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Hey! is Sani's reaction to getting bitten by the weevil, and surely hopes his shots include whatever disease this thing is carrying
Reflexively, he steps back, preferring to operate out of mandible reach. When Jazz performs and impromptu dissection, he stands down.
When Fengsai collapses, he says Alright, let's take this slow. How many fingers am I holding up? he says, holding up three fingers in a paw. The fingers are admittedly a bit hard to distinguish on an Ysoki.
Eye reflexes are fine. Knee reflexes... I'm not going to test, nothing good has ever come of an Ysoki testing a Pathtra's reflexes.
He concentrates for a moment, and lets out a burst of healing that doesn't even seem to be targeted directly at Fengsai
There. Try not to get attacked so much, ok?
Laurel grabs a tactical battery and shakes it.
”This lookin fancy” he turns to the next teammate to post ”Think it’s got more juice?”
It appears to be a run-of-the-mill cursed artifact, mildly haunted. Nothing unusual at all, really.
After a while, Ms. Moonpuncher comes down with lemonade and dumplings. She takes note of the oversized bugs with an impressed look. And of the broken crate of ammunition with a surprisingly excited tone. "This box," she says, "It falls and bursts open at your feet?" It was less "at" and more "on," but who's counting. "Adventures down here, and ammunition--something I don't sell a lot of really--just jumps out at you. It's destiny! It wants to be with you! Take this as payment. Additional payment, I mean. I'm not trying o get out of paying you money!"
She also pays the 100 credits.
"Oh, if you have some more time, there is one other thing I could use help with. I'm waiting on a shipment that’s held up down at the docks. Someone just needs to go down there and sign for it, but be careful given the weird situation on the Station.
"And of course if you need anything from the shop..."
Manee sells most sundry goods and ammunition in her shop, along with consumable magic items, medpatches, hypopens, serums, and other consumables of 3rd level and lower.
Laurel eats a hearty share of dumplings, and asks for more.
When the extended meal is over, he looks for some grenades to buy. But first.
”What’s my cut?” he asks the smartest person in the group.
Holding out his open hand expectantly!
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Zashodu gives a confused, very buggy frown, asking
They'll let just anybody sign for the shipment?
He shrugs.
Yes, sure, we'll give it a try. Stay by the phone datapad in case they want some additional verification.
For some reason Zashodu particularly enjoys these dumplings. He certainly fights Laurel for some.
"I can sign for you!" Grizzi offers, raising a hand. "In fact, I can sign multiple times, if it is helpful!" He adds, raising another.
Located a few blocks away from the neighborhood, Little Akiton’s docks are a collection of six active docking bays connected to ship-sized tunnels leading out of the station. The bays are a boneyard featuring a surprising variety of manufacturers, styles, and eras on display, with hulls, engine blocks, and half-gutted models representing the last hundred years of Pact World starship tech.
Manee Moonpuncher’s shipment just arrived at Dock 3, a stretch of metal scaffolding rising to a height of 40 feet inside one of the larger, tidier bays. A scuffed-up shuttle is docked there, with its entry hatch at scaffold level. An unconscious shobhad dock worker lies on the walkway 80 feet from the shuttle, facedown, with an azimuth laser pistol dropped a few inches from his hand.
A pair of goblins with rotolasers stand on either side of the dock. They don't point their weapons at anybody, but they do look wary. A third goblin pokes her head out of the ship's hatch. "Don't come any closer!" she shouts.
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Fengsai whispers to the team
"I thought this was uspose to be easy?"
Then she loses it yelling
" We're here to sign for the cargo and pick it up for Manee Moonpuncher. What's going on here? I'm drained, tiered, I've survived elevator crashes and seen more weird things we had to kill in the last 24 hours to fill a lifetime. If anything gets in my way of getting this job done quickly so I can get some rest, I'm going to start tearing heads off and using them to play brutaris with them."
Fengsai makes sure her brutaris juressy is showing.
"So if you're not here for us to sign something, get out of the way because the whole vesk army isn't going to stop me from getting some rest tonight."
"Well we're tryin' to deliver cargo, so maybe ever'body should stop shootin' at us!" the goblin in the ship hollers in response.
Laurel steps into the fore, sizing up the leader.
Frequency: once per hour
You spend 1 minute observing a specific individual, 10 minutes researching a specific individual on the infosphere, or 1 hour networking and gathering information about a specific individual in a settlement or appropriate location that they frequent, learning how best to endear yourself to, scare, or otherwise manipulate that individual. This subject is your asset. If you assess your asset via observation, you don’t need to know their identity, but if you assess your asset via research or networking, you must know their identity, which requires at least two relevant pieces of information about them. Examples of relevant information could include their name, their place of origin, their current residence, the name of their parent or significant other, their employer, or their organizational affiliation. The GM determines what constitutes relevant information for this purpose, based on the asset you’ve selected.
You gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Deception, Diplomacy, Intimidation, and Perception checks made against your asset or in relation to your asset if the target knows your asset, and a +1 circumstance bonus to attempts to Recall Knowledge about your asset.
You can maintain a number of assets equal to your Charisma modifier. If you Size Up other assets after that, your new asset replaces a previous one.
Cordially ”Now dunnit you worry none. Muh fren here nosso good with folks. Talkin thet is. An’ bein it we is with Manee Moonpuncher - in her stead ta put it krectly - I (My nem be “Laurel”) and my frens here kin sign an’ not shoot (jus ignore thet threat) up too 100 credits clatter-all” he turns to the person in the group that holds the money and nods with affirmative importance.
"You're with Moonpuncher?" the goblin in the starship shouts back, "Well why didn't you say so? DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" but this time she seems less threatening and more concerned, "We set mines under the bridge! Cinnamon, show 'em the safe way!"
Once the party is safely across, the goblin captain introduces herself as Spicy Sweet . "We've been waiting like a whole day for anybody to come pick up their cargo. We all had this weird vision of a planet cracking like an egg while we were trying to come in to land, and everything here has been weird!"
It seems like the goblin courier crew were trying to land right as the emergency alert came in--which means their comms weren't on the station infosphere yet, and they never received any alerts. "We finally decided to start unloading the stuff ourselfs, and then that dockworker started yelling about 'goblin pirates' and started shooting at us!"
Spicy Sweet doesn't seem terribly concerned about the dockworker, but he appears to be injured but alive. While her other employees were mining the bridge, she's been trying to tend to the one who was shot--but it's clear she's no doctor.
"Y'know why she's called 'Moonpuncher,' right? Well, there's a reason the town doesn't have an artificial moon any more to go with the sun."
Laurel gives a nervous, almost pitying look towards the injured goblin before shifting his gaze to Dr. Sani with an unrepressable wince…
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It seems like the goblin courier crew were trying to land right as the emergency alert came in--which means their comms weren't on the station infosphere yet, and they never received any alerts. "We finally decided to start unloading the stuff ourselfs, and then that dockworker started yelling about 'goblin pirates' and started shooting at us!"
Spicy Sweet doesn't seem terribly concerned about the dockworker, but he appears to be injured but alive. While her other employees were mining the bridge, she's been trying to tend to the one who was shot--but it's clear she's no doctor.
"Y'know why she's called 'Moonpuncher,' right? Well, there's a reason the town doesn't have an artificial moon any more to go with the sun."
With a contrite tone, Zashodu adds in
Well... unusual things were happening at the station. I suspect those who fired on you were more confused than malicious!
He looks for them to offer a delivery manifest for the team to sign so that they can expedite the task.
Say, do you mind helping us carry this stuff back? You could gain some good will on the station and maybe grab a warm meal before heading back out.
He accidentally speaks into their minds out of habit.
"You better disconnect those mines," Spicy Sweet calls out to the guards.
"We have Moonpuncher's stuff--and some stuff for a few other shops around here, too. We can't help deliver things while we have injured here, though."
When the adventurers return, Manee is grateful to have her goods delivered and pays the party another 400 credits. "I'll have to have a talk with that dockworker--if he's still alive? Starting a firefight with the couriers, really? Hey, some of this isn't mine... I suppose the crew just wanted to be quit of it at this point. Fair enough! I can get these boxes the rest of the way to their destinations then, no trouble at all."
Lotus isn't at the community center when the party arrive there, and as always they've taken their duffel bag with them. Their cot is as clear of possessions as one of the unclaimed ones.
Joia, however, shows up and introduces an anxious-looking female kasatha. "This is Emani. She said she was hoping to meet you."
Emani nods nervously. "I heard how you helped the kids find their pet. Well, I.. I have a similar problem, bigger, but similar, and I hoped you could help me. The big lady at the bodega said you fought some giant bugs, too? I hope that isn't relevant, but... I'm not missing a pet. I'm missing a husband. Keldo hasn’t come home from his construction job since the first power outage."
Good, pets aren't husbands. Sani says. Construction worker, you said? Hard hat, protective shoes? Can't be careful enough around a construction site. What construction site was he working on?
Laurel winces - he hopes to never has a "husband" - sounds like a lot of work comparing it to a pet.
"We'll getim" he adds, and immediately starts following clues.
Emani shares a photo. "He was working on a new office building in the Eye and planned to go for drinks at a nearby bar called J-Street Grill before returning home. He probably wouldn't still have his gear with him. They leave that at the site."
"So he wasn't in the neighborhood when the lockdown went into effect?" Joia asks.
"Well, no, but... he works construction. He knows some shortcuts. Maintenance routes. I kind of expected him to come home anyway--and if he didn't, I still should have been able to contact him!"
"True enough." Joia hesitates, torn being being disapproving and being concerned. "...the kids know some of the maintenance tunnels, too. They could probably help you get around the lockdown."
With the children's help, the party easily finds a convenient and currently-illegal shortcut to the appropriate neighborhood.
The J-Street Grill is a tavern with a faux brick exterior and street-side patio, sandwiched between an autospa and a Qabarati bakery. People inside are glued to the news, including the proprietor, a human whose nametag reads "Kruz."
"Hey, uh, mister Kruz" Laurel interposes himself between the man and whatever screen he's looking at, smiling broadly and with a tactful eyebrow raised "We be lookin' fer Keldo the Husband. Yuh seenim?"
◇) Size Up
Kruz is perfectly willing to chat (at least once a few creds have been spent).
Kruz knows Meldo, because he comes in twice a week on his own and once a month or so with a big group. The bartender hasn’t seen him in a few days but remembers him arguing with one of his friends the last time he was in. Meldo and the friend seemed intoxicated, so Kruz cut them off and helped them order a ride.
Nobody else seems to be able to offer any additional information about Meldo, though an inebriated host shirren (they won’t give their name) tells their theory that vampires are behind the power flicker, the anomalies, and everything else happening on Absalom Station. They insist that their brother was murdered by a vampire last month—he was found drained dry in a gutter near the Arcanamirium annex. The shirren believes the authorities are covering up the truth.
"Probably! Tentacles and fangs and fingers and all kinds of weird things!" The shirren downs more of their drink.
"Nah, I don't know. His friend made the call. But that was days ago--has he been missing that long?"
Sani shrugs as the shirren self-medicates I assume you are aware that this particular medicine comes with sides effects of neurological discomfort, dehydration, audiovisual sensitivity and...
Sani gets interrupted by his ring-tone...
Pretty analgesic, you soothe my aching brow
I need you when my head is spinning round...
...>click< ... general feelings of regret. For when that sets in, I can prescribe you an analgesic. Sani produces a small orange pillbox made of translucent plastic, with a little paper label that reads '1x day/intrabucally' in tiny print, and 'KEEP OUT OF REACH OF SKITTERMANDERS' in alarming red font.
What do the authorities say happened, if they're covering up the truth? Sani asks the drunkard
Nonplussed ”Where them vampers hang out?” he wants to know.
"The official cause of death is 'suffocation'! You don't believe me? Ignorant! Both of you!"
"Speaking of cutting people off," the bartender says with a frown, "think I'd better cut them off too."
"They're everywhere!" The shirren narrows their eyes and glares in Laurel's direction. "How do I know you're not one of 'em?"
This conversation might not be especially useful, though the adventurers could probably look up the details of the official report later easily enough.
"I'm no vamper!" Laurel insists. Looking around, and deciding against roughing the bartender, he leaves.
Asks someone smart "Where to next?"
The construction site where Meldo works is located west of Jatembe Park on the outskirts of an upscale neighborhood. Metal and plastic barricades block off the street outside of a half-built high-rise. Automated lights shine from some of the windows, but a portion of the walls are covered in tarps.
An oversized steel storage cube outside the building houses a temporary office. It bears fresh graffiti.
It looks like the construction has been shut down, though only recently--presumably due to the flicker.
Zashodu does spot signs of life, if not of workers. There are several ysoki women lurking in the incomplete building, one on the roof with a sniper rifle and two watching from windows (well, empty window frames with no glass yet). They all wear crimson bandanas.
Hands up, gun away "Keldo the Husband" Laurel adds context "An, you ain't done seen no Vampers 'roun' 'ere, d'ya?"
◇) Size Up the sniper
"Yeah, and this is Queen territory, so you Legionnaires better step back!" calls one of the ysoki in the window. The other lowers her pistol, though.
"I don't think they're with Anarchy's Legion," she says. "No vampires," she calls, "Nobody was here. This place is abandoned, and we're claiming it! If you want to investigate, by all means--once you've offered proper tribute!"