"Well, this is certainly interesting." Doc stands outside the room, peering at the cryptic information floating through the air.
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"Well, that's good. If we ever find an arcane workbench, or a hybrid one I could get to work crafting some focusing crystals that could help people out. Or I suspect Yariel could make a new gun or two with a more conventional workbench." "Or, given some time, top-notch medical supplies. For now, however, we'd best divide these amongst the group for safekeeping." Doc doles out the UPBs to whomever wants to carry some. "Alright. Do we pick the left door, or the right?"
Drawing a scalpel and a screwdriver , Doc scans the hidden doors for hazards before carefully coaxing them open.
Doc pays little mind to the discussion around the food synthesizers, instead lightly tracing the red and blue mappings on the walls with a gloved finger.
"Hmph. That didn't last long." Doc takes a moment to poke at the remnants of the ferrofluid with an idle curiosity before she turns to inspect the vibrant red doors.
"Ferrofluid? Interesting. I prescribe a strong dose of intravenous dielectric solution; should clear that up. Focus fire on my lead!" Doc raises her caustolance as small tubing delivers fresh pharmaceuticals into the firing chamber moments before she beams them directly into the ooze.
John hurries around the control console. "Stand back, Doc. Let me through." Doc obliges, taking cover behind the center console. "Focus fire! Send that thing back where it came from before it can swing again!"
With the rapidity of the creature's strike, Doc only has time to bark orders. "Combat positions! Rar'gul, tighten up your six and give it hell!"
”What the hell? What is wrong with this place? Well, at least that’s consistent with how the pirates died back on the ship. Didn’t you say massive brain problem? Leaves us with two options. Either these Grays killed their own for whatever reason, or they aren’t the ones in charge.” "Yes, detective," Doc regains her composure quickly, "it does seem that whomever runs this place likes to plant kill switches in both their experiments and their employees. Whether the overlords are pulling the switches themselves or the system has been compromised by whomever is bombarding the place is anyone's guess." Doc poked her head in the room to the north, catching up with Beauregard's assessment.
Unless she or someone else notices a hazard within the room, she will step inside to study the odd rock. "Now, how did this get here? It seems to be larger than any of the doors."
She sits on the floor and pulls out a soldering kit and set of very tiny tools. Ears perking up while she works, "What won't we believe doc?" Doc jumps a little, not expecting someone to reply to what she thought was her internal monologue. Taking a deep breath, she regains her composure. "Yesterday. Back when the Chimera was still in one piece, we discovered a mismatched bulkhead - stamped with the moniker Stardream II, if you'll recall." She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "The Stardream II is somewhat of an infamous ship, having disappeared without a trace near some of the busiest space lanes in the Pact. Obviously, rumors and speculation abound. Of the least credible and least original theories is that the ship was absconded by... little gray humanoids. Grays. I know, patently ridiculous. So cliché as to be a joke. Unfortunately..." Doc thrusts a finger in the direction of the corpses. "Grays! Small in stature, heightened mental faculties, uniform and spongey flesh without any bones or organs to speak of! They shouldn't exist, and yet they are right here in front of us!" She throws her arms in the air, pacing again. "Abducted by grays! Even if we do get outta here, no one will ever believe us. All that work to get credible, right down the drain!" To the observant ear, Doc's posh affectation seems to be slipping.
"No." Doc frowns, repeating the scan. Unhappy with the results, she scans again. "No, no, nonononono..." She starts pacing, clearly agitated by the results, and muttering, "chan urrainn seo a bhith... cha chreid iad gu bràth mi..." For those that speak halfing: "This can't be... They'll never believe me..."
Doctor, these are not species that I am familiar with. But I am an archeologist, not a biologist. Perhaps, you can identify them? I certainly hope they are not children. "Perhaps I can." With a flick of her wrist, the halfling summons a holographic display that wraps around the back of her hand and climbs nearly to her elbow. With quick, even motions she waves her palm several inches above each corpse, collecting data.
Immediately aware of the danger, Doc stays in the room anyhow, determined to fix the problem at hand.
Doc scans the room, trying to ascertain anything about the room's intended occupants.
"I assumed that the final moments of the Chimera were staged as intended. This suggests that the destruction may have been... somewhat less theatrical. Whoever our captors may be, they quite possibly have bigger problems than us." Doc finds one of the least-damaged terminals and attempts to access the computer's most basic functions.
"Hmmm, Decon might not be a bad thing. But, if the system flags us as 'contaminates' they might just decide to get rid of us instead. Thoughts? I say we go in with our environmental seals on." "I would wager we're far more likely to be considered contaminants," Doc replies dryly, "and I wouldn't count on your environmental seals to protect you from 'cleansing'." She turns to Doc, ”Alright doc, can you give me a good scan? Make sure I’m clean as possible if I have to go in there to disable the decon crap?” Doc complies, performing a basic scan for infectious agents and chemical contaminants.
"Rar'gul will ensure this door stays open, which should prevent the system from activating, but best be safe than sorry."
Doc steps forward to get a better look, but she, too, refrains from setting foot within the octagonal room. "I'm not overly concerned with their ventilation procedures; it would odder to not find a room full of fans. What does concern me are those." She points to the collection of inverted pyramids set into the ceiling.
Unsure of what she's looking at, Doc will step back to make room for anyone else who wishes to take a look at the next room.
Hey hey, that's our first loot of book 2! I've put the 4 stickybombs on the loot tracker table in the slides and tentatively claimed one of them. If you want any of the others, go ahead and claim them on the table; otherwise I'll hoover up any unwanted grenades in a week's time or so.
"Yes, I'm quite certain those were real people. This is speculation, but I believe that this wasn't the first simulated voyage of the Chimera. The crew and passengers, little more than pawns, lived out the same few days over and over as different subjects were run through the "test". I don't know how they reset their minds, but the sudden terminations of the pawns leads me to the assumption that they all underwent invasive procedures of some sort." Doc sighs as she squints at the strange symbols. "I'm assuming the escape pods and other such things worked to make the simulation appear as real as possible. After all, we haven't escaped - we've only moved from one cage to another. Now, Detective, I believe you are correct about the professor's absent relic. That was a mistake. Whether realization of that mistake caused our hurried escape or some other event is, I suppose, yet to be determined." "T'sorkel," Doc continues, "That note - it was in Aklo, correct? Not a very common tongue, nor one with comfortable connotations. What of these symbols?"
Rar'gul thanks Doc for her efforts, saying he feels much better. "What do you know about latent memorries, Doc?" he asks as she finishes tending to his injuries. Doc gives the trox an inquisitive look as she mulls his question, but the room erupts into chaos before she can respond.
*** As the two bots fall in quick succession, Doc eyes them warily. "That was... perhaps too easy. I daresay we'll face more harrowing challenges before we're free." While some of the others work to free themselves from the ensnaring goop, the halfling turns her attention to the symbology on the door, taking pains to not touch anything yet.
Although she just told Beau that she suspects the bots are here to nonlethally incapacitate the party, Doc has a sneaking suspicion that this could all be an extension of the "test" on the Chimera. This is shifting her whole perspective - the bots are only meant to appear to be a threat, but they're either a test in themselves or something to soften the party up before a "real" test down the road. This is uncannily like the mindset of playing a tabletop game, yeah? As a player, you know that the GM's goal isn't to roll as many TPKs as possible (hopefully). You know that, generally, the challenges are not random events pitting you against the will of others but structured events with a carefully tailored difficulty level. It's not fourth-wall breaking, but it is mirroring over the fourth wall, which is all sorts of weird and interesting.
Doc sighs as the bots descend from the ceiling. "At least they had the good graces to let me finish."
As the grenade goes off, Doc ducks behind Rar'gul's shin, avoiding a critical mass of the offensive adhesive. "Why is it firing sticky foam at us?" "The rats are out of the maze, Detective! It would seem that we are not where our hosts wish us to be." Drawing her rifle, Doc points to the robot in the north corner. "Focus fire on the damaged target - your bodily autonomy hangs in the balance!"
Half the size of T'sorkel or John, Doc steps out of her pod without difficulty, checking her hair with a small hand mirror. Aside from some superficial fire damage to her knee-length white coat, the doctor is as sharp as she was when she first stepped onto the Chimera. Snapping the mirror shut and vanishing it away inside her coat, she eyes the room distastefully, bathed in the strobing purple light.
"One thing is certain - our captors have an atrocious sense of aesthetic. Right!" She snaps her fingers, activating the bioscanner implanted in her left arm and hand. "Medical evaluations. Line up, everyone, and no flinching!"
Doc sighs as she patches up her allies, clearly frustrated with the tools at hand. "If we're lucky, this place has some sort of macabre medical center or a ghoulish surgical suite. I wouldn't mind 'borrowing' some new equipment."
Would it be worthwhile putting together a loot tracker sheet or some such? It wasn't an issue for most of Book 1 as there was little loot to speak of, but it might be worth organising ourselves to catch up on Book 1 and prepare for Book 2. I stole a slide from GM's new slide deck to put together a simple loot tracker. It ain't fancy, but I don't think that we need fancy.
How would you all feel about a short session on Discord sometime in the next 90 days or so? Although I think most of us are in the eastern U.S., I know there are a couple of outliers (including one on the other side of the world). Still, it's a worthy goal. As much fun as that would be, I highly doubt I could make it. My schedule is really irregular (part of the reason I play almost exclusively PbP) so it would be hard for me to hold open a timeslot for something like this. I also noticed we have several items no one claimed from the pirate fight and the trip to the escape pods Doc will take the survival knife. She'll also pick up the backpack and the other frag grenade, but only if no one else wishes to claim 'em.
"I would say, 'I told you so', but it would bring me no pleasure," Doc's voice seems shaky over the comms, and her refined affectation slips ever so slightly. "Going forward, our first priority must be to stick together. There is strength in numbers." "We may have escaped the Chimera, but we are undoubtedly still in the laboratory. I don't believe that our little escape was planned, however, so we may not be the only ones improvising from this point out."
Okay, Doc's all rested and up to 3rd Level (it's like I was prepared for this or something). She'll be picking up her 2nd level of envoy, which comes with a bucket of skill ranks and the get 'em improvisation (finally, a use for my move actions). As I previously mentioned, she'll also be grabbing Weapon Focus (injection weapons) as her 3rd level feat.
Okay, I did not see this coming. When Doc made the leap and called the whole thing a simulation, she still expected that the Chimera was still actually stranded in the Drift. Man, I can't wait to kick off the next book!
The Stamina/HP split is... interesting, but also makes it hard to build a traditional group with a 'tank, dps and healer' as the healer can either help with HP OR SP, but very rarely both. I think that this is a very intentional piece of design, a well-meaning attempt to prevent any one class (or a new player who picked a class because it sounded neat) from being pigeon-holed as the healer, which is a classic DnD problem. The whole idea of Stamina de-emphasizes the need for a healer, since every character now has a way to erase mild-to-moderate injuries, and encourages players to take risks. On the flip side, there's more of an emphasis on using skills and items to heal instead of class abilities, which means survival in tough situations relies more the player's knowledge of the game than the character's innate abilities.
Just want to make sure the book is really taxing our resources this much because if I fail this reflex save, that's it, I'm DONE. D-E-D Dead. Detective! Have you forgotten that you have a literal combat medic right behind you? You ain't gonna die here, not on my watch! I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. As for the stack of encounters, yes - it does seem quite aggressive. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that GM Q scaled a few things up to account for the larger party size and then we made one or more decisions that, unbeknownst to us, cranked the difficulty up even further (if we had waited to open the McGuffin, for example, I don't think the ship would have started exploding until after we finished resting). Personally, I am a big fan of this series of events. I don't usually run up against situations this tough, so it's an exciting and sweaty challenge.
Near the rear of the pile, Doc doesn't reach the flames until T'sorkel's unleased his foaming fury. Keeping the caustolance stowed on her back, the halfling holds her needler in one hand, ready to deliver life-saving meds the moment they're needed.
Doc sighs as the corridor buckles beneath her feet. "Why do I always find myself in these situations?"
It takes a few attempts for the halfling to hoist herself over the largest of the debris, causing her to fall behind the rest of the group.
Doc steps smartly to avoid the worst of the caustic spray. Being closest to Yariel, she grabs the ysoki by the arm and shakes her vigorously to dislodge some of the hazardous coolant before it wicks down the fur to the skin. It's not very effective, but it looks like Doc knows what she's doing. "Step smartly! We're not expected to make it out of here alive, I don't think. Stick together!"
Good first book, thank you everyone. Don't say that too soon! It seems that we're not quite out of danger yet - GM Q still has an opportunity to TPK us with an exploding ship.
Oh, before I forget... Player name: Jimbles the Mediocre
T'sorkel hurries after the Doctor. "The Professor's dead? Like the pirate? What happened, Doctor?" He secures the twins to his suit as they make their way to the escape pods. "The Chimera is a laboratory, T'sorkel," Doc replies in a too-calm voice, "and we are the test subjects. Every person, item, and event aboard this ship is part of an experimental apparatus." As the klaxons continue to blare, Doc's face tightens. "It appears this simulation is being actively terminated."
Doc stands still among the chaos, slightly stunned as she starts putting the pieces together. Rats. Rats inna maze. "The pirate ship isn't an option. Too open-ended. It's just not in the script." Doc calmly smooths her jacket, walking unhurriedly towards the aft of the vessel. "This is the part of the story where we use the escape pods. If they work. Don't bother with the professor or the crew. They're dead already."
Doc frowns. "I don't believe this is what our piratical visitors were after. It seems that someone was one step ahead of them." She peers at the thin sheet of metal, trying to recognize the script, if not the contents.
...all hell breaks loose. "Seachd ifrinn!" Doc's icy composure breaks for a moment as the ship rolls under their feet. She runs over to the most recently-living pirate, brusquely thumbing open her eyelid and running a hurried scan.
John grins. "I be not suggesting that we do it now, Doctor. Abadar's faith be nothing, if not practical. By all means, let us use what be at our disposal to survive." "Well." Doc makes the grenade disappear in her jacket, giving the human an appraising look. "Let us explore the bounds of your practicality, then."
"For myself, you may have it, but it now occurs to me that we've been cavalier in our distribution of captured goods. Perhaps we should pool said goods once again and auction them so that we'd have a more equitable distribution, after we turn over any necessary evidence to the authorities and return the personal effects of those victimized by the pirates to their next of kin." Doc steps smartly towards the Abadaran. "I am hardly in the mood for your fetishization of corporate altruism, Rawlins." She waggles a newly-acquired grenade in his face admonishingly. "You want to render relief to the orphans and the widows? Fine. I advise you to take what you need in order to survive long enough to make it back to civilization and pay your precious taxes."
T'sorkel goes to examine the silver box. He looks for any markings or controls to open it. "T'sorkel, do take care. I only just stitched you up yesterday. I loathe repeating myself."
With the "final confrontation" over, would now a good time to level up? 'Cause I would love to offer some medical aid to my pals, but the treatment will be more effective if both doctor and patient are 3rd level.
With the final pirate's surrender, Doc neatly slips the syringe and its contents back into the hidden compartment within her arm. Taking a moment to straighten her hair, the halfling assesses the state of the cargo hold.
Anyway, it's a "rule of cool" philosophy that I think you should be able to apply to your injection weapons. Thanks, GM, I really appriciate that. Doc's not exactly a crack shot, so this should help her utilize more of her limited supply of biohacks. Here's a question for the group: I get to choose a +1 to any one skill. I can change it every time I level up. Any skill I should apply it to? Do we have a pilot? Anything else? Otherwise I'm just going to go with Diplomacy and be the Ship's captain (if we ever get a ship.) Hmm. Well, as a party, we're fairly stacked when it comes to skills, I believe. It does look like Yariel would be the pilot of our hypothetical starship, which would make Doc the go-to for engineer and thus Beau the natural captain. Honestly, though, I think you should stick it on the skill you like the most. I don't see any glaring needs.
Sensing the battle shift in their favor, Doc runs to cover the door to the forward airlocks. Holding her caustolance in just one hand, she uses the other to pop a wicked-looking syringe out of a hidden compartment in her arm, deftly thumbing a small vial into the medical implement with a sharp click.
...You'll also need to advance your characters to third level. Speaking of that, I have a question that I've been meaning to ask you, GM - how does the Weapon Focus feat interact with the Injection Expert class ability?
You are proficient with weapons with the injection weapon special property, as long as the weapon has not gained that weapon special property through a weapon fusion, spell, class feature, or similar ability or effect. At 2nd level, you gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls with these weapons. At 9th level, that bonus increases to +2, and at 18th level it increases to +3. So, a bit of a gray area, since "weapons with the injection weapon special property" isn't a weapon type as defined by Weapon Focus. I've seen people interpret this three different ways: [1] Biohackers can only select Weapon Focus (small arms) or Weapon Focus (basic melee weapons).[2] Biohackers can select Weapon Focus (longarms), but the bonus only applies to longarms with the injection special property. [3] Biohackers can select Weapon Focus (injection weapons). If I were to (hypothetically) be interested in trying to apply Weapon Focus to my caustolance, which situation would you be most comfortable with?
Whew! That is the third ally I've boosted inspiringly in as many rounds. Thank you all for being courteous enough to get shot sequentially and not all at once. I can only boost a single person once in a given encounter, however, so if you continue to get hurt you'll have to settle for being shot with healing serums or having your unconscious body pumped full of questionable stimulants.
Watching John stagger slightly out of the corner of her eye, Doc moves closer to get a better look at his injuries. "Rawlins! Put some pressure on that shoulder; you'll be fine!"
Doc throws up her arm at the past moment, hissing in pain as a few fragments of hot metal tear through the sleeve of her jacket. Undeterred, she moves across the room, trying to track the flow of combat. Seeing Rar'gul under assault, she shouts out encouragement to the trox. "Ignore the mosquitoes, Rar'gul. End this!"
Doc steps lightly as she enters the cargo hold, picking a protected position behind a large crate next to the nuar. "Detective, you will be pleased to know that your injuries are entirely superficial. Do be a dear and take care of these bloody pirates so I can go find someone to pour me a drink."
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