It was good while it lasted, GM. Thanks for running it and giving us a glimpse into the story. It sounds like it would have been fun.
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Same as Artemios. Be back on Monday.
"I agree. I think we should find this reactor and safeguard it. What did she mean by 'not giving us more than we can handle'? It sounds like she's in control." Dryth is quite taken with the image of the woman. Her words spin inside his head over and over. He finds himself staring at the wall tapping his lips. "Ah, I suppose you're right. Let's continue on and hopefully we can stop Hellion and find out who this woman is."
Dryth shakes his head. "Nothing I know can cause that type of mental...intrusion. Whoever she was, she seems to be on our side though. I feel...I know...more things?" He shakes his head. "I can't explain it. But she seemed eager for us to continue." "Hopefully we can meet this woman and learn from her."
Level 2 Class: Sorcerer
Skills (8):
+1 0th level spell slot: Disrupt Undead
Dryth crumples down as he clutches his head from the pain. He moans as it feels like his brain is on fire, lights exploding in front of his eyes and the sound of his own breathing is deafening. Slowly things begin to recede, but the image of the woman is burned into his mind. "What in Unity was that? Who was that?" He tries to stand only to get dizzy and fall back to his knees. Whoever she was, she packed a hell of a punch. Pretty though. He chuckles out loud and instantly regrets making the sound. After several minutes, he able to look back up to squint at the team around him. The dim light were still too bright, but at least he could make out the others. "What just happened?"
Dryth tries to get closer for a clear shot, though Valarious still blocks his view. He fires another glob of acid at the undead.
Dryth moves away from the walking corpses to get a clean line of sight. He realizes that unlike the matons, these corpses truly have no working neural pathways. "I don't think I'll be of much use against these." He points a finger and fires a bit of acid at the one attacking Valarius.
I think Artemios is having RL busyness. Let's bot him and keep going.
"Restless? Oh." Dryth looks at the corpse to see if it's moving in any way. He had read some reports from outside Hermea of undead, but never gave it much thought. Until now. Dead that move on their own? That sounds horrifying.
Dryth examines the rooms the bodies are held in. He wrinkles his brow. "This is odd. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like this. Simeon?" He tries to make sense of any controls without accidentally opening the doors.
Dryth pipes up. "I'm not so good in hand-to-hand combat, so I'll leave that to you all. But if there are any more of these advanced matons, I can give us an edge there. I can put them into a sleep state or even just interrupt their power momentarily. Hopefully that's enough to give you the edge in a fight." The engineer taps his lips, then says, "So we seem to have two possible concerns here. One, the transmission source. We have to shut it down to free the farmstead and break this Hellion's control over people. Two, the systems indicate a reactor core problem. That seems to indicate a power source going into overload, which would be a very bad day for all of us, I think." "We know where the reactor core is. We do not know where the transmission control is. Perhaps we should investigate the reactor first? If we can gain control over the power, it's possible we could shut off power to the transmission."
Dryth turn back to the machine to ask one last question. "Display any information on Hellion or Meyanda." Afterwards he prepares to leave to continue exploring. -Posted with Wayfinder
I'm away for the weekend. Expect limited posting until Tuesday. -Posted with Wayfinder
Dryth shakes his head. "Scanning of lifeforms only seems to be limited to the habitat out there. Any other thoughts?" -Posted with Wayfinder
"Well, this is good map of the area. It looks like we're here. The reactor core is on the fourth level, but it says there's damage to the first and second levels." Dryth frowns. "Some of the systems are offline. I don't know how much more I can call up." He speaks to the system again, trying to speak in this strange language. it takes him several tries. "Display active lifesigns in the complex."
"Hey, it's that weird language again. I think--Yeah, this is easier to understand. Hang on...Ok, it rebooted. It's checking for life forms. Didn't find anything. Oh, it says, "No Kasatha life forms." Also, "significant damage". Wait, reactor core critical. Now it's asking for instructions." Dryth looks at the various screens and then the advanced hologram for a moment. He decides to give an instruction. "Show me internal schematics for the surrounding spaces. Also indicate any communications or transmissions centers in relationship to our current location."
Dryth watches the surgeon perform an inspired operation on the machines. He smiles. "Excellent work." He pauses to look at the cleansing machines. "These are here to clean anyone who was in the desert. While that could simply be an environmental precaution, what if it wasn't? Perhaps the creatures in the desert carried some disease or parasite. Maybe they were under study by their technological masters." he considers that last possibility for a moment. When the move into the next room, Dryth smiles at the multiple view screens. "Ah, perhaps we can pull up feeds from other rooms!" He quickly moves to a screen to try and activate it only to see the power is idle. He turns to see the golden panel and without thinking at all, he activates it to power up the entire room.
Dryth watches Simeon catch the light in his hand. The engineer smiles briefly and then his smile drops, something occurring to him suddenly. The man takes his own hand and presses it up to the wall and then tries pushing past it. "There's something...The light is coming from behind it." If he doesn't feel any resistance, the man tries to step completely into the wall.
Dryth's mind churns at the problem of the disparate technology level. "Is it possible these people lost their technology after eons? Reverted back to using primitive bows? Or Valarius could be right. Perhaps our initial assumptions were wrong. It's possible they are not the advanced race. Maybe they were slaves or merely inheritors of the technology." The engineer touches the alien ship design, tracing the outline of the ship. He tries to remember anything with a similar design structure. The way a culture designed things often was a unique fingerprint and pervaded their thinking in unforeseen ways. This design struck him as particularly predatory. Perhaps not a good omen. Dryth stops suddenly, looking at the picture of the four-armed creature. "I just had a thought. This image looks predatory. What if these weird creatures were a food supply brought from home. It explains the desert if that was their native environment. Like we raise sheep and cows in our farms, they could have been raising them to sustain themselves in whatever vessel this is."
I enjoyed the concept too, but we are really limping along. Part of Iron Gods is that we're really lost at what we're seeing. Even our technologically advanced characters are baffled by the weird skeleton, the even more advanced robots, etc. And we're also under a certain time-pressure because we don't know how long it will take the rebels to discover the research team. So there's a motivation to interact less, and push forward more. If the game ends, I'm happy to have tried it for the concept. Lots of games end on the boards and few are this interesting.
Dryth moves to follow the Lucarus. He doesn't stop talking however. "So what do you think? Something from another plane came to Golarion with advanced technology? And now they're taking control of people in Hermea to conquer it? It sounds like a story."
Dryth approaches the weird four-armed skeletons. He looks back to Simeon. "Have you ever seen a creature like this? Maybe they're the ones who created this advanced technology?" The engineer is careful not to touch the skeleton, afraid he will harm it in it's delicate state.
"Why would there be a desert inside here?" Dryth asks to no one in particular. He shakes his head and shrugs. "From beyond this world? With more advanced technology than even Promise has?"
Dryth examines the items they found. "Some grippers here. They don't look too much different than ones we have in Promise. I think they work the same way. But this...", he picks up the e-pick. "I think this is a device to open electronically locked doors without having the key. I suppose if there's a door in here that won't open, we can try this." He look up as Valarious walks in. "Hey, good to see you." Be nods as the man explains his presence. "Right, forward."
Dryth activates the door to the next room, but before he goes through he wanders back to look at the advanced maton. He notices the net the robot fired and picks it up, trying to see if it can be used again. Walking into the next room, he looks at the strange bones imbedded with the metal on the wall. "What in Unity would have made that?" He glances at Simeon for an answer.
Seeing the parts of the robot attempting to repair itself, Dryth's eyes go wide realizing how much damage the maton could do before they subdued it. He weaves a spell to shut the machine down.
Dryth feels his magic taking hold of the machine and suddenly it falls over, silent. "Quick, I just put it back to sleep. Rip out its parts so it can't repair itself."
Let's just forget that Dryth mentioned thename. Even if he had some mysterious understanding of the language, he probably shouldn't know the name.
Drat, I forgot about the combat header. As for Androffan, I suppose I should have asked before taking it as a language. Is that ok? Artemois gets it from his trait, but I just picked it up for Dryth as a normal language. I thought it might be suitable as a to know as a machine language.
Dryth steps back. "That's Androffan. It's a-- Nevermind. It's detected us as hostile and is preparing to defend the ship. I don't know what it means, but it sound like it's about to attack!" The engineer casts his spell to stun the robot.
Seeing the creature unfazed by his spell, Dryth tries to reason with it. Dryth speaks in a commanding tone to the mechanical creature. Androffan: "Stand down. We are not hostile. We are here to assist in the defense. Others have invaded a communications array. We require information about this place."
"It should be able to communicate. It will just be a matter of whether it will or not. Shall I wake it?"
"Hmm, good idea. Let's see if it's even capable of communication." Dryth leans in to examine the maton without touching it to see if it contains proper sensors and speech capability.
"Careful! It's some sort of repair maton, only much more advanced. And it appears to be in a sleep state. Touching it could wake it." Dryth carefully steps around the robot. -Posted with Wayfinder
I'm ready. Yeah, i can do 4 if you think it's viable. Should be faster, but also new blood could get more energy. And I would think new players would want their own new characters.
Dryth frowns as the tiny nanobugs fail to respond to his power. "Too many, perhaps. Or too simple. None of the circuitry which even begins respond to appropriate stimulus. Like trying to get ants to recognize music." He looks up to see Artemios speaking to the female researcher. Hmm, perhaps they know each other? He glances over to Simeon. "Well, if the research team is willing to wait it out here with enough confidence in their hiding spot, then I think we can take the hour. From what we saw, if the complex and the control room have people like Tannaris in there, then they will be willing to fight to the death. Can you manufacture portable units? We might need some later."
"How do they even move? I don't- Nanobugs, yes that's a good name for them. Who could have made these things? Wait, let me try..." Dryth waves his hand over the blood sample, casting a simple Daze spell to see if the nanobugs are affected.
Dryth looks at Khonnir. "You want us to go into the structure without you? Aren't you worried that eventually they'll find this entrance and pry it open?" Once Simeon finds the mechanical creatures in Tannaris' blood, he moves over to assist.
Dryth looks around the research station in awe. "I've never seen anything like this! Why did you need this sort of technology were you needing to examine the flames?" He looks back up at Khonnir, suddenly realizing they had more immediate concerns. "What do you know about the signal?" He points to the wounded farmer. "We were able to free him from the signal. We listened very briefly before shutting it off. What do you know of this Meyanda?" The engineer glances at Simeon. "Can you heal them here?"
Dryth holds up his empty hands. "What weapons?" He shrugs. As Khonnir and Artemois has out the command ranks, Dryth looks over his shoulder to watch for anyone approaching. He glances back when he hears his name and it takes a moment for the engineer to process the command. "Right! A decoy!" He rushes back to the autocarriage to program the guidance computers. He plots a course around the hill and then off into the forest on the far side. He sets a time delay of 30 seconds before the carriage's light cycle on, hoping the light will make it a hard target to miss. The engineer enables the program and quickly climbs back out. The autocarriage door closes smoothly and then begins rolling off on the pre-programmed instructions. Dryth quickly runs back over to the hatch. "Ok, ok! Let's get inside. We can question each other when we're not in immediate danger of being shot."
"Dolga sun-Origines sent us to come find out what happened to you. And if you let us die out here, then we'll both fail in our missions for Unity!" Dryth kicks the hatch.
Dryth pleads with those on the other side of the hatch. "Let us in! We were sent to help! We're from Promise and we know of the research mission." -Posted with Wayfinder
"Right, good call. Let's do it." Dryth keeps his eyes on the road ahead, but his allows his hands to drift down and opens up a circuitry compartment below the interface screen. He grabs a bundle of wires and, with only a glance down, singles out two wires. He cuts them with his knife and quickly splices them to each other. He slips his hand down into the compartment and pulls out four chips, swapping their order. Suddenly, the engines roar and the engineer smiles. He returns to the controls and makes some adjustments in power distribution from his control screen. "Ok, I'm tied into your whisperlines. Let's see if we can get some horrendous feedback!" He cringes as he taps the button. This was exactly the type of interference you built things not to do!
Again, the driver nods, pulling back on the throttle to slow the autocarriage. He sweeps his eyes from sides to side to take in the area around the road.
Dryth nods and quickly adjusts the route to follow Simeon's instructions.
Dryth motions the group away from the prisoner. "I think he's right. We try to find the entrance the team used. If we can get in that way, then we wan infiltrate our way into the hill, hopefully before they know what's happening."
Dryth taps his lips with his finger. "If we try for the transmission tower, we should expect someone there with firearms, maybe advanced weaponry. I can't believe they would leave it unguarded or with farmers with ancient weapons." He shrugs. "But I don't see a better option. We need to stop that signal to have any chance of freeing the people."
Dryth turns back to the man. "Tell us about other parts of the farmstead. You said there was resistance at the armory. Tell us about that. Are the 'awakened' armed like you were? Or do they have other technology? " -Posted with Wayfinder
Dryth uses the autocarriage's instruments to examine the signal again, this time without playing it. "If this was done by the signal, it should be reversible though it will depend on the time exposed. It might take just as much time to free you of it. We will have to stop the current transmission though."
Dryth bites his lip as Artemios agrees to kill the man rather than let him fall back under the mind-control. He waits until the Tannaris answered Artemios' questions, then poses his own. "The transmission tower? Maybe we could get up there and cut off the signal entirely. Any resistance would help us. Tannaris, do you know if they captured a research team who was studying the flames?"
"It's ok. Rest. You're free of its influence now. You said about three-fourths of the farmstead has been 'awakened'. What about those not influenced? Are they resisting or locked up? Did any escape?" "When you attacked us, you mentioned Hellion and the prophet Meyanda. Do you know who they are or what they wanted to do?"
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