Turn 7: Heart of the Nest
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Player/world actions_____________________________________________________________________________
Nakéen, what suit did you choose? I gave you the equipment for a medium suit, but have a light suit in your notes.
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World Actions_____________________________________________________________________________
The squad readies itself and enters the cave 1 by 1 with Reynard taking point. Everyone turns of their suit lights, and illuminates the darkness in the cave. The cave is quite smooth in looks, probably carved out by the hoppers. Similar tunnels to the ones above, are scatted around the tunnel, probably forming a well connected tunnel system. There are other carcasses laying around on the ground, with the same goo on them. The tunnel leads further into the cave. The same hoppers from outside follow you, they make no noises.
In a column the squad walks deeper into the cave. The tunnel starts dropping into the ground, so it seems that they're nested deeper in the earth. After a while, there's some light in the distance. Occasionally some new hoppers appear out of the holes, but then quickly dissapear as they're seen carrying rocks.
As you approach the light, the tunnel seems to be ending but a clicking sound also gets increasingly louder. But not as if one hopper is making that sound, but a lot of them. As you exit the tunnel, an avalanche of clicking noises is heard.
The tunnel exit brings you at the bottom of a canyon. Looking up. the fall from the edge above is at least a good 200m. Further looking around, you can see thousands of hoppers, doing some work. Some are transporting rocks and some are carrying chunks of flesh. There's also a different kind of hopper amongst the crowd. These are twice as big as the regular ones, but don't have the large mandibles, have an additional pair of legs in the front, with a kind of scoop like foot and are stronger in looks. They are digging into the stone, with the smaller ones picking up whatever they dig up.
Suddenly a corpse drops from above right into the middle of the flow of hoppers. If it was alive, it's very dead now. Swiftly the hoppers start working on the carcass. Dismembering, limb by limb, chunk by chunk. They also barf the goo over the corpse and some smaller hoppers, probably young hoppers, start licking off the scraps with the goo leaving behind clean bones.
"How fascinating, looks like they drop things from above right into the heart of the nest."They don't seem to have taken notice of you, except the few following you.
There are small tunnels and large tunnels everywhere, probably leading to various chambers with one of them being the queen's chamber. But you'd have to cross the mass of hoppers. Though if the reports are correct, they shouldn't attack but you never know what happens if there's an intruder inside the nest.
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Player Actions_____________________________________________________________________________
Veliane "The Ebon Comet" Mirelante (Nakéen) "Lucky. Now we just need to confirm the presence of a 'Queen', and the bounty is ours. I wish we had an information-gathering drone... Look like we will have to head in ourselves. Let's go."
Head in the nest with prudence.
Objective:
-Locate Queen
(-) See world action for yours.
Mari Bryan (Twinwolf) Head in as well. After all, what use is the medic if they aren't there when someone's wounded?
(-) See world action for yours.
Michelle "Honesty" Silver (AbstractTraitorHero) Take a defensive position around the group do a quick sweep around the perimeter ready to warn anybody if something's coming.
(-) With everyone preparing to enter the cave, you decide to do a quick sweep of the area to see if something might try to sneak up on you. You walk up the ramp and see the vast plains again.
A careful look around you, you can see nothing out of the ordinary. A few hoppers are roaming here and there and the hot sun blurs the horizon with the rising heat. It's not a real surprise that there isn't much here, at the current moment but checking it out just to be sure was a good idea.
You walk down the ramp and rejoin with your squad.
"I made a quick sweep around the perimeter and haven't seen anything worth mentioning."The squad gives a nod and starts making their way into the cave.
Ahroni Yahat (The Ensorceler) Assist in the search, and ask Nova about some of the remains. If any are notable, perhaps take a few large teeth or claws, or a small animal's skull.
(-) While Michelle walks up the ramp, you decide to make use of this moment while still being outside. You look around for any neat looking bones and see a few jagged fangs around the size of your index finger on one of the carcasses. The creature is slightly bigger than you judging from the skeleton, but what strikes you most interesting is how every carcass you looked at, is absolutely picked clean. There is no shred of anything but bone.
You wiggle the fangs from the skull and store them.
"Nova, do you recognize any kind of creature from the ones lying around here?""Negative, Ahroni. These don't seem to be any creatures we have met yet, and these could have been laying around here for a long time already. These would be fascinating to research but that is not our purpose.""Ok, thanks."As you finish up Michelle comes back and report that there's nothing of interest in the area.
You gained 2 jagged fangs. Reynard "Crimson Lightning" Durant (Hawk132) Reynard follows after Veliane. If there is anything that looks like it'd be of interest to the scientists (and probably won't piss off the hoppers if I take it), grab it.
(-) See world action for yours.