While she's quick enough to dodge the second shot, just the first one seems to hur the evangelist pretty badly.
One of the men in the room pursues Laurel. He takes a shot at him from the junction. He doesn't really have a clear shot at all, and his laser blast hits the wall between them.
Sanity, Jazz, and Zashodu's turns.
Initiative:
Laurel (AC 18; 16/16 HP)
Fengsai (AC 17; 16/16 HP)
Red Disciple
Dr. Sanity (AC 17; 15/15 HP)
Jazz (AC 18; 5/17 HP)
Zashodu (AC 15; 20/20 HP)
Yellow Disciple
Grzzi (AC 18; 7/14 HP)
Green Evangelist (-4 HP, bloodied)
Laurel dodges with a somersault into a rolling spring kicking the wall and spinning 90 degrees "Yeah!" he celebrates as the laser fire splays wide.
"Less git these guys" he prepares to take aim and hold his ground!
↺) Quip
Jazz takes out the gunner with a shot of his own.
Sanity's turn.
Initiative:
Laurel (AC 18; 16/16 HP)
Fengsai (AC 17; 16/16 HP)
Dr. Sanity (AC 17; 15/15 HP)
Jazz (AC 18; 5/17 HP)
Zashodu (AC 15; 20/20 HP)
Yellow Disciple
Grzzi (AC 18; 7/14 HP)
Green Evangelist (-4 HP, bloodied)
Laurel almost reacts to taunt the droid that Jazz gunned down - then realizes that the shot was final.
"Tin cans, these, goin' down with one shot apiece. Les' take 'em all!" he rallies his party!
Well, no need to catch bullets then. Sani says, and walks up to the nearest corner with his zero pistol in hand.
A human with yellow shoes runs down the hallway, drawing a pistol.
Grizz's turn.
Initiative:
Laurel (AC 18; 16/16 HP)
Fengsai (AC 17; 16/16 HP)
Dr. Sanity (AC 17; 15/15 HP)
Jazz (AC 18; 5/17 HP)
Zashodu (AC 15; 20/20 HP)
Yellow Disciple
Grizzi (AC 18; 7/14 HP)
Blue Disciple
Green Evangelist (-4 HP, bloodied)
Hearing shots fired, Grizzi concludes that his help may be needed. He grabs his own gun, a shirren-eye rifle, then rushes to where the others happen to be.
One more human starts to come down the hall. None of the adventures can see exactly what happens around the corner, but it sounds like he staggers or stumbles. He then shouts something even less coherent, word salad where nothing is intelligible other than "Newborn." The part does see the flash of his laser pistol, even though he couldn't possibly be aiming at any of them.
Then they hear a thud--it sounds like he collapsed.
Pft. And the one I forgot to put on the Initiative list takes himself out while accomplishing nothing. I corrected my error, and it didn't make any difference.[/ooc]
The woman with the chakram hurries down the corridor, continuing to rant and rave as if there was no interruption. "All will be cleanses to make way for what is new! Rejoice in your demise!"
She slices at Sanity brutally with her chakram. It cuts deeply, and as the strange weapon's material flashes before his eyes he also feels a little... dazed.
The tourists start to move as Fengsai calls for them, but they're not fast--and they seem a little apprehensive about moving when there's laser fire in the halls.
Laurel, Fengsai, Sanity, Jazz, and Zashodu's turns.
Initiative:
Laurel (AC 18; 16/16 HP)
Fengsai (AC 17; 16/16 HP)
Dr. Sanity (AC 17; 7/15 HP, DC 13 Will vs Stupefied 1)
Jazz (AC 18; 5/17 HP)
Zashodu (AC 15; 20/20 HP)
Yellow Disciple
Grizzi (AC 18; 7/14 HP)
Green Evangelist (-4 HP, bloodied)
”You’ve got it comin’!” Laurel taunts the evangelist and returns fire
◆) Demoralize s Green
◆) Get 'em vs Green
◆) Strike
↺) Quip
The evangelist seems charmed, narrowly avoiding the adventurer's shots and spells--until Zashodu's follow-up shot hits her and she drops as well.
Sanity and Jazz's turns.
Initiative:
Laurel (AC 18; 16/16 HP)
Fengsai (AC 17; 16/16 HP)
Dr. Sanity (AC 17; 7/15 HP, DC 13 Will vs Stupefied 1)
Jazz (AC 18; 5/17 HP)
Zashodu (AC 15; 20/20 HP)
Yellow Disciple
Grizzi (AC 18; 7/14 HP)
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Oh, I've never actually seen myself from the inside. Fascinating... It didn't hurt at first, but now it really does!
Fortunately for Sani, adrenaline rush is also a thing for Ysoki, so the doctor just opt to do a remote surgery on the last disciple
It turns out that only one shot is necessary.
Withthe laser fire stopped, the tourists clamber down the ladder and into the hallway. They're certainly ready to leave whenever the party is. "Who are those people?"
Inside, the air smells of mildew, and the insistent sound of water dripping echoes through the chamber. Stacks of metal storage crates provide cover. A human corpse is slumped against one of the stacks. Occult symbols made in chalk and blood cover many of the room’s surfaces.
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Without going in Fengsai tries to make sense of the occult symbols nearest the door.
Fengsai backs up to the rest of the party her fur and ears standing straight up as she points back to the room she just looked into and says
"Blood... chalk... corpse..."
Interrupted by the distant sound of water dripping Fengsai jumps in the air and spins around gun pointed toward the room she came from.
"I'm not afraid of the elevator anymore..."
Fengsai doubles checks the battery in her gun and then aims at the door again before continuing speaking
" I think whatever caused all the weird stuff happening here might have come from that room, but I'm not going back in there alone, might be good to check the bodies of whatever we just shot in this hallway first."
"Who are those people?"
were Sani corrects the tourist, you can actually tell quite easily, with them not having a pulse. This body plan uses a central pump to deliver oxygen to a brain. In this case, too much oxygen got delivered to the floor, and too litle to the brain. And when that happens... not much you can do. Better to sell them for parts.
Oh, and Laurel Sani says, handing the youth his comm unit back I think you dropped this earlier
Sani searches the bodies Anybody needs a kidney?
Fengsai recalls credible articles about the Ghost Levels, a liminal space with gateways popping open in neighborhoods around the Spike. The Ghost Levels are part of a pocket dimension that mirrors the neighborhoods it connects to, filled with dangers such as psychic molds, trapped ghosts, hungry oozes, and dimension-hopping monsters. Access points to the Ghost Levels supposedly appear after energy surges or outages that affect the Starstone, or coincide with other strange phenomena on Absalom Station.
The mold in this room looks to be of that psychically-active type. Disturbing it and breathing the spores is clearly dangerous. The dead human in the room has no apparent marks on her, and she may have died from the poison. The man who started screaming incomprehensibly and shooting at his allies before dropping dead almost certainly did.
Dangerous, though potentially informative--those exposed might see a vision of whatever highly-emotional event left a psychic impression on the mold.
Though... there is some evidence that those visions didn't go well even for those who survived it.
All of the cultists carry chakrams made of a material Sanity doesn't recognize. The one who actually used her chakram doesn't have any other useful equipment, though the others all carry laser pistols and a spare battery.
Laurel scavenges the pile and grabs yet more battery packs with a look of overjoyed glee!
He discards the empty ones upon the ground - even those partially spent - and reloads his lasgun with a fresh clip, and stowing in his pack, leaving the rest for the others to pick through…
Having four full-power clips on his person swells his ego.
Though quite short, Laurel stands tall, puffing out his chest, ready to delve deeper.
”You all ready to go!?” he exclaims impatiently!
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Fengsai starts waving the tourists through to the elevator
"It's all clear now, quick before something else wanders by."
"I might be able to learn more from the Occult symbols in that room if I go in, Dr. Sani might be a good chance for you to do some experiments on psychically-active mold. If we send someone in, might be best to disarm them in case something goes wrong."
With all suitable precautions Fengsai intentionally exposes herself to the mold. She hallucinates struggling to break free from a warm but suffocating cocoon, then visualizes an exploding planet at the moment it escapes. She. The moment she escapes.
When she returns to reality, the others are able to inform her that she spent a little under 20 seconds lashing out violently and randomly.
The notes present in the room suggest that the people here seemed to be forming a cult to the "Newborn" they envisioned, though apparently quite recently (as in hours) and there's no sign they had any information other then the vision.
Cramming everyone into the elevator at the same time is a little uncomfortable, but everyone fits.
The lights flicker inside the elevator as it leaves the Ghost Levels and return to the familiar terrain of Absalom Station. As the lights come on, the elevator looks just a touch more... normal? The colors are brighter, and music plays. The tourists breathe again, and enthusiastically hand over the promised collected reward.
The elevator stops at a disused maintenance corridor filled with the hum of rusty fans whirring and unseen equipment buzzing within the walls. Industrial piping runs along the low ceiling (6 feet high), and red emergency lights faintly illuminate the path forward. This claustrophobic hall has no outlets, only heat vents leading to 1-foot-wide shafts that are barely large enough for a ysoki or goblin to Squeeze through.
A quarter mile from the elevator, the corridor connects to a back alley behind a city block in Little Akiton. As soon as the party emerges from the elevator, everyone's comm units burst to life with all manner of chimes, buzzers, ringtones, and vibrations. It seems they have a signal again--and that every single person present has missed multiple notifications while they were out of service. The text alerts order residents of Absalom Station to shelter in place after the Starstone reactor experienced an unexplained power flicker. The power flicker affected everything from security systems to life support generators, and emergency crews have already been dispatched to investigate and prevent the situation from escalating. News feeds broadcast vids of vehicles gridlocked at intersections, riot squads patrolling deserted walkways, and images of looted storefronts. If the adventurers search for more news, reporters and infosphere chatter speculate wildly about potential doom scenarios, from a Swarm attack to the Starstone reactor failing.
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Fengsai doesn't remember getting into the elevator which is a good thing. In the maintenance corridor she keeps mumbling nonsense.
"It....it blew up....a planet?...a cocoon?...it was suffocating, the whole planet was suffocating...the Newborn was suffocating...and then it wasn't...and then I wasn't in an elevator suffocating...the cult called it the newborn...planets can't do, that's where I keep my stuff."
When our comm units start getting messages Fengsai starts literally doom-scrolling for info on planets blowing up, cults worshiping a newborn, and negative travel review of Absalom Station. "Is this station always this messed up?"
”Lotta business goin’ on” he looks around, then asks the nearest ally ”You think this planet station will hold?” he feels the wall…
Sheltering in the tunnel itself proves impossible, as there is no tunnel. The path that the adventurers followed while leaving the Ghost Levels is simply not there.
The shelter order doesn't seem quite that strict, in any case. While roads, elevators, and gates between districts are closed so maintenance teams can work, moving around within a neighborhood seems permitted... or at least the people around here are doing it anyway.
Little Akiton was once a dock and storage area for long-haul freighters visiting Absalom Station. This history is evident in the neighborhood’s unique architecture: stacked shipping containers form apartments, bodegas, and workshops. Not an inch of viable space is wasted; small co-op farms and scrapyards occupy the lots between buildings, and hydroponic gardens grow on every ramshackle rooftop. A handful of working docks and maintenance bays operate on the lower levels. Even the most active hangars double as boneyards for spare ship parts.
A holographic sky shines above this landscape, projecting an expanse of blue dotted with fluffy white clouds. About 300 feet up, equipment and pipes peek through imperfections in the false sky; these features are pockmarked with bullets and laser burns made by bored residents. A cheerfully unhinged smiling holographic sun beams down during the day half of the cycle. During daylight hours, the sun plays a tinny jingle every 15 minutes. At night, a chime plays. The sun is sponsored by Sunny-6’s Diner, and invitations to try something from their menu follow every announcement. Most residents mark time by the jingles, occasionally responding to them with gunfire.
The skittermander tour guide recognizes the neighborhood and suggests they hit up Sunny-6’s diner ("Try the home-fried grubs in gravy").
Laurel joins in the raucous, firing his own weapon at the sun every 15 minutes - enthused with the ritual for about commercial jingles before it loses it’s new-ness…
…later, his tummy rumbles ”Man I shore cud go get some home-fried grubs in gravy!” me mentions thoughtlessly…
This place is nothing like Akiton. Not enough red dust. Sani says, and when he spots the scrapyard, he asks does anyone need a tetanus shot?
I prefer my gravy without grubs, but count me in
While they aren't really sticking together any more, most of the tourists also move in the direction of the diner as they have nowhere else to go.
As the party moves, they pass some other potentially interesting sites: a corner bodega, a community center, Nikk-Nakk’s scrapyard, a tenement block, and lower shipyards.
A neon-yellow sun—the smaller twin of the grinning light in the false sky—blazes from the side of a lopsided aluminum storage crate, smiling and pointing with disembodied cartoon hands at a sign: “Sunny-6’s Diner.” Inside is a one-room diner with a checkered floor occupied by a few battered booths in faded blue suede. A row of stoves and ovens forms a galley kitchen behind a shiny copper counter crammed with stools, all taken by hungry guests.
"Crikey" Laurel yells seeing all the shiny counter seats taken "Noboby goes here anymore because it's too busy" he decides.
And wanders off to explore Nikk-Nakk’s scrapyard, picking up a widget and a sprocket, comparing them side by side, and ultimately discarding one in favor of the other.
He whistles a tune while he does so.
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Fengasi turnes to Dr Sani.
"Now that I've seen the food around here, I think I will take that tetanus shot."
"So, before we got sidetracked by... What every that was that happened down there, we were on our way to get a shuttle to go salvage a shipwreck. Looks like a good time to replace any gear we used,I'd like to see if we can find out whats going on too before we live, I'll got check out the community center and then meet back here, maybe by them the line will be shorter."
Fengsai goes to the community center to see what's going on there and tries to get any news of recent events.
Dark vision
Fengasi turnes to Dr Sani.
"Now that I've seen the food around here, I think I will take that tetanus shot."
"I can help!" Grizzi suggests as he picks up a syringe he found discarded in the street. He pauses for a moment, to try and spot any of the home-fried grubs through the window, then rushes to Fengsai's side to offer the syringe.
When he finds her at the community center, he tries to help her with her search.
The diner's android cook seems friendly with everyone. The 2-credit special seems popular.
Tomato plants sprout at random among mountains of rusty parts and jagged scrap metal. A tiny but cozy prefab cabin squats in the dust, surrounded by more piles of junk and what look like half-finished projects—among them, the hull of a racerclass starship glittering with flecked blue paint, a banged-up suit of power armor, and a knitted scarf in fabulous magenta draped over a rickety porch chair. More tomato plants spring from tires, soup cans, and even a porcelain teacup.
A 10-foot-high chain fence surrounds the scrapyard, with a broken buzzer attached to the gate. The gate opens with a push.
Laurel and Zashodu can hear music coming from the cabin, but they can also hear an ominous buzzing coming from the scrapyard. It might be a good idea to make sure the party is together before trying to go in there...
Fengsai and Grizzi have no trouble whatsoever getting locals to chat about rumors and gossip. They almost seem like they're waiting for it.
What’s happening? “Nobody knows. The gal on Channel 5 said it’s some kind of attack, and Channel 13 says it’s another Drift Crash. Did you know there’s dozens of people missing? Everyone on the infosphere thinks they’re in the Ghost Levels. Channel 107 has footage from the Spike that proves it. You want my opinion? I think the Starstone reactor’s on the fritz and Primex Kantol is trying to cover it up. And if that thing blows? We’re all perma-dead.”[/b[
Did anyone else see that tentacle monster? [b]“When the power went out? Yeah, ugh! I didn’t get a look at it, but it’s all over the ’sphere. Check the local chat forums. Somebody even uploaded a vid.” (The video is clearly fake, but the adventurers can still find plenty of descriptions from different sources matching the creature they saw.) More reliable information may require further research.
Where can we go for supplies? “Go see Sunny-6. He’s serving free meals at his diner. Word of advice—don’t get the gravy grubs. The community center has a first aid clinic and plenty of spare cots, but Joia will put you to work. Nikk-Nakk does repairs, trade-ins, and sells junk for a fair price at the east end scrapyard. Manee’s bodega has supplies, too. Someone at one of the apartments might be willing to trade for anything else you need.”
Overgrown vegetable gardens surround the community center's flat-roofed, dilapidated building that looks like it’s made from slabs of corrugated metal haphazardly welded together. Cheerful paintings of human, vesk, shirren, and ysoki children holding hands and working together in a garden beneath a smiling sun adorn the outer walls. The whir of industrial fans provides a constant background of white noise inside the building. The front room is open plan, with a sagging couch and desk facing each other next to a couple of creaky rocking chairs. Across the room, a blackboard covered in chalk drawings and equations watches over a collection of mismatched wood and metal desks. On the opposite side, a waist-high wall of cinder blocks demarcates a tidy kitchen and cluttered pantry. At the rear of the building, a door marked “gymnasium” opens to a large, open room with a cement floor. The floor’s covered in bedrolls and cots, where a few people are resting. A bright-red first aid cart is stationed in a corner, with an exam area blocked by a threadbare curtain.
"Hello," says a human woman in her 60s, who's pleasant but curt and looks tired, "Are you injured? Let's get you to the first-aid tent if you need help. ...I don't think I've seen you before. New in town? Welcome, I'm Joia Mollen. Well, bad timing. Seems you're stuck here for now. We have a shelter set up. It's not much, but it's free--though we're asking anybody who stays here to help out."
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when Grizzi brings the syringe, Fengsai readies herself to jump away from the syringe if needed.
"Grizzi you're so helpful, but I was talking to Dr Sani about a tetanus shot, not a shot with tetanus. You know what would be really helpful if you put that someplace no one can find it."
When meeting Joia
"Nice to meet you Joia, I'm Fengsai I'm fine but some of my friends could use some patching up."
Fengsai uses her comm unit to let everyone know she's found a healer at the community center.
"Joia, do you know anything about that tentacle monster people have been seeing, or the rumors of the Starstone doing strange things?"
Well, that's you cue, Grizzi! Sani says, then turn to Joia Dr. Sanity. I'm not injured, but you look dehydrated. Do you want an IV? No? Then let's see those patients in that tent you've set up. Can you give me a run-down of injuries... Let's just start with the ones that have lost two or more limbs. And remember, we're including prehensile tails here.
"Oh, I've heard plenty of theories, but I don't know that most of them even rise to the level of 'rumor.' I'm sure you can find plenty about it on the Infosphere, but I'm also sure much of that will be barely-supported theories presented as fact."
Joaia gives Sanity an appraising look. "We do have a doctor on duty, but she's busy with emergencies so nobody is tending minor injuries--we could really use your help there, instead."
"We could also use help with the gardening , the children , and community support for our older residents whose caretakers are busy or missing . If you have the time to help out!"
From a big family himself, and barely even not a “kid” anymore, Laurel hustles over to the mixed group, and takes charge.
”Find the Snek!” he declares by authoritative decree, reminding the youngest of the rules of the game ”If yer the Snek, you hide, gots 14 seconds to git a good spot an’ lay lo. If yer not the Snek, you go find the Snek. First ta find the Snek is the new Snek” easy enough, what could possibly go wrong?
Ok, let's see. Let's do some investigative surgery here, maybe we find some spare parts that are useful. Did you know Vesk have redundant livers? Two kidneys, two livers, two pancreases. Still only one spleen, though. Makes you wonder if they don't do anything that causes stress to the spleen, or if it's some kind to evolutionary thing? Then again, shirren don't have a spleen altogether, that's why they look so green. Hey Laurel! Sani says, stopping his lecture for a moment while holding up a large piece of large intestine I think I found your snek! I'm going to put it back, though, we all know this has to stay in the dark.