CHAPTER 9: Return to the Tunnels

[Norjax]

...

Silvestri and crew examine and tinker with the 1ft long metal rod. After some time (30 minutes or so), the psionist taps the base of the pommel with his hand. The recessed ball extends out 2ft, connected to an expanding translucent filament. When Silvestri taps the ball or filament against the wall, a bright violet surge of energy snaps and quickly dissipates. Tapping the base retracts the ball into the well on the top end.

The object is a retractable stun baton.



OOC: Silvestri understands the operation of the weapon. He may even attempt minor repairs with correct tools and materials against a DC of 12.

He may make additional checks to gain more knowledge (any rolls above 27). There is still a chance he could damage and break it while attempting more detailed investigations.

He can teach others to use it if they roll a successful Intelligence check against DC 5.

...

[Zhym]

"Ooh! Let me try!" says Kurot, excited to see if he can learn how this device works.

Int check (DC 10): [1d20+2] = 15+2 = 17

Stunning, it seems, is a lot easier to learn than blasting.

[greyarea]

Denslow stands back and waits to see what this newfound junk is.

[shaidar]

Silvestri

"I could spend more time examining these items, perhaps as we travel, to deepen my understanding".

[shaidar]

Silvestri shakes his head and picks up the odd balls found by the bodies of the insects.

"I got so involved I forgot about these, shall we take a look?

ooc: here's an artifact roll, assuming the same helpers:

artifact roll: [1d20+13] = 13+13 = 26

I'll spend a point of luck to bring it up to 27.

[Ardak2000]

Bruce emerges from the tube leading to the upper level, and approaches Kurot. He indicates to the other android that he'd like to try a data link.

[Norjax]

...

Both gray-brown balls are scrutinized for half an hour by the examination crew. Based on their analysis, and seeing the device used by the Scavengers, these balls are a type of grenade that releases a persistent slime agent. The slime will eventually dissipate (an hour and half has passed since the slime was dispersed into the room and hallway) and become inert. The green mucus has acidic and mutagenic properties, but doesn’t appear to affect the Scavengers (insects) or artificial life forms (the androids). Its blast radius is 20ft.

The grenades are made from organic excretions and are activated by pressing pliable tubes just under the translucent surface. You can’t determine what the delay is between activation and the explosion.



OOC: Silvestri understands the operation of the weapon. He may even attempt minor repairs with correct tools and materials against a DC of 12.

He may make additional checks to gain more knowledge (any rolls above 27). There is still a chance he could damage and break it while attempting more detailed investigations.

He can teach others to use it if they make a successful Artifact Roll against DC 10.

---

Bruce approaches Kurot and signs permission for a data transfer. The synthetic raises his hand and faces his left palm just above the forehead of his basic android companion. Without any sound, the two androids stand motionless while the data transfer takes place.

OOC: Bruce and Kurot must make an Artifact Roll (Bruce subtracts his A.R. bonus). Kurot must beat Bruce’s to understand the data stream air dropped into his neural network. Bruce’s roll represents random corruption of the data stream between two incompatible and ancient constructs. If Kurot’s roll is equal or greater, he receives the information with 100% accuracy. If not, the difference will determine the amount of corruption transmitted.

...

[Ardak2000]

...

Bruce approaches Kurot and signs permission for a data transfer. The synthetic raises his hand and faces his left palm just above the forehead of his basic android companion. Without any sound, the two androids stand motionless while the data transfer takes place.
...

With a curious sensation of warmth, Bruce feels the connection between himself and Kurot. It takes just a millisecond to prepare his data load. He toggles the Logic Gate and...

Data Dump[1d20-4] = 19-4 = 15

[rossik]

MacMak Will make bleep sounds as he watches the robot persons

[greyarea]

Denslow says, those things are no good. Unless you want extra twigs, keep away.

[Zhym]

Kurot cocks his head sideways. "What an odd data format," he says in a robotic voice. I mean, yes, everything Kurot says is technically in a robotic voice, but this one sounds like one of those flat I-AM-A-ROBOT-BEEP-BOOP-BEEPs voices that a five year old might use. Or a particularly unimaginative '50s film director.

"Compensating for transmission noise," he adds a moment later.

"Translating big endian to little endian."

"Re-encoding from ASCII to EBCDIC to Unicode."

"Stripping parity bit."

"Scanning protocols...processing...processing...processing..."

Artifact Roll: [1d20+6] = 20+6 = 26

"Connection established. Activating antivirus scan and accepting data transfer."

[Urson]

Belial
The baboon watches the androids data- share for a minute, mouth open.So weird... He says. Then he goes to the "savory smelling" Scavenger and begins cutting it up for rations. He packs a few good cuts in his rucksack, and then begins munching on a leg joint.

[Norjax]

...

Kurot relays the information downloaded from Bruce's memory:

Torch in hand, Bruce jogs at maximum speed around the ring and returns the starting point (green dot) after a minute. The circumference of the ring is approximately 1,000 feet with four access column tubes, including the one he ascended, evenly spaced (light blue and green dots). All the sliding column doors are open. There are four-8ft wide and four-4ft wide open doors evenly spaced along the inside wall. Each lead to a dark hallway of corresponding width.

The 20ft wide ring corridor is constructed of artificial stone segments and the floor is covered with dust and detritus accumulated over the centuries. There are places on the walls where colored stripes once created lines long ago, but most have faded or flaked away. The entire area is silent.

Actions?

...

[rossik]

"Is everyone ok? Maybe we should rest to recover from previous battles. Then, we could explore the inner circle space" say MacMak, weirdly licking his non functional wings

[shaidar]

Silvestri looks at his friends

"Resting and healing is a good idea, although I not sure sure about staying here, what with the green goo and a chance more bugs might turn up. I can heal four times, I think Belial and Denslow need my attention"

[greyarea]

Denslow says, I think resting here is fine. Fairly defensible and we have an emergency out if we can figure out how to get up that tunnel.

[Urson]

Belial

Belial looks intently at the spheres, not touching them. duuude- Do you think the Scavs like, poop these things out? They're pretty Geiger-ish....

When he hears his name mentioned regarding healing, Belial looks up. That would be so awesome if you will....

[shaidar]

Silvestri applies his healing to his wounded companions...

Belial 1

Psychic Healing: [2d4+3] = 5+3 = 8

Belial 2

Psychic Healing: [2d4+3] = 3+3 = 6

Denslow 1

Psychic Healing: [2d4+3] = 4+3 = 7

Denslow 2

Psychic Healing: [2d4+3] = 3+3 = 6

[Urson]

Belial

As the healing energy passes over him, Belial's fur stands on end for a moment.
Woah! Much grass, my dude!

[greyarea]

Denslow thanks Silvestri