"Smells like something's burning. I prefer my belongings remain cold and raw!"
Hani steps back and levels his arc pistol.
A few scales are knocked off the giant worm's body as Hani blasts the creature with electricity. Undeterred, it undulates out of the debris-filled pool and onto the deck, smashing its bulk against him!
Initiative (Round 2)
Hani
Worm
Xylian
Jin
Cabizo
Zharis
Bold should go!
Xylian fires again at the fiery worm, but Hani's ever-present shell blocks his line of fire.
Zharis takes a guarded step to get a better angle, and shoots at the thing.
Sadly missing.
The smoldering worm is devastated by Xylian's freezing ray gun! The worm is still alive, but clearly in poor shape after that attack. Unfortunately, Zharis isn't able to finish the job.
Jin full attacks the yellow magma worm!
Chunks of segmented glowing worm flesh fly all over the room in a grisly spectacle of destruction as Jin squeezes the creature to death with his capture pole.
Jin shakes the capture pole, trying to get most of the worm meat off.
"Not the first criminal boss to keep exotic creatures as pets, in my experience. Anyone need to rest?"
Xylian swaps the high capacity batteries between his carbine and unused laser rifle, then nods at Jin to signify his readiness to move on. "Typical arrogance brought on by wealth. Wild animals are not pets. Just because you can buy your way past exotic pet restrictions does not mean you should. Those poor creatures were probably miserable in those tiny pools."
Uh, yeah, I need to rest for a while if that is okay. We should still keep an eye on that elevator in case someone comes up though. I'll hang out over there. Sorry, don't mean to slow things down.
Zharis moves back into the burned out cafeteria to rest, facing towards the elevator so she can see if someone comes out and at least provide a verbal warning to the others.
Meanwhile, Jin will search the rock pool for loot left by the worm's previous victims.
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Zharis keeps a close eye on the elevator, but nothing emerges. Meanwhile, Jin is able to fish out an old, ruined suit of vesk overplate from the bones and other debris in the pool.
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Meanwhile, Jin is able to fish out an old, ruined suit of vesk overplate from the bones and other debris in the pool.
Jin moves ahead to the next archway.
Zharis follows Jin with her tactical semi-auto pistol drawn and ready.
The north wall of this massive, high ceiling room is a polarized window, looking out on roiling solar plasma. Scorched workout equipment is shoved against walls and into corners. A double door exits east, while in the southwest wall is a door that reads, ‘Facilities’. The ground here is covered in burned and gnarled padded flooring.
As the group moves in to examine the blasted gym, Cabizo is reading a message on her comlink when she looks up and realises there's a strange little creature hiding behind the equipment! As you all look where she's pointing, you all see a three-foot-tall winged creature that looks like it's made of boiling water! Even more strangely, there's a brass collar around its neck! Seeing you seeing it, the creature shrieks.
Initiative (Round 1)
Hani
Zharis
Xylian
Jin
Cabizo
Creature
Bold may go!
"What an exotic and crowded criminal hideout." Jin moves in and attacks the newest threat.
Zharis walks around the equipment, and when she sees what is shrieking, she thinks about what kind of creature this could be.
As expected though, nothing comes to mind. Must not be one of those creatures that is part of high society, or she would surely know.
She does however think that she recognizes the brass collar.
Careful Jin, that collar is like an obedience collar... if they do anything wrong, or just if someone wants it to, the collar turns them to ash. Saw a holo of someone dying from one once. Wasn't pretty. I think that means it is a slave.
She turns to the short water creature.
You sure you want to fight little guy? Maybe we can help you instead?
Expert Negotiator (Ex) [You are highly skilled at convincing others and reaching amicable agreements. If a creature’s initial attitude toward you would be unfriendly, indifferent, or friendly, you instead treat its attitude as one category higher. When you fail a Diplomacy check to change the attitude of a hostile creature by 10 or less, you can attempt to change its attitude again. Whenever an ally uses aid another to assist you with a Diplomacy check to change a creature’s attitude, if you succeed at that check, the targeted creature’s attitude toward your ally also improves.]
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Jin's capture pole closes on nothing but air, and the creature shrieks again. But Zharis manages to calm it down slightly, and instead of fighting or running, it squeaks [b]"Kerschu is me. Live here. You know about collar? Boooom!” The creature gestures upwards and feigns dying.
Hani steps forward, weapons still out. With one eye warily upon our new "friend," he also looks around the room.
Yeah, we've seen a collar like that before. Scary. Do you know who has the controls to it? Maybe we can get the controls so you don't have to die? Is it someone downstairs? Do you know of a way downstairs besides the elevator? Or maybe the code to the elevator?
The little creature responds to Zharis. "Jalusann has key. She say it ‘splode me neck if me play with or try to leave here. She below, in old poisoned halls. Poison no more, me think. Once kill peoples. Now many peoples there. Not dead. Magic box in cooking place drop down there. Soldiers fix it up. Me not know how it work. Many sorries."
Okay, that's alright. If we can get the key and let you go, we will. Just trying to figure out how to get down there. Do you know of anything else around here that might hurt us?
“Soldiers in cooking place. Metal man watch front. Fire worms in pool. Jalusann feed them people, like gray-face lady. Poor gray-face lady."
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Jin also looks around for loot:
Was the gray-face lady nice to you? Why are you sad for her?
"Gray-face lady nice to Kerchu. She ask lots and show magic glove! But Jalussan find gray-face lady. Dead now."
I'm sorry that happened. ... I'm sorry if this is insensitive, but do you know whether her magic glove is still around? That could be useful.
Kerchu shrugs. "Gray-face lady wear glove when fire worms kill."
Thanks Kerchu. You have been so helpful, and we will try to help you with the collar. If we can get those controls, we'll come let you out.
She stands thinking a minute, knowing that Jin had already searched the worm pit as well as she ever could... and all he found was the destroyed armor. She wonders whether there was something they missed... maybe snagged inside the armor? It might be gory to fish around in there, but she takes a look just in case. Something magical ought to have survived.
She looks at the others
Well, should we go face this "metal man" or do you want try the elevator again? I don't see any stairs, which seems bizarre to me that there wouldn't be a backup if the elevator went down, but hey, I'm not a safety inspector.
"We might as well remove that last threat, and then take our time getting through the elevator. Perhaps we will find a hidden staircase yet."
Jin listens in at the door to D1.
When the others start conversing with the winged being, Xylian pulls out his datapad and connects to the starwide infosphere. Ever curious, he downloads a language primer on akitonian and begins to study it so that he may translate the ledger they had found in the gangsters hideout. No doubt there was nothing of interest to him in it, but he was not one to enjoy a mystery. He does look up briefly to engage with the being when it mentions a metal man. "Tell me more of this metal man. What species does it most closely resemble, its physical dimensions, what unusual feats or acts have you seen it accomplish?" He goes back to reading his primer while he waits for the imp-things answer.
Hani covers Jin as he listens at the door. "Let me know if you need any help getting that door open."
Kerschu provides a rambling description of the "metal man," but it's enough for Xylian to put two and two together. After the conversation, the little creature crawls into a pile of debris to hide.
Jin waits for everyone to get into position and tries to open the door.
Zharis sees if the glove is able to be detached from the armor, whether by normal means (assuming that you can put on different pieces of the armor), or by more complex means (perhaps breaking the destroyed armor if the glove is fused to it or something?).
If she is able to retrieve the glove, she tucks it into her bag to examine later and then moves into position as Jin indicates.
A charred desk and chair furnish this reception area, and trash and peeled paint clutter the floor. A double door exits the building to the south, while to the north, a warped door hangs loosely in its frame.
A battered-looking security robot stands beyond the desk; when it sees you, it says “This building is unsafe! Please exit immediately!”
From the flying creature's description, Xylian expects this to be a mid-level security drone but seeing it with his own two eyes does not reveal any more to him. "Careful." He cautions the others, taking a somewhat covered shooting position up by the door. "This will have dedicated combat features. I would wager electricity would be the most effective thing to use against it."
"As you wish, guardian." Jin enters the room and walks in front of the table.
Then he attacks the robot.
Hani steps through the double doors and assesses the room as Jin deals with the robot in a most direct manner.
"Careful! That robot only has superficial damage, and is likely fully functional!"
Jin takes a cheap shot at the security robot, but his capture-pole can't pierce the automaton's surprisingly tough metallic body!
Initiative (Round 1)
Xylian
Cabizo
Jin
Robot
Hani
Zharis
Bold should go!
Jin tries again, having better assessed the enemy.
Xylian fires his carbine at the security bot and manages to hit it despite the narrow slice of line of sight he has on the robot through the door.
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Jin reaches over the desk with his capture pole and there's an audible crunch as the weapon closes on the security robot's arm! Xylian's ice carbine hits it hard in the center mass. "Poor robot!" says Cabizo. "Maybe it just needed a hug?" Nonetheless, the skittermander dashes into the room and blasts at it with her laser pistol. The desk is scorched, but not the robot.