Radio to the rest of my compatriots: "Team, this is Chief. Send at least one, repeat, at least one useless monkey my way. I want to follow diamond trail to source, will report on results. Cannot help with Eater of Cold right now anyway. Am one mile down the diamond trail, looks like it goes on a while. Might be valuable to scout where it goes."
Request aid. If aid arrives, continue scouting the way I'm going. Gotta find that source.
You keep going, treking off several miles in the other direction, following the trail. Whatever this thing was, it was moving fast, you cover a lot of ground without the trail ending, but finally come upon what seems to be the source. It's a small, glassy shaft going straight into the sand, as though the ball of light shot up from somewhere underground and off in the direction of the eater. You can't see anything in the shaft, but it seems deep.
"Haven't you guys seen any horror movies? Splitting up is the worst thing that you can do. Besides, I think our diplomatic counterparts would prefer us to be in one group, so we don't fuck up and cause disasters in two areas at once. Fucking up in one place is bad enough, but it's easier to contain."
Keep guarding the Host from any outside interference, and especially guard it from my teammates.
Done.
((Huh, I guess the Eater didn't return to its previous temperature after switching hosts. My bad. I still think we should heat it at night, though...))
Tek is pleasantly surprised to find that he is still capable of waking up, seemingly no additional disasters having occurred while he slept. Though the Chief's suggestion piques Tek's interest, the blue-accented salvager has some significant reservations.
"Tek thinks Gorat makes some excellent points about reduced ability to deal with disasters as a split group. At the same time, however, Tek believes it may be interesting to investigate the locations these shards came from. Perhaps someone with flight capability can fly up until the origin points are visible, and tell us what they see?
Alternatively, Steve, do you have eyes on this planet and our location? Can you see if anything interesting exists at any of the shards' points of origin? We need to see if it is likely that the reward merits the risk."
Ask Steve a question.
Steve's eyes are the ship for now (he hasn't broken into any satellite networks) and you're on the wrong side of the planet for the moment. What he would send back is basically a semi-grainy image of what Harry is seeing right now, though.
Aye, I don't think you're like to find much more than a bit of glass and a lot of sand if you venture out. What do you hope to find, and how would it help us?
Though I must admit, I wonder about our visitors in the night. If they heated up the Eater, doesn't that make them beneficial? Why did they come? Is there something we're missing?
Steve, anything in the literature about this sort of thing? I know the tales are mixed and confused, but any information is better than none.
Nothing particularly, other then references to those fragments of the old eater that the king mentioned. It might be them.
Vincent shifts uncomfortably before joking "No pressure or anything" he then looks at the battery charge on the heat gun
I think it should be around 60%
"I'll go with him, as I'm not that much use helping with the host here, but I am a bit worried about us getting lost if we wander too far."
Han looks around, actually wanting to be away from the Eater.
Join the Chief's Sidequest, if allowed.
I'll assume you are and that you did.
"Feyri, could you please point this at Dern until I get back?
Lend Feyri the Raduga and auto her to keep the EoC warm.
"Alright Chief, I'm coming with you."
Join Chief's little sidequest.
And you too.
Do whatever Gorat says.
((I'll be out of internet range until Tuesday, so could you control Sambo for a couple of days player-of-Gorat?))
Bow Chika Bow wow.
"Not much I can do here with my amp or Shackle without risking a dead Host. I guess a walk sound nice if you folks don't need me here." Jason remarks.
Tag along on the side quest if nobody objects. Otherwise stand around and offer moral support. Maybe with a speech roll.
((Gonna stick with Dubley. If shit goes down with the EoC without us around, we know Vincent is bad luck. If it happens to us, then it is me or Dubley. Probably Dubley ))
You go with him too.
"Good. Three people for your command, chief." Gorat says, unable to repress the "command" dig.
Chief and her three volunteers can go. The rest should move towards the next mark unless there are objections.
Action for Feyri: Accept the Raduga. Be ready to heat the host.
Action for Sambo: Triple check that Feyri's borrowed Raduga is ready to heat the host.
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.
Ok so, we'll keep you guys synced, time wise. Chief went about 3 hours out from the team, so you guys will move 3 hours forward. Which is a big lot of nothing, honestly. Lots of walking in the desert. You don't even reach the next pillar, though you can see it. It looks more like a small ruin then just a pillar.