Iron Stars - Proteins

The Proteins team assembles at the steps of the hotel. It looks as though your weapons and armors have all been included as part of the equipment brought to this strange place when you were taken. A small guidebook on the animals here has also been included. On taking a look inside, the pages are blank, but are made of strange psychically resonant paper, and information may appear there as the expedition continues.

Zorcash opens the storage crate to find their strangely inscribed weaponry. They pull the combat harness over their carapace and buckle the force pavis belt. A strange looking double barreled hand cannon is placed into a holster while their other claws pull the sling to their spike thrower over their head. Gurgling and chittering away, they stand ready to take on their next adventure with the group

Konya gives an uncharacteristicly girlish squeal when she is reunited with a plain, tarnished, but incredibly sharp sword. She flushes a little as she straps it to her worm combat armour and retrieves her knife and gun.

Pleased that things are returning to a semblance of normality, Gurk puts on his standard animal tracking kit and associated gear.

Obsidia dons her Tekshark Monsoon power armor, hefts her spike thrower, and looks around at the others, "Any idea what exactly Urkey has us hunting?"

Seeing the crate of weapons, Iracus looks at the mug in his hand and frowns. As an idea strikes him, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out the electrum medal he got at the Olympics, focuses on its latent grail energy, and transforms it into a camelbak which he proceeds to dump his drink into and slings over his back and takes a sip. Hands now free, he reaches into the bin and pulls out his trusty NMC Las Lock but forgoes any fancy armor, choosing instead to rely on his dermal plating so he can remain nice and comfortable in his holiday attire.

(which one of us wants to carry the T.Urkey's declassified thanksgiving survival guide? )

(Gurk would love to!)

Adjusting the strap on his grail alcoholic camelbak, Iracus walks up to the group to introduce himself to the three he did not know. "Good to meet you all, and see you again Obsidia." Iracus extends his hand to shake with the other three, perhaps a bit hesitently with the mosk. "Iracus Varanu from the NMC, its nice to see some new faces during our biannual meta-dimensional kidnapping or shared fever dream or whatever this is."

Zorcash chitters and gurgles happily at meeting new friends. They gingerly take Iracus' offered hand and gives it a shake with one of their manipulator claws. The Mosk is careful not to pinch or squeeze too hard, "Zorcash! From... m-m-many places! Zorcash in-in-independent c-c-contractor." Zorcash's eye stalks regard Iracus when they mention the biannual metadimensional kindapping, "Iracus! Y-Y-You m-m-mean this h-h-has happened b-b-before? You s-s-seem v-v-very calm given the s-s-situation..."

"Oh yes, seems it all started after we stopped some toy company from trying to take things over with their deranged AI toys and pissed off their meta-dimensional guard dog Kringle a few years back, he is the one you gotta watch out for. Damn lunatic attacked us with a mech last year, even got caught in the cross-hairs of his wife who seems to hate him more than we do. Fortunately this Urkey fellow seems like a good guy, much less trying to kill us and much more trying to fatten us. Which, thinking of it, could be bad news down the line, but that is a future us problem."

"Hello again Iracus, good to see you again. And it's good to meet you Zorcash," Obsidia says, but while her voice is jovial there's a small frown on her face, as this is the first time she's seen a Mosk since she had the vision of a Mosk world drowning beneath the Black Wake shown to her by the coral watchtower in the Acastus metaspace hub. The frown passes quickly though and she offers a hand to him.

“Nice to meet you too, Iracus…” “And everyone else…” “This is my first kidnapping too…” “Would anyone like some cheese?” Konya stuffs her hand in her pocket and holds out the cheese in lieu of a handshake. (

but don’t mind me, keep rolling if you’re having fun) (edited)

1

Iracus shrugs and takes some pocket cheese "When in..wherever we are." Iracus looks over to Gurk with the survival guide and then to the others and says in between bites, "So I'll be the first to admit that I have no real idea about tracking animals or mystical beasts. Any thoughts on what direction we should go?" (

) (edited)

Zorcash motions to Gurk with one of their four claws, "L-L-Looks like this g-g-guy knows what t-t-to do. Zorcash n-n-not h-h-hunter either." (

)

Gurk carefully stashes the survival guide in an easily-accessible front pocket, and waves off the cheese. He's all set. (

)

(

)

The survival guide mentioned trying something called the "Whispering Windy Woods" , it looks like there could be one of the five beasts you need found there, and the area has a low danger level.

"Honestly, this is more information than I usually have to go on," Gurk says, relaying the details to the rest of the group. "Of course, the existence of a low danger level area implies the existence of non-low danger areas elsewhere." He scans the horizon, looking for woodland.

There is woodland to the immediate north of the group, it starts lightly with thin trees spaced far apart, but gets denser even from what you can see in your existing field of view.

"That looks like a "whispering windy wood," Gurk says, pointing to it. "Our first target. This should be interesting." He stashes the guidebook for the moment and prepares to move off. (edited)

Konya follows Gurk's finger, double checks her gear is in order and takes a step towards the wood to indicate she's ready to go. "So, those of you who've been kidnapped previously. How likely is it that this wood actually whispers?" (edited)

It seems likely there might be some actual whispers in these woods, though the contents of said whispers at this time remain unclear.

Konya starts stomping towards the woods, trusting the others will catch up.

Zorcash follows along as they gurgle and click to themselves in a strange language. They keep an eye out for anything that could look like an animal fit for eating

"Hope my turtle is okay," Gurk mutters to himself, watching the flank.

"You have a turtle Gurk? Like a little pet one?" Iracus says as he happily sips from his alcoholic backpack, hardly worried of what might lay ahead

"Fairly small, I think. About this big-" he gestures at the distance between the party members to indicate something the size of a large gravcar. "Very hungry. Hope it doesn't get sad if it runs out of food. "If we actually get whispered at, I hope someone else is happy to whisper back. I would very much like to leave that part to someone else."

(mental save for everyone)

Kila Stosk | Konya [Nurrun]

used /r

Kila Stosk | Konya [Nurrun] Request: [1d20] Roll: [10] Result: 10 Reason: mental save vs 10

(pass)

Iracus | Rayan | Kaedon | Seyso

used /roll

Iracus Varanu | Rayan Request: [1d20] Roll: [17] Result: 17 Reason: v5

Eisheru, et al.

used /roll

Eisheru | Reza [Jack] Request: [1d20] Roll: [14] Result: 14

(pass for Zorcash)

(mentally resilient group we got here, trees ain't gonna get us)

(I think we just need obsidia)

Obsidia Sharpshot

used /roll

Obsidia Sharpshot | Adrian Smith Request: [1d20] Roll: [17] Result: 17 Reason: mental save vs 7

(pass)

Whatever the whispers are trying to communicate to you, the trees are silent , and the reputation of the woods is lost on you. You do feel a dream like and unearthly quality is present here in the woods, and you find your first trail of a creature on the ground after a few minutes of walking. The prints are deep, with four toes that end in claws , and you would estimate a bear sized animal is responsible for these.

Gurk is delighted to have avoided the wood talking to him. He stoops to the ground, looking at the direction and patterns of the tracks, so as to follow the creature to its current location. "I always enjoy this part," Gurk says. "I'll see if I can pick up the trail. Can someone keep an eye out for trouble? Might be the type of animal that thinks we look tasty as well."

T. Urkey's declassified thanksgiving survival guide seems to give a pulse or a pull in the direction of the prints.

Gurk jumps some distance into the air. "Uh, I think the guide wants us to go that way. We should keep our eyes peeled and our nose to the ground, I think." (as Gurk follows the tracks he'll try to keep an eye out for whether there are signs this creature climbs the whispering trees, and whether there is one creature or several) (edited)

"Very handy. For a metadimensional kidnapper, this guy doesn't seem too bad so far. Hope it stays that way." She hastily munches on the rest of her cheese, worried the animal might smell it and try to take it from her.

"S-S-Silly forest... Zorcash does n-n-not have r-r-room for whispers... Zorcash already h-h-has p-p-plenty of voices in Zorcash's h-h-head!" They gurgle happily as they make the announcement. Almost too happy. They follow Gurk as they seem to be the most experienced animal tracker among the group.

"The guide thinks we should go that way? Well, I guess that makes some sense." Iracus says as he eyes the mysterious declassified thanksgiving survival guide.

The guide says this is the path of a “feast fowl” , known to eat any single scrap of plant matter they cone across. Their insides are apparently delicious. The travel in packs of three to eight and will defend themselves if attacked

5:13 PM

They are about the size of a Terran ostrich

Gurk relays this to the rest of the group. "I am assuming this is not the sort of bird you want to get kicked by," Gurk says. "What do we think? Set a trap? Drug the food? Go in, guns blazing?" (edited)

“Since someone will be eating it I guess drugs are out unless we know they’re safe for consumption. Normal birds are evil and I don’t fancy being on the receiving end of metadimensional beaks so my vote would be trap.”

"Would you be able to fashion a trap to capture such a large bird, Gurk? Or anyone? Traps are a bit beyond my skillset most likely." Iracus asks as he looks between the four others.

"Zorcash t-t-trap p-p-people b-b-before... Animals m-m-must be the s-s-same!" Zorcash says with almost too much glee. "H-H-How b-b-big is c-c-creature?"

(Ostrich or Emu sized, so flightless, but lorge )

“Well,” Gurk says, looking appraisingly at Zorcash, “killing one in a trap would be easy enough. The trick is to get them all in one go - or disable them long enough to cut them down. “My idea is this: we need to find a dry river course carved out of the surrounding ground or a steep, sudden drop. If we can lure the creatures over the drop they will tumble down a few meters - pretty bad for a heavy animal, or one that relies on speed. If they don’t break their limbs outright they would be either stuck or stunned long enough for us to pour a lot of firepower at them. “Of course, someone would have to make sure the approach was concealed. Someone else would have to lure them in as bait.”

Iracus eyes the mosk at their excitement for trapping people, but dismisses his thoughts with a sip of alcoholic juice. "Perhaps the guide has some info on fitting local geography to run something over the edge?"

Gurk pulls out the guide and pokes through it, holding it up so the others can read over his shoulders. (edited)

There is such a dry riverbed nearby. The River of Resting Rocks has long since dried up, cutting off the flow to the Pond of Plenty nearby.

"Uh, good," Gurk says. "Is everyone okay with this? Who wants to do what?"

"I can work on stealthing the approach." Konya heads towards where the guide indicated, grabbing branches and foliage to give the appearance that the bank extends to the other side. She looks rather silly jumping up and down to get an idea of what the bird would see at their eye level.

(I think all that together, you;d be able to make an effective trap)

(Gurk is happy to be the bait in the trap unless anyone else is keen!)

(hot)

(i think Zorcash would be best suited to keep them pinned once the trap is sprung)

(Sonuds goo,d lets get a survive/wis from gurk, and we'll assume everyone else is hiding)

(9)

(I think with a 9 you;d surprise the birds, and be able to direct everyone to hide well enough that we all get a ranged execution attempt on the beasties)

7:20 AM

The pack begins to take the bait. Gurk spends some time making himself as delicious as possible. Things like, "having cake" and "Gurk gettin juiced" and "gimmie them cheeks boy" are uttered in half joking, half nervously trying to cut the tension moments among the group, and everyone withdraws quickly to set up their shooting positions. There are six birds, each of them large, fat, and with a crest of multicolored feathers behind their goggling heads. These birds are much larger than they have a right to be, and their legs, ending in wickedly curved talons, look to be very powerful. Something this big having the ability to fly would be a mockery against nature. They hiss like raptors, drawing to within 10m of Gurk to investigate the delightful (to them) smells in the air.

With deep and growing discomfort, Gurk leads them back to the concealed drop and the waiting ambush. He tries to thread through thick undergrowth to make the birds pick their route to him carefully, and to stay out of their talon range.

(are we supposed to be doing execution shots now?)

(Now would be a good chance for one!)

1

Konya pulls out her battered laser rifle, and aims at the bird at the rear of the pack, hoping they're something like wolves and the alpha is at the back.

Kila Stosk | Konya [Nurrun]

used /r

Kila Stosk | Konya [Nurrun] Request: [2d6+1] Roll: [3, 2] Result: 6

(one success)

Iracus | Rayan | Kaedon | Seyso

used /roll

Iracus Varanu | Rayan Request: [2d6] Roll: [5, 1] Result: 6

Iracus aims his las loc at the bird, briefly considers if such a weapon is overkill before throwing aside such thoughts and blasting the bird until it seems to register a perfect 68.333 (repeating of course) degrees delicious.

1

Zorcash whirls out his double barreled hand cannon and pulls off a shot that looks wildly impractical and resembling an old Terran cowboys of the western film era. The Mosk makes a show of blowing the non-existent smoke from the heavily inscribed over/under barrel assembly (12 shoot/dex) (edited)

(three of the birds are down thus far, gurk can go for a melee one if he would like to)

(Gurk only has a stunner for melee! He'd rather attempt to shotgun them as soon as possible) (edited)

(We can do that too! would be against DC 6 since you're in short range )

(10)

(I believe that's all of us )

(would still be waiting on obsidia I think)

/roll 2d6+4 !OBsidia Shoot/Dex

Obsidia Sharpshot

used /roll

Obsidia Sharpshot | Adrian Smith Request: [2d6+4] Roll: [6, 4] Result: 14 Reason: Shoot/Dex

Five of the large birds have been shot from unexpected firing positions. Smoking holes in center mass or head have killed them, and the rest of the flock scatters with so many killed so quickly. Each of these large birds is easily enough to be the main course for a meal even more extravagant than the one you had just eaten.

“Alright, let’s do this quickly before something that likes to eat these things decided it likes the look of us too. We only need one, right?” Konya starts going between the birds looking for the one with the least damage to its torso. “Think we get extra credit for presentation?” (edited)

"I suppose they'd prefer one without punctured intestines, certainly," Gurk says, looking at the options.

(If we recover more than one we've done our part) (edited)

Gurk pulls out his survival kit, with its knife and tarp. "Might be able to whip up a travois to get them back," he says. "We could butcher them here but that might create spoilage issues." He checks the guide to see if any recommendations on butchery have appeared.

The guide begins flipping through pages on its own ,before showing you how to butcher the animal. It looks as though some hunters do prefer to do it on site, as the carcasses are significantly lighter without the tough organ meat, and many other animals in the area are willing to eat the left-behinds

"Oh good," he says, summarising this to the others. "How's everyone at stabbing and cutting?"

(can get a survive/wis from everyone for doing it, and I'll take the best result)

Eisheru, et al.

used /roll

Eisheru | Reza [Jack] Request: [2d6-1] Roll: [5, 4] Result: 8

Kila Stosk | Konya [Nurrun]

used /r

Kila Stosk | Konya [Nurrun] Request: [2d6-1] Roll: [5, 2] Result: 6

(10)

Obsidia Sharpshot

used /roll

Obsidia Sharpshot | Adrian Smith Request: [2d6-1] Roll: [3, 1] Result: 3 Reason: Obsidia Survive/WIS

(so far it looks like we're taking gurk's but we'll see if iracus does any better!)

Iracus | Rayan | Kaedon | Seyso

used /roll

Iracus Varanu | Rayan Request: [2d6-1] Roll: [2, 2] Result: 3

(We'll go with Gurk!)

The bodies are butchered here on scene. There is little waste as the bodies are stripped down into anything useful that T.Urkey might use for future feasts.

(For some reason I had it in my head that we had to obtain 5 different beasts but I can't see that written down anywhere. Did I hallucinate that?)

(the intent was to get five different animals, but the pacing sort of got away from this with the holidays and other things going on ,so we'll count five "different" as five separate kills here)

Gurk finishes packing up his bit of the job, surreptitiously hiding away a fewer bits of gristle and some feathers in the hope of cloning the giant murderbirds at a later time. "That went pretty well, all things considered. Nice shooting!"

Konya wrinkles her nose in distaste as she looks at her blood stained hand. "Well, it's done at least. We should get this back before we attract other animals or it spoils. Does anyone remember the way?"

Zorcash helps finish the job with their extra claws. They take some of the spoils so as not to burden Gurk too much, "Th-Th-Think that way!"

Heading back the way you came, you see the lodge in sight, and it looks as though you are the first group to return. The side door to the smoker room is open, where the meat can be hung.

Moving to help unload the meat, Iracus says, "Well this should hopefully satisfy whoever gets kidnapped next. If this is anything like what we had earlier, they will be in for a treat."

"I've been involved in worse kidnappings," Gurk agrees. "I suppose in future I should pay more attention to what I feed people afterwards."

"It all seems a bit circular, though. Kidnapping people to get food to feed the next people that are kidnapped. Is there a grand plan, or is this Urkey guy just super lonely?" She helps unload the meat, grateful that she'll soon get to wash her hands.

Upon returning to the lodge, you can see a back door has been left open. Each of you sees your sleeping forms through it, in your respective bedrooms at home. As a token of thanks, and a reminder of your hunt, T. Urkey has left you a small jar of their famous Thanksgiving seasoning. One use only, when applied to the skin or clothing, it can be used to entirely eliminate your scent. Native animals and anything else that might track by scent will be unable to detect you using this sense. There is also one of T.Urkey's famous Thanksgiving Turkey legs. Devouring this delicious treat down to the bone will entirely use it , but it will do one of the following Heal you to perfect health Remove the fragile condition after being recently downed Remove all instances of system strain, except for permanent system strain caused by cyberware, species traits, or other non-removable instances.

5

Iracus picks up the seasoning, "You know, I'm starting to thing these kidnappings are just one big meta-dimensional ad, even in sleep they get you. Fortunately this organization coded their ad to be a bit less homicidal that than those blasted hyper-consumerists at Kringle Toy Company. I wonder if they sold a dream ad-block before the Scream?" Iracus ponders the thought as he picks at some leftovers.

Konya weighs the seasoning and turkey leg in her hands. "This was a hell of a dream, why would you want to ad-block it?" She steps towards the open door, turning back just before she enters. "It was a pleasure killing with you all." She turns and steps through.

Gurk awkwardly waves to everyone, without looking them in the eye, and hops over the threshold.

Zorcash grabs their own goodie-basket and then waves to their short term companions, "Zorcash hope t-t-to never s-s-see you again l-l-like this! M-M-Much prefer t-t-to meet in p-p-person! " Zorcash snaps their claws happily before stepping across their own threshold to a sleeping Mosk in a ship's cabin. (edited)