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terryclothLast night we played some shadake, and found the doom. Or possibly four dooms, depending how you count! At least two, though.
Rewinding a bit, in the days leading up to the doomful encounter with the repair station, Nico convinced the other mages to cooperate in the construction of an emergency teleport crystal that would be useful for pulling people back to the ship if they fell off. They'd need to be wearing the crystal, of course, and it would be single use, but with the five of them it would only take a few days to make...
So after the captain ordered everyone to get ready to fight, and Kyngeah's fortunetelling portended doom (and storms), he ordered the mages consulted.
...and they were all gone. Missing. All that was left was a crystal, sitting in the middle of the floor. They didn't know whether to smash it to free the imprisoned mages (assuming they were imprisoned) or whether that would doom them or kill them, so they left it alone. Kyngeah tried another tarot reading, which seemed to indicate that they shouldn't worry -- or at least that they couldn't do anything about it.
Captain Moose was very annoyed not to be able to send Nico to fly over and scout, but as a consolation prize he had a crew full of burmecians, who could jump long distances. He tied ropes to a dozen of them (including Cane, Kyngeah, and Takara) and... about half of them made the jump on the first try. The rest climbed over on the ropes the first wave secured.
The station seemed deserted, and also gouged and scraped as if by claws or weapons, at about waist-height and below. So everyone was on guard against small, vicious kobolds or possibly crystal spiders (which were the best Kyngeah's monster lore could come up with for possibilities). They didn't find any, at first.
They did find Nico, sleeping in a room on the repair station. He'd blacked out on the hour or so (at least!) that had passed since whatever had made all the mages vanish from his ritual, but seemed otherwise unharmed. He had no idea what had happened or how he'd gotten there, and then...
Oh no! A swirling ball of fur, heading right for them! Cane sliced at it with his sword, barely hitting it, and then ran after it chasing it all over the station, convinced that it was what had done all the damage and presumably killed the crew. No one else shared his conviction, so he was alone when he finally chased it to the stairs down to the basement.
The dog (it was obviously a dog to everyone but Cane) whimpered as it looked down the stairs, and ran back towards Cane with its tail between its legs. Cane was genre-savvy enough to recognize 'oh, here come the actual monsters', and drank his emergency 'turn back into a redzox' potion to be more ready to fight.
Which was good, because the enemies he had to fight were very vicious! They were clockwork bugs with acid claws that did permanent damage when they hit, and there were four of them. But they were foolish enough to swarm Cane, letting him take them all out with one swipe of his sword... but not until after they'd torn a chunk out of his leg. He picked one up as a sample, and ran back towards the section the rest of the crew had been searching, screaming about the mechanical bugs.
Unfortunately, no one could make out what he was saying through the building storm and their own discussion. The captain had moved everyone off the ship and into the mess hall on the repair station, to be safe from the storm. So they heard some faint yelling, and then a strange creature that only a few of them had ever seen before ran in holding a strange, dangerous looking contraption. Of *course* they shot him!
Cane survived, though, and the captain ordered them to hold their fire -- after Nico's change, it wasn't entirely surprising to see that the people with him were also transformed. While Kyngeah healing him, Cane explained the encounter with the bugs, and the captain agreed that going back to the ship was the best option. Leaving the station entirely was out of the question -- the storm would destroy the Concordance, in the shape it was in. But if Cane could defeat four of the bugs on their own, well, they'd probably have a good chance of being able to hold off the horde if it decided to come scavenge them, from a defensible position like the dock.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the borg-bugs they had to worry about. Takara was the first person to spot it, of course, but soon everyone could see the massive crystal sailing through the storm. Nico could see that it was *causing* the storm, or at least causing the lightning. Both cannons were schlepped over to the side facing the crystal, and the crew prepared for battle.
There was a smaller ship, a Drakivolki ship that had been reported in the repair station's logs just before the borg-bugs destroyed them, that seemed to be accompanying the crystal. Only Takara could see it, but she decided to fire her cannon at it instead of the huge crystal... until she noticed that its gunner was firing at the crystal, too. Huh?
Unfortunately, they didn't just get to sit back and fire cannon the whole battle. Nico tried to counterspell, but was much less powerful than the crystal, so most of its lightning bolts got through to pummel both ships, and a bunch of drakivolki flew over to engage the crew in swordplay.
It was a long, brutal battle, but the crystal was vulnerable to cannon-fire, and although it took out one cannon crew, Takara and her loader managed to dodge the bolt when it came for their cannon, and at least one of the cannons was still usable, so they were able to keep firing and smash it to pieces.
The drakivolki took out most of the mages that they'd managed to recover (most of the other ones had also been scattered around the station, except for Vesperian who'd been found drunk in the galley), but Cane and Takara (during a break from firing the cannon) and the rest of the crew fought them off before they could kill Nico. Most of the mages survived. Teatime, unfortunately, survived (although it was fortunate that he'd been there, since he was the one who'd made the cannon crew of the drakivolki ship fire at their ally and piss it off, drawing half the lightning bolts).
The Drakivolki ship had been damaged more heavily by the lightning -- it was smaller, and one of the lightning bolts aimed at its cannon had ignited its powder stores. Cane wondered if they could go over and capture it, but the captain wasn't about to break from the mooring during the storm, which hadn't instantly faded with the destruction of the crystal.
...and then a very fast, sleek ship darted out from the bottom of the repair station, docked with the drakivolki ship, and as the crew of the Concordance looked on in horror, the bug-borg swarmed out and methodically stripped it of everything valuable, including the etheric vanes that let it fly. And presuambly killed all the crew too. Then the bugs left, taking with them every scrap of material that could have been used to repair the concordance, except for the wood that the station itself was made out of.
The wood was better than nothing, though -- the structural damage to the ship could be repaired!
And the fragments of the crystal were suitable for use as alchemical components. While repairs were going on, Cane and Vesperian made half a dozen electric grenades out of them. Cane also gathered up a bunch of drakivolki blood from the dead pirates for use in 'flying potions'.
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Rewinding a bit, in the days leading up to the doomful encounter with the repair station, Nico convinced the other mages to cooperate in the construction of an emergency teleport crystal that would be useful for pulling people back to the ship if they fell off. They'd need to be wearing the crystal, of course, and it would be single use, but with the five of them it would only take a few days to make...
So after the captain ordered everyone to get ready to fight, and Kyngeah's fortunetelling portended doom (and storms), he ordered the mages consulted.
...and they were all gone. Missing. All that was left was a crystal, sitting in the middle of the floor. They didn't know whether to smash it to free the imprisoned mages (assuming they were imprisoned) or whether that would doom them or kill them, so they left it alone. Kyngeah tried another tarot reading, which seemed to indicate that they shouldn't worry -- or at least that they couldn't do anything about it.
Captain Moose was very annoyed not to be able to send Nico to fly over and scout, but as a consolation prize he had a crew full of burmecians, who could jump long distances. He tied ropes to a dozen of them (including Cane, Kyngeah, and Takara) and... about half of them made the jump on the first try. The rest climbed over on the ropes the first wave secured.
The station seemed deserted, and also gouged and scraped as if by claws or weapons, at about waist-height and below. So everyone was on guard against small, vicious kobolds or possibly crystal spiders (which were the best Kyngeah's monster lore could come up with for possibilities). They didn't find any, at first.
They did find Nico, sleeping in a room on the repair station. He'd blacked out on the hour or so (at least!) that had passed since whatever had made all the mages vanish from his ritual, but seemed otherwise unharmed. He had no idea what had happened or how he'd gotten there, and then...
Oh no! A swirling ball of fur, heading right for them! Cane sliced at it with his sword, barely hitting it, and then ran after it chasing it all over the station, convinced that it was what had done all the damage and presumably killed the crew. No one else shared his conviction, so he was alone when he finally chased it to the stairs down to the basement.
The dog (it was obviously a dog to everyone but Cane) whimpered as it looked down the stairs, and ran back towards Cane with its tail between its legs. Cane was genre-savvy enough to recognize 'oh, here come the actual monsters', and drank his emergency 'turn back into a redzox' potion to be more ready to fight.
Which was good, because the enemies he had to fight were very vicious! They were clockwork bugs with acid claws that did permanent damage when they hit, and there were four of them. But they were foolish enough to swarm Cane, letting him take them all out with one swipe of his sword... but not until after they'd torn a chunk out of his leg. He picked one up as a sample, and ran back towards the section the rest of the crew had been searching, screaming about the mechanical bugs.
Unfortunately, no one could make out what he was saying through the building storm and their own discussion. The captain had moved everyone off the ship and into the mess hall on the repair station, to be safe from the storm. So they heard some faint yelling, and then a strange creature that only a few of them had ever seen before ran in holding a strange, dangerous looking contraption. Of *course* they shot him!
Cane survived, though, and the captain ordered them to hold their fire -- after Nico's change, it wasn't entirely surprising to see that the people with him were also transformed. While Kyngeah healing him, Cane explained the encounter with the bugs, and the captain agreed that going back to the ship was the best option. Leaving the station entirely was out of the question -- the storm would destroy the Concordance, in the shape it was in. But if Cane could defeat four of the bugs on their own, well, they'd probably have a good chance of being able to hold off the horde if it decided to come scavenge them, from a defensible position like the dock.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the borg-bugs they had to worry about. Takara was the first person to spot it, of course, but soon everyone could see the massive crystal sailing through the storm. Nico could see that it was *causing* the storm, or at least causing the lightning. Both cannons were schlepped over to the side facing the crystal, and the crew prepared for battle.
There was a smaller ship, a Drakivolki ship that had been reported in the repair station's logs just before the borg-bugs destroyed them, that seemed to be accompanying the crystal. Only Takara could see it, but she decided to fire her cannon at it instead of the huge crystal... until she noticed that its gunner was firing at the crystal, too. Huh?
Unfortunately, they didn't just get to sit back and fire cannon the whole battle. Nico tried to counterspell, but was much less powerful than the crystal, so most of its lightning bolts got through to pummel both ships, and a bunch of drakivolki flew over to engage the crew in swordplay.
It was a long, brutal battle, but the crystal was vulnerable to cannon-fire, and although it took out one cannon crew, Takara and her loader managed to dodge the bolt when it came for their cannon, and at least one of the cannons was still usable, so they were able to keep firing and smash it to pieces.
The drakivolki took out most of the mages that they'd managed to recover (most of the other ones had also been scattered around the station, except for Vesperian who'd been found drunk in the galley), but Cane and Takara (during a break from firing the cannon) and the rest of the crew fought them off before they could kill Nico. Most of the mages survived. Teatime, unfortunately, survived (although it was fortunate that he'd been there, since he was the one who'd made the cannon crew of the drakivolki ship fire at their ally and piss it off, drawing half the lightning bolts).
The Drakivolki ship had been damaged more heavily by the lightning -- it was smaller, and one of the lightning bolts aimed at its cannon had ignited its powder stores. Cane wondered if they could go over and capture it, but the captain wasn't about to break from the mooring during the storm, which hadn't instantly faded with the destruction of the crystal.
...and then a very fast, sleek ship darted out from the bottom of the repair station, docked with the drakivolki ship, and as the crew of the Concordance looked on in horror, the bug-borg swarmed out and methodically stripped it of everything valuable, including the etheric vanes that let it fly. And presuambly killed all the crew too. Then the bugs left, taking with them every scrap of material that could have been used to repair the concordance, except for the wood that the station itself was made out of.
The wood was better than nothing, though -- the structural damage to the ship could be repaired!
And the fragments of the crystal were suitable for use as alchemical components. While repairs were going on, Cane and Vesperian made half a dozen electric grenades out of them. Cane also gathered up a bunch of drakivolki blood from the dead pirates for use in 'flying potions'.
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