Continue onward. Try to reach the edge of this chamber, maintaining the spiraling search pattern.
Another 20 minutes and you finally reach one edge. It seems the chamber isn't circular though, since reaching this one edge doesn't bring you to the others. Maybe oval? Maybe some sort of wretched irregular thing. Either way, you've at least reached one wall.
((It's possible that my posting might be irregular for some days. Assuming I fall out of stasis and don't post in a timely manner, feel free to NPC me as necessary.))
Tock. Tick.
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.
You'll probably fall out of stasis here next turn. Lets just hope you don't fall out into molten glass.
"Guys, someone might want to think of something soon, MY GUN IS MELTING!" Continue firing heat gun until it fails, and then immediately back off to a semi safe distance
((Feyri has my raduga. It works as a giant heat gun.))
Jump down the hole and join Chief in her exploring. High endurance, robobody, mk3, I should be fine.
You jump into the hole, not bothering to use your rockets or anything to slow yourself down. The fall is...slightly longer then you expected. You manage to land and roll,flopping gracelessly onto the fused glass floor. It's messy and not very impressive, but you're uninjured.
Once you've pulled yourself up and dusted yourself off, you quickly connect up with Chief, following her signal to where she's standing near the cave wall.
((Sorry in advance for long action))
Tek watched uncomprehendingly as he teleported from dune to dune and was somehow now walking instead of being dragged. And doing so on one leg, no less (last time he checked)! This whole situation merited further investigation, he felt.
Firstly, look down at legs. Are they both there? For that matter, how about arms? If both legs are not there, look downward and watch this "walking" process. Is he floating forward? Or skimming across the ground as if pulled by some unknown force? Are the other mummies holding him up and pushing him?
Secondly, begin moving arm in a circular motion at a constant speed such that it takes about a minute to complete a full revolution. Does the timeskip affect him (ie, does the arm not appear to pass through all 360 degrees per complete revolution) or just his surroundings? If it does affect him, mark how long exactly the timeskip is by observing the position of the arm before and after each timeskip.
Thirdly, test functionality of the body by attempting to flex muscles, starting from toes and ending at forehead. Is any portion not functional due to burns or any other circumstance?
Lastly, see if the mummies have some inelligence but simply cannot speak. Try pointing to the left of one, for example, and see if it looks. Also, say "please stop for a second" both in Tek's language and the "stop" command used for the Eater in the local language to see if they understand and follow verbal commands.
You're still missing the bits which were missing before. Hard to say how the walking takes place. You lift your foot forward and you're suddenly on another sand dune. It's almost like you're blinking between them. Or maybe blacking out?
You can't really move your arm like that when people are holding you up with it. Instead you watch the flames to see if their shapes change or they move elsewhere on you. They don't seem to, so you must not be blacking out or skipping time.
You seem to work fairly well, all things considered. Your leg feels kinda stiff, but it still moves fine. Your scalp tingles though. Feels kinda like there's something cold sitting on your head.
They don't seem to understand your language, nor the native one, but they respond to pointing and hand gestures. Hmm.
hmmmmm poke pearly blob, observe, if it seems safe take a small bite, if that does nothing run up to the eater and chuck a bit at it, if that has a somewhat positive effect throw more
You poke the blob. It behaves exactly like you would expect a big handful of snot to behave. Which is odd, when you think about it, but mundane enough. You take a small bite and immediately spit it out. It tastes like chalk and...something very unpleasant. You shrug and run towards the Eater, lobbing a glob of the stuff up at it. The goo hits the eater and spreads across it, covering far more of the eater then it really should, as though the ball was about 10 times the mass it appeared to be. The snotty stuff hardens almost instantly into a mother of pearl looking shell, which seems to be able to survive the eater's heat. The goo ball reforms on your hand within 30 seconds, so you throw it again. And again, and again.
Soon the eater is entombed in a oblong sarcophagus of pearlescent white shell. It settles to the ground, quiet and cold.
((Thanks NAV!))
Steal Feyri's laser gun, heat up the Eater with medium dispersion, gradually turning up power from low to medium so I don't pull a Sambo and blow the Eater away. If it starts getting more active, turn up the heat!
"Hey w- be careful with that!"
Ponder on the time between 'killing' the Eater and ejecting my brain into its own safety...err, area. Is it a plausible plan? That the 'eater' possesses the synthetic body without a brain (due to the time lapse between its death, the possession, and the ejection of the only organic tissue), and then gets 'trapped' due to lacking organic material inside?
Yeah, I'm sure that I don't have a method of dealing with that. Like, say, it just leaping to the nearest other teammate.
Or to your brain anyways.
((Thanks NAV!))
Steal Feyri's laser gun, heat up the Eater with medium dispersion, gradually turning up power from low to medium so I don't pull a Sambo and blow the Eater away. If it starts getting more active, turn up the heat!
Use my Micro Amp to heat a section of air far enough away from the Eater that it would radiate enough heat to warm it, but not incinerate it if I overdid it.
((I think my heat gun is only now working because it is so hot it is melting my gun. Plus I lucked out hooking it up to my suit without breaking anything in the first place. If you want me to melt your Raduga I'm down for it though =P))
Lend the power source from my ex-gauss rifle, in case it makes a difference.
Luckily, none of you have to do anything dangerous like that, since someone got lucky with their potion.
"Guys, someone might want to think of something soon, MY GUN IS MELTING!" Continue firing heat gun until it fails, and then immediately back off to a semi safe distance
And you get away clean. Your heat gun melts, but your suit doesn't overload and you don't get murdered so...hey, all's well that ends well.
It is now sunrise. The eater is contained for the moment. Gorat drops back out of stasis. Corsair's power runs out, but the sarcophagus remains intact. Oh and that glowing ball of heat out on the horizon? It's still there. In fact, it seems to be getting closer and slowly circling toward the west.