Roll 4
Intermission
Port Newton Bar
Medium Chatter (+1 to deception, -1 to intellect)
Nerin continues scanning
Nerid: [5] Before Hal starts moving, you engross yourself in a comprehensive scan of the chicken, looking for any residue, transmuted matter, concentrations of nonstandard particles, etc. Your spectrum reading of the gamma-emitting core of the chicken--or rather, the thing that melted the chicken--suggests a loop of metastable tachyonic molecules. The particles are bouncing around inside an uncatalogued red crystal, perhaps a form of corundum saturated with quantum dots. This creates a rapidly oscillating magnetic quadrupole that falls off rather quickly--but anything close enough and ferromagnetic will soon meet a molten end.
Valrak: Feeling Nerin's curiosity, you walk over and reach for the crystal. [1] vs (3) Something pulls your arm away, however. It's not the tachyon bead, which has fairly small number of high energy tachyons inside of it. Slow-moving ones. Slower means closer to the speed of light--more energy.
The chicken pile stars smoldering.
"Long as you fellas are cleaning up, I got no problems with a little manly scuffle. Just keep them lasers away from folk's eyes.""Argh! Stupid beads! Rot in the sewers!" he swears silently.
Picking up any dropped loot, he continues waddling away. Once he's safe, he looks inside the cylindrical thing.
The crazy guy isn't following you, he's following that red bead that just annihilated the chicken. So good for you, he forfeited the loot.
You start peeling away the aluminum coating off the cylinder. [1/6] It's very soft, lightweight, and smells like... toast. As you finish unwrapping it, you realize it's a sandwich.
Try to tackle Orion before he gets to my associates.
Orion isn't necessarily trying to get at your associates. He just wants to get that bead because it has some sort of special importance to him. Probably some kind of toy. And there's a flaming chicken on it.
Initiative rolls: You: [3], Orion: [6]
(4) vs [4] You feel something holding you back as you charge. It's not any sort of physical force, but rather it's like your body isn't doing what you're telling it to do. Then you realize what's happening: Orion is issuing commands to your body. The only way to resist these is to actively override them.
[5] vs (1) You slow down, but not enough to stop completely. Reaching Orion, you lunge at him and pin him to the ground. He says nothing, although he hasn't flipped the switch like he always seems to do when switching from talking to acting. Maybe he's a robot. A sociopathic telepathic robot, in fact.
Once your stat sheets are posted, traits that give Mental Defense or Mental Offense will assist in these kinds of actions. Telepathy and related skills aren't commonplace, but there are a number of psychological attacks that you may wish to defend against.
Action: To the brokers office!
Giving a curt nod, Nidoma heads back inside to look for this woman.
McMarlo: The quantum drink has left you a little... shaken. That's no problem since your body is built to handle all sorts of things, not excluding radiation, tidal forces, high gravity, and consumption by other intelligent species. But the part where it entangles your atoms with much lighter particles, reducing your overall density... that makes it a little hard to reach the doorknob. Nevertheless, you improvise, using the curved tip of your helmet as a hook to pull the knob with. You float into the hall and look for an office labelled 'broker.' Ah, there it is!
Nidoma: You see the levitating bird-man (wearing a guild suit, so he must be one of your associates. Ugh) walk into a set of double doors made of a transparent plastic. The doors contain a viscous fluid that ripples when the door is opened.
You decide to follow him so you don't have to watch these fools beating each other senseless.
Both: The broker, a short, bearded creature much like a human but with stronger arms and an even stronger gut, sits in a little cubicle far below waist level. McMarlo, currently levitating multiple feet off the ground, has just as much difficulty maintaining eye contact with the dwarf as Nidoma has by virtue of her stature.
"What brings you? Do you want to make a trade? I've got plenty of stuff in the warehouse you might like. Fabrics, spices, herbs... rare metals, explosive compounds, plutonium-powered figurines... you name it!"(What should the as-of-yet non-guild characters do?)
You spot a blond-haired Guild woman entering the bar after the ravenman leaves. She spots you close in proximity to some of her associates, and walks over to ask about it.
"Hey there, you've been speaking with some of the guild? I assume you're some kind of bounty hunter or mercenary, am I correct?
If you're looking for work, the Guild is prepping for a hostile takeover of the SpaceInc Ulysses Megacity. It's a contract with some bloody rich Milanese prince. If you're interested in infiltration duty by chance, we could fill you in."