GM Bret’s PbP Gameday X SFS #1-17 Reclaiming the Time-Lost Tear (Inactive)

Game Master BretI

My understanding is you left the long cable at the entrance because you expected to have to come back that way.

Azara and Dytabail get ready to let out line as Shokil moves.

Shokil lightly moves down the conveyer, trying to use his force soles to avoid the trap doors.

I'm assuming there is no trapdoor where I ended up on the map, if there is, I'll advance a bit further to avoid it.

Moved Oddman back to the platform since I assume he didn’t want to fall more than 60’ and didn’t say anything about flying using their jet pack.
I am guessing that is a double move for Shokil.
Since you’ve found the hatches, I’ve marked them on the map.

Shokil gets into position and then the conveyor tries to pull him along further. Dytabail and Azara do their best to prevent him from moving. Although it is tricky, Shokil is adept at keeping their balance and does not move.
The athletics of Azara and Dytabail combined with the Acrobatics of Shokil is good enough. Rolls would have been required if that hadn’t been the case.

Shokil see a bright-yellow case is lodged between the conveyor belts at the east end of this room, past the hatches to the trash compactor. It is labeled in an unfamiliar language which he would guess is Izalguun given what he has seen of the compound and the computer files.

Shokil perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

He also sees that the conveyor belts seem to suddenly end just below the height of the smoke.

Shokil does his best to dislodge the yellow box and take it back to his team, all the while backpeddling to keep in the same spot.

Or is there something I can climb onto - presumably whatever the box is stuck against?

Twisting a little bit to dislodge it, Shokil has no problems getting the case.

He just tries to keep pace with the conveyor at first, then sprints back up to the landing.

The case contains a needler pistol with 6 darts. The darts are loaded with some sort of yellow serum. There are also three vials of Mk III Healing Serum.

"Can anyone read this?" he says gesturing to the odd language on the box.

He grabs one of the mk III serum before offering the others around.
"Oh... I wonder how old these are?" he quickly looks for expiry dates...

Medicine to identify the yellow serum?: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (17) + 9 = 26

It is some sort of medicinal drug, but does not match any normal Pact Worlds drug. It is likely a custom or proprietary drug. If you had a way to analyze the chemical composition you could make an informed speculation about it.

Dytabail is fine using her spell amp to Comprehend Language.

Dytabail uses her Spell Amp. The text on the container says “Vaccine”.

"It says it's a vaccine," Dytabail says. "Looks like it wasn't as 'destroyed' as she thought. Anybody good with pistols want this? If she's still down here, we might be able to bring her back alive."

Shokil nods. "I'm better with longarms, but my aim is pretty good with most weapons.." he claims.

"Now, how to get down. That conveyor belt has a sudden drop to ... an unknown depth... Oh lets drop a rock and count."

Given the sound the team is already making, he figures there is not much to lose

It takes several tries and is complicated by the noise of the machinery below, but by using a timer and dropping scrap you figure it is probably about 75 to 85 feet down from the platform.

For reference, you did need something more accurate than counting. By my calculations counting would give you a figure between 65 and 145 feet.

Oddman activates his fiendish gloom graft and his shadow weaver connection ability, turning invisible for 1 minute.

Then Oddman recasts Spider Climb and starts going down the wall, trying to follow the pattern the ladder would've followed, looking for markings on the wall where it was previously bolted. He can climb 40 ft. per round with two move actions.

"I'll go investigate" he speaks for the second time since the group arrived.

I wonder if we can get some more information about the hatches on the conveyor belt, perhaps a way into the innards of the facility

"Can anyone fly or otherwise go down and see if there's a way through hidden by the smoke? Maybe find the ladder? If it's in one piece, it shouldn't have been able to fall all the way down. I have enough cable to make that fall painful but not lethal but I'd rather not face whatever's down there after being hurt by a fall, if I don't have to," Azara says.

He looks around nervously at everyone and their environs, the fact that they're all getting sicker every minute they stay here due to radiation in the back of his head.

I have a jetpack but I am not great at hovering with it. So I can try if you want me to.

Oddman goes down the wall, following the ladder. The others can watch him for the first sixty feet of the climb, after that the smoke is too dense to see him. It is a total of eighty feet down to the floor of the lower level.

Given everyone has comms as part of armor, I see no reason to not share the information.

Thick clouds of black smoke belch forth from oil-soaked machinery that sprawls throughout this factory. The machinery wheezes and clanks in a jarring cacophony. The smoke fills the area to a height of twenty feet.

Oddman finds a crumpled mass of metal at the bottom that was the ladder. It is in such bad shape that it is barely recognizable.

I have moved Oddman to where the ladder would have been and then added a new slide putting him where he would be on the lower level.

Meanwhile up top people are discussing flying down.

"So its only about twenty feet down from the end of the conveyer belt?" checks Shokil.

"I think my force soles can just about handle that. Getting back up may require a climb though..."

Dytabail is cool offering the use of her cable for people to climb down.

My understanding is you left the long cable at the entrance because you expected to have to come back that way.

What now?

Oddman has 30 ft. of titanium alloy cable - he can attach it near the conveyor belt and people can climb down. But then you'll have to deal with the belt

Or

How about casting Spider Climb on another character, then he and Oddman can carry people down to the ground? Using some makeshift solution with the cable attached to the two characters while the third one dangles from it. With strength 22, Oddman is quite the brute

I am fine with strong characters carrying others. I don’t expect this to be a major issue, I just need you to tell me how you are doing it.
I am also fine with one of you running back for the long cable.

The carrry down solution sounds safest. Kiff will volenteer to carry people, though there may be stonger characters in the party.

Oddman returns and casts Spider Climb on the drone, since it's the weirdest solution. He'll attach his 30 ft. cable line around himself and the robot to help carry people down into the abyss - hopefully whatever is down there will wait for everyone to arrive...

If the operation takes less than a minute he'll remain invisible, but won't spend another minute of his shadowy powers/augmentations if not.

Dytabail is fine trying to carry somebody. 14 Str, 10 Athletics.

The cable is indeed back at the entrance. Thinking about the path through the facility, Dytabail also remembers that debris from earlier, and assumes it must be another path downward. But now that people are already down, it doesn't seem safe to split up. We will have to tackle that issue when we find the Tear.

The drone and Oddman relay the rest of you down to the lower floor.

Go ahead and put your avatars on Slide 6.

Shokil is very thankful for his suits protections as he descends into the smoky depths. "I wonder how long things have been burning down here? And what is replacing the oxygen?" he muses.

"I suppose there could be micro fractures in the hull."

"Maybe they just have air scrubbers. No matter how long it's been, it's some impressive engineering to have things running this long without any sort of caretakers," Azara comments as he looks around the area they've gotten down to.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

There do appear to be operational vents, they just can’t keep up with the amount of smoke being belched from the machines. If only you had someone who knew about engineering to repair the machines….

Oddman can't help unless they are arcane machinery...

Kiff only flies ships, he does not know how to fix them.

Sprocket will follow the group with his Jetpack and have Claptrap use the Spider Climb to get down.

Thanks for helping Claptrap

Sprocket will take a look and get a bit excited.

Engineering: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (17) + 20 = 37

It takes Sprocket about 10 minutes to fix up the machinery here. Soon after he finishes, the smoke is vented out of the area.

fort: 1d20 + 5 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 5 + 4 + 2 = 30

Fort, radiation buffer, armour, resist radiation: 1d20 + 9 + 2 + 4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 9 + 2 + 4 + 2 = 20

Another bout of nausea courses through Shokil. The author tries to distract himself with his next novel.

Caught in the radioactive dump, Smith cursed the sniper who had torn a hole in his armour. The wound was only superficial, it would join the countless other scars can bedecked his heavily muscled body. No, the problem was the environmental seals were now compromised. He could feel the radioactive poison starting to leach his strength. Time was not on his side.

Reaching into the golf-bag he had acquired earlier that day, he pulled out the rocket launcher. Sure, he couldn't see the sniper. But there was only one tower he could be in. There was a time for precision. And there was a time for large explosions. And this was the latter.

Knowing that time is not on their side, Azara searches the room while Sprocket is working on the machinery then checks the only door out for danger.

Once everyone is ready and, assuming that there is no danger he can detect from the door, he opens it up.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10

I would like to wait and resolve the last of the radiation Fortitude saves before moving on.
The saves appear to be about every hour.

Fortitude: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (5) + 17 = 22

Fortitude DC 17: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27

Oddman smokes the radiation check.

(Also I just noticed that I missed the +2 for Life Bubble. If it limits how many people can use it, I will defer to somebody else. With it, my minimum roll against radiation is 20.)

Everyone is able to resist the radiation. Those who are not fully protected by their armor only take some damage from the radiation.

Oddman realizes that in addition to the noise they make, the machinery surrounding the conveyor in your current room would be dangerous to anyone stepping on the conveyor.
Someone finally noticed the trap no one stepped into.

You open the doors and see a hallway with water running across it, down some stairs and into a room to the north.

On the opposite side of the hall you see a passage completely blocked by rubble.

You can barely hear the drone of insects coming from the northern stairways. You can not see into that room from the doorway you are at.

Added map at slide 4

"We'll have to clear that rubble to get back up," Dytabail mutters. She looks to the south-side of the map- is there a passage back there?

Shokil checks his sniper rifle, swallows once. Why did I sign up for this again? It feels like a horror flick. and puts his mind solidly into the head-space of the Fearless Sgt. Smith, who wouldn't be afraid of the dark and insects.

Almost unconsciously he grinds a pebble under his booted foot, as if squashing a bug.

Having moved forward, Dytabail sees what looks like a large water storage area that the water is flowing from. There are no obvious ways through there and it would require you move against the current.

Since no stealth check was given, I assume Dytabail made no effort to be stealthy.

She did not try to be stealthy.

Oddman activates his fiendish gloom graft and his shadow weaver connection ability, turning invisible for 1 minute again.

Walking on the ceiling as well, he enters the corridor till he can see the room to the north and the flooded area to the south.

Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (7) + 14 = 21

There really isn’t much to see to the south. A large reservoir of water is continually dumping water into the northern chambers.

The buzzing of insects is much more pronounced from his new position. It is coming from the northern chamber.

To the north he sees a technological swampland. Water floods most of this room, flowing in through a shattered door to the south. Stunted fungi protrude from the water's surface atop twisted metal shelves and broken technology. Catwalks around the room skim the swamp's surface, each coated with slime.

At the north end of the room stands a glowing golden obelisk, resting atop a pile of fragmented golden items. It seems to be covered with some sort of hardened goo.

The ceiling of the vaulted room is 40 feet above the water level. The catwalks are just an inch or two above the water level and that looks like it will interfere with movement along them. You can not tell how deep the water is except that there are catwalks at the water level.

Barely visible to Oddman, there are some sort of creatures hidden in the water. They are submerged, with only the tops of their heads and the eyes above water. They have patches of the fungi on top to further camouflage them. They seem aware of Dytabail and are watching the entrance.

"I think those vaccines are about to come in handy." Dytabail will wait until everybody else comes forward, then she will be ready to lead the way into the room.