What Nimh notices is that the hospital is actually quite well-supplied. Furthermore, all the medicine in Ellemie-2’s office is stored in glass vials with cork stoppers and hand-written labels.
Empty? I was told there are several patients still waiting there. Ellemie-2 says, and with a patient matter-of-factliness adds I mostly deal with what every small-town hospital deals with. Common colds, barathu rhinitis, vesk pox. She makes a gesture as if to indicate the latter disease is very itchy. The odd appendicitis, protuberitis, antennacitis. Broken bones, cracked scales, the odd burn from a teapot. So general supplies are actually quite helpful. You can never have too much cleaning alcohol.
What is the business you wanted to discuss?
We get some injuries here and there. Wild animal attacks... that's not a common occurence. I'm not a wildlife specialist, but most citizens know to stay out of danger.
[b]Thank you very much for the supplies. here in this hospital, we make some of our own supplies, which I'm very proud of. Here, take a sample.[b]
She offers a few samples of her in-house stock.
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Without any infosphere presence, it's hard to perform a remote hack. Saar still manages to tap into some wires and get access to a medical system, and find a list of recent medical records. The medical records are a bit poor at indicating cause, but there are quite a few accident-related injuries. There are no records of bear maulings.
As the group moves about, Zatteh comes up with a smile on his face.“Hello, Starfinders! I hope you’ve enjoyed your visit so far! Everyone is so excited to have you here that we’ve decided to have a little celebration in your honor this evening! There will be lots of food, decorations, and the chance for everyone to get to hear from you. It will be hosted in the town square in two hours. We look forward to seeing you there.”
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Saar gratefully accepts the samples from the doctor. “Love home-brewed serums. Had them all the time back home.” Because on Apostae we couldn’t afford to buy them… but that was a whole lifetime ago.
As the party invitation arrives, Saar nods and smiles. “Kind of you. Thanks. We’ll be there.”
When Zatteh leaves, he turns back to the group. “Wanna look at the north industrial area partying? Too many things seem too big for this settlement. Maybe we find out why up there.”
The town’s north sector is an industrial district, containing a number of factories and fabrication centers.
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”OK .... Still not sure what's really going on. What do we know so far?”
Saar puffs his cheeks and blows a sigh. “Don’t *know* much, just have lots of things that don’t fit. Doctor said they mostly deal with little things, but I got into their records. Lots of accidents get treated — stuff that looks like injuries from mine work. A vesk and kasathan whose timelines don’t match the reality we know. The over-powered space defense system. Now a ‘party’ in our honor? I just don’t know what’s going on. It makes no sense.”
Heading to the northern side of town, Saar hopes to feel more grounded in the world of machines and industry. He looks around for clues.
Distracted by the mysteries -- and feeling pretty hungry as well -- he comes away with an increased sense that something's wrong, but he figure out what...
The city’s west sector is a residential area with a few parks and a large construction site. Construction is being overseen by a Lashunta woman, who greets the group Oh, hi there! You must be the off-worlders that have recently arrived. Zatteh told me you'd be carrying some building supplies. Well, that would come in just hany, we're building a new community center, with sports facilities too!
You have to tell me, where are you from? Have you travelled to many places? You have to tell me all about the planets you've visited. She says eagerly, and adds *sigh* I'll never be able to leave this planet...
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”You have to tell me, where are you from? Have you travelled to many places? You have to tell me all about the planets you've visited,” she says eagerly, and adds *sigh* I'll never be able to leave this planet….
Hoping to make a good impression, Saar starts to share some of his travels when the lashunta woman's last comment twists his guts. No… not here too...
He cautiously leans closer to her and lowers his voice a bit. “How did you come here? Why can’t you leave the planet? Do you have family here or is it something else?”
Despite his efforts, his voice catches at the end of his question. “I grew up in slavery on Apostae. I know about not being able to leave... ”
Ah, no, it's not like that Reela says, I can't just simply leave, that is all. So... what do you think of this construction site?
Reela is clearly hiding something...
Saar looks around on the construction site, and the activities seem to check out with Reela's description.
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Saar looks at the team. “Maybe it’s me. Don’t deal with people well sometimes. Stuff just doesn’t fit about this place. Can’t figure it out.”
He looks at his comm unit’s display. “Feel like the mine might tell us something, but felt that way about construction and we learned nothing.” Except for the construction woman’s words… still don’t sit right with me but, well…
It's two hours after the invitation was issues, which was enough to put up a make-shift decoration on the town square, with paper flowers and little flags. There's even a band playing folksy Pact World tunes. The citizens here seem to enjoy their fun, with quite a bit of dancing going on.
Although most high representatives you've met so far are here, Zatteh is notably absent.
The tables are piled with food, and there's plenty of opportunity to get a full stomach. While sitting down to eat, Saar at some point finds a little note under his plate, which reads a warning Be careful. The Mongers are always watching.
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The festivities go on for a while, until about an hour in, there is a shrill shriek from the edge of town. The band falls silent, and people fall quiet, while a few get up and hurry to the source of the noise to see what is going on.
At the edge of town, Sheriff Rin, looking wounded with several large scratches and torn clothing. First Hunter Redozoko immediately demands to know what happened.
“I was getting one of my good mead barrels to share, when I heard something in the forest. I went to check it out—I thought someone had gotten drunk and wandered off, you know? It was rock bears! I dropped the barrel and ran for my life.”
Redozoko looks concerned. “I don’t mind admitting when I’m out matched. If there’s more than one of those rock bears, that’s too much for me. Starfinders, you’re all very well armed and obviously highly trained. Do you think you can handle a few rock bears?”
Mayor Aliorno quickly agrees, “Yes, Starfinders! You can save us, can’t you? Will you be the heroes we need? Will you protect our town?”
Fortunately for the sheriff, the wounds don't look too deep, and they'll be fine if they're brought to the hospital in due time.
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Saar tries to smile as his eyes constant scan the crowd. Don’t like this… people everywhere…
Finding the warning note under his plate strangely helps his smile. ”The Mongers are always watching.” Maybe now we’ll find out what’s going on.
As the festivities begin, he passes word of the note to the team. After two plates of food and another couple of desserts, he leans back in the chair with a contented sigh.
Of course, that’s when the screaming starts. And I was just starting to wonder…
At the edge of the town, he eyes the wounded sheriff and listens to the story. “Rock bears, eh? We can help with that.” And maybe find out what’s really happening here… assuming that’s really a rock bear wound.
Saar doesn't really recall anything on Mongers. Must be a local term.
Though it is evening, the moon is bright and provides a pale sickly glow to the vegetation of the forest, though the foliage is dense.
Following the sheriff's directions, the group makes it to the site of the attack. The site with a battered barrel on the ground, obvious claw marks on the trees, and a mess of animal prints in the earth. The barrel has been gouged by large claws and is leaking mead onto the ground.
Nimh recalls that there's various types of bear: Grizzly bear, Panda bear, Brown bear, Drop bear, Koala bear. He's never heard of rock bears, other than in bad uncle jokes trying to scare children in being afraid of walking among boulders.
Still, the paw prints look like they could be a bear's, and shouldn't be that hard to follow.
Nimh notices blood spatter in the area, speckled on some leaves and tree trunks. It looks to be human blood, so it could be Sheriff Rin's. There's also a few drops of oil in the mud and some grease smeared on a tree.
The rock bears have left tracks that are easy too follow
The trail of the rock bears leads through a forest clearing where puffy blue bushes and colorful flowers sprout from orange topsoil. The large footprints of the rock bears trod through the plants.
As the group moves past, a trio of large bird-like creatures emerge from the bushes, unleash a blaring squawk, and then move to attack.
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Z
Rani
Nimh
Saar
--
Big bird
Big bird
Big bird
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You guys want to party, huh
Start with Life Science to identify
Assuming he doesn't learn they are immune to fire, or enhanced by it, he will use a move action to touch the Super-capacity battery he carries to drain it for 60 charges
The for his standard he casts Explosive Blast at the grid intersection circled in Red, DC 19 Reflex for half of
If he learns Fire won't hurt them, he will do something else.
Nimh knows the creatures: they're Augurwings, and particularly sturdy speciments at that. They're not immune to fire (or anything else), but they do have a nasty enzyme spray attack, and if they somehow manage to charge-dive you, hoo-boy. Their beak is known to be of such sharpneess that it would straight-up impale you, leaving you grappled and impaled...
Nimh causes a bright explosion among the birds, and severely burns one of them, while the other seems to avoid most of the blast.
Rani sneaks off, while Saar hits one of the augurwings with a plasma blast, before another explosion goes off, courtesy of Z
The creatures fly right up and each release a jet of nasty liquid from their beaks, spraying Z
The first glob of spray falls at Z's feet, but the second batch hits him in the face.
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Z
Rani
Nimh
Saar
--
Big bird (54) + 25ft
Big bird (78) + 25ft
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