Anim8 (Joey)
Character: GM/Noxx Tsun Tsa
Expert/Technician
Auzali (Taylor)
Character: Saiga Black
Warrior/Soldier
TKindig (Trey)
Character: Maximus McCloud
Warrior/Dilettante
Ozz13 (Jeff)
Character: Domoz Domoztri
Noble/Psychic
WEEK THREE
Playing keep away with keepers
Back into action the group finds themselves in a catacomb below a city overrun with religious fanatics of a cult called “the keepers”.
At the end of an extremely long hallway lies what seems to be a room full of the relics. A large armed robot patrols the corridor. Saiga attempts a sneak and passes his roll with the idea that he’s going to get past the guard and nab a few relics. Instead he finds himself at the bottom of a 20 foot drop. “A trap door!” cries Saiga. Maximus and Dom stare down the hallway reluctant to proceed. As Saiga looks around he notices an open door leading out into another hallway from the room he’s in and a lesser guard patrolling. Saiga yells up to Maximus and Dom “Hey, drop down and give me a hand! I think this place may contain treasure with all these guards around.” Max and Dom drop down and the group proceeds to exit the room.
The group fights their way through the second level of the catacombs encountering numerous types of religious zealots moaning about “…the light”. The further into the dungeon they go the tougher and more psychotic the fanatics become. The group suffers some combat damage and Maximus springs a trap for an additional loss of HP. Their luck seems to turn when they find a small room way off the main corridor which contains a weapons cache. Three combat rifles! Continuing on and fighting through connecting rooms, Maximus discovers a chest and is quick to open it. “Credits!” Max snaps at the group as he hauls out the find and divies it up. As they continue on the path they begin to notice the corridor has become wet. Next thing they know, they are waist deep, wading through water. In addition to the water they notice the corridor has become noisy. Grumbling and moaning from creatures they’ve yet to encounter. A giant fanatic appears swinging a large axe. Saiga and Max take the brunt of the damage while Dom manages to dodge the onslaught. The combat rifles prove to function well and the giant is felled after a struggle. Dom is noticing that everyone is bruised and bleeding. “Luckily I brought some apple juice and crackers for an after nap snack.” he chuckles. Dom pulls some medpacks out of his bag to share with everyone and the group restores some HP. Nearing the end of the corridor the group fights their way to a room with a large ancient machine. At the doorway, a hand touches Max’s shoulder. “I thought you guys could use some help”. The group turns to see Ryza, the hunter Drax sent to investigate the meteorites, standing at the ready. “Those weren’t meteorites that hit the planet. They were two single passenger drop pods containing the bounty hunters you guys mentioned. They are heading towards the temple.” The group stares at Ryza. “Well shit..” said Saiga. “I’ll assist you for as long as I can,” said Ryza “..but we’ve gotta get out of these catacombs.”
The robot guard stands in a doorway blocking their access to the relics. Without hesitation the group engages the robot and defeats it with slight struggle.
Upon defeating the heavy robot guard the group pours over the ancient relic cache. They count 440 and with remembering what the broken fragment was worth, they began to imagine wealth as they gazed at the pristine relics. While Saiga and Dom began to stuff the groups bags with a few relics, Max and Ryza were analyzing the machine. “It has a cylindrical keyhole…” says Max. Saiga looks at the relic he’s holding, then at the machine, then back at the relic. “Hmm” mumbled Saiga as he began to shove a relic into the machine. The relic began to glow with a bright light. The group looked on as the machine began to make a noise. The water around them lit up and in a split second the group began to experience an electrical shocking sensation in the water. Everyone blacks out. About 10 minutes pass and they all wake up floating face up in the water. HP fully restored. The group began speculating about how the machine was able to heal them. After looking over the room, Ryza notices that there are hieroglyphs on the walls and they resemble something he is very familiar with. “These symbols on the wall… are a star map of this sector… and these symbols that mark white dwarf stars are the same symbols on the face of machine.” The group ponders what that means for a minute. Saiga takes out his knife and begins scraping on the side of the machine to gather some dusting in his hand. “This dust is extremely heavy. The machine is made from the dust of collapsed stars.”
Feral beast meat, its whats for dinner
After exiting the city, the group consults with Ryza about trying to make for the closest Pole Station which sits in a desert wasteland. Ryza gains the groups trust in his ability to navigate the wastes. Dom pipes up, “We need food and water if we are going to make this trip.” Ryza nods at Dom and says, “Hunting? This is my domain.” and begins to lead the group into a nearby forest at the edge of the equatorial oasis. Once at the hunting spot, Ryza tells everyone to take cover as he lays some bait. Saiga and Max take cover on top of some ruins while Dom and Ryza take cover at ground level. A short while later, a feral beast appears resembling a mixture of feline with some reptilian features. As it begins to take to the bait, Saiga motions to the group and takes aim. BOOM! The shot misses and the beast hisses. The beast begins growling and sniffing around. BOOM! Maximus takes the next shot… and misses. The beast notices Saiga’s position and starts circling the ruin. Another beast appears and begins to snort and growl, prowling along with the other. Dom and Ryza remain quiet as not to give away their vulnerable positions. The beasts begin lunging toward to top of the ruin in Saiga’s direction. Saiga takes another shot and just grazes the animal’s shoulder. The beast jumps up in Saiga’s nest and before Saiga can draw his blade brains splatter all over him. “Headshot!” yells Max. The two snipers each take one more bullet to fell the other beast. “That was getting hairy for a minute.” chuckled Dom as Saiga wiped the brain matter from his clothes.
Ryza shows the group that these beasts hides are large and perfect for making cloaks to aid them in the desert. With the meat and skins plundered, the group begins to go over a map of the planet with Ryza. They spend some time mapping out 2 paths and decide to take a longer but isolated trek. Dom reminds everyone that they still need water. On the path that they mapped out Max notices a downhill ravine and questions Ryza to which he responds, “That is a ravine with a small spring at the bottom, it should be fine to gather water.”
To the ravine and beyond….
During the hike the group began to dehydrate. Upon reaching the ravine they were exhausted. “Can we climb down?” asked Max. The group rolls for an exert with a -2 modifier for dehydration. Each member fails. “Looks like we will need to walk around to the bottom.” says Ryza. It takes the group a bit longer than normal. Once they reach the bottom they rest and drink water to replenish their strength. “Where do you figure the bounty hunters are now Ryza?” Saiga asks. “Ryza pulls out a map and quickly answers, “They must be on their way to the fanatic’s city if not already there.” With their canteens and spirits filled they begin to scale the wall to get back to the top of the ravine quicker. Upon reaching the top first, Max notices two men not far off in the distance with large hooks on their belts and each wielding what looks to be a large polearm with a sharp end and a blunt end. Max turns quickly down the ravine to help the rest up while mentioning the men. Dom uses his telepathy on them. “I sense no danger.” he says, “Let’s find out their purpose and see if they have some useful info.” The group starts toward the men.
“Kiniwanoshoya!” shouts one of the men to the other as he notices the group coming upon them. Max looks to Ryza, “Do you know what language that is?” Ryza shrugs. Dom begins trying to figure out a method of communication. He points to the hooks on one of the men and throws his arms up as if confused. The man responds by drawing sandworm in the dirt. “Those hooks must be for catching worms…” Dom says. “Or hitching a ride!” Saiga points out. The group starts discussing the possibility to riding sandworms to the station in order to put distance between themselves and the bounty hunters. Dom points at the sandworm drawing and looks around as if to ask “where?”. The man draws a line over top of the sandworm then adds some hills and trees above the line. “The worms are underground?” Max asks rhetorically. Dom draws arrows from the worm pointing above ground to indicate he would like to know how to draw them out. The man slams his polearm into the ground then draws vibrations in the dirt. “He’s using vibration with the metal pole to disturb the worms.” Max says. At this point Saiga is ready to hitch a ride and steps into the conversation. He points at the hooks on the man and points back at himself. The man then points at Saiga’s rifle. Saiga looks at the group and a long discussion on how they will obtain the men’s equipment ensues.
Meanwhile, the other man begins to circle the group keeping them between him and his partner. Saiga notices immediately and feels it is an aggressive move. Saiga brandishes his rifle and nods for the man to move back over next to his partner. The man does so but the other begins to move as well, always keeping the group between them. Saiga tells the group to form up back to back and be ready for an attack. Just as they do so a young boy runs down from behind some rocks and joins one of the men at his side. “His son” says Ryza. Saiga uses his sneak to quickly grab the child and hold him hostage. The father immediately loses his calm and begins to plead with body language. Saiga points at the hooks and rod and then at the ground. The father quickly drops his equipment. “That’s only three hooks. We are going to need one more for Ryza” snaps Saiga. The group begins to motion for the other man to drop his hooks. This man does not show any emotion and points at their rifles. “Do not trust him” says Ryza. “He will turn it against us as soon as we give it to him”. Saiga ignores Ryza’s warning, removes the magazine, and throws the combat rifle at the man’s feet. The man waves the hook at them and points at the magazine. Saiga threatens the boys life in front of this man but he still shows no emotion. The father is crying and begging for his son. Saiga is at his wits end. “Waste this guy.” He barks at Max. Ryza responds quickly “No! If you kill one of them the entire village will be on your trail. You must kill them all or spare them all.” Saiga, knowing he himself will not harm the child, tells the group, “I’m going to give him the magazine, be ready for combat if he turns on us.” Saiga then tosses the magazine at the mans feet. The brute throws the hook down and slaps the magazine into the rifle. The group grabs all of the equipment and begins to back away with the boy. After Saiga feels they are at a safe distance the boy is released. Reunited with his father, the boy and the men begin to head off in the opposite direction. Just as the group begins to breath easy from escaping the situation with their loot a gunshot goes off in the distance. They turn to see the brute shooting his partner and then the boy. He maniacally begins to carve them up. “I tried to tell you not to trust him.” said Ryza as the team is left wondering why they didn’t offer meat to barter.