A BioHazard® 5.0 play-by-post adventure run by bh5ogm
"I'm with you Heil. Those manuals you found down there may give us clues on both fronts. Ooh, is that the Sunbolt weapon?" he points at Heil's hip. "Can I see it?"
"I don't know Pafnuty, those manuals look like a bunch of crap paper to me, pardon my French.
"Oh, and Grover, don't call me 'boy' again if you know what I mean."
"Ooh, is that the Sunbolt weapon?"
I turn back to Pafnuty. "Why? You want me to shoot you in the other leg with it? Just kidding, don't get all worked up. Your point being, Pafnuty?"
"Hm. A crossroads! Deciding what to do is always fun with three guys like us each with a different agenda. Well now that we know this hunk of technological gold powers up, I'd like to see if we can find those other data chips, just to satisfy my curiosity and make this mission all the more complete." Grover turns to Heil. "But, yes, we need to find that Holy Water, too!"
Grover reaches into his pack and retrieves one of the Sunbolt pistols, handing it to Pafnuty. "Now we each have one---a souvenir, hee-hee! Maybe they still work, too! If we encounter any more of those one-eyes, it'll come in handy!"
Grover glances back at the VX terminal screen, wondering how close he is to success, especially if he can escape alive with the knowledge that this machine indeed still has power.
"Let's go find us some black goo, shall we? I think the VX will be happy to wait for our return, and maybe we'll find some missing parts along the way!" Grover goes back to the entrance to the room and glances around. "Anybody see another way down to the vats? I guess we could check the store room below again."
Did the ladder go down further past the store room or did it end at that level?
The ladder goes down and stops at the storage room. As you will remember, glass shards fell down and hit the floor of the shaft, which is essentially the floor of the storage room.
Pafnuty speaks up and says, "Well, we now just have two tasks, that's all. No problems. Let's go back down to the storage room." He looks at his hands. "I'll try to climb down even though it's gonna hurt. I want to read those manuals you found."
Grover says, "Then it is decided. Let us venture downwards into fathoms below! Hee-hee!" The strange mystic hops into the shaft and, head first, crawls down the ladder. Pafnuty follows. Heil rolls his eyes and follows the diminutive scholar down the ladder.
Grover does a back flip curled saucow off the ladder and lands with barely a sound on the shaft's floor. He ducks underneath the small doorway, and finds himself back in the storage room. It seems that the red lights that turned on earlier have warmed up and, unless he is mistaken, have grown brighter, illuminating the room in a powerful red glow. The only non-crimson light is a small green light on the power box that turned on when he threw the switch.
Grover walks around the room one more time, looking for any doors. He didn't see one earlier, and neither did Heil, but as Pafnuty and Heil emerge into the room, Grover spies the faint outline of a door frame in the solid metallic wall opposite the entrance. No door handle is apparent, although after blowing away a thin film of dust, he finds a thin, slender slot where a door handle would be expected.
Grover calls the attention of his comrades, "I seem to have found the gatekeeper, but no key master is around... hee-hee."
Other items of interest are the box of four manuals, an open-faced cabinet with a few cardboard boxes in it (as yet unexplored), the power box (already explored) and the cabinet containing the Sunbolt weapons (already explored).
Grumbling for having to climb back down here again, I go over to the few cardboard boxes and begin searching through them, taking each item out and looking at it. "I don't suppose I would be lucky enough to find a crowbar in this box.... Hmmm, didn't think so."
I look at Pafnuty. "How's the hands, gimp?"
Back in the storage room after another inverted climb, Grover takes a moment to survey the room before entering, noticing the increased lumens from the various light-emitting power sources. He ignores Heil's jab at Pafnuty, knowing the lad can take up for himself. Grover feels somewhat protective of Pafnuty, but he doesn't want to be his mommy, either.
"Hmm..." he says, examining the slot in the door-framed part of the wall opposite the ladder. He pulls out the knife he took from the desk at the bottom of the well above, and pokes it around the slit to see if he can find out what it is. He also concentrates studiously on the slit in an attempt to discern (Mystically) how to bypass or disable the locking or handle mechanism.
Heil searches through four boxes. One has twelve pencils in it, all sharpened and although a bit faded and soft, still in working condition. The erasers, though, are hard as wood with age. In a second, he finds five ink pens---black ink, and dried centuries ago. Maybe some scholarly touches can restore them to working order. In a third, he finds 27 thin bent pieces of metal, (something we have already determined to be paper clips!). A fourth box is empty. A fifth box holds twenty strips of staple rows, for the standard stapler, which of course is not in these shelves. Heil puts the office supplies on the middle of the desk for all to observe.
Grover uses his mystically-honed artifact find-out skills and prods gently around with his knife, but cannot figure out how the slot works. Upon careful examination with Mystic torchlight, he discovers some usage marks on the inside of the slot, as if something was long ago inserted and taken out repeatedly. Grover announces his determination to the group:
"Let us look for some sort of key card, for that is the only thing which will open this here entrance way."
Pafnuty gives a look-see to the slot and makes the same conclusions. As Grover and Heil move around the room looking, Pafnuty contents himself to sit on the floor with the ancient binders and look at their contents. About halfway through the first and ten minutes later, Pafnuty exclaimes, "Ah-hah!" He pulls from between two pages of the ancient manual a silver plastic card with a black strip running along one side. The pages it was between still bear the imprint of its presence.
Pafnuty puts the manual back into the box and approaches the door with keycard in hand, and slides it into the slot. Grover watches intently and fervently as Heil backs away slowly, with his hands reaching for his Sunbolt weapon.
The card is pulled inside the door out of Pafnuty's grip, and a low vibration emanates from beyond. The card is ejected, and the excited Pafnuty grabs it and steps back as the door begins to rise out of the wall.
Grover exclaims happily, "You truly are the master of keys, young Pafnuty! Hee-hee!" Heil takes another step back, Sunbolt in hand.
The door swings open inside as a chilly breeze sweeps into the storage room to reveal a metal corridor, illuminated in soft white light. Lining the sides of the corridor are alcoves, four on each side and rippling with electrical wires and components. (Imagine white-washed Borg recharging units, folks.) Stepping forward, Pafnuty peers into the nearest alcove inside the door and to the left.
A six-foot tall man stands, leaning slightly backwards, his eyes closed and his lips shut coldly. Despite the cold, his skin is a warm, fresh peach color. His hair is brown and short, well-arranged and slightly wet. His face is well-structured and smooth. He wears strange, very form-fitting clothing that fits loosely but is comfortable. The clothing colors are drab brown and blues. His boots are very sturdy and of the finest craftsmanship: quality that 25th century humanoids have never seen. His hands are open and resting against the back of the alcove, which is slanted back as to give the impression that the man is... sleeping.
There is obviously sophisticated computer equipment lining the walls of the alcove, which is five feet deep and as tall as the ceiling. Cables and belts of grey plastic run around the walls making a maze, and there are many lights and display terminals. A faint green glow emanates from the displays. Some of the electronics are in the alcove itself, behind the man.
Looking deeper in and to the right, Pafnuty sees another man, wearing similar clothing, except with black hair. His alcove has identical electronics.
Pafnuty waves his hand into the room, but neither frozen figures notice. He opens his mouth as if to speak, but, finding it dry, swallows loudly and then speaks, "Uh... hello?"
There is no response.
What do you do?
Pafnuty pockets the pencils and pens. They look so cool, and will make great gifts, if he ever makes it back!
Having left his bulky crossbow above, and holstering his Sunbolt weapon (in his belt, if no holster came with it), Pafnuty's hands are free to examine the computer equipment. "Looks like some kind of computer-sustained life support system. These men could be really old. If we could wake them, we might ask them where the missing hex chips might be stashed. But I admit no knowledge of how we might go about waking them... if indeed they can be."
Cracking his knuckles, Pafnuty tries to decipher any markings on the terminals and status displays.
Grover walks further into the room and discovers that the alcove at the end of the room and to the right is darkened and empty.
Pafnuty makes the connection. "Guys... there are eight groups of dataplugs... eight alcoves...."
Simuntaneously, Grover announces, "There's a man missing...."
Pafnuty's and Grover's eyes meet from across the room.
Not really knowing what the frell is going on, I just stand there looking from Pafnuty to Grover, wondering what we should do next. To me, data plugs don't mean jack, and this all seems like a big waste of time. Sighing, I stand there impatiently tapping my weapon against my leg and holding my sharpened walking stick in the other hand.
Pafnuty's photographic memory recalls the following screen to confirm his suspicion that the dataplugs and these inanimate men are related:
*g2983 intact
*g2984 intact
*g2985 intact
*g2986 intact
*g2987 intact
*g2988 missing
*g2989 intact
*g2990 intact
"Could these men be robots of some sort? Carriers of the dataplugs?" Pafnuty wonders aloud.
At the end of the room, Grover finds a small white button on the far wall. The faint indentation of a door is there. He studies the empty cell to his right. Where a man's back would be, were the alcove occupied like the others, are all sorts of electrical equipment, hoses, interfaces and other high-tech equipment.
Meanwhile, Heil wanders in, still wary of the situation. "I don't see any oil," he says, "but I do smell something out of place. Can't quite put my finger on it." Heil looks high and low, and suddenly locks his eyes on the floor in front of the third man on the left row. He moves down and looks at his boots. "Hey guys, there's something you should see here." Heil's eyes follow a faint trail of dirt and mud, ages old and dried, from the man's position to the closed door at the end of the hall.
"It's just a guess, but I say we try the door at the end of the hall. After we find this Holy Water, I say we get the frak out of here!" I smirk and point my thumb waywardly in that direction waiting to see if anyone agrees.
"I agree, with you... Heil." Pafnuty visually traces the trail to the door. "But I'll be really disappointed if that's just the bathroom. Shall I?" he says, pulling out his silver keycard.
"Well, boyos, I guess time's a-wastin'! Maybe we won't need that shiny plastic of yours, Mr. Galewood," Grover says, pointing to the white button. He makes eye contact with Heil and Pafnuty with a gesture toward the button. "Shall I?"
"Are you sure you don't want me to go first? I don't want Pafnuty to start bleeding again," I chuckle a little.
Grover looks at the white button in the wall at the end of the strange bright hallway, then to Pafnuty standing inquisitively, then to Heil standing on guard behind him. His finger softly depresses the button. A distant electronic bell sounds, and from behind the door a low vibration can be felt. The muffled whining of an electronic motor can also be heard. After 10 seconds and right before Pafnuty is about to speak up, the door quickly slides horizontally away with a loud hiss. The electronic bell sounds again from within the revealed room: a small, compact space with shiny walls and only about as tall as the door itself (8 feet). Peeking inside, Grover sees nothing on any of the walls besides shiny polished metal. Stepping inside, Grover notices two similar buttons on the inside right-hand wall. One has an arrow pointing up; the other, an arrow pointing down.
Bending down and observing the door frame, Heil points out the same ancient remnants of dirt in the room, scarcely visible unless intentionally sought.
What do you do?
"Hm, I see, I see. Just as I thought," Grover looks up at the two humans beside him and smiles confidently. "I have no idea what this is." Some kind of trash compactor, maybe?" He grins at this point, saying, "Just kidding!"
Grover, either not knowing, or knowing what this is, knows one thing for sure. The tracks continue to this room. "I wonder if the person who walked this way, also pushed a button?" Grover examines the buttons, trying to determine, if he can, if either one was pressed by their mystery predecessor.
"Well this seems like a big frelling waste of time if you ask me. We should be getting what we came here for, quit pussy-footin' around and leave before we meet whatever made those tracks. I'm bettin' as sure as Pafnuty can scream like a school girl that whatever made those won't be friendly. It's just a hunch I have." I look at both of them wondering if they are listening to me. Sighing a little, I stand there leaning on my sharpened makeshift spear/walking stick.
Grover considers applying some true technical thought, but with no mechanical parts exposed in the room, he expects there are none. The creases between the door and this small chamber are tight and smooth. The room itself also appears to be seamless. In fact, the only thing that breaks the monotony of smooth light blue metallic walls are the two buttons inside. Of course, each has an arrow on it... the top button has an arrow pointing up, the bottom button has an arrow pointing down.
Pafnuty and Grover continue to explore the chamber beyond the door. Pafnuty looks at the dirt prints on the floor and says, "These tracks've gotta be old... I mean seriously old, Heil. They are faded and you can sort of see dirt residue too, from where mud once was, but there is one thing peculiar about them." Grover bends down besides the prodigy with a "Hmm?" Pafnuty answers, "As old as they may be, they haven't been disturbed since they were made."
Heil harumphs and walks into the small room, looks around, and sees the two buttons. Remembering how far down the giant tanks are, he sees the 'down' button, and makes a connection. "Those tanks are pretty far down, right?" says Heil.
"Yeah, a good distance. Why?" Pafnuty asks.
"Well, you guys can sit and talk about dirt all you want, but I'm going to get some holy water." Heil reaches out and presses the down arrow.
The door begins to slide horizontally back into place.
Heil gets a nervous lump in the back of his throat as he sees the chamber closing. It's been a long time---years in fact---since he had that claustrophic attack inside his bedtent. Suddenly the fears of entrapment don't seem too distant....
Pafnuty and Grover are still in the hallway, but can leap into the room if they move quickly.
What do you do?
"What the---wait for me!" Pafnuty yelps, and jumps into the room before the door closes. "You too, Mystic!" he shouts, grabbing Grover by the collar and pulling him inside. (Pafnuty uses his speed mutation if necessary.)
Inside, he glances at Heil sternly. "And I do not scream like a school girl!" Heil's face is blanched like he has just looked a Faar in the eye, so Pafnuty decides to leave him to his demons. "Stinky swamp rat," he mutters under his breath.
The Mystic has no intention of missing the boat, or whatever the Ancients called the contraption into which he was just speedily yanked by his young pseudo-charge. In fact, although he wants to investigate the alcoves and their immobile residents further, he knows Heil is right. Without finishing their quest, no knowledge in all the world will gain them the respect of the elders of the tribe, and Grover is happy to play the part of an honest quest-goer. Especially with the aid of these two folks who were becoming friends through the shared dangers of the mission. Sort of a band of adventurers in the radiated lands. A veritable biohazard quest club.
"Hee-HEE-hee," Grover chuckles. "You did press the down button, eh?" he grins and says to Heil. He prepares himself for whatever strangeness will befall him as the door closes completely.
A soft "ding" chimes from within the room as the door slides shut. Soft illumination with a faint blue hue lights the box you are in. Then, suddenly, you feel a downward pull, and the unmistakable sensation of falling. As you pick up velocity, each of you grab the walls and lower yourselves down in fear and amazement.
"We're falling!" says Pafnuty, half terrified, half amazed.
Heil, sweating and clearly agitated, focuses on the buttons and clenches his teeth.
"Hee hee... what a rush!" Grover says.
After 20 seconds, you feel the floor rise up to meet you as your descent slows. It's a welcome sensation. For ten more seconds you feel the box ending its descent, and then, without bump or hitch, you realize you have stopped.
A soft "ding" chimes again. The door begins to open from your right to left. An acrid, thick stench fills the box. Outside the door is pitch black, but with the light from within your small room, you can see that the floor outside is covered with a thick black goo, which starts to slide across the threshold as the door opens.
Heil's eyes light up, then his brows lower in thought. "It looks like Holy Water... but it sure isn't liquid."
The black goo is really more like a thick jelly or grease or mayonnaise.
Pafnuty kneels down near the threshold and looks at it closely. "The smell is right," he says, remembering the charecteristic smell wafting from the small supply of Holy Water that Arlktn had. "This must be it."
The door opens completely, and the three look out. The entire floor is covered by the black goo. It is seeping slowly across the threshold, only an inch or so across the door now.
The party, excited but controlled, open their packs and begin to remove their vials, each wrapped in thick cloth. Setting down his pack, Pafnuty takes out his vials and begins to unravel the cloth. But to his horror, he hears the faint crinkle and sound of broken glass pieces moving together. Heil's and Grover's eyes dart towards Pafnuty in dismay. Each of the three have to bring back one vial each. Allowing for the possibility of damage to the vials, each was given two vials to carry... but the prospects of having actually broken vials are alarming. Pafnuty gulps and continues to unwrap, finding one vial cleanly fragmented and the other intact.
"Must have happened when I jumped into the box, or maybe when I was running, or maybe---"
"It doesn't matter now," Heil says, holding his two vials in one hand and removing their stoppers with the other. "We need to fill as many vials as we have anyway. We'll have plenty unless more of them break."
Heil scoops one vial into the goo in the doorway, filling it up, and then corks it. He does the same with the other vial. Grover stands ready to fill his vials, both intact.
Heil is placing the cork on the top of his second vial when he hears something sounding like a faint "splat," out in the darkness. Grover and Pafnuty hear it too, and both look out. To Heil's suprise, a small glob of the black goo comes out of the darkness and lands on the toe of his boot. Another little glob lands on the floor of the elevator, as if splashed....
Hey guys, some questions arose in today's chat (which Grover was not at, big cheeky-monkey).
The Mystic intensifies his Mystic Torchlight with sheer force of mental will. He tries to light the room beyond as best he can with one outstretched and gauntlet-protected palm. His bardiche leans sturdily against the back wall of the small room.
"No chance at following those footsteps now, methinks, eh guys?" he conjectures with a question. Clad in sandles, Grover tries to avoid getting the creeping Holy Water between his toes. "I'm all for mysteries, fellas. But I'm not convinced yet that I want to go sloshing around in this stuff. Whatcha think? Wanna go exploring?" He says this mostly to Pafnuty, as he assumes Heil will want to get topside quickly, having collected that which they seek.
Grover pulls together his battery of mental abilities and peers into the room beyond the once-moving metal box that carried them down. He wonders what made that splash.
Grover's Mystic Torchlight goes from "candle" to "75 watt," its most powerful setting. As the party's eyes adjust to the the illumination, they detect the shadowy outline of a live Faar standing in the muck, one just as large and fearsome as the one you previously killed. The three gulp collectively. The one-eyed monster seems to be studying them, twitching its head like a bird. Its claw feet are buried in the muck, and it appears that it was its landing that splashed the Holy Water. It is about twenty feet away, and poised for attack.
You can only assume that he has seen you and is puzzled by the strange blue-lit room that has appeared in a wall that had previously always been cold and black.
What do you do? Do you risk trying to grab a third vial of Holy Water? Do you close the door? Do you attack? Do you try all three while chewing gum, tapping your head and rubbing your tummy?
At once, Pafnuty regrets not having taken his crossbow with him. The much-vaunted Sunbolt weapon at his belt will only serve to barbecue the creature---and everything else in here---if it ignites the Holy Water. Keeping his eyes on the shadowy creature, he stoops slowly to fill his vial with the Holy Water oozing in their room. He wonders if his comrades can hear his heart pounding back the unnerving silence.
The Mystically-inclined human waits and watches as Pafnuty stoops to fill his vial with the black ooze. He assumes the one-eyed monstrosity will not rush them in the moving box, if only due to the size of the creature relative to the size of the alcove. Once Pafnuty finishes filling his vial, Grover will take a turn and fill his two vials. He considers pushing the upward-pointing triangle button, assuming it will close the door; after all, the Holy Water has spilled into the moving box and they don't need to leave the door open. But then he wonders just what movements will startle the creature enough to make it attack, and decides against it.
The shadowy outline of a live Faar standing in the muck makes my heart skip a beat for just a second as I grip the pistol in one hand and set the sharpened walking stick against my boot with the other, ready to do battle if need be. I am not afraid of dying; I just don't think it seems the right time to die. I move slowly forward, guarding Grover and Pafnuty. If the Faar attacks, I want to be there to help.
The Faar emits a low grumble, lifts one of his spiked legs out of the muck and takes a hesistant step forward. It cocks its head from side to side, studying the three strange beings in the odd glowing room.
The group carefully and silently collects five full vials of the black muck. (Remember, one of Pafnuty's was crushed.) After everyone is done, Pafnuty slowly moves towards the two buttons on the wall of the room, and reaches for the up button.
Just then the Faar unleashes a terrifying shriek and charges forward, flapping its batlike wings backwards and sending up a spray of Holy Water. The one-eyed beast moves with phenomenal acceleration straight towards the warm-bodied creatures in the strange box. Pafnuty joltingly hits the up button, which depresses slightly and takes on a lighter luminescence. There is a distant and faint ding, and the door begins to slowly slide shut from one side to the other. The party steps back and readies itself for a dramatic play-at-the-plate.
The sloshing of the beast grows louder quickly. The door closes more than halfway and to your dismay obscures your vision of the oncoming horror. Just as it closes, the box shakes with a tremendous impact, knocking you around. A slight dent appears on the inside of the door, and from beyond you hear another one of the giant beast's screeching howls.
As the box begins to rise, Grover feels a strange sensation in his gut, a warm, uncanny boiling feeling. Suddenly, he realizes that he is being radiated.
Upon ramming the door, the creature released its eye's full saturation of byllantrous radiation. Filtered surprisingly effectively by the composite polymer metallic door, the intensity 35 radiation is a mere intensity 22 when it passes through Grover's midsection in a relatively cylindrical beam. (Grover takes 22 minus his constitution in d6 damage.)
The elevator accelerates upwards into the dark shaft.
Mea Culpa (which is Latin for "my fault") guys: I have been using the commonly-used name "bloodbird" when in fact a bloodbird by official name is something Faar different. (ba dum dum)
The one eyed, rad-spewing, claw-footed overgrown bat is actually in the book listed as a Faar, although bloodbird is a commonly used name for both creatures. Don't ask me, ask the dumb idiot who wrote the game.
Doh!
Grover's Constitution is 17. 22-17=5, so Grover takes 5d6 points of damage and will likely have a killer headache in the morning. The nature of the radiation is not lingering or dispersing and the other two party members are not harmed.
On 5d6, I roll 17. add it up, bro.
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