"Guys i don't feel to good."
Check helmet i'm sure i have it on, if not put it on. Also get some rocks too.
You put your helmet back on. Ah, that's better.
Perform medical check on Mason.
Also, listen to the surroundings. Does anything sound out of place, such as noises of something big walking around coming from outside the light tunnel?
If something does, ask the guide: Is that one of those Stiltwalkers? Also, just how dangerous are those?
[med:4+1]
In your professional medical opinion, he was, until just recently, suffering from a lack of helmet.
You don't hear anything in particular, but then again everyone is talking and moving around so it's kinda hard to hear anything but them.
Charro coughed slightly, a bit embarassed. That... Hadn't come out quite the way he'd intended. He decided to leave the poor old man alone, instead moving along closer to the middle of the group. He blamed it on all the cranial trauma he'd received last mission! Yes sir, it was terrible what dying and being brought back to life once already slightly mushy could to do a person's speech abilities.
'Maybe I can make it up to him up by, uh...' Charro frowned thoughtfully, hands in pockets as he walked along. '...Removing Mason's arms? No, that wouldn't work. I should bake him a cake, maybe...'
Such deep thoughts tormented young Charro as he strolled along with the others.
>Follow the group.
You follow along behind Conard as the team moves into the forest.
((Pretty sure he's just not wearing his helmet, having taken it off to eat sand and all.
In related news, I probably should have just left the rock there, then had the whole group drag it in one lump out with us on the way back. On the other hand, we may be laden with different samples and comrade parts by then.))
"He's probably just having trouble breathing the thin atmosphere," Faith said to Thomas. "He'll be fine once he gets his helmet back on."
Faith then turned back to Conrad.
"What effects are those? Would it be alright if we started cutting off or digging out samples?"
Continue on to forest. Inspect forest, including ground.
"Distortion in sound for one." Conrad says, his voice suddenly much deeper inside the Forest, "Gravity fluctuates between .8 and 1.2 Gs, you may notice the light bubbles expand and contract slightly. It's all minor and not dangerous."
You run ahead of the group and take a quick look at the "trees" and the ground. The ground is pretty much exactly the same as before, white sand. The trees, if you can call them that, are something different all together. First, you have no idea what they're made of but it looks almost like graphite; a dull, blackish gray, and smooth substance. The "trunk" is a perfectly symmetrical octagonal rod which branches into 8 equally spaced, equally symmetrical branches. The branches are all made of up of an identical, insanely complex, fractal shape that stretches down till it disappears into imperceptibly tiny forms. The branches themselves are wafer thin, so thin in fact that they seem to vanish if viewed from the right angle. Each tree around you has a different pattern in the branches, but they all conform to the same basic structure.
Travis motions at Mason
"He's been acting weird since he went wandering out in the dark, while you were knocked out. Now he's feeling sick. I can't say he didn't contract something out there, whether alive or inanimate.
Of course, he could have always been weird. I just met him.
Anyway, you mentioned you shot the lighteater. Did it only anger it, or could you perceive that you caused damage to its form?"
After asking, Travis stops and looks into the darkness, staying in the light bubble. He does this so he doesn't accidentally blind someone. He starts going through his suit settings, to see if he can adjust the brightness of his lamps
"If I hurt it I couldn't tell. Hell, I'm not even sure I angered it. I shot it, it took my arm and left."
[aux:1]
You poke around in the settings till you find the brightness modifier. You set it to 300%. Your lights glow very bright for an instant before they short out. Oh.
While he waits for someone to check on Mason, Thomas turns to look at Conrad.
"What exactly are the effects? Most of us here are a little unpredictable, so the more info I can get, the better."
We'll assume you heard him when he told faith.
Psychllogically profile Conrad.
[Intuition:1]
Wait a minute...he has one arm...HE'S A SLOT MACHINE!
The group continues into the Dead Forest, staying close together save for Faith who runs ahead like an excited schoolgirl on a nature hike. The path opens up a great deal here; lanterns and rope light have been laid or wrapped around trees off to either side, expanding the path out to more then 30 meters across in some places. The strange black trees reach to no more then 3 meters tall and give the impression of walking amongst of forest of antennas.