Fengsai forces the door open so that the rest of the team can come to Laurel's rescue... only to determine that he had the situation well in hand.
He also discovered through trial and success that station gremlins are vulnerable to fire.
Even with the gremlin dispatched, of course the traps it set remains. Did Zashodu spot them all?
Oh, a gremlin with a heat allergy. You don't see that often. Sani says, looking at the smoldered remains.
Sani waits for Zashodu to proclaim the area safe.
Laurel whirls with pride, blows the barrel of his gun with ostentatious melodrama.
”Like I sed: Stick with ol’ Laurel an’ we kin get outta here!”
Fengsai spots the same issues with the heat vents. She doesn't immediately notice any sabotage on the other door, but also doesn't see any evidence that it wasn't.
The vents could be repaired or jammed , or simply smashed shut. Getting close enough to work might be hazardous, though.
The vents aren't currently doing anything, but are primed to belch scalding air if jostled.
Between Zashodu and Fengsai, the vents are returned to proper order. Which means the room starts growing uncomfortably warm, as they have a lot of pent-up heat energy that was being prevented from venting properly, but it's notably less fiery than belching it all at once would have been.
Well, I can see why the gremlin wanted to have the heat turned down.
Laurel reloads his lasgun with the half-empty clip they discovered, saving the full clip for a rainy day. He discards the empty clip.
And covers Fangsai.
”Les go this way”
An open doorway to Fengsai's left shows some kind of shrine. There are candle stubs everywhere, but covered in dust--it doesn't look like anyone's been there for a long while.
Ahead is another door, currently closed but no sign that it's locked.
Sani wonders is there is any sign of a religion being worshipped here
Laurel turns around and charges the other way!
The door sticks a little, but it does slide open with a mild grinding sound as Zashodu approaches. It reveals... disused office space, covered in dust and cobwebs. Normal cobwebs, not ominous giant-spider-monster cobwebs. It seems unlikely there's anything useful in this room.
Moving the other direction, Laurel hears hushed voices on the other side of the door. People?
”Comin in! Just us, and we’re tryna leave. Bes you leave too!”
He opens the door, polite, but also ready to scrap.
When Laurel starts talking to others, Grizzi rushes over to the human's side. "Nufriends?" he inquires eagerly. "Did you find nufriends?"
And Sani would want to stay close to Grizzi, for when he inevitably gets shot.
A charming young lad, Laurel does what he does best: be’s hisself!
[ooc]Shouldn't you be telling me where you're going? That's where I thought Zashodu was looking (empty room), but I have Laurel by the narrow corridor at the top right.
The door doesn't open when Laurel approaches, or even when he touches it. It seems to be locked. He hears several frightened squeaks and gasps. Whoever's hiding in there is not great at being stealthy--might be noncombatants.
"Wh-who... Did you say you can help us leave?" asks a timid voice.
"Yep!"
Laurel busts down the door and beams!
|
Fengsai stands around looking confused as everyone turns around and leaves the office and shrine unexplored, then starts to follow the crowd. Fengsai thinks to herself. Maybe they saw a ghost? Fengsai starts running faster to catch up.
Catching up in time to hear a door getting busted down, Fengsai moves to see whats going on, while still having some cover.
The door is fairly sturdy, locked, and (as it transpires) barricaded, so proves pretty resilient to getting bashed in.
The attempt causes a bit of a panic on the other side of the door, but after a few moments they remove the barricade and unlock the door.
A group of panicked tourists hide inside the cramped room along with a skittermander tourguide. The tourists are a shirren family of three with two larval containers, a group of pahtra and vesk students on break, and two barathus on a work trip.
The tourists were taking a guided tour of remote maintenance corridors called “Haunted Absalom Station” when the power surge happened. The tourists remember seeing a flash of a figure with wriggling tentacles after the power flickered. When the lights came back on, the station corridors around them had shifted into an unfamiliar landscape that even the experienced tour guide didn’t recognize. While trying to find their way back to familiar territory, the group was chased down an alley by corrupted holo-ads, so they took refuge in this maintenance room.
The tour guide admits that he’s lost ("If I didn't know better, I'd think we wandered through a portal into the Ghost Levels!") and says he’ll make sure the party get a reward if they help his group safely find
a working elevator.
Laurel studies the Tour Guide.
"There sumthin' you not tellin' us, mr skitter?" he pushes "Our guy says this rig's got a colorful past - you know anything 'bout that?"
~) Size Up
[CONCENTRATE] [ENVOY] [EXPLORATION]
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 one asset at a time. If you Size Up another asset after that, your new asset replaces your previous one.
Sani quickly inspects the larva Yes, yes. Very well-fed. Good drool. Just make sure they stay well-hydrated. He doesn't go as far as to offer an IV.
Students from the Veskarium. Philosophy? Civil Engineering? Astrometallurgy? Sani is trying to guess what these student's subjects are, as much as he's trying to discern any corporate logos on the Barathus.
"Er, what rig would that be, nufriend? Absalom Station? Well, uh.. yeah! The most colorful, with the origin lost to the Gap. If you're talking about another ship you never made it to, I dunno why you'd think I'd know! But if you can help us find our way back to one of the populated floors--here, take some of my emergency supplies. You look a little banged up there."
The tour guide hands over a first aid kit containing four commercial medpatches and four commercial hypopens.
"Art."
"Math."
"Engineering."
"Writing."
"Marketing."
The tourists gather for a moment and mutter quietly, pooling funds. After a moment, one of the barathus holds up a credstick. "We can pay you 400 credits for your assistance in finding a working elevator--or other way out of here."
"Um," says one of the shirren, "We heard voices through the other door to the south. We didn't think they sounded friendly, but we don't know anything else."
You've got this guy pointing to the engineering student to fix elevators, and if that doesn't work, you've got this guy pointing at the marketing student to convince you it's still a great ride.
Unfriendly voices, huh? Just what exactly does 'unfriendly' sound like to a shirren? Sani asks with academic interest.
"Um," says one of the shirren, "We heard voices through the other door to the south. We didn't think they sounded friendly, but we don't know anything else."
"We don't know anything else about what is behind the door either, Nufriends!" Grizzi concedes pleasantly. "But, I do know how to help you learn something more about what is behind the door. Let me help you by opening it!"
The skittermander moves forward with designs to open the door to the south
Laurel follow suit.
Clearing away the tourists' makeshift barricade is a simple matter. Behind it, the adventurers don't find a door but rickety steps leading up to an area that must attach to the catwalk they saw from the hallways.
Zashodu notices something small fall from the top of the steps and looks up--he spots the person who knocked something down, likely the source of the "unfriendly voices": A ysoki clearly trying to stay quiet and stick to the shadows, who also happens to be about to fire a rifle he's aiming down at the group.
Zashodu' turn. The ladder is 20 feet high and requires a DC 10 Athletics check to climb.
Initiative:
Zashodu
Red ???
Frost ???
Laurel
Grizzi
Jazz
Green Ysoki
Dr. Sanity
Fengsai
Purple Ysoki
A third ysoki pops into sight, quicker than the one already on the ladder. "Take the shot!" she snaps as she fires down herself before ducking out of view again. "It's ours! Find your own claim!"
Even shooting past her ally, it's a decent shot.
The small device, which may have been set intentionally so it would fall, unfolds itself into something that sort of resembles a cross between a gun and a crystal-tipped wand. With legs! The tiny magitech device scuttles under everyone's legs to the other side of the room, then whips around and fires a wave of freezing cold that covers most of the party.
Laurel, Grizzi, and Jazz's turns. The ladder is 20 feet high and requires a DC 10 Athletics check to climb.
Initiative:
Zashodu (AC 15; 20/20 HP; DC 16 Ref vs 2 cold)
Red Ghost Courier
Frost Turret
Laurel (AC 18; 16/16 HP)
Grizzi (AC 18; 14/14 HP; DC 16 Ref vs 2 cold)
Jazz (AC 18; 17/17 HP; DC 16 Ref vs 2 cold)
Green Ghost Courier
Dr. Sanity (AC 17; 15/15 HP; DC 16 Ref vs 2 cold)
Fengsai (AC 17; 12/16; DC 16 Ref vs 2 cold)
Purple Ghost Courier
”Nosso fass!”
Laurel races over and bashes the control panel with his lasgunbutt!
◆) Stride
◆◆) Disable Frost Turret
"You're looking for claims? Let me help!" Grizzi rushes into the room. "Pardon. Excuse me. Pardon." He says as he attempts to get by one of the ysoki.
"Perhaps, I can pry open some wall panels to help you look." He draws his knife.