Heroica: Glory Amongst the Stars - Mission #9: He's Dead, Jim

[Duvors]

Having prepared themselves accordingly, the two heroes chosen for this mission make their way though Ebria's bustling streets. Pausing occasionally to ask directions of passers-by, they soon make their way to the central elevator station and begin the long ride down to the station's lower level. Down here things are less spit-and-polish than the above sections, with exposed girders in the ceiling and bare foamcrete and steel walls aplenty. Not to say there aren't nice places down here, where affluent travelers enter Ebria via the big passenger spaceports. But those areas swiftly give way to the dirty, crowded, and poorly maintained corridors of the station's poorest districts.

 

The building they have been directed to is none of these things. It is, however, very utilitarian. After standing around what appears to be an external vehicle bay for a moment, doubt begins to set in. Surely this is the right place? There was a sign and everything!

 - Heroes - 

 Decker DaCabe (Endgame)
24 year old male Human
Character Points: 0/19
Vitality: 7/7
Velocity: 2
Strength: 4
Skill: 3
Smarts: 1
Proficiencies: Melee Weapons 1, Short Range Weapons 2, Medicine 1, Perception 1, Athletics 1
Credits: 52
Equipment:  Double Barrel Voltaic Shotgun (Calibrated Energy Short Range Weapon), Sandblasted Cuirass (Standard Kinetic Armor),
Inventory: Unloaded Pistol (Calibrated Kinetic Melee Weapon), Plasma Potion 2x

 Ronin (Yzalirk)
[REDACTED] Male [REDACTED]
Character Points: 0/19
Vitality: 7/7
Velocity: 3
Strength: 1
Skill: 4
Smarts: 3
Spirit: 0/0
Proficiencies: Athletics 1, Artillery 1, Deception 1, Melee Weapons 2, Perception 1, Stealth 1, Survival 1
Known Spells: None
Credits: 322
Equipment: Cloaking Generator, Hard Light Katana (Calibrated Energy Melee Weapon)
Inventory: Gator Tooth (Can be converted into either a Kinetic or Elemental Standard Melee Weapon by a craftsman), Ion Laser (Calibrated Energy Artillery Weapon)

MM Note: Endgame, Yzalirk, welcome to mission 9! This is my first foray, so don't expect too much, but I hope you'll have a good time nonetheless. Please tell me if I've made any mistakes, and note that you have a 24 hour grace period for last-minute purchases. Other than that, let's roll!

Edited December 15, 2021 by Duvors

[Endgame]

Picked up a pair of plasma potions! Should be down to 52 credits.

Decker inspected his surroundings. There was nothing but the sound of the agents' footsteps, and the churning mechanical hiss of functioning machinery. Music to Decker's ears.

"Huh. Weird. Hello??" Decker calls out, glancing left and right. Were they late? Decker squinted at the clock on the wall to make sure they were on time. "Ronin, this has got to be the place, yeah? Did that guy we asked for directions say make two lefts, or three?"

[Duvors]

15 hours ago, Endgame said:

Picked up a pair of plasma potions! Should be down to 52 credits.

Decker inspected his surroundings. There was nothing but the sound of the agents' footsteps, and the churning mechanical hiss of functioning machinery. Music to Decker's ears.

"Huh. Weird. Hello??" Decker calls out, glancing left and right. Were they late? Decker squinted at the clock on the wall to make sure they were on time. "Ronin, this has got to be the place, yeah? Did that guy we asked for directions say make two lefts, or three?"

MM: Done. 

As Decker examines the device, he can see it isn't any kind of clock he's familiar with.

Decker Engineering Check (DC 1): (3,3,2) No successes.

In fact, Decker isn't sure exactly what it is. There's a keyboard, a thermometer, a couple of pressure gauges, and some kind of terminal. Curse his rusty engineering skills!

[Yzalirk]

Ronin looks around, slowly glancing to see if anything noteworthy catches his eyes.
 

Spoiler

Ronin will use his Perception Proficiency here.

 

18 hours ago, Endgame said:

Picked up a pair of plasma potions! Should be down to 52 credits.

Decker inspected his surroundings. There was nothing but the sound of the agents' footsteps, and the churning mechanical hiss of functioning machinery. Music to Decker's ears.

"Huh. Weird. Hello??" Decker calls out, glancing left and right. Were they late? Decker squinted at the clock on the wall to make sure they were on time. "Ronin, this has got to be the place, yeah? Did that guy we asked for directions say make two lefts, or three?"

"Yes, we followed his directions exactly as he said.  Perhaps we put too much trust in a stranger, Decker.  This place looks awfully perfect for an ambush.  Stay vigilant."
Ronin continues to look around while slowly grasping his sheathed sword.

[Duvors]

Ronin Perception Check (DC 1, 2): (5,6,1,1) Two successes.

As Ronin warily scans the area he doesn't immediately spot anything untoward. However looking up the side of the building he spots a security camera aimed at the two heroes. Glancing back down, he also notices that the terminal has a window on it displaying what the camera sees; the lot and themselves from a high angle. Suddenly, the terminal flashes as a new window opens. Even from where he is Ronin can read the message:

-New Message!-
Open?
Yes        No

[Endgame]

6 hours ago, Duvors said:

MM: Done. 

As Decker examines the device, he can see it isn't any kind of clock he's familiar with.

Decker Engineering Check (DC 1): (3,3,2) No successes.

In fact, Decker isn't sure exactly what it is. There's a keyboard, a thermometer, a couple of pressure gauges, and some kind of terminal. Curse his rusty engineering skills!

Decker scratches the back of his neck. "Damn, turns out there's a lotta technology 'sides the stuff on Akharif."

3 hours ago, Yzalirk said:

Ronin looks around, slowly glancing to see if anything noteworthy catches his eyes.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

Ronin will use his Perception Proficiency here.

 

"Yes, we followed his directions exactly as he said.  Perhaps we put too much trust in a stranger, Decker.  This place looks awfully perfect for an ambush.  Stay vigilant."

Decker nods, hand drifting from his neck to his back, where his shotgun was strapped. "Way ahead of ya." His eyes look around the room. Decker tries to leverage his Perception to see if there was any sign of anyone else recently in the room; muddy footprints, leftover lunch scraps, dropped belongings...

"What're you looking at over there, Ronin?" Decker asks, not spotting the message quite yet.

[Yzalirk]

1 hour ago, Endgame said:

Decker nods, hand drifting from his neck to his back, where his shotgun was strapped. "Way ahead of ya." His eyes look around the room. Decker tries to leverage his Perception to see if there was any sign of anyone else recently in the room; muddy footprints, leftover lunch scraps, dropped belongings...

"What're you looking at over there, Ronin?" Decker asks, not spotting the message quite yet.

Ronin points at the security camera.

"We are being watched."
Ronin walks over to the terminal, still watching the camera as it records his every move.  Unsure on how to use the terminal, he takes a second until opting to open the message.

[Duvors]

1 hour ago, Endgame said:

Decker nods, hand drifting from his neck to his back, where his shotgun was strapped. "Way ahead of ya." His eyes look around the room. Decker tries to leverage his Perception to see if there was any sign of anyone else recently in the room; muddy footprints, leftover lunch scraps, dropped belongings...

Decker Perception Check (DC 1): (5,4,4,1) Three successes.

While there isn't any mud around (Ebria has little in the way of ground cover) Decker is able to spot some greasy footprints and a dropped ticket from yesterday's musical. However most of this stuff is over a day old, with only a couple of sets being recent.

16 minutes ago, Yzalirk said:

Ronin walks over to the terminal, still watching the camera as it records his every move.  Unsure on how to use the terminal, he takes a second until opting to open the message.

As Ronin opens the message, he notices a small clock in the corner of the screen showing the time as 8:30. The message itself reads;

From arnomilver66@ebriamaintnence.sad

   Sry not there 4 u, got here early. Door is open, let yrselves in. Take third right and first left and you'l find me.

At this point there's a click from the direction of the door.

[Yzalirk]

Ronin looks away from the terminal screen and directs his attention to the door when he hears the click.

"Decker."
He unsheathes his sword, ready to defend himself should the pair be ambushed.

[Endgame]

4 hours ago, Yzalirk said:

Ronin looks away from the terminal screen and directs his attention to the door when he hears the click.

"Decker."
He unsheathes his sword, ready to defend himself should the pair be ambushed.

Decker nods at Ronin, managing to get the hint. He tugs on the shotgun on his back just a bit, causing it to loosen from its holster on his back. Loose enough that he could pull it out and fire fast if the situation demanded it. He reads the terminal screen, shaking his head, before walking up to Ronin. He keeps his voice low just out of caution...

"This guy spells worse than I do, dunno how. But Arno Milver is our guy and the message is from him. He might've saw us on the security cam or somethin' and is just buzzin' us in. There's only one recent set of tracks in this room, so if we're lucky it's him."

Is Ronin jus' making me paranoid? Does just walking with the shotgun out look more natural, more casual? Yeah, hell, let's go with that.

Decker gets out his shotgun and holds it casually near his hip, approaching the door and seeing if there was any sort of window he could peer through to assess potential danger.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Endgame

[Duvors]

17 minutes ago, Endgame said:

Decker gets out his shotgun and holds it casually near his hip, approaching the door and seeing if there was any sort of window he could peer through to assess potential danger.

Decker cannot find any windows to peer through. It appears the building is designed purely for function in the most unartistic sense.

Nothing happens as Decker and Ronin wait for something. After a few moments, nothing continues to happen. Then, suddenly!...
... nothing happens. Finally, just as they're starting to relax, a new window pops up on the terminal;

-New Message!-
Urgent
Open?
Yes        No

[Endgame]

"I bet he's about to ask us what's taking so long," Decker muses, walking to the terminal and hitting Yes to open the message.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Endgame

[Duvors]

2 minutes ago, Endgame said:

"I bet he's about to ask us what's taking so long," Decker muses, walking to the terminal and hitting Yes to open the message.

From arnomilver66@ebriamaintnence.sad

  R u here 4 job or 2 rob the place? Sending security guy 2 get u, hold on.

[Endgame]

2 minutes ago, Duvors said:

From arnomilver66@ebriamaintnence.sad

  R u here 4 job or 2 rob the place? Sending security guy 2 get u, hold on.

Decker sighs and shakes his head.

"Ugh, yep. Sorry, Ronin, put your sword away. We're starting off on the wrong foot here."

Decker decides to just stow his shotgun and wait for security.

[Duvors]

They don't have to wait long. Even while they're still processing the information they can already hear distant footsteps and jaunty whistling from behind the door. The sounds grow closer slowly, slowly, ever so slowly. Finally, they reach the far side of the door, the knob turns, and the door swings open to reveal...

 

"You know, I'm not supposed to leave my post unless someone's there to take over." the hairy creature gruffly grumbles.

[Yzalirk]

As the hairy creature enters the room, Ronin notices the security guard's hat and puts his sword away.

"Our apologies.  This seems like an unconventional location for a meeting so excuse our judgement.  Especially in this section of Ebria.  We are from Heroica.  I am Ronin."
He gestures to Decker.
"And this is Decker.  Could you please escort us to Mr. Arno Milver please?"

[Duvors]

"Hardly unusual, he does work here y'know. Eh, whatever. The boss is waiting so let's get a-movin'. Your friend got anything to say before we head on? No? Okay." The guard motions you on with a wave and heads on in.

He leads you on into the building, taking the third right and first left as the message said. The interior of the building is little different from the exterior, the same pipes and yellow girders line the walls at regular intervals. The trio soon reach a larger room (oddly lit compared to the rest of the building) were a man in workman's clothes is examining a pressure gauge. Hearing you enter, he turns to face you.

 

"Oh, hey, glad t' see ya! Sorry I wasn't there to meet you, I didn't expect you this early and I kinda got distracted checking up on some stuff that's been botherin' me. Oh! where are my manners!" He extends his hand to you. "Arno Milver, Chief of Level Three Maintenance." His voice is filled with pride as he enunciates his fairly unglamorous title.

[Endgame]

Decker opted to stay quiet in case things got tense with the guard, but thankfully everyone seemed content to just call it the misunderstanding it was. Phew. Personalities on Akharif were volatile, you never knew how those kinds of things could go.

Decker takes Arno's outstretched hand and gives it a firm grip and a heartier shake. The scrapper tended to shake people's hands a little too hard, but Arno looked like he could handle it.

"Arno Milver? Pleasure to meet ya, Decker DaCabe here. With my good buddy, Ronin..." Decker tries to think of his comrade's surname. "Ronin, what the hell is your last name anyway, got one?"

"Anyway, if memory serves, I hear one of your boys got last doing some plumbing work or somethin' 'long those lines, Arno?"

[Duvors]

The sounds of the building swell around you...

19 hours ago, Endgame said:

Decker opted to stay quiet in case things got tense with the guard, but thankfully everyone seemed content to just call it the misunderstanding it was. Phew. Personalities on Akharif were volatile, you never knew how those kinds of things could go.

Decker takes Arno's outstretched hand and gives it a firm grip and a heartier shake. The scrapper tended to shake people's hands a little too hard, but Arno looked like he could handle it.

"Arno Milver? Pleasure to meet ya, Decker DaCabe here. With my good buddy, Ronin..." Decker tries to think of his comrade's surname. "Ronin, what the hell is your last name anyway, got one?"

"Anyway, if memory serves, I hear one of your boys got last doing some plumbing work or somethin' 'long those lines, Arno?"

Arno reciprocates the shake in kind - his grip is as firm as yours, clearly a guy who works with his hands a lot.

"Pleasure t' meetcha, both of you. You guys have no idea how grateful I am."

His face falls a bit when you mention the person you're here to find.

"Yeah, something like that."

"That's an understatement." the security guard mutters.

"Gunnbor, why don't you head back to your post? I can take this from here."

As Gunnbor leaves, humming something under his breath, Arno seems to steel himself for the coming explanation.

"So, I guess I'd better start from the beginning. Ebria's an old station, real old, an' there's a buncha' stuff in it that's been repurposed or everyone's forgotten what it was for or is just plain weird. Now, one of the things in that last category is a system a' waste pipe-tunnel thingamajigs under the Southeastern Docks that stretch from Blackcoin to the warehouses in Blue Moon. And I'm gonna tell you right out, everybody who works here hates 'em. They're too big, the layout makes no sense, they're full a' mold an' fungus, they can't be sealed off properly if there's a atmosphere breach, we can't get equipment down there to repair 'em, and there's something in the walls that blocks scanners and communicators. So, a while back, we made some requests, made some space in the budget, and settled on a plan to tear the whole thing out an' replace it with something that wasn't designed by a crazy person."
He sighs at this point, clearly a bit frustrated.

"A' course it turns out that there aren't any gods-damned plans a' the system anywhere on file, so we have t' start sendin' guys down there t' map it out properly, cause what little we've got is really sketchy. We only really know about a couple a' entrances, so we pick one a' them and send one of our boys, Gregory Smiles, down into the system. We do the whole thing properly, full safety equipment and a tether an' everything. Anyway, we send him down and everything's fine for a bit, but then his tether stops unwinding' for a bit too long and, valuing the safety of my guys like I do, we reel it back in. He was gone when the end came back." 
Arno is quiet for a moment, clearly affected by something.
"I was in charge a' that, so I guess that makes me responsible."

[Endgame]

Decker listens with a hand on his hip as Arno speaks. This was one of those times Decker was glad to have a mask, because he was trying to figure out what species Arno was, and thankfully the helmet hid his attempts to look like he wasn't gawking.

"It's always the case with these kinds of things, innit? The more complicated the project, the more likely nobody bothered to write a damn thing down." Decker shakes his head. "Typical."

"But, well, hey, chin up. It sounds to me like you followed all the safety measures ya could. How were you supposed to know what it's like down there without so much as a draft drawing? Listen, we'll get your guy back. But I gotta ask... How long has he been gone? And, I'm jus' trying to imagine this tether system here. Are we going to be hooked up to that thing and dropped in to the pipe system?"

[Yzalirk]

On 12/17/2021 at 11:24 PM, Endgame said:

"Arno Milver? Pleasure to meet ya, Decker DaCabe here. With my good buddy, Ronin..." Decker tries to think of his comrade's surname. "Ronin, what the hell is your last name anyway, got one?"

"I do not have one."  Ronin whispers.

While listening to what Arno has to say, Ronin begins to feel a weird sense, like when the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

"I am sorry to hear about Gregory.  Do not blame yourself, you did every precaution you could have.  Exactly which entrance did he take?  We will try to follow his footsteps and bring him back alive.  These tunnels you described sound rather... ominous for a lack of better words.  And while mapping these tunnels have you or your crew came across any evidence of something living in them?"

[Duvors]

13 hours ago, Endgame said:

Decker listens with a hand on his hip as Arno speaks. This was one of those times Decker was glad to have a mask, because he was trying to figure out what species Arno was, and thankfully the helmet hid his attempts to look like he wasn't gawking.

Decker Nature Check (DC 3): (6,3,2) One successes. Decker Culture Check (DC 3): (4,5,6) Three successes.

Decker can't immediately place what species his employer is, but he eventually dredges us enough half-remembered reading to place him as a Yrachnidi, soft-shelled crustacean-like creatures from the Eastern Periphery.

13 hours ago, Endgame said:

"It's always the case with these kinds of things, innit? The more complicated the project, the more likely nobody bothered to write a damn thing down." Decker shakes his head. "Typical."

"But, well, hey, chin up. It sounds to me like you followed all the safety measures ya could. How were you supposed to know what it's like down there without so much as a draft drawing? Listen, we'll get your guy back. But I gotta ask... How long has he been gone? And, I'm jus' trying to imagine this tether system here. Are we going to be hooked up to that thing and dropped in to the pipe system?"

"About a week by now. There's hope he's still alive, but it's gettin' slim. You aren't gonna be hooked up t' any tethers though, we want you t' be able to move freely through that maze. And if you get bushwhacked I don't think they'll be of any help anyway. But there's something about that- When we pulled up Greg's tether, the little latch at the end, the bit you hook on to the harness? That was intact, undamaged. An' there wasn't any shredded bits a' harness hangin' from it either, someone or something unhooked it."

4 hours ago, Yzalirk said:

"I am sorry to hear about Gregory.  Do not blame yourself, you did every precaution you could have.  Exactly which entrance did he take?  We will try to follow his footsteps and bring him back alive.  These tunnels you described sound rather... ominous for a lack of better words.  And while mapping these tunnels have you or your crew came across any evidence of something living in them?"

"We put him down what we call the south entrance, it's a dead end and seems t' be the bit farthest into Blackcoin. I have a shuttlecar waiting outside t' take you there, I'm sure you saw it. As for something living there, well, there's always rats. Cockroaches too. And we've heard plenty a' weird sounds down there that might be people or critters. Heck, we're half certain smugglers are using the parts we haven't explored, and Bob says he once saw a 'meat blob' down there with eyes and everything. And on top of that there's always rumors of sewer gators and brickonium snorting rat-men living down there."

[Endgame]

11 hours ago, Yzalirk said:

"I do not have one."  Ronin whispers.

Decker pauses, then nods back. He wasn't gonna press further.

6 hours ago, Duvors said:

Decker Nature Check (DC 3): (6,3,2) One successes. Decker Culture Check (DC 3): (4,5,6) Three successes.

Decker can't immediately place what species his employer is, but he eventually dredges us enough half-remembered reading to place him as a Yrachnidi, soft-shelled crustacean-like creatures from the Eastern Periphery.

"About a week by now. There's hope he's still alive, but it's gettin' slim. You aren't gonna be hooked up t' any tethers though, we want you t' be able to move freely through that maze. And if you get bushwhacked I don't think they'll be of any help anyway. But there's something about that- When we pulled up Greg's tether, the little latch at the end, the bit you hook on to the harness? That was intact, undamaged. An' there wasn't any shredded bits a' harness hangin' from it either, someone or something unhooked it."

"We put him down what we call the south entrance, it's a dead end and seems t' be the bit farthest into Blackcoin. I have a shuttlecar waiting outside t' take you there, I'm sure you saw it. As for something living there, well, there's always rats. Cockroaches too. And we've heard plenty a' weird sounds down there that might be people or critters. Heck, we're half certain smugglers are using the parts we haven't explored, and Bob says he once saw a 'meat blob' down there with eyes and everything. And on top of that there's always rumors of sewer gators and brickonium snorting rat-men living down there."

"A week... Okay, so we're against the clock here. How tough are those latches to lock an' unlock? Do you need to be a bit dexterous, or could one of those cockroaches done it? If I had an ounce of skill in forensics, I'd ask ya ta bring out the harness, maybe dust the thing for prints or somethin', but... well, not really my forte. Did you guys do anythin' like that?"

Decker shudders a bit at... meat blob. "Meat blob. Ya serious? That's, urgh. We'll deal with that when we deal with that." Decker looks towards Ronin. "Anything else on your mind, chum, or should we get movin'?"

[Duvors]

18 hours ago, Endgame said:

"A week... Okay, so we're against the clock here. How tough are those latches to lock an' unlock? Do you need to be a bit dexterous, or could one of those cockroaches done it? If I had an ounce of skill in forensics, I'd ask ya ta bring out the harness, maybe dust the thing for prints or somethin', but... well, not really my forte. Did you guys do anythin' like that?"

Decker shudders a bit at... meat blob. "Meat blob. Ya serious? That's, urgh. We'll deal with that when we deal with that." Decker looks towards Ronin. "Anything else on your mind, chum, or should we get movin'?"

"Well, they're a latch system, you you hafta have some manual dexterity t' open 'em. They're also designed so that you need to put some effort into openin' them, so if something went t' that much trouble then they're probably smart enough t' figure out what they were an' how t' work them. Dust for prints? Sad t' say we don't have the knowledge to do that. We did try t' preserve 'em for the police, but the useless goons in charge down here haven't gotten back t' us since we handed in our report - an' the evidence." Arno's expression sours. "If I still had it I'd show it t' you, so you could have look yoursel... no forensic skills?" He stops, a bit perturbed. "Well, ah, I guess that's not strictly necessary. D'ya at least have prior experience in, I dunno, findin' people?"

[Yzalirk]

The mention of a "meat blob" perplexes Ronin.  Can such a creature actually exist?  What exactly is it made from?  Just raw meat or other... biomass?  Too many questions filled his skull but he does not bother to ask.

"I think I have heard all I needed to know for now, Arno.  I do not listen to such rumors but should we come across anything we will surely deal with it.  One last thing, do you have anything that may prove useful to us down there?  Maybe some flares?"