Nako's fierce martial skills tear the armor apart, it falls to pieces and move no more!
The vesk introduces herself as Steelclaw, the proprietor of the armor stall. She expresses her gratitude for the skittermanders' help and explains the Hellknight armor was a custom commission that the Hellknight cancelled on and she hoped the festival would be a good place to sell her wares but miscalculated the tenor of Reetamander and spent the night talking with uninterested locals. All in all, she mutters sourly that her trip to Vesk-3 has been a waste of time.
All around Central Common, much of the panic has subsided as the nanite-controlled decorations have been destroyed or run low on power.
However, the festival-goers are still nervous and on edge from the unexpected attack.
The heroic crew can take a 10 minute rest to regain stamina if desired.
Taking some time to clean up her injuries, Quonx feels a bit more refreshed following the combat.
"Alllllllright. Let's see what makes this thing tick."
Quonx will try to secure any samples of the disabled/damaged/destroyed nanites that she can find.
"Say no more, nufriend! All in a day's work!" Gazigaz rapidly loses interest at the Vesk's bellyaching and starts tidying up.
Nako hugs the Vesk, "Cheer up! If you wouldn't have come, we wouldn't be best friends now!" which she follows with several hearty claps on the back before tending to her own wounds.
Event 3: Victory Speech
As soon as they have caught their breath, an unfamiliar voice comes booming across the Common’s sound systems, laughing sinisterly in a quite arrogant tone. The heroes can easily pinpoint the source of this speech as coming from the large floral statue near the Common’s largest fountain.
Abruptly, the sinister laughter over the Common’s sound system ends.
My fellow skittermanders, I can only hope you heed-heed this wake-up call. Terror descends upon Reetamander as we gather peacefully to ring in the Great Rebirthing. And where is your desire to help-help now? Why do you only save yourselves from this bedlam? Could it be—could it be your entire worldview, your so-called community-mindedness, is-is a lie?!
The voice pauses to clear their throat.
Look around you now and I am certain you see it too. You can’t deny that each skittermander is out only to help-help themselves. Cast off your aspersions, my friends! Admit your true ways—or suffer the consequences!
Just as the voice’s monologue begins to fade, the festivalgoers’ murmurs of confusion turn to shouts of terror.
A bomb! screams one skittermander, pointing toward the skittermander statue near the fountain.
There’s a bomb on the statue’s hand!
Several fountains are dotted around Central Common, each decorated with sculptures of a different type of aquatic creature found in the Vermilion Sea. This scene takes place near the Comananner Fountain, named after a massive aquatic predator found in the deepest waters. For Reetamander, a tall floral arrangement of a skittermander with outstretched arms has been situated near the fountain; the sculpture is meant to be a personification of the Great Mother and is a reverent addition to the Central Common for the festival.
A skittermander with bright orange fur styled in an intimindating manner stands on the edge of the fountain holding a wireless microphone. He is wearing an eye patch that he occasionally lifts to look out of and black make-up smeared under his other eye.
A beeping metal cylinder 3 feet long and 6 inches wide with wires sprouting from both ends and other electronic components welded to the side sits in the raised hand of the flower sculpture 15 feet off the ground. There is enough room on the floral hand for a Small creature to stand next to the device.
Ah-ha! Step no closer or I arm my device, you interloping jelly brains who have been fooled by the collective desire to help! IT'S. A. SHAM.
"Wait, you did all this to show us the errors of our ways? And we stopped all your little tricks anyway. Ha!. Power of friendship!"
Gazigaz flexes menacingly at the madman.
”Bomb-shmomb. I think he just needs a hug.”. Quonx starts walking towards the orange skittermander. ”Plenty of hugs to give. I can see you’re giving it your allsix, but why try to blow up others?”
STOP right there, you blue buffy! Or else!
The pontificating skittermander raises one of his many arms to show Quonx a small handheld device with a prominent button that his thumb hovers over.
A hug did not help save MY younger brother when he helped others! Who was there to help him? No! This collective desire to help is a lie! A lie and a false facade, I say-say! My explosive ordinance will surely drive THAT point through the facade!
"Oh! What happened to your brother?"
"Yeah, what happened to him?"
Quonx keeps making the come here and get a squeeze gesture at the orange skittermander.
The orange skittermander pauses briefly and considers closely the strangers before him.
You... you wish to hear about Torastorfen? He is... was a extraordinary engineer. He lost-lost his life on a spacewalk to fix a faulty drive plate, the ship's engine would have flooded the interior with deadly cadmium II killing everyone on board in an explosive crash.
His demeanor then turns from somber to determined.
He helped. But who helped Torastorfen? Why didn't someone help him? I blame those on board and all skittermanders for his death! Helping is a lie and, hee hee, my explosive ordinance will make this known!
"Who are you doing this for, your brother or yourself? What would Torastorfen want?"
|
Dakoyo looks thoughtful.
"Torastorfen was a incredible Skittermander! It hurts you friend, but he saved lives, he made a difference! It is always sad when a Skittermander dies, he he helped, really helped!.
"Skitterfriend, please come with us. Torastorfen gave his life to save Skitterfriends, don't undo that!"
"Skitterfriend, what is YOUR name? Will you come with us to celebrate Torastorfen's life, not death?"
Dakoyo believes the anarchist skittermander's motive is clearly that he blames the skittermander species for an accident in which his younger brother, Toraforsten, died while making a space walk to fix malfunctioning equipment on a starship.
Dakoyo's words appear to have a slight effect on the malcontent skittermander. He pauses briefly, then steps down from the fountain to consider those assembled more carefully.
It... I... but, but... can it really be...?
NO! Skittermanders and our so-called willingness to always help are to blame for my brother's death. He took that space-walk to help others and lost his life but where were those others at and why-why did none of THEM help him? The truth-truth is our society is a LIE! I, Zerostorfen, will unshackle you all from your chains of lies! I must!
Beep
Beep
Beep
Beep
The wired metal cylinder on the flower statue begins to emit an intermittent, measured sound.
"We've got to disarm that thing! And by we, I don't mean me, because I don't know how!"
"Oh, I'll show you how. Come with me Gaz."
Quonx will pull out an engineering kit and attempt to climb up on the statue.
Looking over to mr. orange. "You do know blowing up people is not very nice-nice, right? You could kill someone else's Torastorfen that way and make them sad too."
Gaz follows Quonx trepedatiously.
Nako wipes tears from her eyes, "You poor misguided fool! You need a hug!" she says as she rushes forward and tries to hug () Zerastorfen.
Gaz quietly counts on all 24 fingers.
"Sure! domestic only, and no mixed drinks."
The anarchist skittermander pauses at Gazigaz's drinking suggestion. He trembles slightly and reaches up to lift his eyepatch so he can wipe away the tears that begin forming. His shoulders slump in defeat.
Can what I believe have been the lie all along? What does it mean-mean? What will I do-do now?
He looks wistfully at the crew of Nakonechkin Salvage.
Maybe...? Maybe I could...
Tears flow freely from Zerostorfen's eyes and he slumps to the ground.
Alright, I surrender. I was wrong-wrong, so wrong-wrong. But I can't stop the countdown! I put a fail safe backup that cant be reversed when the button is pressed! The detonation will happen in 2 minutes! I'm so sorry, I was such a fool!
Zerastrofen curls up in a ball on the ground.
Nako hoists the remorseful newfriend up and helps him towards the explosive. "Two minutes? That's plenty of time. Just tell Quonx here about how you built it."
"Alright Gaz. Watch closely."
Twirling her tools in her hands, practically juggling them while trying to disarm the bomb.
"Did you catch all that?"
Beep, Beep, Beep Round 1 of 20
Dakoyo and Gazigaz spot the ladder.
Quonx spots the detonation system has a triple level bypass protocol, she has disabled the first but will need to take down the other two. But it has a tricky and precarious set up; if Quonx flubs a connection too badly, it will immediately explode!
”Ok Gaz, I’ll show you again. You pull here, then twist. Lift up this panel. Slide the grips onto it like this. Make sure to hold on tight, and don’t touch this wire. Or maybe it’s this one. Hm. Anyway. Snip these here and lift this piece out. You ready to try it?”
Working while she’s talking to Gazigaz.
Gazigaz climbs up and observes carefully.
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Quonx's deft fingers and specialized engineer tools navigate the detonation system devised by either a sheer genius or an utter madman and bypasses the command codes and priming configurations with ease. With it now safe to do so, she cracks open the expulsion chamber and finds not volatile explosive chemicals but tightly packed slips of recycled paper that would have been hurled across the entire festival area. The mini flyers have versions of the same rhetoric Zerostorfen espoused earlier, such as, "Helping is a LIE", "Selfish-manders must admit the truth", and "You help them, but why they no help you?" Additionally, the papers also list an infosphere site address for an article titled, "Skittermanders: A Truly Selfish Species by Zerostorfen" and details a list of other places that will soon see "demonstrations of the true skittermander species" across the planet.
The Vesk-3 authorities soon arrive to take Zerostorfen into custody in addition to two water elementals that were hiding in the fountain and surrender saying they will gladly testify against Zerostorfen in exchange for clemency. The water elementals are remanded into jars while Zerostorfen has specialty "multi-cuffs" placed on him. He pleads admission to his crimes of destruction and begs to be punished immediately. The skittermander authorities nod in approval and bring forth specialty equipment in the form of colorful, over-sized inflatable hammers that half of them use to strike the self-confessed terrorist while the other half administers hugs and encouraging words.
Now that the festival is saved, the salvage crew is hailed for their heroic acts for stopping Zerostorfen. A collection is started to raise from the dead the poor skittermander girl who was crushed earlier by the nanite-animated decorations and the goal is exceeded in record time. Dozens and dozens of furry hands pat Nako, Dakoyo, Quonx, and Gazigaz on the back and they are escorted back to the best position in Central Common to witness the remainder of the eclipse. Songs and feasting abound and the crew of Nakonechkin Salvage are given five-star hotel accommodations within the city to later sleep off the night's excitement!
End of Chapter 1, onto Part 2: Hunters Hunted
”Neat.”
Eons ago, a rogue asteroid crashed into Vesk-3’s surface,altering its geography and ecosystem forever. Many skittermanders believe the planet was inhabited beforehand by an ancient civilization they call
the Forerunners, and while no members of this ancient civilization survived the extinction levelevent, their DNA survived in the skittermander species. Unfortunately, other terrible creatures also evolved from the Forerunners, and retreated into the cavern systems formed by the asteroid’s impact. These beings are known as stridermanders, and they are the subject of tall tales and horror stories told by the light of the stars.
Today, stridermander sightings are few and far between, but in areas of
extremely high tectonic activity, passages to those creatures’ home—the
underground realm called Gadraveech—yawn open, allowing the predators to the surface. The more martial-minded members of the Veskarium take great pleasure in eradicating stridermanders who dare to attack the civilized areas of the planet, and some even delve into Gadraveech to hunt the creatures on their own turf. Hunting lodges have sprung up
across Vesk-3 to offer such expeditions at a reasonable fee.
This day, a group of employees of Nakonechkin Salvage—the
skittermanders Dakoyo, Gazigaz, Nako, and Quonx—have arrived in Ewagadravona, a Vesk-3 settlement near a permanent entrance to Gadraveech, with their boss, who excited to go on one of the hunting parties that descend into the underground realm.
The team are in Ewagadravona at the behest of their boss, the vesk Nakonechkin, who wants to participate in one of these hunting parties hosted by Gadraveech Tours. He claims this is an opportunity for his employees to learn how to work together better, but he clearly is eager to participate in some bloodshed. He has booked an expedition with a local hunting lodge, and brings his employees there with many exhortations of “This’ll be fun!”
CHAPTER 2: HUNTERS HUNTED- WELCOME TO EWAGADRAVONA!
The high walls and gun turrets surrounding the fortified
city of Ewagadravona give it a sense of both safety
and claustrophobia. The buildings within resemble vesk
architecture more than skittermander, with sharp angles and
concessions to practicality. At street level, the structure’s
windows are protected by steel shutters that can come
crashing down at a moment’s notice. Despite the dour
designs, the people here seem as friendly as those in any
other major settlement on Vesk-3.
Skittermanders make up more than half the populace of Ewagadravona, followed by vesk and pahtras in that order. The latter are drawn to the city because of its proximity to a large cave that leads down into Gadraveech. The cave was uncovered several decades ago, and the local government hasn’t seen fit to blast it closed, citing the revenue it brings as a tourist attraction. However, most of that capital gets funneled into the city’s protection, as
occasionally, throngs of deadly creatures emerge from the cave, seeking blood. Such a large-scale attack hasn’t occurred in years, and many are beginning to believe the constant hunting parties that descend into Gadraveech have made a considerable dent in
the monstrous population.
The headquarters for Gadraveech Tours—a commercial hunting lodge—are located in Ewagadravona on the third floor of a five-story building shared by several companies. When the salvagers and Nakonechkin step off the elevator, they are greeted by a worried-looking ebony-furred skittermander receptionist who first asks if they have an appointment today and then immediately tells them that all the day’s expeditions have been canceled.
"Awww but we traveled all this way to help our boss" Nako looks up at the impressive Vesk with adoration, "hunt some Stridermanders." Looking back at the fellow Skittermander, she says "You can help us out, can't you, Newfriend? The boss is a strong, tough warrior. We can handle it!"
"Cancelled? Is your computer system broken? I can fix it."
Without even waiting for a response, Quonx will head over to the nearest terminal and pull out her tools.
Nakonechkin seems to blanche slightly at Nako's comment of being a 'strong, tough warrior', but maybe it was just that fuel station sushi he insisted on having on the way over. Dakoyo tried to warn him...
The office skittermander, whose name tag says "Biconiamaca", looks at Quonx going through the office computer system.
Oh, thanks, hun'. We've been needing a good defrag!
She turns to address Nako.
I'm soooo sorry, sweetie, but we just lost communication with our last outing, a group of these super nice pahtras led by our company’s most experienced vesk guide, Syvatsolex, she's amazingly buff, and the company is too preoccupied with mounting a rescue mission. We're really short-staffed around the Reetamander holiday season.
But if you'd really like to help us, hun? I can scrape up a lil' cash reward from the petty box and also refund your boss's non-refundable deposit if you could maybe make contact and help get our clients and employee back safe and sound? What do you say, sweetie-pies?
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"You had me at 'help'. C'mon boss! We can bag you a Stridermander, get you a refund, get paid, AND help some folks out." Nako says and starts ticking off ponts on one paw. "Thats win, win, win...win!" as she shows off four digits with a large grin on her face. "I've been practicing my counting." she whispers, clearly proud of herself.
”Okay. Well, give me a few minutes and I’ll have these back together again” Quonx says holding the motherboard and the power supply. ”This is some pretty outdated tech here. You should upgrade.”
After Quonx restores office computer capabilities, Biconiamaca gives them a holographic map of the caves where Syvatsolex generally takes her hunting parties. The receptionist points out one remote tunnel, noting that they don’t currently have anyone searching that area, as it is a bit out of the way of Syvatsolex’s usual routes.
Biconiamaca wishes the team luck as they leave and warns them to keep an eye out for stridermanders in a tone that indicates that such a suggestion is patently ludicrous. She provides a voucher for the skittermanders and Nakonechkin to rent a hovercar to take them to the underground entrance, a trip that takes 30 minutes. Along
the way, it seems that the vesk boss may be having different thoughts about this rescue mission...
Ancient Caves
A road leads close to the entrance to the caves Biconiamaca told
the you about. The presence of a small dirt parking lot suggests
that this area is used often. Another hovercar is parked in the
lot; a Gadraveech Tours logo adorns the vehicle’s doors. This
may be a clue that they are on the right track.
When Nakonechkin pulls their hovercar over, he turns to his
skittermander employees, looking guilty.
Look, fuzzballs, I have a real bad feeling about this. I ain’t one to shy away from danger, but seeing as how the guide’s car is parked right here, maybe I should stick around out here to make sure they
don’t just come back from answering the call of nature or something, yeah? I can give you a buzz if I see anything out
here.
The vesk seems to have made up his mind.
Dakoyo seems to think there is something on the boss's mind.
Nakonechkin is more afraid about what’s in the caves than
worried about accidentally missing the lost tour group.
"Good idea boss! Besides, somebody should always stay with the get-away vehicle!"
"Sounds good!" Gaz gives six thumbs up and sets off into the caves.
"Yep yep. Let's go find the missing tourists."
While the rest of this wide passageway appears to be
well-traveled, there is a massive crack in the northern wall
stretching from floor to ceiling.
Quonx notes that the crack likely occurred within the last day, probably by a minor quake which are very common in these sorts of cave systems.