Not a llama mission
Stephano Falcone
Stephano stared at Mantis' body, a mixture of grief and guilt visible on his face.
...Sorry. Friend or foe, I wish things could have been different. Perhaps you would have survived if my instincts were less...savage.
Committing murder was always an unwelcome experience for Stephano, even when it was necessary. He briefly closed his eyes and took a deep breath before regaining his composure. Time was short and he needed to act quickly.
First, try to use the multitool to free myself. Afterward, take all of Mantis' belongings, except for his hat. Investigate his wallet and the electronic device he was carrying. Then speak into the radio:
"Bad news, Iris. After Mantis walked into the room, we had a bit of a scuffle and now he's out cold. If I try to carry him with me, it will only slow me down. So I've hidden him somewhere safe. Once he wakes up, he can get out on his own. For now, you'll need to provide me with directions."
If she is aware of my ability and asks why I didn't try using it to wake Mantis, then lie and say that I severely injured him when he walked into the room and that after I healed him with my eyes, he lost consciousness as a side effect.
While she responds, walk into the hallway and toward the door at the end of the hallway. Place my ear up against the door and check if I hear anything on the other side. Check if the door can be locked from my end. If so, lock it for now.
: What?! No! No, this can't be happening. This can't be real. This isn't- :
The transmission stops. You really don't think she's a professional. Or if she is, she's also a very good actor.
You open the multitool. It's large thick thing the size of an old cell phone that can expand to reveal every sort of tool you could want in it, its main body acting as a combination of wirecutters and pliers. You find a detachable hex key in it that's thin enough to fit into the handcuffs keyhole and easily unlock them (after you manage to actually get it in the hole without looking). That was easier than you expected.
A burst of corrupted digital audio escapes the radio's speaker. It is followed by Iris's voice.
: OK. O- :
Her voice cracks a little, but she continues.
: OK. We can still do this. We can still make this work. Just- Stay focused. :
You're not certain if she's telling this to you or to herself.
: On the other side of this door there's a hallway. There's a small security office watching the interrogation room entrance with a single guard stationed in it. Past that and straight ahead is an office with some cubicles. There should be signs leading to the stairwell. From there you can go down and make your way to me. :
You put your ear close to the door and listen for anything interesting. There's a faint buzz, a vibration carried through the door and into your ear, but it's too faint for you to tell what it is. It's probably something quiet or far away. Could just be the ventilation system. Other than that, everything is silent.
: Try to stay hidden when you're out there, you don't want the guards to notice you. We don't know if all of them have been informed of your presence, so it's best to assume they know. But also act casual, you don't want the civilians or the cameras to catch you acting weird. :
Stay hidden while also acting casual. Right. That's easy.[/sarcasm]
: I'll maintain radio silence from now on. Try to contact me with updates. Please. :
The door has one of those electronic lock things on it but it's yellow, so you guess that means it's unlocked. You have no idea how to lock it. Maybe you press the star or the pound key on the keypad?
(Ah, crud. Should have kept my eyes closed while strangling him. 
I'll think up an action in the next 12 hours)
((Eh, better that it happens now than on a mission with other players. Consider this a test drive, a way to figure out your character.))
You're about to go down the stairs when a pale humanoid blur jumps out of the shadows, grabs the old man and disappears back into the shadows. There is a scream but it is silenced before it can end.
Crap.
(Well, this sucks. Of course, most situations can be solved adequately if the right tactics are used. Also, Alan is nutzo crazy...)
"Putain de merde, all I took was a damn sword and now this happens?!' Napoleon's mind practically screamed as he quickly took the sword out of his clothes. Replacing it back at his side, Napoleon slowing and quietly unsheathed it as he readied the dolls to defend him in case the pale being try to attack him as well. Wiping away tears that have no doubt completed their job of clearing debris from his eyes to maintain their clarity and definitely have absolutely nothing to do with barely contained terror, Napoleon slowly backed away from the landing as slowly and safely as he could.
Like a tank keeping its thicker frontal armor pointing toward the enemy while moving in reverse, Napoleon is keeping the dolls in front of him as he makes it to the main floor and continue toward the dining room and its flight of stairs while making sure that he doesn't bump into anything. Of course, unlike a tank, he is much smaller and even more fragile. Nevertheless, he has a sword and can summon more dolls if needed. By God, he is the Doll Prince and it is not his destiny to die here! It is his destiny to outsmart, outmaneuver, and crush his enemies and then rule over them! This is merely a test of his... ah... erm... 'night time combat inside a largely unknown location' tactical prowess. Sure it may be a first for him but one has to start somewhere. Even Napoleon Bonaparte started as an artillery officer.
Reminding himself that he is actually superior to the pale entity, Napoleon felt better if only slightly. Nevertheless, even he knew that it was a bad idea to underestimate his possible foe so he:
Continue to carefully walk backward toward the stairway in the dining room before turning to descend it. Just in case the being somehow position itself behind him, Napoleon has summoned a third doll to guard his rear. In this way, Napoleon hoped to guard more effectively against the pale creature should it decide come out of the shadows and attack him.
Keep an ablative shield of dolls in front of you while you retreat. That will work, certainly. There's nothing wrong with that plan.
You slowly walk back, keeping your eyes to the top of the stairs until you reach the point where the stairs turn around. It's at that moment that the blurry white thing jumps into the light again. Its way of moving is disturbing, it doesn't move like a normal human, it alternates between pausing for a few seconds and then suddenly 'changing' into another stance. In this case into a white blur facing you and then jumping straight at you.
You order your dolls to get between you and it as quickly as they can while you retreat further down the stairs. It smashes into one, making the doll land on its back and then grabs the other by its neck and lifts it off the air.
It flickers like an image on an old TV, one moment facing the doll, the next facing you. It's hard to make out, but you somehow know that this is the doll you left in the room with the display cases. It's not unscathed from its attack on your doll, one of its arms having been broken and hanging limply on its side. For a moment you find it strange that you can't feel it. The next you immediately regret those thoughts, as you sense it reconnecting to your hive mind, but as something more than mere sights and sounds. It flickers and turns its attention back to the struggling doll in its grip. You feel its cold alien presence spreading through your network, reaching towards you like whispers in the back of your mind. The doll in its grip stops struggling, no longer responding to your commands. It serves a new master now.
Looks like this is one problem you can't beat merely by throwing dolls at it and hoping they eventually bury it.
It's at the middle of the stairs with your two dolls. You're at the bottom with your other doll. What do you do?
The Maximus
((Alan's freaking insane.))
Kosak Durar:
This was... very complicated. What could be done? The maintenance door, or whatever it was, would not open. While it would perhaps be possible to break the door down, that would involve damage to the suit Kosak wore, which seemed like a bad idea. Kosak was out of his element.
Observe the turret's movements. Does it have any other possible weak points?
Well, it has those things that allow it to move. You're certain that a few holes in them would greatly inconvenience it. You just have to approach the point where their claws wrap around their anchor points and break them while making sure to stay away from the parts that are moving too fast. You could also use the water currents to escape from under the turret while avoiding the moving bits and then try to somehow make your way to those sensors near its top, you bet smashing those would help. Or, if you're really confident in your abilities and/or feeling lucky, you could climb into the cannon and try to enter the turret through it. It takes several seconds for it to reload, so if you're quick enough or if one of your teammates helps you, you could make your way through it before it fires. Or you could just start punching it and hope for the best, but something tells you that's probably not going to work.
<Svajoklis, The Turret>
"Icarus, do you have anything in the cargo bay we could use to sabotage the turret? Something to cut into it or clog it to make it blow up next time it fires?"
Inspect the turret, see if there's anything important looking that could be damaged by a shotgun shot.
Well, there's those sensors near its top that look more fragile than the rest of it, but you'd have to get close to do it and you're not sure how safe that is. Hmmm... well, technically, only your shotgun would
have to get close, not you. You could just give it to someone more gullible and/or expendable and convince them to do it.
Brian Hoss, hull of the Maximus
Just keep all of my parts where they are and wait.
You try to keep your eyes over the thing's sensors. It's not easy, but you manage to do pretty well.
John, on the Maximus
"Whoever's making progress, good job. I'm going to try to get inside now, because I came up empty stopping it out here."
Okay, what about summoning a small magnetic light, just something to mark a path? And making a copy of it? Is that too painful? If it's not crippling, make a few copies and start leaving a trail behind myself. I need to find a way in.
It stings and makes your interface beep, but you can do it no problem.
You could walk around and use your remote senses to find a maintenance access port to make your way under the ship's armour and into some sort of maintenance area, sure, but I'm starting to feel bad because you never use the damn thing, so let me give you a quick and simple way to solve this situation: Use the spear. Make a hole. You have this thing that can stab through almost every armour and you've only used it once.
WMD, Space Mission
"You don't get it, do you? I would rather die than let you take over. You might have had other hosts with the same mentality, but did they have my willpower? I will fight you every step of the way, no matter the pain.
If you do ever get control, I'll make sure the only thing you have control over is a dead husk where you can rot for eternity. But you are a parasite. It's in your nature to fight for that control, to feed off of me until there is nothing left. I pity you, because you choose to remain blind to what we could accomplish if we worked together. And if I die here, well, that just means you'll be stuck out here in the boondocks where not even the entities can bring us back, and where you can't jump ship."
It is William's mind. He believes with all his Willpower that he is in control of his self, which means he is in control of the demon. And he will continue his attacks on the demon while it seems weakened, to try to make the relationship symbiotic. He'll pause in the hallway while doing so, unless some sort of serious danger presents itself. Also, use his Willpower to fight through the pain the demon sends him.
You keep pushing through the pain as the demon laughs, focusing all your willpower on your attack against it. The lights on your helmet begin going out, the world around you appearing as a blurry flickering red thing through your tear-filled, stinging eyes. The pain and pressure all around you becomes a hundred times stronger. You feel like your arms and legs are being crushed, like your head is about to explode. The lights on your helmet die off completely. A moment later you hear a creaking noise. The next moment your visor implodes, cutting your face and letting the pressurized liquid through, the wave hitting you like a punch, throwing you halfway into unconsciousness.
Chizra
Alan, Branded Goods Loremaster
"Hmmmmm. Well, the water of life is obviously Kool Aid, and the bit about the eyes clearly means that the eyes have to be sanctified with the water of life to open the door. Therefore, I have to inject Kool Aid into someone's eyes, and then have them look into this here pool of water. Only possible explanation."
Summon a very large mixing cup, an oversized spoon, and an exceptionally large quantity of Kool Aid powder. Mix it up and then think of what I could use to inject it into an eye. A turkey baster? Am I even capable of summoning needles?
Oh dear. Well, let's start with the simple things. I'll say you can indeed summon needles since a significant amount of people need them in their day to day lives for them to be relatively common in houses. Now let's see how you roll.
You summon enough needles to supply a hospital and a plastic thing with a bunch of Kool Aid in it. You mix it with water in the bowl, the whole mixture taking a purplish hue and giving off pink fumes. You fill a needle with the mixture and prepare to inject it into your eye. Brad turns around from his efforts to open the door, just in time to notice what you are trying to do.
"Alan, buddy? Are you sure this is a good- gah!"
But before he can do anything, you've already stuck the needle in your eye and emptied its contents in it.
"See? No reason to worry. Everything is perfectly-"That's as far as you get before you notice your hand is dripping. And then your arm. And then your everything, as you dissolve into a puddle of water, the only thing left in your place being two glowing eyes. Brad stares at them. They stare back with their lifeless gaze.
"... Shit."
Brad uses a piece of cloth to pick up the eyes and then looks towards the door.
"Well, there's no harm in trying."
Alan, meanwhile, is having a very trippy experience. He feels like he is becoming one with the world, like his presence is quickly diffusing, spreading through everything there is, leaving him less than he was but also more, as he loses himself but gains everything. Everything is in everything. One drop of water holds the image of the entire ocean. And the entire ocean is here, it is with him and simultaneously is him.
Let go the Ocean says.
His voice comes from everywhere around him but one point is closer than the rest, like an echo bouncing off a nearby wall.
Go with the flowNot that there are walls here. Like a sort of... maybe a liquid, flowing wall, revealing her instead of hiding her.
Be at peaceHer voice is deep and beautiful. It is your voice. Maybe you should hear it.
Cranequin is best crossbow reloading mechanism. Most beautiful. Little gear crank thing. Takes about 20-30 seconds to reload. Detatchable so you don't have to aim with the extra weight. Can be reloaded on the move or while prone. Allows for high draw weight.
Ammo:
-Quiver of generic pointy bolts.
-Bandolier with a few explosive bolts (with separete detonators) and ice bolts and sleeping gas bolts.
-Lesser war crime and greater war crime bolts in sealed protective case.
A couple other minor things I thought of:
-Magitowel. For drying off after using the water armour. Probably trivial for them to make.
-Gas mask. Filters air for safe breathing. Can't believe I didn't think of it earlier. The sleeping gas bolts reminded me.
-Duct tape
-Protective sheaths for the signallers.
-Protective case for Max's Mad Mirage. It looks fragile.
"I think I'm done."
Arrow of Greater War Crime sounds like a good name for a magical item. You only get 3 of those, better make them count.
You get your stuff, minus the duct tape and the gas mask. Instead you get some rope and a bandana to put around your mouth. It is not as protective but as a gas mask but should help, as long as you don't dive head-first into a thick cloud of bad stuff. He says he asked the alchemists for the better stuff but none were too eager to donate one to him, since those things are expensive and hard to get and they need them for when their experiments give off dangerous fumes.
With so many stuff on you, you're starting to look like some sort of medieval-fantasy Rambo knock-off, with your spear and sword and armour and magical armour and crossbow and bandolier and Maxine's Maniacal Mirage. But you probably lack the muscle power to pull off that look. You think that carrying so much stuff will tire you out quite quickly and would not help with the heat, so you might want to get a
slave squire or similar to hold some of it. Or maybe just leave some thing in the carts.
Campaign, Ike!
Boxes of foam for the Void Bomb and magical TNT (separate boxes) sound pretty okay.
Also, what was Nikolai's element again? If it doesn't interfere with Order (or enhances it, even), get the Order crossbow and some plain old bolts.
And finally, yeah. Stay up and bone up on what's what in this world. I'm damn well sick of not knowing what anything is and I aim to change that as thoroughly as one night can afford!
"Aw man, takes me back to my college days." Ike thinks for a moment. "There's just one thing missing."
Acquire coffee and/or amphetamines if they have any, or magic-branded equivalents anyhow. Test some out while studying for this great exam we call Life.
Also get a case of beer to celebrate with at a later date.
You get your boxes full of foam and death and put a "Fragile" and "This side up" sign on them. There. This definitely nagetes all the danger of carrying a somewhat unstable magical dirty bomb with you.
I don't think it was ever explicitly stated, but Nikolai's elements are Chaos and Space. So Order is actually opposed to him. But that wouldn't make an Order-enchanted item completely unusable by him. Though this entire conversation is moot since no such enchanted crossbow is currently available.
You ask the Headwater to get you something to keep you up and help you study while you make your way to the library and start picking out scrolls and books with interesting titles with the aid of a librarian. You've been trying to learn the letters of their alphabet but you still can't read them quickly enough to allow you to skim through them, so the librarian is of great help in giving you quick descriptions. A few minutes later an apprentice alchemist arrives, bearing a vial of white fluid.
"What's that?""Oh, just a little study aid." he says with a mischievous smile as he hands it to you.
"Our Master Alchemist, she hands this out to some of her students. It's really good stuff." he says, still smiling.
You're uncertain if you should trust him, he's smiling a bit too much. You pop the cap and smell the mixture. It has a sweet and stingy smell. You can make out some flowers in it and maybe a bit of alcohol. You take an experimental sip. It makes your tongue tingle, but you can't taste anything poisonous in it. You immediately feel invigorated.
"Be careful, these are sneakier than Shadow Ale."
"Shadow Ale?""Yeah, you don't notice they've hit you until it's too late. So pace yourself."
You wake up on a strange bed with a hangover and no recollection of how you got there. Or anything that happened last night beyond the conversation you had with the alchemy apprentice. You're certain you've learned at least some things. For one you can read their written language quite easily now, so you at least gained this. You learn that they found you in the morning, passed out on a table, drooling on a scroll (thankfully the anti-moisture enchantment protected it) and clutching an empty vial. They tried to wake you up but you weren't responding so they just carried you to bed while they dealt with the situation. You... might have missed some important stuff.
[...]
Depending on how things go you might get there next turn. Sorry for the delay, need Harry and NAV to finish what they're doing so I can fast forward time.
River appreciates you being there for him while he is grieving.
Me and Irine and the rest fortifies the area and ensures the trip back is ready, alongside brainstorming about the dangers to come!
And River gets puppy hugs and all.
You do that.
Everyone (except Alan)In the morning, while Ike was passed out after his night of drug-fueled studying and everyone else was sleeping, the guards on the walls of Chizra noticed something bad on the horizon, the same flock of monsterbirds that Irine and Theri had encountered the previous day. The events of that night (Alan's distractions were at least 50% to blame) had not given the guards a lot of sleep, so they weren't too quick to notice it or react. By the time they sounded the alarm, the danger was already upon them. Still, with the temple's magic unharmed (thanks to Ike's efforts to preven the Hex's detonation) allowed the temple's bubble shield to be deployed, preventing the bulk of the aggressors from entering Chizra. The few that did were dispatched by the guards and mages of Chizra, though not before they caused some damage. Luckily, those of Ike's group camping outside the main gates were able to get inside when the alarm sounded and suffered no casualties.
Accompanying the flock was a squad of Gliders flying high up in the sky. The Gliders stayed away from the fight, to the defenders they looked like nothing more than V-shaped shadows high up in the sky. The birds threw themselves against the bubble shield time after time, shrieking their terrible shrieks, but it was no use. Though it appeared to be made of water, the bubble shield was apparently strong enough to prevent the birds from making their way through it. Though the horrible creatures attacking Chizra terrified them, the people of the monastery were safe. The mages and guards threw their attacks through the shield, ice spikes forming on it and alchemical bolts exploding in the air. The number of monster-birds dwindled quickly, forcing the few that remained to retreat. The Headwater gave some speech about hope and protection and purpose when it was all over.
With the monastery safe, Ike and the rest focused on gathering their supplies, organizing their little army (which had grown substantially in numbers and power during their stay here) and getting ready to leave. There were now a lot more people accompanying them. Most were untrained or poorly trained peasents with nothing more than a desire to protect their homes. But there were also the mages supplied by Chizra, one of which was actually the master of Alchemy. Ike wasn't sure how to feel about that, since she was indirectly responsible for drugging him, is a bit too eager to experiment and is displaying an unhealthy interest in him, Nikolai and the rest. On the other hand, as she displayed during the fight in the temple, she actually carries all sorts of useful alchemical concoctions with her at all times (Ike can hear them clinking under her robes even now) and can produce more, so she's certainly useful to have around. Nikolai on the other hand seems happy to have her, since she's genuinely interested in his stories about the marvels of technology.
Late in the day the gatekeeper of Chizra was surprised to see a beastman running towards the gate of the monastery, carrying a child and a small dog. The guards were summoned but it turns out there was no need for them. Ike recognized the exhausted Theri, carrying River and San and ordered the guards to stand down and let her be. She could hardly stay upright, let alone explain who she was and what had happened after having run several kilometers non-stop in this unbearable heat (while covered in fur no less). She passed out soon after crossing the gate. San and River were able to explain why she was there though, about how Irine was waiting and guarding a group injured refugees.
During the time Irine spent watching over the injured, she didn't face any significant danger. A pack of cacolopes attempted to ambush her and feed on the injured and incapacitated, but she was easily able to scare them away with a display of her power. However, during that battle, she did notice there was something wrong, something messing with her abilities, like it was trying to weaken them. The Sword blamed Dark magic coming from some distant place, the same effect it has been feeling for the past days, something that is weakening all Fire magic around them and is strongest during the night, though it isn't strong enough to affect Irine or the Sword yet. In less alarming news, Irine also managed to find out that cacolopes aren't the best of meals, their meat (especially their muscles) is quite hard to chew and doesn't taste that good.
On her second day of waiting, a man on horseback arrives from the west. He is apparently some sort of merchant Ike recruited that has a very fast horse. He sent him ahead to bring her potions and news that they are coming. The potions help stabilize the injured. They also seem to counteract whatever poison the birds inflicted them with and soon those least injured amongst them begin to wake up. After a couple more days of waiting Ike's caravan arrives. The injured are loaded into carts and sent towards Chizra while the group prepares to move on, reunited and stronger then ever.
Except for Alan. Alan is nowhere to be found. Maybe the birds took him or maybe he just saw something shiny, wandered off and fell into a hole. Whatever the case may be, he's not responding to your commwires and you can't find his smell, so there's not much you can do about him beyond hope that if he's still alive, someone else finds him and points him your way or that his luck somehow helps him get back to you. Or maybe you're glad to be rid of him and his crazy antics (you monster). I don't know, I'm not in your head.
OOCThanks for the crossbow related info.
The theme of this turn could be "Poor life choices" or "Winners don't do drugs".
Poll
15 (42.9%)
Author
Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1144678 times)