Try following the glassy trail of one of the speeding bullet fragments while the dudes over there are messing around. See where it leads in a chill, controlled fashion. And also if there's treasure to be found there.
You follow the trail for a mile or so, but it shows no sign of ending, and the camp is quickly fading in the distance. Going on alone would be...unwise.
((Hey PW, did I pick up those stone fragments like I wanted to when everyone was fleeing?))
If I didn't pick them up, go get some of those stone fragments that the light bullets left behind.
Got em. They look like small vaguely diamond shaped things with curious grooves along the vertices.
Well, scratch that, then.
"Dubley, Chief, don't walk too far into the night where we can't help you."
Look at Dern. Does it seem like he's cooling down to the level of the previous host? How long until sunrise?
Str 3; Dex 3; End 3; Cha 10; Int 6; Wil 15//Spe 0; Int 1; Han 0 (-1); Con 4; Unc 0; Exo 12; Aux 3 (+1); Med 0
Mk II Suit; Microwave PK Amp; Mass manip PK Amp; laser rifle (fired once); 0 tokens: normal cigarettes; blue smokes; datapad (with platformer shooter); nanoghosts; shock trigger (with Morul); white skin-tight node-covered black-shell stasis suit worn under Mk II.
Appearance: 5'11'', 170 pounds in a rather unmuscular frame, shoulder-long brown hair, short goatee, brown eyes, a rather long chin that earned him his nickname. Age 32
Half a robot foot. Robot right arm. Wears basic clothes when not in the Mk II.
Sunrise soon, fellow stalker.
When?
NOW.
He seems to be hotter by about 100 degrees, F, but is holding steady there.
Take a few of those geometric stones.
Then keep Dern nice and warm with laser.
Done and done.
"Eh. Might as well use this heat while I have it."
Use my mass amp to pick up a ball of sand and bring it near the Eater, hopefully melting it into a glob of glass. Then take the glob and try and form it into several long shards. Once that's done, float them over and let them cool off.
A few of your shards break, but you get at least a dozen.
Wait for the dawn, tend fires and keep easy-bake Laser people on task.
You spend the rest of the night jabbing the logs with the butt of a rifle and slapping the laser people in the back of the head when they look like they're falling asleep.
Be a backup easy-bake laser person. Charge Con bonus by aiming at the Eater, in case random crap occurs.
"Ok, I've got it covered. If shit goes down, then we'll both fry Dern. Anyone able to rub two brain cells together and think of something so's we learn something? We know what happens when you punch it, so for fuck's sake don't do that again.
Temp-boy, what's it cooking at now? Might give us an idea of how much we gotta shoot it later. We'll call this the non-SNAFU temperature. Note-boy might want to write it down. I fucken love science. Especially the sort where I get to shoot shit if it fucks up."
You spend the night being a back up laser person and
singing 1980's songs in your head. Stand back, collect a few of the geometric fused sand bits, but not too many.
"Personally, I would suggest not doing anything that can damage the eater? Just saying, doing that kills more of us than not doing that, so far as I can tell."
Everyone is adding to their rock collection today eh?
Sunrise comes a few hours later, a dull red leaking over the horizon and spreading across the sand, crimson heat haze boiling away the last remnants of night. The Eater remains silent and motionless, glass still forming and crackling under his feet.