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[Xantalos]

Xan is a character.  The Xan is a drink you can order if I remember correctly

Yes indeed. And if Xan ever permadies it will be from drinking so much Xan that he ODs, because only Xan can kill Xan.

[Nikitian]

Xan is a character.  The Xan is a drink you can order if I remember correctly

Correct. Although personally, I have occasionally used 'the Xan' as the proper title of Xan from the time he had his transformative powers (i.e., Xan the Xan for the full title). But yeah, here it was a drink - of the whole list, I figured you guys would like nothing else, judging by names. (Okay, there were also 'Stacy Stew' and 'Overload', but those were distant second and third most likely drinks.)

[Comrade P.]

I imagine something like a comic with three panels.
The first panel shows a man falling down a shaft and breaking his arm.
The second panel shows a the same man screaming as he loses his hand due to a man with a red cross on his shoulder trying to "help".
The third panel shows both men screaming as the severed hand is turning into some kind of flesh-horror. There's a third man looking at the arm with his index finger on his temple.

Spoiler: Like this? (click to show/hide)

[Twinwolf]

*Slow Clap*

[Empiricist]

I imagine something like a comic with three panels.
The first panel shows a man falling down a shaft and breaking his arm.
The second panel shows a the same man screaming as he loses his hand due to a man with a red cross on his shoulder trying to "help".
The third panel shows both men screaming as the severed hand is turning into some kind of flesh-horror. There's a third man looking at the arm with his index finger on his temple.

Spoiler: Like this? (click to show/hide)

*applauds* You forgot to use the new uniform regulations though, the medic should have been dressed up as the grim reaper

[Ozarck]

Honestly, for mission 22, I think the team should get off planet, or out of range of the goo 913 miles I think) and leave the sod there. First, though, ask the sods i they experienced anything when people started dying. Then once out of range, wait, and order the sods to report on the headache / bleeding / sods dying / weird noise, and determine if there is a regular time cycle to the event. If the sods go more than a day or two without experiencing it, wait until the first repeat of the event, then go back in with the hope (though by no means the certainty) that they have several days in which to act.

That said, I doubt there are numerous hostiles - I think it is environmental / singular in nature. Of course, it could be spawning ...

[Parisbre56]

I imagine something like a comic with three panels.
The first panel shows a man falling down a shaft and breaking his arm.
The second panel shows a the same man screaming as he loses his hand due to a man with a red cross on his shoulder trying to "help".
The third panel shows both men screaming as the severed hand is turning into some kind of flesh-horror. There's a third man looking at the arm with his index finger on his temple.

Spoiler: Like this? (click to show/hide)

Very good, nailed it. Although I guess I should had added some sort of clearer indication that the third's soldiers attempt of using space magic to heal the first is what is causing the flesh-horror, since it's hard to depict eyes when everyone is wearing suits...

Honestly, for mission 22, I think the team should get off planet, or out of range of the goo ~13 miles I think) and leave the sod there. First, though, ask the sods i they experienced anything when people started dying. Then once out of range, wait, and order the sods to report on the headache / bleeding / sods dying / weird noise, and determine if there is a regular time cycle to the event. If the sods go more than a day or two without experiencing it, wait until the first repeat of the event, then go back in with the hope (though by no means the certainty) that they have several days in which to act.

That said, I doubt there are numerous hostiles - I think it is environmental / singular in nature. Of course, it could be spawning ...

I'm pretty sure the moment the sods landed some sort of countdown was triggered, if it wasn't already running the moment we arrived to the system. So leaving is probably not an option, at least not without failing the mission. Because piecewise mentioned something about how long until we try to run away like it was something he wanted us to try to do. Emphasis on try. Which means that either the effect won't stop after we fly away but will keep spreading faster and faster until Steve has to bomb the site from orbit. Or maybe we bring the effect with us or our cell barriers keep dissolving. Or maybe there are automated defences or zombies down there. Or some other thing that will preclude us from just sending UGVs down there (with some sort of compass that senses the breakdown of cell barriers in human tissue to guide them) and letting them do the job for us.

Besides, it's an HMRC mission. We're supposed to go down there and do our best to finish it or die trying. It's what Steve expects from us (and it's what the game is for). If he didn't think us being down there and risking our necks was better (or at least funnier) he wouldn't had sent us there in the first place. I'm thinking it's because the best way to counter space magic is with humans. Because they may claim that humans are not inherently magical, but they (or at least the ones of the HMRC) do seem very good at dealing with strange situations and unknown magical stuff for some reason.

The fact that a third of the sods died and the rest are perfectly fine is interesting though. They didn't get any in-between illness like some of us did. Nor did they die immediately like the gunnerbots or the normal humans. Was it merely luck or does something about us inmates make us somehow different than other humans?

Hmmm... Lyra is part synthflesh... Wonder if synthflesh reacts to the pulse in any way or if it has nothing to do with human cells.

[Nikitian]

Thinking about no in-between illness with sods... do we even know their stats under the current system? Because I've just thought that maybe they have a sort of Xan dice to them: [2,2,5,5,5,5] or something (Specialist (+3) rank in Endurance, maybe? Something that influenced their rolls to be more skewered towards 'good' results, like a dynamic +1 under old system). Or maybe they did have all the in-between states, but just toughed it out as proper space marines should.

Also, yep, to think of it, it indeed makes sense to send humans to scout the magic anomalies, because the humans at least can "scream loudly" (loudness varies, of course), and machines apparently cannot (at all). Though that still returns us to the question of sod magical resistance...


Oh, and yeah, the new regulation uniforms would have made it more obvious that the third character was an amper (and thus directly responsible for the fleshhorror creation). What was the uniform for Exo users once again..?
Edit: EXO uniform is "Pimp". Yep. That'd really convey the tone of everyday ER business.

[Parisbre56]

Could be even simpler. Maybe piecewise just rolled a d10 to see what % of sods died and didn't bother rolling for in-betweens.

[Nikitian]

Could be even simpler. Maybe piecewise just rolled a d10 to see what % of sods died and didn't bother rolling for in-betweens.

Yeah. Or maybe just used the player-character death statistic, and applied it to calculate sod casualties as well - ignoring all the in-between states.

[Ozarck]

I think their all or nothing was significant, and not a mere die roll. It has to do with simplicity or something.
Sods are "yes/no"
Humans are "Yes/mostly/sort of/kind of/not really/no" (and also, "sometimes/maybe/huh?/and pickles")

[Radio Controlled]

Or maybe he closed his eyes and choose a random number on his keyboard.

[Nikitian]

"Today's casualties will be... twenty. Oh wait, there are only 15 players on this mission; nah, I will ask for rescue team to assemble and then immediately murder them as well. Torture is Fun."

[Dorsidwarf]

[piecewise]

Edit it to be "one one one six six six"  and you'll be closer~