Narla, knowing the end is nigh, doesn't plan to leave this existence with any of her spells not used. She casts magic missile again, all at Dr. Flint-Bridge.
1. Enemy red (harried, +2 for Rar'gul to hit)
2. Dr. Flint-Bridge (-23)
3. T'sorkel
4. John Rawlins--(-35, unconscious)
5. Enemy blue--Narla Yalamis (-45)
6. Enemy green (DEAD)
7. Rar'gul (-27)
The reptoid's blade bites into Rar'gul's side as the wetzelt falls. Taking the hit, the trox slowly turns to face the shape changer.
"Don't worrrry, frrriend," he rumbles, thrusting both palms toward his opponent's chest. "You've got my undivided attention now."
The reptoid hisses in pain, but defiantly presses the attack on Rar'gul.
1. Enemy red (-37)
2. Dr. Flint-Bridge (-23)
3. T'sorkel
4. John Rawlins--(-35, unconscious)
5. Enemy blue--Narla Yalamis (-45)
6. Enemy green (DEAD)
7. Rar'gul (-39)
T'sorkel turns the corner, ready to go help John, when he sees Narla. He panics a bit before he raises his sonic pistol and fires at her.
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Lilly huffs with the magic force blows. She smiles through the pain, seeing the reptoids’s movements stutter and slow.
“Aye, it’s in ya good now. That’s one ov my own makin’. Your arms and legs don’t work quite right, and your breathing’s about tuh get labored… not that ya have so many breaths left, snake. It’s time for us to go.”
She aims her pistol. ”But you first. Get 'em, everyone.”
He takes a breath. Like piloting a course through asteroids. Stay focused yet relaxed. They think I'm him, not me.
Cidribvoot watches the imposter Steward, trying to get a sense of her intentions. If he thinks she'll leave, he'll wait until do she so. If he thinks she'll stay there he'll walk towards the food's location (kitchen?) like nothing is wrong.
Given her encumbered and entangled condition, Narla is easily hit by both Dr. Flint-Bridge and T'sorkel. Still, she somehow manages to fight on.
Once again, she uses magic. She casts magic missile. Tiny magical darts streak toward Dr. Flint-Bridge and T'sorkel.
1. Enemy red (-37)
2. Dr. Flint-Bridge (-31)
3. T'sorkel (-4)
4. John Rawlins--(-35, unconscious)
5. Enemy blue--Narla Yalamis (-54, encumbered and entangled)
6. Enemy green (DEAD)
7. Rar'gul (-39)
** spoiler omitted **
Rar'gul rotates his arm, deflecting the worst of the reptoid's strike with his shield.
The trox continues to press his foe, executing another poweful combo.
Rar'gul slays the reptoid after his second blow connects, and the enemy collapses in a heap at his feet.
Only Narla remains.
1. Enemy red (DEAD)
2. Dr. Flint-Bridge (-31)
3. T'sorkel (-4)
4. John Rawlins--(-35, unconscious)
5. Enemy blue--Narla Yalamis (-54, encumbered and entangled)
6. Enemy green (DEAD)
7. Rar'gul (-39)
T'sorkel chitters in anger and frustration. He fires at Narla again, though he doesn't have any benefit of surprise anymore.
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Lilly winces at the magical blows. Dammit, why don’t you just die…
Watching Narla’s movements get even more labored helps her hold onto her calm.
She leans on the wall and aims her pistol. ”Your arms feel numb now, don’t they? It’s working toward your lungs. If you’re still alive then, I get to watch you suffocate. But honestly, I’m good with not waiting. You can die now.”
Narla falls, but not before uttering "even if you get off this moon, the authorities will never believe your stories. I made sure of it."
This area is suddenly quiet.
There are computers here that no doubt need hacked. Once someone does some initial hacking , you find that all of the files, along with a virtual assistant, are in the reptoid language.
** spoiler omitted **
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The crumpled figure in the doorway rolls onto his side. John looks across the floor at Narla's body then raises his eyes to Doc Flint-Bridge and T'sorkel. "Nice work."
He needs a hand to get up onto a chair. From this perch he leans heavily on the computer console and silently watches the good doctor hack into the computer. Inwardly, he considers frustration, fear, anger, and haste as ingredients of a stew, and contemplates their bitter savor. Surprisingly the aftertaste is sweet gratitude.
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After Narla falls, Lilly leans against the wall for a moment and collects herself.
“That… part’s… over… Now let’s figure out what Carla meant about making sure nobody will believe us.”
She heads to help John up . Once he’s in the chair, she spends a minute patching him up.
As she examines him, the stress of the whole encounter finally hits. Her hands start shaking and and tears fill her eyes.
“It’s… I… all this… here… oh, dammit…”
She digs into her pack for a serum of healing.
“Take this. It’ll help. I can’t… do this right now.” She waves at the micro lab.
She turns to the computer systems, sits in a chair that’s exactly not her size, and starts working.
After a few moments, she bangs her fits on the console and begins yelling at the machine.
“IT’S ALL IN REPTOID. THE WHOLE DAMN THING!!! WELL, I DON’T CARE. I’M COPYING EVERYTHING ANYWAY AND WE’LL LET SOMEBODY ELSE TRANSLATE IT LATER. HOW DO YOU YA LIKE THOSE DAISYS IN YER FIELD, NARLA???”
She flys off the chair and kicks Narla’s body repeatedly until she seems to run out of energy.
Lilly gives it one last whack. “AND I DON’T EVEN FEEL BETTER, YA LOUSY STINKING TRAITOROUS LIZARD!!!”
She wipes the tears out of her eyes and sinks back into the computer desk chair.
"Let's get outta here."
"Oh I'm Cidribvoot now," the dirindi shrugs. "I stay with what my role knows...and he doesn't know reptoid. Thinking like him is the best way to impersonate him."
T'sorkel rushes up to help John. I can help him, but it'll take a a bit. We can't rush it. He looks up at the others. Do we have the time?
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Lilly wipes her eyes again and blows her nose. She swivels in the oversized seat to peer over the chair back toward Rar’gul.
“We both took a lot of damage, but we’re in the best shape. And I don’t want to just sit around with all the commotion we made. Better to be up and moving. What do you say, big guy?”
While Rar'gul and Lilly prep to move through another door, T'sorkel takes John's head in his hands and burns the last of his effort to reach the Archive, this time through John himself. He's instantly flooded with John's memories, flipping through them at an accelerated pace like pages in a book. He doesn't bother looking through them; he's not here to intrude in John's privacy. He knows what he wants is at the end -- John's memory of himself just a few minutes earlier.
The body's sense of itself is often overlooked. It's an internal sense, not external. It's how you know where your arms and legs are without looking. T'sorkel burrowed into that sense and the memory it created in John's body. The body remembers trauma and works to protect itself. It was a simple matter of finding the memory before this most recent trauma.
Now was the hard part -- forcing John's mind and body to accept the old memory. The Shirren carefully lifts the memory to the surface and overlays it to John's mind. A moment of panic ensues -- John's body knows this isn't his current state. But T'sorkel begins to weave the memory into John's current tapestry, using the threads of the Akashic Record, and slowly John's memory recognizes the foreign intrusion isn't so foreign. It's his own memory. Still, it takes time and patience, determination and mental fortitude. And once the mind knows it isn't hurt, the body begins to follow.
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Maybe you're getting better at this though. John's resistance eventually eases, and he subsides into the alternate present you've drawn from the Record.
Loved your description last time, and loved it again. Awesome stuff.
Dispatching the reptoid, Rar'gul turns and runs to help with Narla. He is relieved to see John stirring as he reaches the doorway.
"Easy now," he rumbles, bending to gently help his friend to stand. Guiding him over to a nearby seat, he adds, "That tookkk a lot of ccourrrage."
Doc's banging on the console draws his attention. He stands and crosses the room, reaching her side as she finishes her emotional outpouring. Placing a broad palm lightly on top of her head he softly quotes an old Halfling saying.
"Whateverrr lies ahead, they alrready know we'rre herre. A short moment to cccatch our brreath and tend our wounds won't hurrrt," he rumbles. "Best we all stay togetherrr."
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Lilly feels comfort in the warm weight of Rar’gul’s palm, and she smiles when he quotes her ancestors’ wisdom, even if is pronunciation is a little off.
“Agreed, we need to refill the jar.” And then hit some reptoids with the lid. Or maybe the whole jar. Or just shoot them.
She scoots around in the too-big chair, eventually finding a position that feels comfortable. As she rests, she busies herself replenishing biohacks and keeping an ear out for approaching footsteps.
After a few minutes work, she slides the finished vials into position and puts the micro lab into self-cleaning mode. She pats the device’s cover. You’ll get a proper round of maintenance once we’re out of here. My treat.
Lilly closes her eyes and relaxes a moment. Keep going… just keep going... keep going... just keep going... She gently sways to the rhythm.
Finally she climbs out of the chair and stretches, testing her muscles and checking their current limits. Only a few of them protest.
“We ready to get out of here? John, how do you feel?”
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T'sorkel releases John's head. The man's eyes are closed. No furrows of thought or worry cross his brow.
At Lily's question his eyes flutter open and he smiles broadly in a way he hasn't since the first night on the Chimera. "I feel fine. Why wouldn't I?"
The furrows that have been more or less a constant feature of his visage since the Chimera reappear. " Aside from where the dog got my leg. And the fact that we're going to die on this rock if we don't get moving. " He shakes the leg. His eyes narrow. "And, ... did something hit me in the head? How did we get here?"
T'sorkel pats John on the head. You'll be fine, just a bit woozy. The reptoids have started to drop all pretenses of being Stewards, but we still should be careful. He helps John to his feet.
** spoiler omitted **
Lilly feels comfort in the warm weight of Rar’gul’s palm, and she smiles when he quotes her ancestors’ wisdom, even if is pronunciation is a little off.
...
“We ready to get out of here? John, how do you feel?”
...
"Next step: Find a ship and get out of here. Does that work?”
Thoughtful, Rar'gul cocks his head to one side. "Jarrr. Not pot," he says, grunting, before nodding once.
"I've seen morre than enough of this place," the trox agrees. "Let's find a way off this rrockkk."
"But firrst, let's see if this lot have anything that will help us." He checks first Narla and, after acknowledging T'sorkel's excellent work with a gentle squeeze of the shirren's shoulder as he passes, the bodies of the reptoids in the previous room.
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...“Welcome back. You were out for a bit. Short version: Lots of fights, lots of dead reptoids and ‘dogs’, and we’re almost off the rock. That’s the big picture. We’ll worry about details later. Next step: Find a ship and get out of here. Does that work?”
John slips into corporate-speak, "A clearly defined goal with easily evaluated metrics for success? Sounds like a winner." and smiles again, somewhat more grimly.
Hmmm should I start a fire to create a distraction? No, no...time to leave.
He walks back to the Voidcrier, waiting for a moment to hide himself.
** spoiler omitted **
After doing a quick search of the barracks area and the storage room (along with taking anything of value that Narla and the other reptoid had), you all make your way along the back of corridor of Terrapin Station.
Pipes and conduits line this wide walkway, which descends
into the dark rock of Varos, illuminated by dim red
panel lighting.
As the corridor turns, you see two sturdy airlock doors, one to the south, and one to the west. The airlock to the south is quite large.
T'sorkel passes the spell gem of Hold Portal to Lilly, while taking the one of Reflecting Armor. I'll take one of those high capacity batteries if no one else need it. I'm stuck with the biopistol for the time being.
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Lilly holds out the flare compliance ray and its extra batteries to T’sorkel.
“This incapacitates people without actually harming them. It’s pretty perfect for you.”
She holds up the batteries like a vid model and mimics the over-modulated tones of a show announcer.
”And look — it even comes with… new batteries!”
Rar'gul plucks Narla's datapad from the floor. "Someone want to takkke a lookk at this?" he asks, offering the device toward his companions. "May be something useful left on herrre."
The trox stands protectively by John and Doc, ready to face any danger.