"Oh I would never eat you," declares Mimzy.
The Brigadier listens to the group through and she gives a bit of thought before answering Osuro and Skip. "Strovians rely on vision, but their other senses are enough to detect. Dwelling within the depths of Gadraveech far away from the star's light, Strovians are adapted to the dark and fight best out of the sunlight. As for their hides I haven't got a true masure, they are strong, lithe and have a light fur on their bodies."
"As to your claims to your abilities," she states as she steps up from the table. "We shall see. I expect to see you at tomorrow's morning light to meet at the entrance to Gadraveech. I'll have the information sent to your comm units."
With that she steps away from the table and leaves the restaurant. Jomp quickly gathers the array of multiple weapons and gathers them on his back. He uses his remaining free hand hand to wave at the party as he keeps up with Brigadier Teshgari.
"Feel free to eat what you want, you hear Mimzy pipes up. "She has arranged payment for the meal. I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow!" She also follows behind as well.
The serving staff are more personable now and helpful as they are check with you all and confirm if there is anything you wan to drink or eat in addition, or in place of, the heavily spiced meat.
Afterwards you can head to rest at the apartment that has been booked for you tonight in addition to any shopping you may wish to do prior to your mission tomorrow.
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Are there any radishes? Momo asks with hopeful expectation. Radishes would go really nicely with this spicy meat. She snotters a bit when eating, and silently offers the advice if the spiciness is too much, you can tone it down with some rice or some fatty drink... water only makes it worse... would they have any arabuk milk here?
She then fully concentrates on her portion, and finally leaves with red eyes and face but a wide smile. Thank you for the food she whispers to the staff as she leaves.
Before leaving, she buys a a torch with some batteries.
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Skip bids the Vesk farewell and slides his plate away as soon as the group leaves the table. "I'm glad you are enjoying it Momo, it's obscenely hot. Not for me. I should have been warned when the heat overpowered your cybernetic sensibilities, Darkrunner."
He turns again to Momo. Miss Strawberry, I do want to thank you for your kind words earlier, I was honored."
As the servers arrive Skip asks to see the menu and selects a more traditional dish, some antlered creature with local potatoes and vegetables and a glass of wine. Even if the other Starfinders excuse themselves to their rooms, he is happy to sit and enjoy the ambiance and the meal.
Later he strolls the streets on the town with his hands clasped behind his back enjoying the evening weather and local charm. He stops in a few shops along the way before returning to his room for the evening.
The servers are apologetic toward Schuka, but offer fresh catches from the local river as a consolation. They are able to provide Momo radishes. The presentation and perparation of the side dishes are minimal, but at least provide a more satisfying meal than R2E meals. Although that isn't a high bar.
Skips order met and the dinner is reasonable with the meat dish being the most well prepared.
Following your purchases and a night of rest, you are all able to meet at the entrance to Gradraveech. A number of guards stand ready around the area despite the quiet from the open tunnel.
Brigadier Teshgari meets you there along with Mimzy and Jomp. Brigadier Teshgari is outfitted for battle as she wears a suit of defrex hide as well and has a tactical doshkari on hand with a pistol at her hip. Her other arms are being carried by Jomp who is right beside her.
Jomp is cleaned up from yesterdays meal and is carrying around an array of four large gun and is currently attending to one with a polishing cloth.
Happy to see you, Mimzy waves at you all as she is loaded with supplies and a packed backpack that is pressed to capacity. Along her belt she has a several lines of bottled water ready.
"If you are ready, we can head out now," declares Brigadier Teshgari as you come together. "Light may not be a factor, but our time is."
With no objections she leads the way into the dark tunnels. The signs of passage of many others are clear across the floor and walls are evident as you pass the first initial minutes going through several passages.
Reaching another juncture she pauses to withdraw a handheld holographic device. She directs to you, activating it to display a static image of the tunnels with a destination highlighted. She passes it over to the group and tells you, "prove your worth."
Stepping aside she allows you to take the lead.
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Schuka is wandering around over the night but not romantic as Skip.
Although she decides to follow him first of all being likely the most respected Starfinder among the group.
The stillefera sometemies sends telepathic messages to Darkrunner if feels her expertise necessary but otherwise prefer keep silent unless asked.
Mimzy offers bottles of water along your journey through the twisting caverns. Slowly the signs of regular passage fade as you head deeper into the depths of Gadraveech. Brigadier Teshgari gives no commentary as she allows you to work, her gaze watching each of your decisions.
At the maps destination she calls for you to halt as you enter a large cavern from which multiple tunnels branch out. Holding her hand out she looks to retrieve the projected map and stows away. She gestures around the cavern and asks, "what do you see? I'm curious how skilled you Starfinders truly are at these sorts of things."
She looks to the signs of passage throughout the room to determine what you can find.
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Oh... Shhhhh... Momo spots some tracks headed into the eastern tunnel There's definitely stridermanders here... there's a sour smell... it's smell a bit like... she eyes Skip, as if he should know what she is talking about, ...a bit like driftdead, but more decomposed...
"ah, yes. The all-to-familiar scent of danger afoot! We must be cautious!"
He draws his laser pistol and adjusts his hat before moving on behind the other Starfinders as they pick out the correct path.
Brigadier Teshgari gives a favorable nod as she takes in the air. "Still some distance, but on the trail." She takes the lead as she heads forward.
Mimzy interrupts with an offering of food, "if we are heading into danger, we better have all the energy ready!" Teshgari nods taking wrapped meal from the skittermander.
You aren't left out as she hands out one to each of you as she counts out meals for anyone that accepts. To Schuka she produces a fresh, seaweed-wrapped pie and says, "I hope this worked out, the market had a excellent supply of shrimp so I made a few!"
She produces others including meat pies, a sweet maple flavored pies with nutty fillings, and a few others. To Osuro she admits, "I decided to go with the other pies, rather than the trick pies, since I want to make sure you all eat well and since I'm sure there will be enough shock on the rest of this journey."
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Going forward Jomp and Mimzy keep close to the Brigadier as the tunnel opens up. Thick stalagmites rise up from the uneven floor of this vast cavern, reaching for the stalactites mirrored on the jagged ceiling thirty feet above. The air is thick with a sour stench and a haze of grit, which drifts down from the ceiling, becoming lost amid the pebbles and filth coating the stone floor. There is a pile of rubble closing the opposite end of the cavern.
As you take your steps in, one of the stalactites snaps and slams down in the middle of the room ahead, prompting a shrill, furious screech from some unseen life within.
Brigadier Teshgari readies her pistol as Jomp is ready with her other weapons.
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Obviously not well prepared for this hunting trip, Osuro is at least keenly aware that the point is to "bag" a worthy trophy, so she doesn't ready her disintegrator pistol, but her arc pistol instead. She already dismissed the idea of willingly closing into melee with something the size that these Stridermanders are supposed to reach.
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"Ah, delightful! Thank you so much Mimzy. What an opportune time for a coffee break!"
He enjoys his buttertart with a few other loud and positive exclamations while he eats.
"I'm afraid the subterranean light must be getting to me...' He redraws his pistol after the short break and takes a look around for danger.
Osuro detects motion amid the rubble strewn area. There are signs of other rockfalls in the past within the room, but there there are a pair of creatures that just barely evaded visual detection.
They both screech again as the party moves in, a pair of tiny multiarmed creatures with a long, flexible mouth from their mass. Their skin and fur blends in with the stone and were difficult to see until just now, as they ready to attack.
Darkrunner-42
Schuka
Osuro
Momo Strawberry
Brigadier Teshgari
Creatures
Skip Intro
Their small size are the only thing affording protection against your attacks even as they lunge with their fangs ready. Schuka's shot is just barely able to connect and wound one. Osuro has a much cleaner shot as her shot takes out the wounded whelp.
With that information Darkrunner is able to plot a precise path through the room and line up an precise shot that ends the combat as quickly as it began. However the rattling of rocks and stone build and grows louder even as the battle ends. Within moments loose rocks fall from the ceiling around a large portion of the cavern, Darkrunner is right at the edge of the rockfall while others avoid injury but a couple meters at most.
Thankfully the collapse was minor and after a few more moments it seems as though the rocks settle into a stable position as the room goes quiet.
While covering his head, Jomp is ready to offer a weapon to Brigadier Teshgari, but she waves it off. She gives a nod to Osuro's appraisal of the creatures and just keeps her small arm on hands as she glances across the area. She steps forward to slowly inspect and clear the area and motions for the group to do the same.
With a dismissive grunt Brigadier Teshgari states, "given a few years they would have been growing their territory out, even stalking and consuming whomever they could grasp. They were already learning to hunt for themselves."
She takes a cautious step forward while looking toward the ceiling, wary another rockslide or ambush. "The strovions will treat you as prey regardless of the brood." Jomp and Mimzy are calm with the short duration of the fight, they follow along closely and keep an eye out. They are on edge as they look around especially wary of the darkest corners and the whelp's bodies, as though they were still concerned they would lunge for them.
Schuka finds some supplies scattered admit the rubble. They are splashed with dried blood and may have been here for several days. Among them are a beacon, ten flares, and two mk 2 serums of healing as well as bits of broken armor and pieces of a shattered weapon scattered thought the stones.
The bloodstains smear across the ground before they pick up again closer to the ceiling. Along the eastern wall is a metal tunnel that is stained with blood. The path up to it is along a pile of loose rubble.
Climbing up is the only way to access the tunnel. Barring equipment, a good eye might be able to find the safest path up.
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Skip appears to be distracted that his immaculate safari outfit may have been creased or dirtied during the scuffle. He hardly gives the combat a second look as he brushes dust from his tunic. "...Dreadful.. absolutely dreadful.." he can be heard to mutter to himself.
Once the noise of battle settles down and he is confident that his attire has been mended, he raises his head and takes.stock of the situation.
"Oh my, excellent job everyone."
Schuka inspects the gear and looks at the composition. It is difficult to tell from the scraps, but at the very least the bits wouldn't match armor that would fit a skittermander. Based on the locals of the Veskarium, it is reasonable that it could have belonged to either a pahtra or vesk.
Momo is able to safely make her way up, her hands finding sturdy handholds across the pile of stone until she comes across metal set of corridors and is standing next to the pieces of a wooden door that lays shattered
on the filthy tiled floor. The hinges that mounted it to the previous room are bend and broken. The walls show signs of bright paint beneath layers of muck and dust, and rows of lights line the ceiling.
The stale air is heavy with the stench of rot and stridermander musk. Three wide hallways echo with sounds of dripping water, scrabbling claws, and hissing.
Right in front of her, Momo can tell there are large letters painted on the wall opposite the entrance, they are difficult to see or read through beneath the dirt and grime that coat them.
There is a trail of blood that heads off down the northern corridor.
The remnants of the door can be inspected as well , but that will need to wait as others follow up.
Brigadier Teshgari approaches the stones and measures them with wariness. She looks to Darkrunner's as she contemplates his direction for a moment and tests her grip against the stone. "This is a strovions alright. We head in and continue the hunt."
She puts aside her sidearm and grabs the skittermanders as she slowly follows Momo. The rocks shift under her grip and she keeps her pace deliberare. She barely manages to get up without stone crumbling underneath her. Jomp covers his eyes with his weapon-polishing rag and Mimzy holds onto her gear until they can all be laid at the stop within the structure.
The rubble proves more treacherous as Darkrunner attempts to scale it. It shifts under weight and deals some injury as he gets up to the top.
Aside from the stains of blood on the ground or the writing on the wall, buried by years of grime, there is a also a stock of a rifle jutting out a vent. The weapon is dented and the vent plating is pulled slightly inward as it seems something tried dragging the weapon into the vent.
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Skip watches as the others scale the wall. He looks around and realises he is now alone in the dark tunnels. "Well, old chap, this is what you signed up for" he tells himself and set off us the wall.
At the top Skip passes through the rough stone and into the metal decking. As he moves he reaches out and touches the wall as it transitions to the new material. He takes a moment to inspect that it indeed a metal structure buried in the tunnels, and not some twist of his perception or the reality around him. "What an interesting structure. Are there records or old plans that may show that there was a building here? Was it visible on your map, Brigadier?"