Boom! Biosionics! - Auction IV, Finale

Adventurecast Episode

Jun 9

Written By Star Master Jeff

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The crew reaches the basement of Exosite 34b, and finds something they weren't prepared for.

Two days from now, Brian drops his SWN Rules Explained on how psionic powers work, don't miss it!

Meet the Crew:

Jeff as Star Master (Game Master)
Brian as Captain Thorn
Stephanie as the warrior Haley
Doja as the wildcard pilot Robert
Scott as the transhuman hacker Felix

Episode 24 — Boom! Biosionics! (Auction, Part 4)
Speakers: Star Master Jeff, Thorne (Brian), Felix (Scott), Haleyy (Steph), Robert (Doja)
Runtime: ~44:23
[00:00:01] Star Master Jeff: Welcome to the Dark Star Adventurecast, where the only thing standing between you and the Black is your ship and the strength of your crew. Void help us all.
[00:00:10] Thorne: I guess you didn't know everything after all.
[00:00:13] Felix: A digital life is better than no life. At least they'll still exist.
[00:00:17] Haleyy: Boom! Biosionics!
[00:00:21] Star Master Jeff: Let's get down there, y'all, then. Previously on the Dark Star Adventurecast, the crew of the Scapegoat have been fighting through Exosite 34b, an alien structure buried under the sands of Sibylen. Void cultists working with Nexus Trading have been converting people into the Unhallowed, humans stripped of their free will. Froggy, their old friend, is one of them. Haleyy discovered she can command the Unhallowed with her voice last time, and at the end of the last episode, Felix cut peepholes into the wall between the crew and Rynn Kade of Nexus Trading, and they're on the hunt, and she's there waiting for them. On the other side of the wall are the Alien Fork, several captives, and most importantly Vera Corbin, who may just be running out of time. We open now on Felix, who is manipulating the goo cake and trying to figure out how he wants to organize his peepholes into the next room.
[00:01:19] Felix: So I'm trying to basically not remove the whole wall, but open up like small holes that people can look through and potentially shoot through. And so they're basically not exposing any part of their body to like return fire.
[00:01:33] Star Master Jeff: You open several one foot square holes in the wall and your compatriots immediately look through those holes. What you see is a medium-sized room with a bunch of towering glass tubes in it, and there is an alleyway that goes down the middle, and at the very end is a goo tube vertically going downwards that is not filled with goo. If you remember from last time, this is a broken goo tube that you had to physically scale down into the basement. Pretty sure Haleyy just jumped. I think Haleyy just dove in.
[00:02:05] Haleyy: They definitely did just jump. It was awesome.
[00:02:08] Star Master Jeff: There is no Rynn Kade to be seen. However, you do see five Unhallowed milling around in there, cleaning things up, packing things into boxes. And there's several boxes that are stacked up against the newly formed wall that Felix made. So there's no enemies or Void Cultists or anything in that room that you can see. You do recognize several of these people, too.
[00:02:28] Haleyy: Yeah, because we saw them at the auction.
[00:02:30] Star Master Jeff: A lot of them, you don't know their names, but you do recognize Thadric Vale of Nova Crypt Solutions.
[00:02:37] Haleyy: And does he also look like he is Unhallowed?
[00:02:40] Star Master Jeff: Yes. Everyone that you see in there is Unhallowed.
[00:02:43] Haleyy: I'm going to just say in a loud voice, everybody, like, put your boxes down.
[00:02:48] Star Master Jeff: All of the Unhallowed that currently have a box in hand, put their boxes down, and then resume their work packing things up.
[00:02:54] Haleyy: Huh.
[00:02:55] Star Master Jeff: Well, it worked.
[00:02:56] Haleyy: That's weird. I'm very uncomfortable with this. Oh, my gosh.
[00:03:02] Star Master Jeff: Oh no, complete control over everyone. Oh my God.
[00:03:05] Haleyy: No, how do I keep this going forward without sending the story in a really dark direction?
[00:03:10] Felix: Bios is a little jealous.
[00:03:12] Haleyy: Kaylee's goal is to get these people back to normal. So they all need to be protected and preferably they would all just go and sit down next to Froggy while we continue to explore and go after Rynn Kade. Yeah.
[00:03:26] Thorne: You could always command them to evacuate.
[00:03:28] Haleyy: Actually, let's do that. I clap my hands, go, and everyone's like, yes, Haleyy, and say, everybody evacuate.
[00:03:38] Star Master Jeff: They all walk up to where the door used to be and then walk away from it and then mill around uncertainly. One of them goes over to the goo tube that's vertical and just like pencil dives into it. The other ones start to walk over to the goo.
[00:03:54] Felix: Felix, maybe you want to get the rest of this door open, please. So I just kind of expand one of the one foot areas into like a doorway size.
[00:04:02] Star Master Jeff: It slowly and weirdly expands with the matter going somewhere and the wall itself not getting any thicker or thinner, just simply the hole expanding. And now on the other side, you can see there used to be five, but now there's four Unhallowed.
[00:04:18] Haleyy: Haleyy directs all of the Unhallowed to go through the new opening in the door and sit down with Froggy.
[00:04:27] Star Master Jeff: You're doing like a genie wish situation now. Yeah, right? You're like, I've got to cover every contingency so they don't pencil dive to their death. No, I do. All these other people, lowly auctioneer workers, employees, bodyguards, these four people make their way out of what we would call the tube chamber and make their way into the goo pool room, and they look around, and then one of them kind of walks up to Robert. Another one sits up against the wall next to Thorne. Two more just sit down next to you, Haleyy.
[00:05:00] Haleyy: Oh, my gosh. Okay.
[00:05:03] Star Master Jeff: They don't know who Froggy is.
[00:05:06] Robert: That one. Do they respond to my command? That one.
[00:05:10] Haleyy: Everyone, um, the one with the cat, go sit by the guy with the cat.
[00:05:15] Star Master Jeff: They all get up, go over to Froggy, and sit down next to him.
[00:05:20] Haleyy: Perfect.
[00:05:22] Star Master Jeff: Well, we got there eventually.
[00:05:23] Haleyy: Haleyy does not have a lot. She cannot figure things out very quickly, but she will get there.
[00:05:31] Felix: Haleyy, you got this. This is working. All right. I mean, if we got to go forward, that's fine, but I can't control anything else from here. I'll have to go to the next console.
[00:05:41] Thorne: All right, everybody. Now that we got the door open and all of these Unhallowed seem to be safe, let's move forward. The next room looks clear. Robert, Haleyy, you want to lead us in?
[00:05:50] Haleyy: Let's go.
[00:05:52] Star Master Jeff: In the next room, you find it just almost exactly as you left it when you last moved through, except for some things are packed up, a few more things are broken. There is still a dead spider bot on the floor that you killed. There's a lot of boxes that have been packed up in big old glass tubes and vials. You look through the dark rows of these weird pieces of laboratory captivity equipment or whatever they might be, and you don't see any Void Cultists or any additional Unhallowed. In the back of this room following this path all the way to the wall you find the vertical goo tube that looking down at the bottom of the tube you see an Unhallowed that pencil dove down there both of his legs are broken and you're not sure if he's just unconscious or just unresponsive since he's Unhallowed but either way he's not moving and not making a sound. A kaleidoscope of blue, purple, orange, red, green lights flicker across his face and the wall at the back of the goo tube, and you hear a hum and the distinctive sound of electricity sparking deep into the basement of this odd medical facility.
[00:07:02] Thorne: Seems like down we go, but maybe not the way that he went.
[00:07:05] Haleyy: Yep, don't want to do that.
[00:07:08] Thorne: Though I do think that's what we did last time.
[00:07:10] Haleyy: It is, 100%.
[00:07:10] Robert: I was gonna say, I feel like we'd be fine, but we also do have, like, ropes and knowledge of how deep it is, so, um, hey, let's do that.
[00:07:20] Star Master Jeff: I think last time Haleyy jumped down and everyone else tied a rope off and went down.
[00:07:25] Haleyy: I do have more rope.
[00:07:27] Robert: Is there any other obvious way, like a ladder or something that's been put there for the other team to get down? Yeah, because I'd also love to pull out the binoculars here and uh see if I can see anything at the bottom of this here. Yeah, that's true. No, but go ahead and roll a notice wisdom. And that's an eight.
[00:07:47] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, your bionic eyes get whipped out of your pocket and attached to your regular eyes. And with an 8, what you notice is, amidst the confusing kaleidoscope and colors at the bottom of this goo tube, tucked away beneath the body of the pencil diving Unhallowed, you see a shape of metal, and you stare at it, you kind of go, hmm... the shape and I think I can catch a glint of metal off over here it seems to be maybe like one rung of a ladder and then it occurs to you that this is probably a travel ladder they can telescope up and down at the press of a button so obviously either this guy accidentally collapsed it when he jumped down the tube or somebody went down the ladder and then intentionally collapsed it.
[00:08:37] Thorne: Let's get down there, y'all, then. Be careful when you get to the bottom. We don't know who's down there and what they'll be waiting for.
[00:08:43] Haleyy: I'll slide my way down first.
[00:08:46] Star Master Jeff: Okay, you grab onto the rope and it's easy. I'm not gonna have anyone roll. You're not under duress. So you grab onto the rope and you slowly slide down to the basement. When you disengage from the rope at the bottom who's coming down next? I'm going with the rubber rolls. Okay, so Haleyy at the bottom you let go of the rope and down here. There's these big shelves that have been overturned on the floor so you're immediately kind of hidden from the rest of the room as you exit out of this hole in the wall that used to be a vertical goo tube so you crouch down next to that as Robert Ross comes down the rope, and then moves in next to you. What you see in this room, though, is kind of confusing. You're not sure exactly what you're seeing or what the purpose of it is. Looking at this fork, completely spun up, a kaleidoscope of colors spewing against all of the walls. And in the midst of that light, there are four Void Cultists standing in a circle around it, about ten feet away. Within that ten-foot circle, there are three Unhallowed. And you know they're Unhallowed, because nobody would do this if they were still in their right mind. Each of these three people, one, he recognizes Meer Prust, the expert auctioneer who came here to run everything. Another is a woman you met named Sally Gaylen. She was working for Virodyne. You don't remember exactly what she did, but she came here with the representative from Virodyne. And unfortunately, the third one is Dr. Vera Corbin, Froggy's friend. These three people are laid out flat, naked, in a triangle around this weird alien apparatus. They are covered in wires from head to foot in an odd random mishmash illogical way — in their armpits, coming out of their belly, out of their temples, their nose, out of the corner of each of their eyes. These wires are all leading up to the top of this alien device and when you bring your eyes up to the top of the device tracing these wires all the way up you find that hovering between the three tines of this device is an orb and you swear to god that it's Dr. Voss. It is that exact orb hovering there between those tines. Off to your far left is the entryway into the medical chamber where those two medical spiders were that you defeated on your last way through, and standing in the doorway, arms crossed, is Miss Rynn Kade of Nexus Trading. Looks like everyone's here. Yep. Thorne and Felix slide off of the rope behind you and take their spots next to you hiding behind the shelving unit. What the hell? Dr. Voss, you still here? We gotta get in there. We got Voss, we got Vera. All I heard was — we gotta save that orb. Otherwise, kind of expendable. Alec to Thorne. Haleyy to Robert. This is getting weird. What do we do? What's our plan?
[00:12:00] Thorne: We're way past weird, buddy. But we were right. We got to get Voss. We got to help Vera and the others. We don't have time.
[00:12:07] Haleyy: We got to go talk to Rynn Kade. We have to confront her and that serves as a distraction while someone works to get Meer or Sally, Vera and Voss.
[00:12:18] Thorne: Great idea. Haleyy and I will distract and the two of you try to rescue. All right, Haleyy, whatever happened on Scrapjack's, there's clearly something very special about you, and one random guy said there might be something special about me. Let's see what information we can get out of this lady and just keep her talking. I agree. Haleyy, do you want to take the lead or should I?
[00:12:38] Haleyy: I almost want to say you take the lead because I'm not really sure if I'll be able to control myself.
[00:12:48] Thorne: Okay. I think Haleyy and I are going to start walking into this mess as though we belong here in order to confront her while Robert and Felix do what they can in the background to help those that we can help. I mean, eventually, I think maybe Haleyy could just tell them to leave. But, you know, I don't know. Rynn might tell them to stay. And you two are going to have to do something about those cultists then.
[00:13:11] Robert: Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm sitting in as much cover as I can find by one of them benches with my rifle trained on the Void Cultists.
[00:13:21] Thorne: All right, stay close to me, Haleyy. Let's see what we can do. And then Thorne starts walking into the room, and I say rather loudly, Is that Rynn Kade?
[00:13:33] Star Master Jeff: All the Void Cultists who are enraptured by this, like, machine in the middle of the room start. They grab at their guns and they turn around and they point them up at you.
[00:13:44] Thorne: I put my hands up, but I'm still kind of walking forward slowly.
[00:13:47] Star Master Jeff: One of the Void Cultists says, Hey, stop right there! Whoa! Hey! I stop walking. Rynn Kade says, Hold on a minute. Is that Thorndraxxus from the auction? I was wondering where you got off to. I'm surprised you recognize Thorndraxxus. I think most of us, well, the higher-ups at Nexus certainly know who you are.
[00:14:10] Thorne: I can't imagine why they wouldn't. But I was hoping that maybe you were just some clueless person. I guess I was wrong. I guess you knew the most of all.
[00:14:22] Star Master Jeff: Not really following exactly what you're implying. Are you talking about when we stole your company out from under you, when we stole this auction away from you, very soon stealing the rest of your friends, soon after probably stealing your ship? Which thing do you think that I'm in control of?
[00:14:39] Thorne: Well, I mean, it sounds like you got a pretty good list going there. I mean, your company, I don't know your involvement, but your company bested mine once in the past, and I suppose you recognized me all along from the auction, and you planned all along to take this place by force. Just wonder, the one thing I can't quite figure out, what the hell any of this stuff does.
[00:15:02] Star Master Jeff: Let me see if you're worth it first. My Lord Hierophant Kethrix of the Black Spiral, if you would please do the honors. One of the men walks towards you, Thorne and Haleyy.
[00:15:13] Thorne: Hello, sir. You must be the Hierophant.
[00:15:15] Star Master Jeff: He has a face like a weathered boot, completely neutral, downturned mouth. He reaches a hand out to you momentarily. He seems to have something in his other hand that he's rolling around in his fingertips.
[00:15:28] Thorne: I try to keep a close eye on whatever that is, just in case he tries to stab me with it.
[00:15:32] Star Master Jeff: Ugh. He puts his hand down, and then he's looking right into your eyes, and he says, to no one in particular, candidate. And then he looks over at Haleyy. He puts a hand up to your face, and he rolls whatever it is around in his other hand. He stares into your eyes, and you register just the tiniest bit of shock as his eyes widen. And before his hand is even put all the way down, he says, untethered. Then he goes back to his spot in the circle around the loud kaleidoscoping color alien artifact. And Rynn Kade says, well, I thought I'd be talking to Thorne here, but you, untethered, already. Interesting indeed. What is your name?
[00:16:19] Haleyy: Haleyy with two Ys. What does untethered mean?
[00:16:23] Star Master Jeff: It means that you've touched the void. It means that...
[00:16:27] Haleyy: Yes, I stuck my hand in it.
[00:16:28] Star Master Jeff: Oh, it's much more than that, my dear.
[00:16:30] Haleyy: Uh-huh.
[00:16:31] Star Master Jeff: Thorne, you're a candidate, so congratulations. We're not going to turn you into an Unhallowed. We're going to untether you, and you can be just like your friend Haleyy with the double Ys on the end of her name.
[00:16:40] Thorne: Ah, you're too kind, but please, I'm not one of you.
[00:16:44] Star Master Jeff: I know the rest of your crew is around here somewhere, perhaps upstairs. Perhaps some of my brethren already took care of them. We'll find their bodies. If they are also untethered, that would be a great boon to us, and I think that all of you would be quite happy. And if they're not, they can become Unhallowed and take their rightful place in the hierarchy of the new wave of authority that is sweeping across the sector.
[00:17:04] Thorne: Boy, does that sound like a good time. Are you right? You think so, Haleyy?
[00:17:07] Haleyy: No, not at all. No, Thorne. That is some weird corporate talk coming from you.
[00:17:14] Thorne: Yeah, no, I was being a bit sarcastic, but yeah.
[00:17:17] Haleyy: Yeah, I get that now.
[00:17:18] Star Master Jeff: Yes, further from corporations than you could possibly imagine there, Haleyy, with two Ys. Now, we are, in fact, anti-corporation. We are, I guess you could call us anarchists in a certain way. There was once an alien civilization that spanned the sector. Of course, everyone knows this since the great discovery on Sibylen seven years ago of the first alien artifacts. But did you know that they're coming back? And did you know that they need faithful servants? And that anyone that is not a faithful servant is going to be cast aside? So those are your choices. And lucky you, you get to be at the top. You are part of the higher class of servant.
[00:17:59] Haleyy: Are you also at the top?
[00:18:01] Star Master Jeff: I am. I am untethered, just like you. Would we report to you?
[00:18:04] Haleyy: Yeah, what tier of untethered are you?
[00:18:08] Star Master Jeff: It's not quite like that, but when they return, perhaps there will be more structure involved. It really has to do with more of our reputational power here in the current sector. I am, of course, a higher up at Nexus, so I can do a lot of good for the Void. Yeah, I bet. Now I see that you're clenching your fist, Haleyy, with two Ys, and Thorne, you don't look like you're enjoying this conversation too much. We're going to take you and by the end of us taking you, you will realize that you were giving yourself to us all along. Now the void is something that you've already interacted with, Haleyy. I don't know how and I don't know how you did that without already being indoctrinated into our ways. But soon you will understand and you will see the power and the responsibility that you are about to be afforded. Oh, and you asked what was happening here. Oh, silly me. These three people are being combined into a new type of artificial intelligence called a virtual intelligence. And that little orb up there, that's a virtual intelligence machine that our masters made. And it's needed to operate everything in not only this exosite, but any other piece of alien technology. Unfortunately, virtual intelligence is not something that us poor little humans can create, but we've devised a way to use this orb from our masters and the fork. My corporation at Nexus has also called it the Ontic Fork. Some academics call it the Paracausal Bifurcation Array or the PBA. Whatever you want to call it, it's an incredible, incredible invention, and it allows communication across vast distances, but also it allows the creation of new virtual intelligences. So we're taking these three things, these Unhallowed, and we're combining them into a single virtual intelligence, because a single human cannot survive the transfer on their own. Be happy that it's not you. But once they're inside that orb, you as well as any other untethered will be able to control them, plug them into any alien interface, and use it. It's an amazing piece of technology, and I hope that me telling you that helps you understand how powerful you are about to be.
[00:20:14] Thorne: Oh, I'm blown away. So wait, once somebody's Unhallowed, there's no coming back?
[00:20:19] Star Master Jeff: I mean, we control them, yeah.
[00:20:22] Haleyy: No, no, no, but that's Meer Prust, Dr. Vera.
[00:20:27] Star Master Jeff: All of this can be explained later.
[00:20:30] Haleyy: No, we can hear it now.
[00:20:33] Star Master Jeff: Well, it feels important. Kethrix, Vale, Zythek, Barriss, if you please. Could you please apprehend them? I believe that we will finish up here, and then we will indoctrinate them at our leisure back on the ship. And the four Void Cultists turn and make their way towards you.
[00:20:52] Thorne: Oh, my good cultists. Hello, yes. Please, let's talk more about this, right? Yeah, we're all going to be friends. We're going to be working together. They begin to lay hands on you.
[00:21:02] Haleyy: I can — I can punch one of them. Yes, absolutely. Let's enter combat then. Yeah, I guess it's happening. I'm not sure why you expect it otherwise. Yeah, no, we have to punch them. They're being so mean to us. So evil. This is so rude. Rynn Kade is going back to like a broken ship, right? Yeah, they don't understand their ship is... yeah, they're stranded here.
[00:21:27] Star Master Jeff: Okay, everyone roll initiative. Oh, got an eight for Robert. Got a Thorne sitting on a one. Three on Haleyy. Three on Felix. One on Thorne. Okay, yeah, Robert was prepared, so Robert, you're going first. What would you like to do when you see these Void Cultists walk up and lay hands on your friends?
[00:21:49] Robert: From the beginning I do see that the victims are currently — the civvies are unguarded — but I've had my laser rifle trained from the start and as soon as I see them even moving up in that direction I crack one in the back of the head, long combat rifle. Let's see what I got here. I'm looking for a...
[00:22:17] Star Master Jeff: Big money, big money, and that is a 24 to hit with 16 damage. Oh my god. Huge money. That is a ridiculous amount of money. Wow. So you snap your rifle up and you shoot Hierophant Kethrix of the Black Spiral right in the head, instantly eviscerating him, and he goes to hang out with the void that he cherishes so much. He falls to the — there is shock that is immediately registered on Rynn Kade's face. She sees Robert poking his gun out between the shelving that he's hiding behind, and then she spots Felix off to the side as well, and her face falls. She raises a hand, but she's not acting fast enough to stop what's already happening.
[00:23:01] Thorne: I guess you didn't know everything after all.
[00:23:06] Star Master Jeff: The first Void Cultist, his action was that he was moving forward to lay hands on Thorne. Does a 9 hit you? It does not, actually. So he lays hands on you and you easily shrug him off. The next Void Cultist is laying hands on Haleyy. And it's 15.
[00:23:24] Haleyy: Oh, yes. My AC is 15, so I believe that does in fact hit for 2.
[00:23:30] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, and your armor doesn't count just your dex for this because he's just trying to like lay hands on you so he grabs on to you. Then definitely does, yeah. He grabs on to you and it feels like a wet noodle just like slapped your arm, and you're not sure, you're pretty sure he's not going to be able to keep hold of you. Haleyy, your turn. You got a wet noodle attached to you. What would you like to do? Punch it. Well, it's more like an elbow motion. Unarmed attack. I prefer my noodles al dente.
[00:23:56] Haleyy: And I do — 17 hit. 17 hits. Elbow to face for four damage.
[00:24:03] Star Master Jeff: Boom! You elbow him right in the nostrils and he lets go of you and stumbles backwards a step. He's still up, but he looks shocked.
[00:24:12] Haleyy: Through the blood, he's just like, but you're one of us. Why? I'll never be one of you. Hurt my friends.
[00:24:19] Felix: Felix, you've been very quiet this whole time. Yeah, so did we hear everything that Rynn Kade said, Robert and I? Yes. Okay, so now I know that that's not Dr. Voss. That's just another AI or VI construct, essentially.
[00:24:33] Star Master Jeff: Or they're trying to overwrite Dr. Voss. Good point.
[00:24:37] Haleyy: I understood it as that is Dr. Voss and they're trying to modify it or force these other intelligences into Dr. Voss.
[00:24:46] Star Master Jeff: So Felix runs up to try to grab it. Okay, so you sprint up to the alien artifact, also known as the PBA, or the Fork, Paracausal Bifurcation Array, and you, I mean, you have an action, so you run up, and you just grab onto this electricity-laden orb that's floating in the three tines of this PBA.
[00:25:06] Felix: I've been spending a lot of this session getting in touch with my emotions and my feelings, and I just, I'm feeling like I need Dr. Voss to be safe right now, and if there's a chance that this is her, I gotta get her out of there.
[00:25:18] Star Master Jeff: Okay, go ahead and roll a physical saving throw. I succeeded. Nice. You run up and you grab the orb and it immediately shocks the hell out of you and it's actually too much for you to bear holding on to it. But you let go without sustaining any damage or being knocked loopy or unconscious. But you were unable to grasp the orb. It's not something that you feel like a human could physically do. The next guard is one that was trying to grab onto Haleyy. That was what he was trying to do when combat started, so he continues with that action. Sixteen does successfully grab you. You feel another wet noodle slap onto your other arm. Miss Rynn Kade is back at the entrance to the medical room, and she backs away one step and kind of hides behind the doorway a little bit. She obviously doesn't have a weapon of any sort. Thorne, what would you like to do? You have one guy that's moved towards you and tried to grab onto you, but did not succeed.
[00:26:17] Thorne: Yeah, so seeing the surprise on Rynn Kade's face and that she's moving away from this, hoping that her thugs will deal with us, I'm going to try to just get away from this guy and get close to her. So I'm just going to, as he's grabbing at me, I duck under his arms and I scurry between his legs and I make like a fighting withdrawal away from him to get over to where she is.
[00:26:39] Star Master Jeff: Okay, nice. Robert Ross, your gun barrel is still red hot from the first Void Cultist you eviscerated. What would you like to do?
[00:26:47] Robert: Yep, I'd just keep on keeping on. Take the next one down. Another one bites the dust. Big money. That's a 17 for 13 damage.
[00:27:00] Star Master Jeff: Let me check his AC. Yeah, I think 17 is going to hit. 13 is also more than enough to once again, expert marksman Robert Ross shoots a man in the skull and deletes him permanently from this verse. He slumps to the ground.
[00:27:16] Robert: And at this point, I stand up and I just let him know.
[00:27:20] Star Master Jeff: Hey! Hey you! Yeah! See those sick guys? Yeah! Come at me, brother! The Void Cultist that tried to grab onto Haleyy and she elbowed him in the nose and he stumbled back a step sees — is one step away from Haleyy now — and sees Thorne run over towards Rynn Kade, so he runs over to Thorne and pulls out a stun baton and tries to strike down upon you.
[00:27:46] Haleyy: No.
[00:27:47] Star Master Jeff: You wouldn't hit a guy who could be untethered, would you? Five, it's probably going to miss you. So he rushes over to you, pulling out a stun baton, trips over his own big dumb cultist feet, and misses. Haleyy, you have a wet noodle attached to you. What would you like to do with your turn?
[00:28:02] Haleyy: I hope that Robert can deal with the guy who is attacking me because I don't want Thorne to be hit by the stun baton wielding jerk.
[00:28:13] Star Master Jeff: Okay, roll strength. This guy's gonna roll opposed strength.
[00:28:17] Haleyy: Oof, 12. Bad.
[00:28:20] Star Master Jeff: He got a 7. So, he tries to resist you moving away, and he holds onto your arm, but this little wet noodle of a dude just slides right off you, off your slick armor. I'm 6'5". And he's left behind as you stomp away like he's literally nothing, and you run up to the other Void Cultist and punch him in the back of the head.
[00:28:40] Haleyy: Woo! This guy is lucky that worse did not happen to him. Does a 16 hit?
[00:28:46] Star Master Jeff: Uh, 16 hits.
[00:28:47] Haleyy: For 11 damage. 11 damage deletes him. No, don't mess with my friends.
[00:28:51] Star Master Jeff: You just snap his neck. And he falls to the ground, either dead or permanently paralyzed.
[00:28:52] Haleyy: Sorry, that was violent. That was really violent.
[00:28:55] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, you run up behind him and just snap his neck. And he falls to the ground, either dead or permanently paralyzed.
[00:29:02] Haleyy: Let's go get Rynn Kade.
[00:29:04] Felix: Felix! Well, since grabbing Dr. Voss didn't work, I'm going to try to like break up the circle of people around it in hopes of like interrupting this process, like pulling the people away. So you rush over and you start to mess with the people. Grab Vera and just start dragging her across the room.
[00:29:23] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, I grab Vera and I start dragging her. So you run over and you grab onto Vera's ankles and you prepare to drag her next turn. When you do that, though, and you start to like move her a little bit, you can see that all the wires get really tense. And when you start dragging her, all of them are probably going to pop out of her body. The Void Cultist that was trying to grab onto Haleyy sees you doing that off to the side, and he goes, No! No! And he pulls out his laser rifle. So he unslings it and he points it at you and he shoots and he says... the great mission of the Void cannot be interrupted. And he misses with a six. These guys. So much. Rynn Kade's turn. She sees you doing that over Thorne's shoulder as he's rushing at her. She says, No! Don't do it! You'll — you'll kill your friend. All of them will die if you disconnect them. It's too late in the process.
[00:30:23] Thorne: Can I tell if that's truthful or is she lying? I don't know if there's any way that I could maybe try to see through any potential deception there.
[00:30:30] Star Master Jeff: So I'm going to do a... I'm going to roll her Talk.
[00:30:35] Thorne: Okay, sure.
[00:30:36] Star Master Jeff: If she's lying, I'm going to roll her Talk, and I'm going to compare that with your Notice wisdom. Sounds good. Looks like you got a nine. So you're not sure if it's just the heat of the battle or if she's actually telling the truth, but you don't think that she's lying.
[00:30:53] Thorne: In that case, I would like to... Man, is she brandishing any kind of weapon? Nope. Well, then I'm going to take out my laser pistol and point it at her. She just stands there. She doesn't say anything.
[00:31:07] Star Master Jeff: She just looks at you, and she just doesn't move. Okay, I'm going to shoot her in the leg. She moves after you do that. Her leg twists under her and she cries out in alarm as she goes to a knee and then crumples to the floor.
[00:31:20] Thorne: Looks like the chips are on the other side of the table now.
[00:31:23] Star Master Jeff: She spits at your feet. I was a fool to think you could become untethered. You were a fool for way more than that.
[00:31:30] Robert: Robert Ross.
[00:31:32] Star Master Jeff: Do I notice Haleyy trying to flag me towards shooting the dude? I'm sure you saw him shoot at Felix. Yeah. Help me out, help me out, bro. She didn't do any action that indicated that you should attack a specific person. That was just more like speaking to the ether. She had a hope and a dream. So if you had something else you want to do that isn't her commanding you around, then you can feel free.
[00:31:56] Robert: Honestly, I feel like she kind of got this. I'm going for the other one. I'm going to let her finish out her combat. And with that I'm gonna shoot — don't know how — that's gonna be a 22 for 14 damage. Jesus.
[00:32:13] Star Master Jeff: Your rolls are so good. 22 hits. 14 damage. He was shooting at Felix and now he's shooting at Felix in heaven because he's dead. And with that we step out of combat because Rynn Kade doesn't have any sort of gun. Felix, you've grabbed onto the ankles of Vera, and you heard Rynn Kade yell that out. What are you doing?
[00:32:37] Felix: Don't immediately pull, but, like, what kind of wires are these? Like, are they... like, do they look familiar to me? Are they just computer wires?
[00:32:47] Star Master Jeff: Like... They are regular conducting wiring, like you'd find anywhere on the Scapegoat, for instance. They're all human-made.
[00:32:56] Haleyy: Does it look like they'd be decapitated if we removed the wires?
[00:33:00] Star Master Jeff: Uh, no, but it looks like all the wires would pop out of their body and there's easily like 50, 60 wires attached to their body. Their bodies. And where do they go? Like, I don't know if you mentioned that. Sorry if I forgot. No, it's okay. So there's 50 or 60 wires in each of these three bodies and they're each coursing all the way up to a control panel that's attached at the top of the alien artifact and then just above that is the hovering Dr. Voss or between the three tines. Okay.
[00:33:28] Felix: What I want to do is I want to now move to that control panel now that the heat is down a little bit and I want to like take a look at this thing to see if I could figure out if I can shut off whatever process is happening, and if I can't, then we're going to rip all the cables out of the back of the control panel. Oh, I like that idea.
[00:33:44] Star Master Jeff: Okay, you go over and you start tinkering, and Rynn Kade can see what you're doing from just inside the medical surgical theater just off to the side. And she says, You mustn't do that. If you leave them alone, they will live. If you disconnect them in any way, they will die. The process has already started. It cannot be reversed. Flip her off. I keep tinkering, trying to see if I can understand what it's doing. Okay, go ahead and roll your Fix intelligence. So you understand that it's all connected to this control panel and it's an alien machine. The wires are human but the machine is alien. You're having difficulty quite parsing out exactly what's in there. It's really not about how hard you think about it and how well you can puzzle it out, and more about a limitation of your knowledge.
[00:34:36] Thorne: I kind of wrap my hands around the cables and I look at the crew. Thorne. Haleyy. What should I do? Does it look like the situation is progressing, like, whatever ritual this is? Because yeah.
[00:34:50] Star Master Jeff: Nothing's really changed that you can see. There's the orb spinning slowly, a kaleidoscope of colors going against all the walls. There's a loud hum coming from the alien artifact, and these three bodies are lightly convulsing on the floor. So I'm standing over Rynn Kade with my pistol still pointed at her, and I shake it generally in her direction and say, What's gonna happen to them if this process finishes? They're gonna be dead anyway, aren't they? No. They will not be dead. The three of them will have their consciousnesses transferred into the orb and they will become virtual intelligence. They will not die. They will simply leave their mortal bodies behind.
[00:35:30] Thorne: I mean, it's six one-way half-dozen, Felix. I want you to pull that plug.
[00:35:35] Felix: So Felix is also still unsure if this is Dr. Voss or not, and he does not want her to be overridden in any way. Right. Oh, do you want to take a closer look at the orb while you're up there? Yeah, I want to see if I notice the little things that identify Dr. Voss, like the little things and dents and...
[00:35:54] Star Master Jeff: Right. There are several dings, dents, and scuffs, especially when she melted her way into the communications panel in the Scapegoat and all the different adventures you've gone on that she's joined you in. You can say with almost 100% certainty that this is not Dr. Voss.
[00:36:11] Felix: In fact, the glyphs and lines that are coursing the surface of this orb also appear to be slightly different, as though similar text described by two different hands. Okay, so I kind of step back and I say, Thorne, like, I understand your concerns, but a digital life is better than no life, and I think we could use it. Maybe having an asset like this could be worthwhile. What I'm more worried about is how do we put back all those people upstairs? How do we get Froggy back? Felix, think about what you're saying. Remember what Voss said about her research partners. If it's that or they die, or at least they'll still exist.
[00:36:53] Thorne: Thorne gets frustrated and kicks Rynn Kade in the bullet wound and says, How could you believe anything that she says? We don't know if anything that she says is true. These Nexus corpo cultist bullshit. Come on.
[00:37:07] Felix: Don't let them do what they came here to do. All right, Thorne. My quest for scientific knowledge makes me want to see this play out, but I trust you.
[00:37:15] Star Master Jeff: Robert, give me a Notice wisdom since you are the best noticer in the party. Okay. A shot rings out. No one was paying attention to Rynn Kade, and in that moment, she pulled out her pistol. Oh god. Thorne, a bullet slices through your body, dealing 10 points of damage.
[00:37:36] Thorne: So Thorne looks down, blood starts coming and staining his clothes and he touches his own chest and he's got blood on his hands and he goes, not again. And then I just fall to my knees and then fall to the ground.
[00:37:49] Star Master Jeff: So are you reduced to zero? Yeah, I'm at zero. That's zero. Which means that you're mortally wounded. I am down. Yeah. You fall to the floor, I'm guessing mostly unconscious, bleeding out. You are going to die without medical attention beyond a simple gauze or a lift.
[00:38:10] Robert: And at that, I take aim, ride a Rynn Kade, go up and wait for this one. And I used my biggest biggest boy rifle blast. Come on. No whammies. 24 for 11 damage. Oh my god. This guy's out of control. You snap up your rifle and expertly destroy Rynn Kade for shooting your friend. And I mean...
[00:38:37] Star Master Jeff: This is pretty terrible, guys. You guys actually don't have really any healing that can help him, and you don't have any sort of things on the Scapegoat. This could be the end of Thorne, potentially. I have six rounds.
[00:38:50] Haleyy: Well, Haleyy is going to be charging ahead, as she does, and packing his wounds. She carries a medkit for this reason.
[00:39:01] Star Master Jeff: Okay, so you rush over to him and you begin trying to staunch the gunshot wound on both sides of his body because he's bleeding from both his back and his front. You're trying to patch it up. You're just pressing your hands about it, almost scooping the blood back into his body, and then you take out your first aid kit and you're trying to, but there's just simply not enough gauze for how much blood he is losing, and you can feel the heat on your hands from rubbing against his body, and you hear the gunshot as you're rushing towards him as Robert Ross dispatches the last of the enemies. Behind you, you sense that Felix is there, but no one else is moving. You're the only one that's acting, and time is standing still, and the blood seeps out between mountains of gauze on both sides, through your fingertips, oozing down the backs of your hands and onto the floor. And then, something clicks, and the heat in your hands grows, and memories long buried begin to emerge into your consciousness. Haleyy, two Ys, one Y, the Red Rice Wars, Ventos, a secret facility when you thought you were dead, but then you were back. You were in this very room. This very alien fork was activated, and you lie comatose here, dreaming, lost in a nightmare. As the heat in your hands begins to grow, a surge of energy courses through your body. A static electricity down your tongue, fluttering your eyelids. You feel your hair begin to stand on end. The wound begins to close. The bleeding begins to stop. And you feel great fatigue fall over you. An exertion like you've never had before. You fall to the floor next to Thorne and slumber.
[00:40:47] Haleyy: Boom! Biosionics!
[00:40:50] Star Master Jeff: And so comes the past biosionics for Haleyy. Damn. You've activated your latent biosionic abilities. You saved Thorne from a certain death. And Thorne, you are unconscious. Haleyy, slumbering next to you. Robert and Felix, you find yourselves dumbfounded in the room. Oh my god, we're stuck in this room again? What? And what's worse, the alien artifact clicks and hums and slowly begins to shut down. Checking on Vera, you find that her body is no longer alive. In fact, the three bodies are all beginning to go cold and rigid. The silver orb that is between the three tines stops its hover and slowly touches down onto the top of the fork. And I think that's a good place to end it for tonight.
[00:41:43] Thorne: Yeah, I think you're right. Another hole for Thorne. I know. I got another nice hole in my chest.
[00:41:50] Haleyy: But you'll survive.
[00:41:51] Thorne: That's true. That's true. Thanks to you. I wonder if the biosionics leaves a scar.
[00:41:57] Haleyy: I imagine it does.
[00:41:58] Felix: Yeah, sure.
[00:41:59] Haleyy: At higher levels, I think she would be able to prevent scars from forming. But this is basic stabilizing.
[00:42:08] Thorne: Yeah, and you'd think the rapid healing would probably result in scarring.
[00:42:11] Star Master Jeff: So I guess you'll have to start learning biosionics. And just so everyone knows, both you guys and the crew and everyone back home listening to this, psionics is not a normal thing in this campaign. It's in the Stars Without Number rulebook, but no one in the verse has it. At least no one in the verse that anyone really knows about. There may be people in individual corporations or as scientific experiments or whatever the hell Haleyy is. But she is truly unique in this way. And it's going to open up a crazy door of possibilities to the antics the crew is going to get into.
[00:42:45] Haleyy: She's just an untethered girl in a big, wide universe.
[00:42:49] Star Master Jeff: I guess we'll have to kind of learn about biosionics now. Okay, thanks, everyone, for playing tonight. And thanks, everyone at home, for listening. We hope you enjoyed your time here on Sibylen. Thanks for listening, all. Bye.
[00:43:01] Felix: Bye, everybody. Bye, y'all. Bye.
[00:43:05] Star Master Jeff: Well, that's it for this week. Thanks for listening to the Dark Star Adventurecast. Big thanks to our cast, Brian as Thorne, Scott as Felix, Doja as Robert, Steph as Haleyy, and of course me, Star Master Jeff, who plays everyone and everything else. If you're enjoying the show, please, please, please take a moment to leave us a rating and a review wherever you listen to the podcast. It really helps us find new people and helps the show grow and stay alive. And if you're sick of ads and want to get the podcast two weeks early, head on over to patreon.com/darkstaradventurecast. That's another thing that really helps out the pod. And be a superstar like Brad and Holly, our Scapegoat Syndicate members, and come on over and support the pod. Next time on the Dark Star Adventurecast, Thorne is alive, but the crew is in rough shape. The Scapegoat is limping along on emergency power, Voss is still gone, and there's a new inert orb locked up in the hold that nobody knows what to do with. So they're heading to The Spigot, the port city of Sibylen, to patch up the ship and find an old contact of Haleyy and Roberts who just might be able to help them out. But Kenshi, tune in to find out. And as always, keep following that signal.