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Flint struggles in the neotophet's silvery vortex, but finds nothing to grasp to start pulling himself free. The vortex continues to draw him in, and it seems unless the neotophet is otherwise disrupted, his chances of escape are slim. Meanwhile Ordyt closes the distance, getting close to the construct while it's distracted with managing Flint.
|||| INIT ||||
Bel (2 images)
Flint (23 dmg, pinned)
Ordyt
Sammad
Uzmat
Mari x2
Neotophet
|||| INIT ||||
Bel (2 images)
Flint (23 dmg, pinned)
Ordyt
Sammad
Uzmat
Mari x2
Neotophet (37 dmg)
Sammad grimaces upon seeing Flint restrained by the neotophet. He draws his zero pistol smoothly and sights down on the construct, crying out, "Take it down quick and clean!"
The neotophet's swirling vortex of silver roils about, shredding Flint further before the vortex sucks Flint down into itself. The whole silvery mass retracts back into the neotophet, taking Flint along with it. He finds himself trapped inside a cold, dark sphere within the interior of the creature! The neotophet announces "Detainment complete. Persist in your aggression and you will bring harm to your fellow criminal in equal dose to myself. It is in your best interest to lay down your arms and surrender."
Alternatively, a swallowed target can attempt to climb out. The swallowed creature must succeed at both a grapple check against the creature’s internal KAC + 8 and an Athletics check to climb (DC = 10 + 1-1/2 × the creature’s CR). Each of these actions takes a full round. If both checks are successful, the target climbs back up to the creature’s mouth and can escape, ending up in an open square adjacent to the creature.
Alternatively, for a neotophet, it is possible to disable its functions partially from inside, using an engineering check to open the interior mechanisms and get released that way.
|||| INIT ||||
Bel (2 images)
Flint (44 dmg, swallowed whole, grappled)
Ordyt
Sammad
Uzmat
Mari
Neotophet (86 dmg)
The last thing he hears before being pulled inside the neotophet is Sammad’s encouragement. Taking it to heart and realizing he is no longer pinned, Flint levers his Solar scimitar into place and makes a pair of diagonal slices on the inside of his imprisoner.
"Spit him out!" Ordyt bellows at the neotophet, jabbing his estoc at the strange construct in an attempt to bring it down.
Flint finds the inside of the neotophet almost as well armored as the outside, the walls around him tight, but not so tight that he can't maneuver his blade. He manages one slash that cuts deep, but not deep enough to tear himself free. His second deflects off the metallic insides. Ordyt has similar luck from the outside, landing one solid stab with his estoc.
|||| INIT ||||
Bel (2 images)
Flint (44 dmg, swallowed whole, grappled)
Ordyt
Sammad
Uzmat
Mari
Neotophet (150 dmg)
Bel's electric surge connects with the neotophet and runs through its whole body, electrocuting Flint in the process.
Uzmat eyes the neotophet with concern, unwilling to strike if it means Flint will come to further harm.
|||| INIT ||||
Bel (2 images)
Flint (53 dmg, swallowed whole, grappled)
Ordyt
Sammad
Uzmat
Mari
Neotophet (159 dmg)
While Uzmat hesitates, Mari does not.
Combat Over
With a quick glance around the room after defeating the neotophet, you note that the room's computers have been locked and will need to be hacked if you wish to access them. The door westward deeper into the brig appears to also be locked, with a biometric scanner used to verify the identity of anyone who wishes to enter. The eastward doors on the other hand appear to be unsecured.
”Well, that was unpleasant—tell me it wasn’t able to send a distress call,” asks Flint hopeful their presence has not yet been detected. He stands up and shivers a moment from the chill of the metallic container he just escaped.
The computer is locked, so you can't tell without first unlocking it.
"You feeling okay Captain? Take a minute if you need it." Ordyt posts up by the door to keep a lookout while Bel and Mari pulled what they can from the computers.
"Understood," responds Flint, moving to a convenient sitting place while Bel works on the computer.
BIOMETRICS UNRECOGNIZED. 2 further login attempts allowable before lockout.
The computer terminal buzzes when Bel makes her first attempt. Based on what little tinkering she was able to do with her hacking kit, the system is solidly secured, but she feels up to the challenge of breaking in . Bel's attempt takes her less than a minute. You don't hear anything approaching, so it may be safe to rest here for a while, so long as your presence remains undetected.
Bel and Mari break in with a little bit of additional work. A quick inspection of the system shows that no alarms have been initiated or messages sent. The only alert currently active is a Crucible-wide bulletin regarding anomalous shielding bubble disturbances that are being investigated. The bulletin suggests that no bubble traversal should be conducted until the disturbances are investigated.
As for the computer system itself, you can see it logs the comings and going into the brig, including personal data profiles and interrogation logs. Right now there are only three prisoners being held, plus one more actively in interrogation. You see the layout of the brig - directly west are the cells, and then further west is the interrogation chamber. On screen you can see that each cell is sealed off with a force field, but that the computers here can lower those fields to release any prisoners into custody. Doing so however would be logged in the system.
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"Okay, good news bad news time: no alarms or messages, but they noticed some anomalous bubble disturbances that were most likely our entrance, so they're hunkering down until they check clear. No one going in or out for the immediate future, so while they know something's up they aren't gonna be gunning for us. That's the good news."
"The bad news is this system's gonna log anything we attempt to do here, so if we want to free the three prisoners being held here and the one currently in interrogation down there," she says as she points towards the interrogation chamber. "We risk tipping our hand and raising this place's alert level further."
"We're already in--if they don't know we're here already they will soon. I say we release the prisoners."
”And maybe release them one at a time to cover our tracks a bit. If we can, locking down any comms or computer access in the interrogation room and running loops on the cameras would be good too,” suggests Flint, wracking his brain for counterintelligence strategies.
He continues to wait while Bel and Mari dig through the computer. He knows he needs rest, but he is itching to go bust in on the interrogator, especially if he starts learning about the prisoners who might be suffering.
Bel scans through the profiles of the prisoners. Looks like while the cells previously held more people from the Archipelago (and were much more full overall), they now hold a fairly wide array of beings. Of note are "Major Joss Astino", a lashunta and former member of Castrovel's military and "Hazl Soren", a private investigator from the Archipelago who had been looking into the Malikah Group. It seems Hazl is currently in interrogation. None of the other prisoners seem to be volatile sorts based on the Legion's records. The only other prisoner of note is marked as "recently deceased" and was named Phlixir. The records mention the corpse is being kept for future study and not to place anyone else in that cell.
The computer here doesn't have access to the cameras or other systems inside the interrogation room, except for access to an intercom to communicate with whoever is inside.
"We can't do anything for the one whose passed--Sarenrae keep them and Pharasma judge them kindly. But a military man and a detective could be useful. Is there anything about," Ordyt's expression darkens. "Enhanced interrogation? Like those symbiotes, I don't want to get caught by surprise again."
Looking up from where he is resting, Flint says, "Depending how severe the interrogation is, we should interrupt it first to keep the private investigator functional."
The system here doesn't give the full picture on how the interrogations are conducted, but you can infer from the various comments and the data that it follows a conventional psychological approach rather than some "enhanced" tactic.
"Ready," Ordyt checks his mags and darkens the viewplate on his helmet before stacking up on the door.
Holding off on opening any of the cells, you open the door westward deeper into the brig. The large chamber beyond has numerous cells, each blocked off with a visible, humming force field. Each cell has a bunk and a lavatory unit, and most are empty. Sturdy double doors lead out of the room to the east and west. A small electronic display above the western doors reads "Occupied". The doors appear to be locked.
Among the cells in this room, several have the prisoners you identified with the computer in Brig Processing. One is mostly empty save for a carefully laid out pile of brassy armor atop the bed.
In the remaining occupied cells, only some of the occupants stir as you enter. Most lie sleeping in their beds. Despite the fact that you can see them, they don't appear to be able to see you through the force fields.
Ordyt moves steadily down the hall, pausing only briefly at the sight of the armor, his eyes searching the room for the equipment's owner. Seeing none, he makes a small puzzled noise and moves on.
Bel can confirm that the only controls for opening the cells are in Brig Processing, which you just left. The interrogation room to the west has no windows, and beyond the indication that the room is "occupied" you don't have a sense of the situation within. Coming up close to the door, Ordyt can hear nothing, though with the weight of the doors in the Citadel, that might just mean that the conversation is currently relatively quiet.
"Perhaps we should set ourselves up at the entry to the interrogation room and someone can open the door from the processing station," suggests Flint, positioning himself by the door with his weapon drawn once he is finished resting.
With your party ready at the door to Interrogation, Bel returns and unlocks the doors back in Brig Processing. The doors slide aside immediately, revealing a large room dominated by a desk that stands in its center. Two chairs sit up against the desk, with the chair closest to the door sporting thick metal restraints. To the north and south are cells like those in the brig—two large and two smaller, all unfurnished. Only one has an active force field, while another’s force-field generator is open and partially disassembled, parts of it lying among tools on the floor nearby. On the western wall is a cabinet.
The small cell to the southeast holds a single person - likely Hazl Soren, who is currently glaring daggers at the other two occupants of the room. Those occupants are an efreeti lieutenant and an azer guard. The second of those has only tools in his hands - it appears he was in the middle of working on the broken force-field generator when you opened the door. You catch them by surprise!
|||| INIT ||||
Bel
Flint
Ordyt
Sammad
Uzmat
Mari
Efreeti Lieutenant
Azer Guard
"Captain--the genie. You left, me right." Not hesitating for a moment, Ordyt surges into the room, sliding over the metallic tabletop to come around at the efreet's side just as his captain closes!
Wordlessly following Ordyt's lead, Flint glides into the room, his eyes already starting to gleam with the fire of battle. He takes a diagonal swipe at the genie as he settles into place across from Ordyt!
Even with an unprepared foe, Ordyt's strike glances off the efreeti's light armor. Flint finds much better luck, his blade cutting a gash across the lieutenant's back as he turns to face Ordyt. Meanwhile, Bel readies to disrupt any incoming efreeti magic!
The efreeti seems to be struggling to keep up with the sudden assault, but he still manages to utter "It's the rats from the bulletin! To arms! For the Malikah!" to the Azer.
|||| INIT ||||
Bel
Flint
Ordyt
Sammad
Uzmat
Mari
Efreeti Lieutenant (44 dmg)
Azer Guard
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Sammad rallies the team forward and fires!
Mari follows with her own attack.
Meanwhile Uzmat swoops in to keep the other foe busy. He trips the azer, or at least tries to.
Flint takes the blast to the face, while Ordyt dodges much of it, and thanks to Bel's intervention, both suffer only minor burns Meanwhile, the azer drops his tools and draws his axe from his belt, slashing at Uzmat and finding nothing but air.
|||| INIT ||||
Bel
Flint (4 dmg)
Ordyt (2 dmg)
Sammad
Uzmat
Mari
Efreeti Lieutenant (92 dmg, get em)
Azer Guard
Totally missing that the Efreeti was even casting a spell, Flint is heartened that the fiery blast only caused minimal damage. Willing his own body to burst into a cold and forbidding flame, Flint slashes again, this time with frigid flames dancing along the length of his Solar Scimitar!
As the gunfire and bladework takes its toll on the efreet, Ordyt turns his attention to helping Uzmat with the azer technician. With a guarded step to close the trap behind the fiery dwarf, Ordyt drives his estoc into the foe's back!
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