"A hookah this fancy in the mess hall of the Radiant Fire would be like a butterfly in a flock of seagulls--quite out of place for all its beauty," answers Flint, adding, ""Can you tell where that clanking is coming from?"
Flint listens in as he walks around the room until he narrows down the clunking to coming from the foremost starboard side door - a smaller door slightly out of the way in comparison to the others.
Recalling the damage done to the Breath of Embers during its flight from the Inferno Whale, Belmarniss realizes that the inoperable doors in this chamber all lead to sections of the ship that had suffered extensive damage and explosive decompression. Directly fore of this room was likely the ship's bridge, but both doors leading into it are sealed tight against the vacuum of space.
Marisol searches through the room for anything hidden and does in fact come across something! She lifts the corner of a carpet right next to the inoperable doors towards the ship's bridge and notices a small stone bracelet underneath it. It appears someone hid it there rather hastily. The bracelet is made of a rough silvery stone, its surface twisted with a sharp spiraling edge. Its design stands in sharp contrast to the opulent golds, reds and brassy tones of the ship.
But before it can give it to you, the psychic echo fades and you're once more looking at reality.
Giving the hovering Lorix a lingering, suspicious glare, Ordyt slips around it and moves to follow the others. His eyes widen involuntarily as he takes in the opulent decorations.
"I was a Diaspora kid, this kind of thing only ever existed in holovids when I was growing up. I've never had hookah before," Ordyt eyes the device thoughtfully, but shrugs when Connors declines the idea.
Moving further into the room, the oread orients himself towards the clanking sound but is careful not to move out of sight of the others. "Where to first, Captain?"
"Let's check out this door," starts Flint, "I think I can hear that clanking from behind it."
"Feel free to decorate your quarters however you want, Ordyt" smiles Flint at the big warrior, saying "though we should establish salvage rights before taking anything overly obvious--say, what's that you found?" Flint turns to Mari as he notices her picking something up from the ground.
Sammad strides through after the others, and his jaw drops upon seeing the furnishings within. He mentally begins assigning value to the decor pieces...then stops himself after a moment. Plenty of time for that later. Besides, all this wealth is useless to me...to us, until I negotiate with the Institute.
He overhears Ordyt and Flint's conversation, and walks over to them. "Salvage rights indeed, Captain...The Cooperative would love to acquire some of these goods. But I'll talk to the good Doctor, and see what I can manage to get for you and the others."
Mari laughs at Flint's answer, saying, "I don't know what a seagull is, Cap, but I get the idea. Hmm...what's this now?" Setting her rifle stock against the ground, she kneels and lifts up the corner of a carpet, and picks up the bracelet she finds there.
She immediately recoils and falls backwards into a sitting position, rubbing her temple. Still holding on to the bracelet, she answers Flint. "I don't know. Some jewelry stuffed under the carpet. It has a...memory? A warning? I don't understand."
Looking at Mari with concern, Flint asks, ”Are you okay? Were you able to learn anything from it?”
Using the rifle, Mari climbs back to her feet and shakes her head, blinking. She turns to Flint and says, "I think so. When I touched it, I saw a creature. Not humanoid, but I think it was intelligent. I didn't understand it but it felt like a warning? It was trying to hand me this--"she holds up the bracelet--"but it disappeared before it actually handed the bracelet over. It didn't hurt, I don't think I'm whammied, it just startled me."
Ordyt wanders back over from clanking door, concern and curiosity warring on his face. "Do you need a moment? Why would a creature--one of the missing crew?--be trying to give you a bracelet? Does it...do something?"
"I don't know. Bel, can you make any sense of this?"
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"Absolutely. If there's any magic within this, I'll be able to sense it."
She holds out her and to accept the bracelet and closes her eyes for a moment. Then when she opens them, her eyes flash purple for a moment, and for a brief second, an image of her brand appears on the blank face of her helmet, encircling her eye.
Belmarniss focuses on the bracelet, feeling it out with her technomantic powers. She senses a potent aura of abjuration magic associated with it but the spells are intricately woven throughout the stone and she can't work out exactly what the device is intended to do. Further study the next day may help resolve the mystery.
Once you've studied the bracelet as far as you want to, Flint and Ordyt return their attention to the door the clanking is coming from. Flint touches the surface of the door and it irises open to reveal a long, irregularly shaped room.
The ceiling of this long room rises to two almond-shaped domes, their crystal surfaces emblazoned with a slowly shifting holographic fresco of efreet warriors in gleaming power armor. The wall to the port side holds a group of four large but shallow banks of machinery that appear to be some kind of charging stations. The wall to the starboard side has a group of four clear-fronted lockers holding a variety of equipment.
You don't have a chance to look at any of this in much detail, as you immediately notice a creature made of oozing magma standing at the fore-most side of the room in front of what looks to be a reinforced airlock door. The surface of the airlock door is covered in deep, glowing gouges from where the creature's claws have cut into the metal. The creature hears the aft-side door open and turns towards you. It hesitates for only a moment before rising up - hostility burning in its glowing orange eyes!
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---
|||| INIT ||||
Marisol
Ordyt
Magma Creature
Flint (7 HPdmg)
Sammad
Belamarniss (6 SPdmg, 5HPdmg)
Mari runs forward to the far wall where, with a line of sight to the creature, she designates it as a target for her exocortex.
Advancing cautiously into the room, Ordyt hugs the wall but and braces his pike. "Any of you want to try talking to it?
Flint quickly takes in the situation and speaks a few words in Ignan...
As your team begins positioning itself, Flint throws out an attempt at parley. But the creature doesn't hesitate for even a moment in its rush towards Ordyt. As it enters the oread's range, it takes a pike to the face...
... and then another solid blow before it manages to reach its target! Already significantly injured, it nevertheless lashes out with a burning claw and sears Ordyt's torso.
Its mouth opens and it burbles globs of magma to the ground. If it's capable of talking or understanding Ignan, it certainly doesn't seem to have any interest in doing so.
|||| INIT ||||
Flint (7 HPdmg)
Sammad
Belamarniss (6 SPdmg, 5HPdmg)
Marisol
Ordyt (8 dmg)
Magma Creature (14 dmg)
Flint strides forward after the failed attempt at engaging the creature in conversation, moving to engage the fiery creature (token assist please, moving towards the fore of the ship (right on the map) to base the enemy), his sword materializing in his hand as he goes. With the fire glinting in his eyes (photon attuning), Flint swings at the aggressive foe with a downward slice of his solar dueling blade.
Sammad follows the others into the clanging room, pistol in hand. Witnessing Flint's attempt at diplomacy be met with violence, he draws and tries to get a bead on the aggressor.
He focuses on his target and fires!
Mari steps forward and around Sammad for a clearer shot, quickly lining up the sights with the creature and firing.
Backing away from the bizarre creature, Ordyt spares a second to check how serious his wounds are. Content that the monster's heat has seared off the worst of the bleeding for now, he jabs again at the creature.
Ordyt's pike once again finds a home in the creature's chest! As he pulls it free, he notices the creature having trouble holding together. The surface of the magmatic creature pops and gurgles before suddenly bursting out in a wave of lava that rains down on Belmarniss and Flint!
The lava that misses Flint and Belmarniss pools on the ground around the magmatic creature, bubbling at a depth of about 3 inches. It looks dangerous to step in! The creature draws its form together after the burst. It remains badly injured, but still able to fight.
----
|||| INIT ||||
Flint (7 HPdmg) - Ref Save?
Sammad
Belamarniss (5HPdmg) - Ref Save?
Marisol
Ordyt (8 dmg)
Magma Creature (18 dmg)
At the end of each round you are burning, you can attempt a Reflex saving throw to remove this condition. The DC of this saving throw is equal to 10 + the amount of fire damage you took this round from the burning condition. If you succeed at this saving throw, you lose the burning condition. You can attempt a new saving throw each round you have this condition, and you receive a +2 bonus for each previous saving throw you’ve attempted in consecutive rounds.
You can also automatically end this condition by jumping into enough water to douse yourself. If you don’t have enough water on hand, you can spend a full action to roll on the ground or otherwise smother the fire to attempt a new saving throw with a +4 bonus (plus any bonuses from previously failed consecutive attempts) to end the condition.
The strange creature explodes in a death spasm, spraying lava everywhere, then...reforms?
Captain Flint tries to dodge the worst of the liquid fire...
...but he fails and catches on fire!
Swaying unsteadily on his feet , Flint looks like he is about to pass out from the pain!
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Sammad grimaces as he watches the creature explode in a burst of lava. He steps closer, right behind Ordyt. Upon seeing the slowly forming lake of lava on the ground, he yells to Flint and Belmarniss, "Get away from it! Close combat is suicide against beings of fire!"
He looks on as Flint's clothes start to catch fire. He says in a concerned voice, "Captain, stay with us!"
With fire glinting in his eyes once more, Flint takes a mighty swing at the lava being, then backs off and tries to pat down his flaming duster.
Mari grimaces in sympathetic pain seeing Flint try to put out the flames engulfing him. Knowing the fight can't continue on like this, she refocuses, sights down the elemental, and pulls the trigger.
Twin attacks from Marisol and Flint blow holes into the magma creature's molten form. It lets out a gurgling whimper and dissolves into the pool of lava.
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|||| Round continued INIT ||||
Flint (3SPdmg, 10 HPdmg)
Sammad
Belamarniss (5HPdmg) - Ref Save?
Marisol
Ordyt (8 dmg)
Bold still have to go this round.
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Belmarniss, seeing the wave of magma coming, jumps back, only catching a bit of the heat. Still a dangerous amount, but not enough to down her like it nearly did Flint.
"SHELTERING SHIELD THIS IS RUTH!GSH!T!!!" she shouts as she pats out any open flames on her armor. Her junksword seems to breakdown and curl up around her arm as she pulls out her handaxe.
Rushing over to Captain Connors, Ordyt starts slapping at the flames to try and keep the human from getting too badly burned. Still riding the adrenaline though, he mostly just slaps at Flint's wounds.
The flames abate from Flint and Belmarniss, leaving them charred but standing. The magma creature on the other hand does not reappear - it seems to be well and truly dead. The magma pool cools down with supernatural swiftness, turning to a hard grey rock within seconds.
Out of Combat rounds!
The crisis ended, Mari rushes over to the others, saying, "Are you okay? What was that thing?"
Sammad pants, the adrenaline rush of nearly watching his friend and the Captain burn up subsiding. He looks at the lump of cooling rock that once was their foe, and a small frown shows on his face. He strides over to it and bows, speaking softly to himself.
"May Feronia herself guide you to rest in Eternal Flame."
Then he turns to the others. "Well,I suppose that was the 'black one' that the stowaway mentioned...Or perhaps the red. Either way, that means 2 more occupants to find...How shall we proceed?"
As he recovers from the rush of combat and his eyes slowly return to their normal grey, Flint realizes that he is heavily injured.
"Is there anything in this room that looks like it can be used for healing? I seem to have caught the worst of another heat blast," says Flint, looking at heavily blistered and cracking skin where it is exposed.
Looking at Sammad, he says, "That creature did not appear capable of rational thought, and it looked like it was pretty close to ripping a hole in the side of the ship--as if there weren't enough breaches already. It seems we have stopped the immediate threat, though."
"Here, Cap, take this," Mari says, handing over a healing serum. "I'll take a look around to see if there's anything else in here."
"Thanks, Mari. Let's hope this is a strong one," comments Flint as he drinks the serum.
As the worst of the wounds subside, Flint sighs in relief, waiting for the others to be ready to move on.
Flint listens and nods, not hearing anything else trying to claw its way through the hull. ”Of course, Belmarniss, take your ease as we continue to search.”
Marisol leads the search around the room with Flint joining her. To the fore side of the room, you notice there are two reinforced doors that have lighting and instrumentation around them. At first glance, you took them to be airlocks, but upon thinking about the ship's layout, it seems an odd place for one. To the starboard side, a very simple swinging door opens up into a storage closet with empty shelves.
To the port side of the room are the large charging stations you noticed at first glance.
To the starboard side of the room are the four transparently fronted lockers, each of which is integrated into the ship. The first locker contains a suit of black armor, the color of cooled magma. This armor seems to be an unknown equivalent of basic iridshell armor. The second locker contains a tactical dueling sword and two assault hammers.
The third locker contains three elegant guns, a pistol , a projectile rifle and a bulky cannon emblazoned with red and black sunbursts . The fourth and final locker contains stacks of batteries and projectile ammunition.
True to their name, the lockers are locked. Each one has its own complicated electronic lock. At your first attempt to mess with the keypad, your guess is rejected with a message on the display in Ignan.
>"Master keycard required!"<
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Belmarniss kneels and says a quick prayer to Iomedae before continuing on. She takes a closer look at the stations as soon as she sees them.
But she quickly becomes distracted by the cool weapons and armor within the lockers.
"Stars, these are magnificent!" she says, practically drooling over them. "Marvels in both form and function!"
After attempting to open the lockers fails, she frowns.
"We should attempt to find this master keycard," she says after Sammad translates the message. "I'm certain the DCI would not begrudge us these tools. They ARE more interested in the vessel itself than its cargo."
Then she grimaces as she realizes just how greedy she sounds.
"They...they will do no good just sitting in a locker is what I mean!"
While Belmarniss is busy with the lockers, Mari quickly checks over the charging stations and confirms her initial assumption about them. Lots of infrastructure for heavy equipment on this ship, but haven't seen much of what it's meant to service.
At the star-knight's outburst, Mari turns and gives her a knowing smile, saying, "Got your eyes on a new toy, eh? Anything in there for me?"
Flint gives Belmarniss an understanding smile, saying ”Given the aggression we have dealt with so far, getting these items now could prove quite useful.”
Turning to Mari, he adds, ”Is there any chance you could bypass the security measures on these lockers?”
Sammad looks on at the contents of the lockers and whistles softly. "These are...wonderful. They make even the Cooperative's munitions look like ATech's mass-produced fodder."
At Belmarniss's outburst, he gives the drow a wry grin. "Of course, I was just thinking the same thing....I see much work ahead, negotiating with the DCI."
Mari cracks her knuckles, grins, and steps up to the console. "I bet I can figure something out."
Belmarniss and Marisol jump into action to try to hack into the lockers. There are no obvious ports on the keypads, so you pry their front covers open, revealing a tangle of strange crystalline components. It's not at all obvious where you might be able to plug in your hacking kit. In fact, this stymies Belmarniss entirely.
Marisol at least manages to jury-rig an interfacing adapter. Hacking the locker's security proves surprisingly incredibly difficult. The programming and logic used is unlike anything that Marisol has experienced in the past. After a few minutes of work, she finds herself no closer to breaking through than when she started.
Inspecting the lockers themselves, they appear to be made of transparent aluminum - strong enough to resist any cursory forcing.
Mari steps back from the strange machinery, shaking her head in defeat. "Spoke too soon. This is some weird stuff! I think I'm more likely to break it entirely than unlock anything. Might be we can find this master keycard in one of the other rooms, though." With that, she turns and turns toward the door, waiting for the others.