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It takes all three shots, but Rimmer manages to delete the serpent from existence.
A small booth with a large open window stands against the western wall. A doorway to the north is blocked by a thick, translucent shutter made from some kind of synthetic crystal. The walls are adorned with paint-and charcoal murals depicting humanoid figures looming over the buildings of a city; these titans seem to be looking benevolently down at the city’s inhabitants.
A large sign under the window of the ticket booth features the words “Istamak Historical Museum” in Kishaleen and lists the prices of admission, hours of operation, and similar details that no longer matter.
Examining the mural, Rimmer deduces that the towering figures are meant to represent the kish’s ancestors as they watch over the city and its current inhabitants. Additionally, he also notices a number of nearly hidden indicators in the drawings that point toward a disguised panel in the wall near the ticket booth.
The panel swings open easily, revealing a large breaker switch. Flipping the switch powers up the building, opening the door to area B3 and activating the holographic displays. In addition, a welcome hologram that used to play on repeat here in the lobby activates, showing a sweeping panoramic of the city (the image is of how the city looked in its prime, but is now full of glitches). A voiceover (in Kishaleen) accompanying the image is audible, though only a few fragments are understandable between crackling bursts of static. The message repeats a few times before the projector overheats and automatic safety protocols shut it down.
“Welcome to...” (The audio becomes garbled.) “...Istamak, shining city of progress! Come...” (Static obscures several patches of the next few sentences.) “...to witness... living history...” (The music playing under the words increases in volume for a few moments, drowning out some of the voice.) “Don’t hesitate to ask questions… and come again soon!”
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The murals continue in this room, this time showing smaller figures in the streets of a stylized city looking in reverence toward a large archway to the west leading into a wide, dark hallway. There is a small counter in the northwestern corner, and a number of dusty shelves and empty hooks occupy the eastern side of the room.
Rimmer rummages around, discovering a holoskin that is currently programmed with the likeness of an important-looking kish.
"Hey Boss! Look!"
Behind the counter, Konkrud presses a panel, and the wall slides open, revealing a secret passage.
"Helping!"
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Animated holographic displays along the walls of this section of the twisting hallway depict the planning and construction of a huge city among the clouds: Alien architects manipulating three-dimensional electronic blueprints, an important-looking figure standing on an open-air cloud barge and pulling a lever that starts large construction machinery in the background, and a handful of industrial painters putting the finishing touches on a building. The animations loop every few minutes. A large touch screen is mounted in front of each display.
When they are pressed, they cause the displays to freeze up and emit a string of garbled speech that is beyond translation. The images often blur and jump without warning.
This portion of the hallway features animated holographic displays of manufacturing and other industrial work: a miniature version of a gas-mining vessel scoops up clouds, an alien in a jumpsuit stands at the console of an automated production line, and another sits at a large workbench performing delicate repairs on a small technological item, his face comically distorted by a large magnifying mirror. Like those before, these displays loop every few minutes, and each display features a large touch screen.
When they are pressed, each touch screen to activate the same speech in Kishaleen. This Foundry-sponsored bit of propaganda is a jingoist screed that touts the strength of the kishalee people, especially when they work together to overcome certain obstacles.
The holographic displays in this section of the hallway depict performers and creators of various forms of art. A trio of aliens in formal costumes leap and spin gracefully on a stage, another alien sits in front of some kind of instrument and tinkers away at the keys as if trying to perfect a melody, and a group of patrons stand in an art gallery admiring a sculpture of metal and glass. The displays repeat their animations every few minutes, and a large touch screen stands in front of each display.
The touch screen in front of each display activates the holograms’ artificial personalities, but after centuries, they are all surly and offer only scathing criticism of Rimmer and Konkrud's hair and wardrobe choices.
The display at the end of this hallway features an official-looking room with a podium in the center. A handful of aliens in crisp suits can be seen in the background; some appear to be discussing the contents of a document, while others are examining charts and figures. A couple of banners embossed with stylized symbols flutter in a nonexistent breeze above it all.
As Rimmer and Konkrud enter the room, one of the figures looks up, and intones:
"You are not of the Kishalee! You are not welcome here!"
Furious, it takes a swing at Rimmer...
...but misses.
Rimmer (-)
Konkrud (-)
LH (-)
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Rimmer tags the construct twice, but it continues to ignore what he has to say.
...and this time, Konkrud misses.
The construct floats forward, and slams at Rimmer again...
...delivering another bone-crunching hit.
"I will defeat you! Our shared heritage is not to be plundered by skum like you!"
Rimmer (-46)
Konkrud (-)
LH (-95)
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It takes all three shots, but Rimmer eventually shatters the creature's form, which disintegrates into chaotic pixels, before winking out.
"I will... return... nothing can... stop... my... vigil..."
The holographic displays at the end of this hallway are dark but have been replaced with murals depicting aliens in solemn poses, their heads looking up toward the sky and their bodies lit from within. A small shrine in the center of the murals is covered with tiny effigies crafted from wire and metal.
In addition, Rimmer finds another data storage crystal.
Most of the information contained within is quite badly corrupted, but he does manage to recover another partial message:
The message begins with a loud burst of static, followed by a feminine voice. “...chief technology officer here at SecuriTech. Our customer service representatives received your message regarding your...” (Another burst of static ensues.) “...and I want to assure you that we take your security issues with the utmost seriousness. After all, you are our biggest client.” (An awkward chuckle is distorted by audio artifacts.) “A copy of the admin keycode for your lock — for all the locks we install — resides on a server within the Foundry. This server cannot be accessed except from its physical terminal, and only SecuriTech’s chief executive officer, a few key members of our team, and I have access to that terminal. In addition, I checked the logs this morning, and no one has accessed your file in almost a year. And that was for normal...” The message ends with a final burst of static.
In addition, the metadata of the message contains a partial router address, identifying the server from which the message was sent.
Rimmer is easily able to piece together the two partial router addresses and pinpoint the physical location of the ancient server that originally processed the messages. This computer is located in the SecuriTech building found in the northwest part of Istamak...
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Moving to the north-west of the city, Rimmer gets a close look at a scene of utter devastation - evidence of an almighty explosion, which shattered the sub-structure of the city, fragmenting the north-western area into numerous small islands, which float independent of the city.
Whilst he is processing this, however, there are two howls, and a pair of creatures that look like crosses between dogs and baboons race around a pile of rubble, a feral gleam in their eyes...
Rimmer (-46)
Konkrud (-)
RE (-, -)
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Konkrud is delighted by the experience, proving to be utterly fearless.
"Boss! I wonder how far it goes down...?"
Eventually, however, you come to the broken 'island' where the SecuriTech office is.
A smooth path runs past an overgrown lawn to the entrance of this drab building. The knee-high blue-and-green grass smells sweet, like honey warming in the sun. The structure’s walls are shot through with barely perceptible white filaments webbing across the entire surface...
Rimmer identifies the filaments as a kind of mold; while breathing air near the mold might have negative long-term health consequences for anyone unprotected, the environmental protections of your armor should filter out any of its spores.
Before you can head inside, however, two vaguely jellyfish-like creatures float towards you, writhing their tendrils angrily...
Konkrud reacts first, and takes a pot-shot at one...
...scoring a solid hit.
Konkrud (-)
Rimmer (-54)
D (-14, -)
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The doors are sealed by the fungal filaments, but with a bit of effort (DC 20 Strength), Rimmer is able to force them open.
Except for the carpet of pale white mold covering everything, this room appears to have been untouched for millennia. Five heavily padded chairs sit against the western and southern walls. A bed of mushrooms grows on a large, four-foot-high, L-shaped desk across from the main entrance, next to a small cabinet. Double doors lead outside to the south, and another door leads north.
This spacious room is a wide swath of small, gray hillocks covering what might have once been a collection of desks and chairs. Two doors exit the room to the south. There is a doorway to a smaller room to the northwest, and a short hallway leads east past two other doors.
Though this room is as covered in mold as the rest of the building, the smell here is somehow even worse. A foul, rotting odor wafts from what appears to be an open unpowered refrigeration unit. Rotting cabinets, some whose doors have long ago fallen off, hang on the walls, and parts of a small, round table peek out from under a mound of mold.
"Hey Boss! Look!"
Rummaging through the fungus, Konkrud finds a discarded serum of enhancement (scientist).
Most of this room is occupied by an oval table surrounded by six chairs. The dilapidated remains of audiovisual equipment lie on the table, coated in a thin film of mildew. Light filters in through a large, south-facing window covered in fibrous white tendrils.
While one of the rooms marked C6 is larger than the other, they are both furnished similarly, each with a desk and some chairs. Both the offices and their furnishings are covered with mold.
Rimmer finds a Glove of Storing, sized for Kishalee hands, in the Southern room.
This room contains three tables, and while mold has crept up onto most of the them, one of the tables has a large untouched patch about two feet in diameter. A roughly square hunk of metal, plastic, and crystal sits in the center of the open space, its sides covered with alien symbols and bits of circuitry. The filaments of mold covering the walls seem to be moving ever so slightly, as if a faint draft were blowing, though the air is still. A door leads out to the west, and another leads to the south.
Whilst poking around in this room, Rimmer is zapped by a malfunctioning piece of equipment that somehow still retained a charge after all this time...
...but he also recovers a piece of security equipment that, with a bit of work, could be turned into a Motion Sensor.
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The walls, ceiling, and floor of this room are coated with a thick layer of mold, with thousands of pale white filaments poking out like tiny fingers. However, the two rectangular objects in the center of the room are free of mold. The crystalline devices are marked with sharp-edged designs, and each has a dark computer console built into one side. A
doorway leads north.
Rimmer easily recognises these as (un-powered) server banks... but he thinks that he could jury-rig a high-capacity battery to act as a a temporary power source (draining 1 charge per minute).
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Rimmer easily hacks into the system.
He readily discovers the admin keycode to the Foundry’s security entrance: Basically, a certain combination of keys pressed simultaneously puts the digital lock into a maintenance mode, making it possible to disable the lock without knowing the current keycode, which for security reasons would be automatically changed every month.
The mold along the walls starts to writhe, coalescing into a large swarm.
Rimmer (-118)
WS (-)
Konkrud (-)
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In the morning, Tazyl offers a prayer for your safe return.
"I truly hope that you are able to achieve an amicable solution with the Huntmaster, but in my heart, I know that this will only end with death - either his, or yours..."
The main entrance to the Temple Found is located in the center of the building’s northern facing. The front plaza features an elaborate fountain with a hammer-and-anvil motif.
The large front door is also emblazoned with blacksmith imagery and is free of kish graffiti. It is quite thick, sturdy, and bolted and heavily barred from the inside. It would take days of work with industrial tools to cut through the doors...
...but luckily, you know of another entrance.
The side entrance to the Foundry is down an unassuming side street that ends in a 20-foot-tall metal fence.
Weeds poke through cracks in the ground in this long, narrow courtyard shadowed by a large, blocky building. A broken bench sits next to a simple but imposing metal door with no visible handle or hinges. A sign is affixed to the door above a digital keypad.
The sign reads “Security Only” in Kishaleen, and the keypad features other Kishaleen symbols that roughly correspond to numbers. It is but the work of a moment to open the door by inputting the admin keycode you discovered in the SecuriTech server, granting access to the darkened building...
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A faint layer of slime covers every surface of these connected chambers. The largest open area contains a set of empty lockers, one of which seems likely to have held a collection of guns and ammunition. Bits of metal and plastic are scattered everywhere. One side room contains a small, round table, another a metal desk, and a third, a few rows of chairs and a podium. A door leads east.
Of more immediate concern, however, is the armor-plated, ochre-coloured car-sized ball of slime, that occupies the center of the room. When it spots 'intruders', it quivers, extruding several heavy weapons, which crackle with power...
Rimmer readily identifies this as a Scavenger Slime...
Rimmer (-)
Konkrud (-)
Scavenger Slime (-)
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Rimmer hits twice, although his bullet is partially deflected by the slime's armor-plating.
Konkrud takes a shot...
...and is distressed to discover that this one is highly resistant to fire.
"No fair! Not another one!"
The ooze power up its lascannon, and opens fire...
...but misses.
Rimmer (-)
Konkrud (-)
Scavenger Slime (-40)