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Total Members Voted: 15

[towerator]

I think we should check the top and bottom first, less likely to run into someone.  Is there a way we can climb up, or fly up a bit?

Start by flicking on the flashlight for a moment to confirm that the spaceship is still there and unguarded.  We can then hide in the dark for say, ten minutes to see if something comes out after us.  If nothing comes, we can go forward again.

I suggest starting with the top, and then the back and the bottom.

+1

+1. Also I'd suggest trying to find some kind of maintenance hatch, rather than a door. Any possible door will likely be highly guarded.

[Parisbre56]

I think we should check the top and bottom first, less likely to run into someone.  Is there a way we can climb up, or fly up a bit?

Start by flicking on the flashlight for a moment to confirm that the spaceship is still there and unguarded.  We can then hide in the dark for say, ten minutes to see if something comes out after us.  If nothing comes, we can go forward again.

I suggest starting with the top, and then the back and the bottom.

+1

+1. Also I'd suggest trying to find some kind of maintenance hatch, rather than a door. Any possible door will likely be highly guarded.

You click your flashlight open, shining a ray of light through the fog. Unfortunately it's not powerful enough to make it all the way to the ship, at least not from this distance. Still, it must be there, right? Where could it had gone? It's huge, too large to fit through any of the holes you've seen. Hmm. Then again, maybe there's a hole you haven't seen. Maybe an entire wall of the tower opens up. Who can tell with these strange machines?

You place the flashlight in your mouth and glide down. The sound of machinery is muffled down here and the light coming from the electrical arcs and fires is just enough to show you the distant outlines of the walls of this pit. At least there's not as much mist down here. The cool air helps it condense, forming a layer of slick and slippery moisture on everything.

As you approach, the outline of the ship finally begins to emerge. At a glance it looks completely the same as you remembered it, a vaguely T shaped thing stuck through a hole in the floor. Then again, you didn't take a very close look at it that day, so maybe there's something you missed. It's time to remedy that.

You start by looking at the front part, disappearing through the hole. You walk up to the edge and look down, being very careful not to slip and fall through it. From here you can see that the part of the ship supporting it against the edge of the hole has been badly crushed, the remains of antennas and satellite dishes littering the ground around it, some still attached to it by cables. Further down the hole there are more layers of bent and broken dark grey metal,  rusted pipes and long-burnt wires. After looking for a while you realize you're seeing the remains of maintenance tunnels similar to the ones close to your home. It looks very much like the ship crashed through the floor a long time ago. The ship's silver and brown hull on the other hand appears to be in good condition, just some scratches and faint scorch marks.

The front of the ship disappears into a pool of water. You can't tell how deep it goes or how deep the water is, though you can see a short brown pillar the same colour as the ship coming out of the water some distance away. There's a dome-shaped thing at the top of the pillar with two large pipes coming out of it. If it is a weapon, it must be really powerful. Thankfully it doesn't appear to be active. You could try swimming down there. If you're lucky the crash might have opened a hole you can crawl through to get into the ship.

You fly up to the top of the ship. It's hard to maintain traction on the smooth water-slick surface but you manage to dig your claws into holes and ledges to keep yourself steady, hopping and flying from handhold to handhold to get around. It looks fairly uninteresting. You find three large holes, one next to the other, almost as large as you, but when you shine the flashlight in them you see that they're sealed by sturdy-looking metal doors. Opening them with brute force would take some effort, if you can even do it at all. Looking down on the side of the ship you see something that might have been its main door, a large circular seam on its hull. No button to open it though and moving it on your own would be impossible given its size and how much it is likely to weigh.

You keep going until you reach the back of the ship, the three large engines that form the top of the T. The engines have wires and pipes in them. You think you could fit through a pipe, barely, but you don't think it's a good idea. You don't know where those pipes lead and if you get stuck there's no one here to help you. Looking down from the side, you see another seam, another possible door with no button that opens it. You could try prying it open, but you wouldn't get your hopes up, those bolts look thick and sturdy.

Finally, there's those lights you saw the day you found the ship. It turns out they're coming from a door that appears to be active, the button next to it lit up with a pleasant green light. The reason it's active while the rest of the ship is dark is because someone has linked a couple of power cells to it and they appear to still hold some charge. There's also a metal wire going all the way down to the floor. It has protrusions that would be helpful for someone trying to climb it. Hmm. Is someone using that thing to climb up here? Is someone living here? No, not recently, not unless they can somehow avoid leaving their scent behind. Could it be that a droid lives here? Or maybe someone has already looted it and didn't bother to gather their things? You hope that's not the case.

Spoiler: Status (click to show/hide)

Age: some months (wyrmling)
Size: about the size of a human (if bipedal)
Status: fine
Health: fine
Weapons: claws and teeth
Armor: scales
Abilities:

• Flight: You can glide in order to survive falls and quickly move great distances. You can even fly upwards, though not for very long distances. You can use favorable winds and updrafts to increase your flight time.
• Basic Human Language: You are able to understand many of the most common words of the human language, including some that express more abstract things, though there are still a great many words and expressions that you have yet to learn. You can also read, though it takes you some time to understand the words. You can also speak, though it's sometimes hard for others to understand you.
• Communication: You have a knack for understanding other beings, even those whose language you don't know.
• Basic Nursing: You know the basics of caring for patients and preparing and maintaining equipment used in their care. You can also administer certain simple treatments. However you still lack much of the knowledge necessary for you to be able to determine what said treatment should be.
• Magic: You can cause supernatural effects, though doing so consciously and with any level of control is hard. You know of some of the effects you can cause, but there might be more you have yet to discover or unlock. See Magic section for more details.

Spoiler: Magic (click to show/hide)

Inner Fire: Ashes

• Burn Self: Gain a level in hunger or tiredness and in exchange gain a level of Inner Fire.
• Sense Inner Fire: You can sense the inner fire of other beings, allowing you to detect most living things in your surroundings. This also gives you an indication of the danger they could pose and the amount of fire you could gain from consuming them.
  Cost: Minor
• Cleansing: Direct your inner fire to a part of your body to cleanse a debilitating status effect.
  Cost: Low-Medium
• Fiery Strength: Direct your inner fire to your muscles and bones, granting you supernatural strength.
  Cost: Medium

Spoiler: Hoard (click to show/hide)

• Maintenance Tunnels:
  • Large Sonic Rifle covered by old torn clothes
  • 2 holdout blaster pistols (roughly 20 shots each, effective range 20m, HSB-200)
  • Low quality vibroknife (low battery)
• Eiwhyl's Clinic:
  • 576 credits (5 orange, 11 blue, 7 red, 4 grey, 6 cyan, 4 pink)
  • 2 packs of smoke sticks
  • small can of droid oil
  • small metal toolbox
  • Warm blanket
  • Datacard with human medical information
  • Datacard with human language dictionary
  • Datacard with dragon info compilation
  • Datacard with story about hunter of dragons
  • small glass statue of bird
  • Large hooded cloak
  • 1 bottle with red liquid and unreadable label

Spoiler: Inventory (click to show/hide)

• Pack with plastoid tape modifications
  • 1 medpack
  • 1 half-used medpack
  • 2 food packs
  • 2 water bottles
  • Purse with credit-reader:
    • 235 credits (2 orange, 6 blue, 1 red, 1 grey)
    • 45 slightly burnt credits (1 blue, 5 grey)
  • half-used roll of plastoid tape
  • flashlight
  • pack of smoke sticks
  • lighter
  • keycard with symbol
  • 2 stun grenades
  • 2 fog? grenades
  • 1 grenade
  • 2 grenade thrower mines
  • Basic Datapad (contains datacard with encrypted files)

Spoiler: Known Locations (click to show/hide)

• Ali's Apartment: A tiny 2 bedroom apartment. The little human Ali lives there with Dad/Jobal and Mom/Ania. Room 327.
• Ali's Apartment Tower: Apartments arranged in a circle. Clean, bright, mostly locked doors, few hiding places. Little traffic during the night.
• Eiwhyl's Clinic (Lair): Sells medpacs and other healing items and provides treatment. Warning: stabby. Room 509.
• Streets: Dirty streets, parked hovercars, shops, building entrances, street vendors, little traffic during the night.
• Maintenance Tunnels: Interconnected tunnels, small and large, going low and high. Connect various streets and buildings. Wires and pipes.  Dark, dirty, with old machines constantly rumbling. Scavenger-vermin and hunters-of-vermin.
• Garbage Pit: A large room with mountains of garbage half-submerged in a sea of sludge. More garbage frequently arrives from holes in the ceiling. A monster lurks here, may pull prey underwater.
• Hydroponic Pool: A room with a large pool filled with plants. A ceiling full of bright lamps. A spherical gardener-droid takes care of the plants. Patrolled by hostile gunmen. A corridor leads to other rooms. Storage room. Processing room. Other rooms are unexplored.
• Iyran Grower Shop: A store located deeper into the tower's streets. Operated by a cephalopoid. The grower sells cheap synthetic meat, amongst other things.
• Upscale Cafe: A small place with tasty but somewhat expensive food and hot drinks. The bartender is nice but the waiter droid is annoying.
• Upscale Streets: A section of the tower mimicking a suburban neighborhood, including a fake sun. Most buildings guarded.

(("Dude, where's my ship?"
"It's in the hole."))

[Naturegirl1999]

((I like how someone else here has found TomSka’s glorious skits))

[Devastator]

Lets try brute forcing one of the topside entrances.  We are really strong after all.

[Egan_BW]

That sounds like a good way to hurt ourself, to be honest.

Try swimming.

[Devastator]

I like swimming, but I'm worried some of our stuff might get wet or go missing.

[King Zultan]

Lets try brute forcing one of the topside entrances.  We are really strong after all.

+1

If we do decide to swim we should leave our pack somewhere dry, as there are some things in it that might die if they get wet.

[Devastator]

Also, not sure what kind of door this is.  Maybe a missile port?

I am glad that this vehicle looks nonfunctional.  Stowing away to another planet sounds cool, but going without bringing Ali would be bad.

Actually, with some more thinking about it, I think these might have been for escape pods.  Which should make them a great entrance, we'll be right in the livable area and likely near some workstations or quarters.

[Parisbre56]

Lets try brute forcing one of the topside entrances.  We are really strong after all.

+1

If we do decide to swim we should leave our pack somewhere dry, as there are some things in it that might die if they get wet.

You try your best to pry the door open. It's not an easy task. It's hard to find leverage, the seam is too small. What's worse, the more you manage to pry it open, the more the force pushing against you increases. Your strength alone is not enough to let you fully open it. You might be able to open it just enough to squeeze through, using your body to keep it open, if you don't mind risking your more sensitive body parts like your wings and tail getting crushed. Alternatively you could try using magic to boost your strength to easily force the doors open, if you're quick and manage to maintain control you might be able to get through without burning too much of yourself.

That sounds like a good way to hurt ourself, to be honest.

Try swimming.

You hide your pack under a loose sheet of metal, some instinct telling you it's good to hide your things when you're not around to protect them, for you never know who might try to take it. You only take your flashlight with you and jump into the hole, diving in the water with a splash. The first thing that hits you is the coldness of the water. The second is the foul taste. The third is how murky this pool is. Dust and dirt and something else you don't know how to describe. Strands of oily dark miasma are spread all around you, your every motion further stirring it up, combining it with the other detritus, breaking it into thick droplets and spreading it everywhere, making the view even worse. Even with the flashlight you can barely see in front of you.

You explore more via touch than sight, occasionally coming back up to the surface to refill your lungs with air. From your exploration you discover that the front of the ship is a large crescent-shaped vertical section, with the tower you saw emerging from the water actually being the top of the crescent. Combined with the large horizontal engine block on its back, this vertical section would probably make the ship look very much like a cross if viewed from the front. There are small tubes and antennas coming out of the back of the crescent, though you can't tell if they're engines, weapons or something else entirely. The front of the crescent looks very solid, despite the large number of scratches and dents on it, probably from when the ship crashed through the ground and made the hole. About half of the bottom part of the crescent is clearly missing but is nowhere to be found. Maybe it broke off and landed somewhere else?

You manage to squeeze through the hole at the bottom and find yourself in a cramped dark shaft with a ladder in it, however your progress is immediately halted by a closed door. There's something weird with it, as if the two halves that make up the door have melted and joined together. You're not certain you could open it, both due to lack of strength and due to the fact that you're almost out of breath by the time you reach it. Hmm. Maybe if you had some sort of weapon that could blast through it? Or you could try using magic to breathe underwater, maybe that's a thing it can do for you. Or just use magic to boost your strength and punch a hole through it, maybe.

Near the center of the crescent there's a large mirror-like section that somehow manages to remain mostly clean despite all the dirt. If you press the flashlight against it and get one of your eyes really close to it, you can almost see what's inside. You can make out parts of machines, dark screens and complicated controls and you think you even caught glimpses of humanoid figures. However, if there are people in there, they don't appear to be reacting to your presence. Maybe they're sleeping? Maybe they died when the ship crashed? Or maybe whoever installed those power cells to the maintenance hatch so it would open entered the ship and killed everyone.

Further back from the crescent there are two more of those dome-shaped things with the two pipes, one on either side of the ship. Further back still you can see that part of the ship has broken open, allowing water to flood its insides. This section houses two smaller, bullet shaped ships, both of them badly damaged. From what's left, you can tell there was a seat in the front that was surrounded by machines, probably meant for controlling it, while the back had a few more bulky-looking seats. Maybe meant for carrying people? There probably was a third ship here once but it must have been destroyed or maybe moved somewhere. What blocks your entry to the ship here is not a door but the fact that this section has been twisted and squeezed, probably by the force of the impact. There are holes full of loose cables, bent beams and twisted pipes that could lead further inside the ship, or they could be dead ends. You could try squeezing through them, but if you push too far into what turns out to be a dead end you risk running out of air. What's worse, this section doesn't look entirely stable. If you push too hard and a collapse occurs you could end up getting crushed or it could trap you in a dead end with no air and no way out.

When you're done you climb out of the water, shake yourself and do your best to dry yourself before flying back out of the hole. However, no matter how hard you shake limbs and rub yourself on the cleaner parts of the floor, some of that gunk is still clinging on your scales. Ugh. You're going to need a nice shower when you're done with this. You can't let your beautiful scales be tarnished by this muck.

Status gained: dirty dragon

Spoiler: Status (click to show/hide)

Age: some months (wyrmling)
Size: about the size of a human (if bipedal)
Status: dirty dragon
Health: fine
Weapons: claws and teeth
Armor: scales
Abilities:

• Flight: You can glide in order to survive falls and quickly move great distances. You can even fly upwards, though not for very long distances. You can use favorable winds and updrafts to increase your flight time.
• Basic Human Language: You are able to understand many of the most common words of the human language, including some that express more abstract things, though there are still a great many words and expressions that you have yet to learn. You can also read, though it takes you some time to understand the words. You can also speak, though it's sometimes hard for others to understand you.
• Communication: You have a knack for understanding other beings, even those whose language you don't know.
• Basic Nursing: You know the basics of caring for patients and preparing and maintaining equipment used in their care. You can also administer certain simple treatments. However you still lack much of the knowledge necessary for you to be able to determine what said treatment should be.
• Magic: You can cause supernatural effects, though doing so consciously and with any level of control is hard. You know of some of the effects you can cause, but there might be more you have yet to discover or unlock. See Magic section for more details.

Spoiler: Magic (click to show/hide)

Inner Fire: Ashes

• Burn Self: Gain a level in hunger or tiredness and in exchange gain a level of Inner Fire.
• Sense Inner Fire: You can sense the inner fire of other beings, allowing you to detect most living things in your surroundings. This also gives you an indication of the danger they could pose and the amount of fire you could gain from consuming them.
  Cost: Minor
• Cleansing: Direct your inner fire to a part of your body to cleanse a debilitating status effect.
  Cost: Low-Medium
• Fiery Strength: Direct your inner fire to your muscles and bones, granting you supernatural strength.
  Cost: Medium

Spoiler: Hoard (click to show/hide)

• Maintenance Tunnels:
  • Large Sonic Rifle covered by old torn clothes
  • 2 holdout blaster pistols (roughly 20 shots each, effective range 20m, HSB-200)
  • Low quality vibroknife (low battery)
• Eiwhyl's Clinic:
  • 576 credits (5 orange, 11 blue, 7 red, 4 grey, 6 cyan, 4 pink)
  • 2 packs of smoke sticks
  • small can of droid oil
  • small metal toolbox
  • Warm blanket
  • Datacard with human medical information
  • Datacard with human language dictionary
  • Datacard with dragon info compilation
  • Datacard with story about hunter of dragons
  • small glass statue of bird
  • Large hooded cloak
  • 1 bottle with red liquid and unreadable label

Spoiler: Inventory (click to show/hide)

• Pack with plastoid tape modifications
  • 1 medpack
  • 1 half-used medpack
  • 2 food packs
  • 2 water bottles
  • Purse with credit-reader:
    • 235 credits (2 orange, 6 blue, 1 red, 1 grey)
    • 45 slightly burnt credits (1 blue, 5 grey)
  • half-used roll of plastoid tape
  • flashlight
  • pack of smoke sticks
  • lighter
  • keycard with symbol
  • 2 stun grenades
  • 2 fog? grenades
  • 1 grenade
  • 2 grenade thrower mines
  • Basic Datapad (contains datacard with encrypted files)

Spoiler: Known Locations (click to show/hide)

• Ali's Apartment: A tiny 2 bedroom apartment. The little human Ali lives there with Dad/Jobal and Mom/Ania. Room 327.
• Ali's Apartment Tower: Apartments arranged in a circle. Clean, bright, mostly locked doors, few hiding places. Little traffic during the night.
• Eiwhyl's Clinic (Lair): Sells medpacs and other healing items and provides treatment. Warning: stabby. Room 509.
• Streets: Dirty streets, parked hovercars, shops, building entrances, street vendors, little traffic during the night.
• Maintenance Tunnels: Interconnected tunnels, small and large, going low and high. Connect various streets and buildings. Wires and pipes.  Dark, dirty, with old machines constantly rumbling. Scavenger-vermin and hunters-of-vermin.
• Garbage Pit: A large room with mountains of garbage half-submerged in a sea of sludge. More garbage frequently arrives from holes in the ceiling. A monster lurks here, may pull prey underwater.
• Hydroponic Pool: A room with a large pool filled with plants. A ceiling full of bright lamps. A spherical gardener-droid takes care of the plants. Patrolled by hostile gunmen. A corridor leads to other rooms. Storage room. Processing room. Other rooms are unexplored.
• Iyran Grower Shop: A store located deeper into the tower's streets. Operated by a cephalopoid. The grower sells cheap synthetic meat, amongst other things.
• Upscale Cafe: A small place with tasty but somewhat expensive food and hot drinks. The bartender is nice but the waiter droid is annoying.
• Upscale Streets: A section of the tower mimicking a suburban neighborhood, including a fake sun. Most buildings guarded.

[Superdorf]

Status gained: dirty dragon

Best status name.

[Naturegirl1999]

Let’s bring the mystery grenade with us and throw it at the merged door, hopefully it’s one that explodes

[Devastator]

Isn't the mystery door underwater?  I'm very, very reluctant about using grenades when underwater.  I'm pretty sure all the areas we're looking at are currently underwater.

And look at my avatar.  I'm in the pro-grenade camp.

Find a chunk of metal to help pry these doors open, or brace the upper door we can't hold open normally.  Try to get in that way first, and if it seems good, push our food and clean water in there first.

Also, use sense inner fire to see if there's anything good to eat in the water.  Having some fire for magic would be good.

Also also, it seems like we could literally use magic to clean off our scales, which is awesome.  ;-p

[Naturegirl1999]

What about on the other door? The one we tried and failed to open?

[King Zultan]

What about on the other door? The one we tried and failed to open?

I think that's the one he's talking about trying to pry open.

Isn't the mystery door underwater?  I'm very, very reluctant about using grenades when underwater.  I'm pretty sure all the areas we're looking at are currently underwater.

And look at my avatar.  I'm in the pro-grenade camp.

Find a chunk of metal to help pry these doors open, or brace the upper door we can't hold open normally.  Try to get in that way first, and if it seems good, push our food and clean water in there first.

Also, use sense inner fire to see if there's anything good to eat in the water.  Having some fire for magic would be good.

Also also, it seems like we could literally use magic to clean off our scales, which is awesome.  ;-p

+1 If this all fails we could try the door with the power rigged to it.

[Egan_BW]

...Let's just use the powered, open door.