The group counts a total of 32 dead buggems. This includes the four buggems that they group fought in the entry chamber. Only one dead drone can be found and that is the one killed in the entry chamber. The exit from the entry chamber is blocked off by a wall of the same stony material as the walls, floor and ceiling of the hive are made of.
The egg chamber is badly damaged, but not destroyed. The tunnel leading south out of the egg chamber is collapsed.
ROSIN (OOC): What about the eggs themselves? Are they missing? All destroyed? Some destroyed but some still intact?
GM: Some are destroyed. Others appear to be still intact.
The group turns and heads back the other way, taking the only tunnel that they have not yet explored - the same tunnel that all of the buggems originally came from. After traveling a short distance, the group comes to a larger cavern with four exits. The group entered by the south exit. There are exits to the north, east and west. There is also a water-filled pit in front of the western exit that can easily be maneuvered around. The group finds more of these pits as they search deeper into the hive. They are probably used as flood chambers to keep the tunnels from getting too wet.
As the group progresses deeper into the hive, they come across occasional injured buggems who either attempt to flee or attack. In any case, the group is able to easily dispatch the creatures.
The next chamber the group comes across looks to be another guard chamber. Another tunnel leads out and the hive ends a short distance down the tunnel. The group investigates the rest of the tunnels that seem to wander senselessly and then returns to the chamber with the exits to the north, south, east and west. They have finished searching the tunnels to the west and south and now head down the eastern tunnel. After traveling a hundred meters or so, they come to a vertical shaft leading up. Daylight streams down the shaft. Rock investigates and determines that the shaft leads outside.
The tunnel continues beyond the shaft and so the group continues on.
In the next cavern is blocked by a two meter wide channel of glowing coals and embers. Beyond the barrier, in the cavern beyond, the group sees six bloated human males moving sluggishly around the chamber. There do not appear to be any other exits from the chamber.
GM: Let me know what the group wants to do. No one has attempted to cross the fire channel yet though it looks like it could easily be jumped. None of the sluggish humans in the chamber has reacted to the presence of the group in any way.
ROSIN: {You don't think the queen laid eggs inside of them, do you?}
ERICT: {I'll be sure to give them each a thorough physical when we're clear, but for now let me see what I can sense inside them...}
TECH: Activate Spatial Awareness, PER 15-, +2 vs range [rolled 13]. This also allows ranged PER rolls with other touch senses, and a cursory First Aid examination (15-, +2 vs range) [rolled 13].
As Erict reaches out with his senses and begins examining the men, it becomes quickly apparent to him that indeed, the queen probably did lay eggs in the men. Some are in more advanced stages that others. It seems likely that the queen first lays eggs into a living host from which the eggs absorb nutrients, before the mature eggs are removed and placed into the egg chamber. Each of the six men has thousands of eggs germinating inside him. Initial entry was made via the stomach wall and the eggs themselves inhabit the intestinal tract. The absorptive effects of the egg, however, have affected all parts of the bodies of the men.
PETER: I'll look and give a quick mind scan in an arc to include the human shapes.
TECH: PER Roll - [rolled 12]; Mind Scan - [rolled 6], [rolled 4 1 2 4 1 3 1 5 4 2 5 1 - Total: 33, Body: 8] (FWIW, that should also find any hidden buggems in the range of the Mind Scan, assuming I beat the hive's mental defense.)
MARCO (GM): Since we have LOS, can I sense the minds in the chamber? In case you need the roll: FIND MINDS roll [rolled 12]
GM: Find Minds requires 3 rolls for Marco: a Mind powers roll (needs 13 or less), an attack roll (the lower the better) and an effect roll (12d6 for Marco).
GM: Both Marco and Peter sense the minds of the men in the chamber (and a few stray buggems that you will need to kill when you get to them). Let me know if either of you want to switch to telepathy (same 3 rolls needed for Marco).
PETER: {I can detect men and a few buggems in there - though the queen and some other better protected buggems might also be there. She's clearly strong enough to shield herself and some others from me. Erict, do your senses show any surprises in there? We need to get in there and get in quick lest another attack come.}
GM: Just to be clear, there are no buggems in the room with the men (at least not that anyone can detect). The buggems that Peter detects are in adjoining tunnels and/or caverns. If Peter was focusing only on this cavern, then he detected no buggems.
PETER (OOC): I was jsut going in a 60 degree arc, so it's perfectly reasonable that he'd get the ones in adjacent tunnels. Thanks for the clarification, though.
ERICT (GM): I'm assuming my sense doesn't show anything more than what has been reported. If that's not the case, amend this.
ERICT: {No surprises detected, but I wouldn't be 100% sure of detection in this place, the walls do funny things to my sense. Nothing big anyway. Preparing a Move Squad power to get us well past the fiery barrier, everyone stay frosty. I'm going to grant the power to Rock, Shooter, Peter, and myself, so go across in fire teams of two as you are prepared}
ERICT (OOC): Presumably we have this tactic down cold, but the intent here is Rock goes across with Rosin first, then Shooter, then Peter and Marco, then myself. If Rock gives a given signal we stop coming across, holding for more info, etc.
PETER: Then, actually looking back to face the team he adds, {If Erict finds eggs inside of them, we'll do what we can for them. If he can remove the taint, we'll do so. If not, well, I suspect we'll have to kill them for their good and the good of our new home. A clean death has to be better than being eaten up from the inside out. But we'll see if they're still conscious and try and take messages back to their families first.}
ERICT: A moment after he begins concentrating on the men, his face is ashen, and he reports his findings, at first in a fairly clinical emotionless fashion as if actively suppressing any emotion, but ending with {I don't know if I can help them, maybe I can use my teleportation selectively to move them without the eggs, or vice versa. I don't really have the skills or the equipment to perform major surgery to remove them, although maybe with a little time to study them I can figure out a way to do it and use my healing power to close them up afterward.} He definitely seems to want to try to help them, and doesn't like the idea of killing them, no matter how merciful it might be.
ERICT (GM): I suppose this is where my skills of Anatomy and Awakened Animal Physiology will have a chance to help, but I'm assuming I will need more time.
MARCO: {Erict, your grief is understandable, but a solution may not be that far off; what if we use some of the buggem-toxin to create an old-fashioned innoculation? I know that we only have one grenade remaining, but maybe we can manufacture a small amount of it for this purpose.}
PETER: {And Marco, let's hold off on telepathic contact until we have more information. If one or more of them are tainted, their minds might be under the control of the queen. Trying to contact them might just open us up to mental attack by the queen.}
MARCO: {Lt, I agree with your assessment. Remember that I can shield them while you contact to keep them safe from the Queen's intervention.}
ERICT: {I have no reason to believe the eggs have any control over the minds of the men, or contact with them, but caution is obviously appropriate. I'll need a minute of closer examination to determine how safe it is to move them, do we hope to evac at this point or clear the rest of the hive first?}
ERICT (OOC): I seem to understand that this is the last open way to go, but we could clear that cave-in in the egg chamber in an attempt to get to the queen and make absolutely sure that the hive is cleansed thoroughly. I think Rock can do quite a bit of that fairly easily with his powers, and I may be able to help or sense beyond the cave-in. Being able to study the queen's anatomy might help me to understand how to remove the eggs safely too, but it's a longshot.
GM: There are more areas to search in the hive. I stopped at this point because I thought it likely that you would want to do something here.
PETER: {Lets get in there and see what we can do for these men before we're discovered again. Keep alert and ready for trouble. Erict, if you think there's any chance you can save them, I'm willing to try. But I need you to be honest. If they're already as good as dead, we owe them a clean death.}
PETER (GM): Can you refresh my memory - how many townspeople were missing? (i.e., is this likely it, or are there more unaccounted for?)
PETER: {Lets get in there and see what we can do for these men before we're discovered again. Keep alert and ready for trouble. Erict, if you think there's any chance you can save them, I'm willing to try. But I need you to be honest. If they're already as good as dead, we owe them a clean death.}
PETER (GM): Can you refresh my memory - how many townspeople were missing? (i.e., is this likely it, or are there more unaccounted for?)
GM: Initially there were the two children (boy and girl). Then the children's parents, together with some of their friends organized a rescue party. Also, the Genser Goose Ranch had obviously been invaded by the buggems. You recall that the rescue party consisted of a total of seven men. Your investigation of the Genser Goose Ranch would lead to you believe that there might have been up to ten more people living there and you did not find any bodies.
Using Erict's teleportation abilities to bypass the fire channel, the group moves into the chamber. No dangers manifest as Rock and Rosin appear on the far side of the channel. They investigate that area as Shooter appears. By the time the rest of the group has arrived, it is clear that there is no one else there besides the group and the six men. The men barely register that you are there. They might see you if they are about to bump into you as they trudge about the cavern, but simply turn and walk in another direction. They don't bump into each other or the walls, or cross the channel. They seem to be in a stupor.
ERICT: {I am hopeful that I can figure out a treatment for these men, but it might take more time than we have, and worse, it might force us to remain here instead of staying on the move. I hate to say it, but it might be best to leave them here as is and come back for them. At least here, they are safe from the roving buggems, hopefully, and if we get back quickly the eggs shouldn't be able to damage them too much more... We certainly can't afford to take them with us in this state, or unconscious following my treatment, or whatever.}
GM: Erict's healing ability is defined as a teleportational ability. Just as you phase out and appear somewhere else to teleport, those you heal briefly phase out and back in in their same location (it also means, of course, that anyone with a susceptibility to teleporation would take damage when you try to heal them). That being the case, I'm willing to say that Erict might be able to use his teleporational healing ability to "phase-heal" the men by phasing them out and back in with the eggs no longer in their bodies (the eggs would probably appear nearby). Base chance of success is 8 or less, but you could use your 2 levels of teleportation to improve this to 10 or less.
ERICT (GM): *nod* my power is all about body adjustment on the cellular level, and my intimate knowledge of anatomy allows me to do whole-person teleports, but I haven't really tried a 'partial teleport' yet. My thinking was to phase the man out and move him away from the eggs, leaving them where they were, and having the man reappear nearby without them. Either way. What are you considering base time for this treatment, and will taking extra time help? Not that we have that much time, yet :(
GM: Base time is 5 minutes. You can gain the usual +1 for each step up the time chart from this.
GM: Of course, if their ordeal has already driven them insane, then healing their bodies will not be enough.
ERICT (OOC): That might be where we need a telepathic contact to determine which of the men are salvageable and which aren't.
PETER: {Okay, I'll try and make contact. Marko, I want you to seal me in with them in one of your shields, but also be ready to help me if the queen tries to attack. Rock, Rosin, I want you two to be ready to drop me if the queen does anything to me. There's a slim possibility she might be able to take me over. If so, drop me. And don't be gentle. As long as you don't kill me, I trust Erict will be able to put me back together.}
PETER (OOC): Oh, right, I'd better give some numbers. FWIW, keep in mind that Peter's mind is still invisible.)
TECH: Roll to hit a prisoner's brain: 8 OECV vs ? DECV [rolled 14]; Effect: [rolled 1 5 2 4 2 5 2 2 2 4 4 4 - Total: 37, Body: 11]
ROSIN: While others dealt with the infected men, Rosin looked any other entrances to this chamber before taking up a guard position. While she hoped the men could be saved, she didn't actually feel strongly about the issue. Death was a constant companion for an adventurer, and she had seen plenty of it before. While it would be nice to bring more saved people back to town, she was more concerned with the prestige that would give than the individuals themselves.
ROSIN (OOC): Rosin isn't one of the nicest people. She's not bad by any means, just self centered.
While Marco uses his Mental Shield to seal off Peter and his target, Peter opens up a telepathic link to one of the men. As he feared, the man's thoughts are incoherent and sluggish. Communication is impossible. However, Peter does not believe that there is no chance for recovery. There is always a chance.
This same story repeats itself with each of the men. A deeper search of their memories reveals that four of the men are from Genser Goose Ranch while two of them were part of the search party that tried to find the children.
PETER: {I don't think any of their minds willever be the same again. And
most of them may never be sane again. But their spirits are alive in there
and we owe it to them to try and help. By the way, four are from the ranch
and two are from the rescue party. So we know they have people here from
both groups.}
ROCK (OOC): I would suggest we make any quick checks on their conditions but not take more than a few moments to do so. We do want to do whatever we can for them but there may be other hostages elsewhere that aren't tainted. Given how the queen has been using them it's doubtful but feasible. Also, I'd rather we know the state of the rest of the hive before taking too much time.
PETER: {They're safe enough here for now. Given their condition we can't take them until we're ready to leave. As Rock says, there may yet be some of the prisoners who are unharmed. We've got to try and get them first. Let's remember where these men are and pick them up on our way out. We can stopon the way back to let Erict try and cure them. Anyone have any thoughts on that plan?}
ERICT: {I accept the necessity of the choices, liking them is not required. Ready to move out when ordered.}
PETER: {I don't think any of us like any of this. But the men in there have virtually no self-will or self-preservation left. If we were attacked while they were with us they might get killed. But don't worry, we will come back for them.}
MARCO: {The queen will be preparing defenses for us by now. Let's keep moving to make sure that they don't get too entrenched.}
ROSIN: {I don't think the bugs are likely to attack them as long as we leave them here with their eggs still inside. So, where to next?}
GM: Also, I need a PER roll from everyone.
SHOOTER: PER 13 [rolled 4]
MARCO: PER (?) [rolled 9]
CAL: PER roll: 12, +4 to all sense groups and +4 vs range mods: [rolled 11]
ROSIN Tech: Perception 12-, +1 with overall level [rolled 8]
ROCK: PER [rolled 8]
ERICT: In case this is a different issue, base PER is 15-, [rolled 13].
PETER: PER Roll - [rolled 12] |