Yes, using a serum of healing will not impact your ability to take a 10-minute rest.
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Fortunately for Twila-4, her comrades quickly find the healing serums she had in a convenient spot in her backpack and pour them down her throat before she's truly gone. Gasping, she twitches momentarily as her mind adjusts to the current reality. After a few moments, she gives Laanok and Sturmvanger a nod and an a minimalist, though sincere, "Thanks."
When Sturmvanger carries Sam-12's broken body to the airlock, Twila-4 follows about 15 feet behind him. She slumps down to the floor, giving the dragonkin his space to mourn, and broods on the near-death experience she just had, as well as Sam-12's fate.
It was terrifying, but beautiful! Okay, most of the terrifying part was because of the circumstances, but *wow*! I wish I'd been able to watch Sam-12 die more closely. Is it the same with Androids as it is with purely biological life forms? How did he feel about it? How did *I* feel about it? ...I...wasn't ready. I want to know the full experience without fully experiencing it. Huh... That is dysfunctional; I'll never achieve that goal. Well, there isn't enough time to puzzle that out now. Time to get moving. Ten minutes having passed, she sighs and pushes herself to her feet. Quietly, she addresses the mourning dragonkin: "Sturmvanger. It's time."
When he sees the dead kasatha, he begins pulling away chairs and checks them to see if they have any items that might be useful to their exploration.
Sturmvanger leads the team into the room, and makes a beeline for the dead kasathas. In his haste to search them for viable equipment, he fails to notice that both corpses were ungulating, with a wet squelching noise emanating from their abdominal cavities. As the dragonkin leans over to investigate, two ruddy, bulbous worms with circular maws burst from the corpses in a spray of gore, tearing at Sturmvanger's armor. Though his reflexes were fast enough to keep the mysterious vermin from burrowing into his flesh, they do manage to gnaw at his scales a little before he rips them off and stomps on them.
Despite the setback, Sturmvanger does not return empty-handed. One of the kasathas has pouch labeled "medic" tucked into her belt, which contains a pair of mk 1 serums of healing. The table also has a key card on it, though a quick investigation reveals it would have opened the Captain's Quarters if Mel hadn't already hacked the lock.
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"Raagh! This ship!" Sturmvanger growls angrily as he stomps the little creatures a little more than is really necessary to kill them. Ok...a lot more than is really necessary.
He hands the serums to Twila. "To replace the ones you've used."
Then, he moves to the door to the bridge, pausing long enough for everyone to get into position before breaching.
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He hands the serums to Twila. "To replace the ones you've used."
"Thanks." Twila-4 tucks them into an outer pouch on her backpack. She looks around at the locations of the bodies and items in the mess hall, remembering where the chairs were before Sturmvanger threw them. What happened in here? There had to be some living kasathas to hook up that battery in the captain's quarters. Are these them? Did those worms kill them, or something else? How'd those worms get there? As her synapses pulse with questions, she searches the room for anything else that could provide clues or be particularly useful or valuable.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, she readies herself to breach the bridge. So much death here, and I've missed the most beautiful parts of it!
After waiting a moment to ensure nothing else sprung from the dead kasathas, the only thing between you and the ship's bridge was a single door. Steeling yourself for whatever awaited beyond, you make your way towards your objective.
The ship’s bridge is alight in red warning screens. The nearing ethereal storm looms beyond the forward viewing platform, while the ship’s failing power causes each station’s panels to flicker intermittently. A battered captain’s chair oversees two tiers of descending operations panels.
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Laanok thinks about the vermin that sprung from that kasatha a few moments ago.
” Those vermin appeared to be gummi worms. I learned that in culinary school. However, I had no idea gummies were that agressive. “
While he ponders about his so called “gummi worms”, he decides to search the bridge for items or anything.
As you fan out to secure the bridge, you notice the corpse of the ship's pilot slumped over in one of the foremost chairs. Gore from his burst chest is spattered over the console in front of him - the only one left that is still lit, after all the others were shut down to conserve energy.
As Twila-4 swivels the pilot's seat around, she realizes too late that the corpse is inhabited - a four-armed, insectoid monstrosity bursts from the decaying chest cavity, its jaws clamping on to Twila-4's leg. She feels her thigh go numb, but her mechanical physiology doesn't take the creature's venom as severely.
Round 1 (bold may act)
Weylin
Twila=4 (7 damage)
Mel
Monster
Laanok
Sturmvanger
Mel follows Weylin into the room, sliding behind Sturmvanger and blasting the creature with her azimuth laser pistol. The dragonkin, finally able to harm a this flesh-and-blood foe, wallops it with his doshko.
The beast flies into a fury, lashing out at Twila-4 again. It bites her, but once again the paralytic saliva doesn't seem to take with the android. It then swings at her with two pieces of debris, clutched in its claws like improvised cudgels; one connects with the side of her head.
Round 2 (bold may act)
Weylin
Twila=4 (19 damage; dying)
Mel
Monster (13 damage)
Laanok (you can still move from the prior turn)
Sturmvanger
Pellet flew to the left, spinning and firing a hailstone at the creature. and the ice stone struck the bulkhead behind the bug.
The one advantage of Twila-4's collapse was a clean shot at the monster; both Weylin and Mel manage to land shots on it, though Laanok's slug sinks into the computer consul with a shower of sparks.
With Twila-4 neutralized, the alien realizes her flesh is synthetic and quickly loses interest. Instead, it turns towards the towering dragonkin, scurrying around the swivel chair and lunging towards his ankles. It's jaws clamp around his leg, but cannot pierce his thick armor.
Round 2 (bold may act)
Weylin
Twila=4 (19 damage; stable)
Mel
Monster (19 damage)
Laanok
Sturmvanger
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"No! I won't lose another one!" Sturmvanger shouts as Twila goes down.
He swings his doshko furiously at the creature trying to gnaw through his armor.
He also focuses on the techniques that he learned when being trained as a warrior, heightening his durability should the thing actually manage to get to his flesh.
pellet hovered over a few feet to line up the shot better and fired another hailstone at the creature. The block of ice struck the bug.
The party converges fire on the monster, but only Pellet's hailstone and Sturmvanger's doshko manage to do any harm. The beast lashes out at Sturmvanger in a four-armed frenzy, but most of the attacks glance off his armor. The only successful attack is a bonk from a chair leg being wielded like a club, which the dragonkin mostly shakes off.
Round 3 (bold may act)
Weylin
Twila=4 (19 damage; stable)
Mel
Monster (33 damage)
Laanok
Sturmvanger (3 damage)
Pellet fires off another chunk of hard water, which passes above and into the wall
The doshko and hammer whir through the air, followed by the wet crack of the creature's carapace. It's four arms fall limp, and its mandibles twitch once or twice before going still.
With the monster defeated, you scour the bridge of the Struggle’s Scholar for the necessary data. With some quick connections and technical jury-rigging, you download the data onto Mel's datapad. You also find some of the pilot's personal belongings, meaning you have burial materials for almost every member of the crew (Blue Sky-101, the one android among the Scholar's crew, is still unaccounted for).
Do you have anything else you want to accomplish on this ship before you have to escape the oncoming storm?
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Sturmvanger stands panting over the dead thing. He gives it a couple extra swipes with his doshko before turning to Twila.
Once she's up and around, he goes to check the last room that they haven't, the bathroom. Perhaps the android was hold up in there and had something on it that they could take with them as a memorial.
Sturmvanger stands panting over the dead thing. He gives it a couple extra swipes with his doshko before turning to Twila.
Once she's up and around, he goes to check the last room that they haven't, the bathroom. Perhaps the android was hold up in there and had something on it that they could take with them as a memorial.
There are actually two rooms you haven't checked - the lavatory (which was unremarkable) and the cargo hold across from the sparring gym. Sturmvanger has enough time to search both while Mel and Weylin collect the data stored on the bridge. The metal walls of the cargo hold are twisted and damaged, likely from a collision with asteroids similar to the ones you encountered when fighting the Honorbound. A security camera reveals that Blue Sky-101, the android crew member, fought another one of those insectoid monsters in this room shortly before the collision breached the hull and sucked everything in this room out into space. The damaged was patched, but only Blue Sky-101's severed arm, lost in combat with the monster, remained behind.
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With your objective collected and the remains of the crew in tow, you scramble back onto your Pegasus and slip back into the Drift just before the mysterious stellar storm overtakes the derelict ship. Once you return to Absalom Station, Zigvigix is extremely appreciative for the shred of hope that the retrieved data represents. The tale of the Struggle’s Scholar’s fate disturbs the Exo-Guardians faction leader. Zigvigix promises to deliver the remains or personal belongings of the Struggle’s Scholar’s crew to the Idari for proper last-rite ceremonies. The Society maintained active files on each of the crew members, and Zigvigix can confirm that every member requested burial of their bodies or their final possessions returned to the Idari—even the android, Blue Sky-101. Zigvigix then tell you that they will send the damaged data to the Dataphiles in the hopes that their leader, Historia-7, might be able to parse the information and recover any word about the fate of Sangoro’s Bulwark.
Before dismissing you, Ziggy offers a personal thanks for your role in this endeavor. “This is the first shred of truly good news that the Exo-Guardians have had in a long time! My many thanks for all you have done in securing this important data. Now, there is another important matter I wanted to bring up.
“Prior to the Scoured Stars incident, I was part of a group of loyal friends, like the team you’re all a part of. Right before that dark event, I bought some tickets for my friends and me to a major upcoming concert. It was going to be our big outing—a capstone to all our missions together. Now, all my friends are trapped or lost in the Scoured Stars, and who knows how long it will take before we find out what happened there. The concert is coming up in a few months, and I wanted to extend an invitation. No promises or anything; you might be on assignment, and field missions take priority. If you are free, though, I would be honored if you would join me at this concert. Think of it as a remembrance for my lost comrades and a celebration of a new generation’s camaraderie.
“Oh! I just realized that I should invite Historia-7 too! Okay, well, thanks again. I should get going!”