches the message with the others. Turning to Sammad, he says, ”Sammad, would you like to handle the communique with the station?”
Sammad rises and stretches with practiced ease. He then rearranges his turban and smooths some of the wrinkles out of his suit, before rising to join the others around the comms station.
Having watched the message, he responds to Flint's request with an even voice. "Certainly, Captain. I'll let them know we're alright, and give some highlights of our excursion, if you think that's wise."
"I trust your judgement, Sammad, to give the proper information for our safety as well as maximizing our leverage for potential salvage negotiations," says Flint with a smile.
Turning to the others, he says, "What next do you think? The remainder of the pressurized rooms, then some suit-time at the bridge and the other depressurized rooms?"
"Sounds good to me, Cap. Glad to be nearly done with this hotbox."
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Belmarniss gives a pensive frown as they watch Dr. Taeress' message.
"Whatever my feelings on her organization are, she's a good person, and we shouldn't have worried her like that. Sammad, if you could please extend her an apology for that with your communique? And inform her that there are DEFINITELY items of scientific interest aboard this vessel, like the assembly-ooze-based replication device."
When Flint announces their plan, she straightens up and nods.
"A solid tactical plan, Captain Conners. And hopefully should we encounter more hostile beings Desna will smile on us a bit more than she has recently."
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Ordyt listens patiently while the others discuss the message. Once it seems the others are done talking, the warrior speaks up. "I think we should alert Dr. Taeress to what we've learned about the vessel possibly being stolen from its makers. I'm now less concerned about whatever remains on board and more worried that they might dispatch a recovery team through that portal. Anyone in possession of the ship when that happens would be in for a fight, I suspect."
"That...is a very good point, Ordyt."
Flint appears a bit shaken by Ordyt's concern--you can almost see the tactical calculations running quickly through his head for ship combat against a "recovery team" given their current firepower...and he turns slightly paler.
"Then by all means, let us be done with this quickly, Ordyt, so we can at least be underway before we must again defend ourselves and this ship.
Sammad listens to the others, then nods before turning to the comms station. He activates it and clears his throat softly before speaking.
"Dr. Suloro, I'm letting you know that we're all still alive, as of our first excursion into the craft. We paused to recuperate, and didn't take drift or poor comms into account...our apologies for worrying you and the other station staff.
About the ship...we've discovered that it's called the Breath of Embers, and...we suspect that it was stolen from its makers. They may have been the ones to dispatch the whale that nearly destroyed it...I advise you and your colleagues to be alert for further incursions through the Far Portal.
We found 4 sentients aboard; 2 were open to negotiation, the other 2 fought us and were neutralized.
We also found several high-quality tech items, including a bizarre assembly ooze-based device that has Belmarniss fascinated." He shoots the drow a wry grin at that, chuckling at his own joke, then turns back to the screen. "We're about to venture back in, trying to access the remaining areas that we didn't the first time. I expect that we'll be seeing you again. Sammad Al-Fayir, signing off," he says with a courteous nod, before pressing the button to send their message.
As Sammad enters his response and hits send, you all see the the comms terminal churning slowly through the request. Progress bars stall out. Until finally, the terminal spits out >Message send failed due to unknown error. Retrying.< Bel and Marisol's quick diagnostics of the system show that Dr. Taeress' worry was not too far off the mark. The shuttle's comms system is hopelessly out of date. Thankfully, the two of them are able to jury-rig in some basic workarounds, and the shuttle's comms terminal 'agrees' to send the message after a full system reboot. Looks like it'll take some time.
In the mean time, you make your way back towards the Armory on the Breath of Embers, along the starboard side of the ship. Along the way, you see neither hide nor hair of the strange crystalline-winged creature. Perhaps your last round of intimidation finally caused it to flee.
Once in the Armory, you inspect the two airlock-like doors towards the front of the ship. Both are currently locked, and one is covered in gouges where the magmatic creature was clawing at it. Unlike the other doors in the ship, these don't open at a touch. They do however have simple touch panels on the wall next to them. Trying to manipulate the panels yields very little result - it seems the ship lockdown still applies to these two doors.
Seeing Bel struggle with the surprisingly sophisticated lock on the door, Mari steps up next to her to lend a hand.
While Belmarniss isn't quite able to get a hang of the airlock door controls, Marisol hacks in and disables the security. The security lock on the doors proves relatively easy to sabotage due to the poor state of the ship's systems. Most likely, if the ship were fully operational, either of these two airlock doors would be very difficult to hack into.
With a final tap on her datapad, the port-side door clunks open. Surprisingly, what you see isn't an airlock chamber to allow for a transition from a depressurized environment to the pressurized ship. Instead, the door opens to a luxuriously decorated stateroom, appointed in blackened metal, black slate tiling, and shimmering crimson banners. A huge one-way viewing window takes up the port half of the room's curved exterior wall and rises to form a clear dome above. A black steel desk and cabinets complement a wrought iron bed. Even the deep-pile carpet in the center of the room is black with a crimson sun pattern.
Furthermore, the airlock access panel includes two odd heat-based switches.
Flint lets out a low whistle and comments, "What an amazing room--and it looks like it could double as an escape pod."
Flint moves carefully into the room, on guard for possible threats.
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Belmarniss' observations of the engineering of the room confirm Flint's initial assessment.
"You're right, Captain. An incredibly well-appointed escape pod. There are Board members back home who'd MURDER for escape pods as luxurious as these. It's...a lot to take in. I obviously appreciate the care taken for both aesthetic and construction concerns but...I don't like the part of me that cares about those things...I tried to leave that kind of lifestyle behind when I went to join the Knights...while Board members on Apostae murder each other for escape pods like this, orcs and lower-class drow would be grateful just for basic necessities."
She follows after him into the pod, keeping an eye out for trouble.
Mari looks all around as she steps in, taking the room in. "This escape pod is bigger than my first apartment, and I'm pretty sure that bed costs more than a whole year's rent, too." While not completely oblivious to danger, Mari's search of the room is more focused on looking for anything valuable or useful, rather than traps.
"Same, Mari. This ship probably cost more than my colony saw in a year--by a wide margin." Ordyt's tone is a bit resentful as he scans all the conspicuous displays of wealth. "Let's finish this job."
Sammad's jaw opens slightly, but he catches himself and closes it before speaking. "Even my superiors don't bother with being this extravagant. I really need to kick up those salvage negotiations when we go back..."
If nothing jumps out and tries to kill him in this room, Flint asks, "Mari, perhaps there is a terminal at this desk with better access to the ship's systems--want to give it a try?"
"Sure thing, Cap." Mari joins Flint over by the desk and starts looking for anything she can plug into.
While the desk has a terminal built into it, when you attempt to turn it on you find the device inoperable. You inspect the terminal computer housing and find it to be empty - whoever built the ship never finished installing the computer that the terminal was supposed to access.
While Flint and Belmarniss spot no potential threats in the room, they do notice a few interesting things. First, they notice that while the desk's drawers are mostly empty, one is securely locked closed. Closer inspection shows that the drawer itself is rather heavily reinforced, as if to allow it to act as a safe. A keypad on the face of the drawer seems to only way to gain access.
In Ignan, it reads:
Welcome to your new craft, Radiant al-Fayir. If anything is amiss with the ship or its systems, please contact your representative in the Kahlannal Shipyards.
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Beyond the odd drawer, Flint and Belmarniss also notice a hidden panel underneath the desk. Inside the panel is a set of touch controls labeled in Ignan. It doesn't take much experience to deduce that the controls here are for activating the escape pod and jettisoning it from the rest of the Breath of Embers.
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Belmarniss easily opens the locked drawer and her eyes light up at the sight of the key card.
"This ought to make our explorations MUCH easier! And may unlock those lockers we found yesterday!" she says, taking it out and showing it to the others. Then she notices the name on the business card. "Uh, Sammad? I think you may want to see this."
She hands the business card to him.
Sammad takes the card from Belmarniss, a quizzical expression on his face as he wonders why he should be concerned with it...then he reads it. His eyes narrow, and he hands it back. "I've never heard of these Kahlannal Shipyards, and I know nothing of the Cooperative's dealings with them. I'll bring it to Quassella's attention when we get to the Archipelago."
Sammad pauses for a moment, then a grin slowly breaks on his face. "So I could...since I was the first representative of the Cooperative to discover it." He steeples his fingers, and chuckles slightly. "Oh, this is great. The tech and salvage alone would make my career, but to own this gorgeous ship...?" He lets a dreamy expression cross his face.
Wow... says Flint, unable to manage any other comment for the moment.
Shaking himself back to reality, he says, ”Right, then. For now, let’s get those lockers open and see what we can use—maybe there are some healing serums hidden in them too. Then we have one more pressurized room to look at—to the starboard of this one?”
"Don't forget about us when you're loaded, eh?" Mari says with a friendly wink.
Sammad gives Marisol a wry grin in return. "Well assuming that all works as I'd like...she'd need a crew." And then Sammad resumes looking about the room for anything interesting.
"Would be nice, to have a ship," Ordyt remarks, not sure what else to say. To cover his awkwardness he quickly follows Flint into the next room.
Sammad doesn't spot anything the rest of the group missed, so you take the keycard and return to the armory. Once there, Sammad is able to tap the keycard against each of the four lockers to open them up without even the slightest difficulty! They pop open to give you access to the cache of weapons and armor you've been waiting for!
Whether or not you avail yourselves of these goodies, you turn your attention to the forward facing airlock to the starboard side. Thanks to Marisol's work earlier, you're able to cycle this airlock open as well, revealing an austere grey steel room. In sharp contrast to every other room on this starship, this chamber has no adornment on the walls or ceiling. Instead, the chamber is lined with metal restraints and confinement enclosures appropriate for all manner of physiologies.
Flint will grab the pistol unless someone else wants it
”Even the brig is set up for survivability...” says Flint, pointing out the crash protections and modular life support.
”Is there anything else we need to do here, or should we get ready for our space walk to the bridge?” asks Flint to the rest of the group.
Belmarness, do you think you can fly the shuttle over to the bridge and tether it for a short space walk?” asks Flint, who then turns to Ordyt and asks,”Or should we leave the shuttle where it is and chance a longer spacewalk?”