2024/06/19: Rescuing Miles Part 2 Report
General Summary
Terana, Knight, Zaran, Kal'vus, Buzz Humphery was fretting a lot over Terana. Apparently he was almost at the threshold of turning villain in an all-destroying effort to protect her. Fortunately, she was good at calming him down and getting him to hold off on doing anything drastic until loot from the battle could be split. After distributing loot, Humphery took Terana to get fixed (i.e. get the cybernetics removed). The rest of the party prepped to destroy the portal to hell they'd wandered through last time. While Buzz and Zaran rememorized, Knight and Kal'vus stood guard. Knight started to notice shifting humanoid shadows appearing and moving around, flickering as if there were candlelight. There was no sign of spirits or life and there was no interaction to be had with the shadows. Knight eventually tried summoning a Void cloud to see if the shadows were more or less significant in darkness. After about 18 seconds, much shorter than normal, the cloud faded, and the area it had been in seemed especially grey and colorless. Kal'vus, meanwhile, had been feeling increasingly drained. Deeply concerned, Knight broke Buzz out of his studies. Buzz and Azhar investigated. There was no access to the realm of the dead here. There was no sign of magic or anything else, but at the same time in the corner of Buzz's eye he could see shadows of fingers crawling closer along the wall. He phoned Orb. She proposed several theories, worst of which was that the building was a being. What it was planning to do to the party was unclear, but the party decided it was time to not be here anymore. As the party made an expedited exit alongside a small swarm of escaping rats, they could hear groaning from the walls, increasing steadily. The party burst out of the front door at high speed. Outside, it was sunny and fine, and the feelings of creeping horror vanished instantly under the cheerful light. Buzz checked to make sure they were actually out, then called Humphery to make sure that it was actually him who showed up earlier and that he had teleported out of that place successfully. Fortunately, Humphery confirmed and told him he and Terana were talking to the necromancer at the meat packing plant. Apparently Taradin was an expert with nanotechnology. While Buzz was focused on the phone, the others saw the building they had just left warp itself out of this reality and pull space in behind it, disappearing and leaving the buildings on either side extending naturally to fill its place. Whatever that thing was, it was gone. With Terana absent, the party was left without their usual driver. Gork took over the wheel. Buzz eventually stepped in to navigate after he realized Gork was just driving aimlessly. The party headed back to the farm for dinner and sleep. Knight revealed that he'd spent the trip back triangulating Miles' location using his Compass of Dream's. The missing caravan master was in a block of the city that the party hadn't yet been to. The party finished dinner, got their morale back up, and then headed back to Ashington for a final evening confrontation. Industrial area. Bad part of town. Under construction. No foot traffic. Most of the people seen are looming in corners, keeping lookout. Lots of street thugs. Kal'vus and Buzz identified the most dangerous of the bystanding thugs and Buzz went to talk. Got pointed to a sort of fight club in the open basement of one of the unfinished buildings. Buzz headed for the techno-knight in the center of the basement. Knight's compass pointed the same way. Zaran and Kal'vus followed along, while Gork and Terana's companion Zerkeel stayed to watch the van. After some payment by Buzz, the techno-knight led the party underground. Past bouncers and into an urban fight club with fistfights. Lots of fighters and fighter variants. Some guys who looked like they were from fighting games. Some teenagers who were clearly there because it's the cool place to be. And finally, a fenced arena. Four tough fighters were bludgeoning each other enthusiastically inside, if not particularly skillfully. The street samurai led the party to a woman with curved swords and glamrock hair and told her he had a job for her. She asked what the deal was. Buzz offered her 5000 gold and explained the situation. She agreed, took half up-front, and vanished. Kal'vus started betting, Buzz put his back to a wall and watched, and Knight stalked around, scanning the crowd. Kal'vus did make a bit of money betting on the underdogs (while also acting as the tutorial NPC for the protagonists of some fighting games). Knight identified an individual in a hoodie who was also stalking around the place. Buzz's observations suggested that person was an android. As the night went on, the skill levels of the fights went up and more people filtered in. Lots of variety of street fighter types. Eventually the bounty hunter appeared again. She hadn't found Miles, despite checking the entire place top to bottom. She kept the half up front and didn't ask for the rest. Knight, meanwhile, made a new friend. A "military surplus" android named RN-77. She was struggling after having been dismissed from the military and was wondering if she had a soul, what her purpose was now, and that whole collection of personal crises. Knight (and Buzz) eagerly engaged in that conversation and Knight invited her along so the group could give her a look over and maybe help with the crises. Among other discussion on whether or not she had a soul, it was noted that RN-77 can see ghosts, but she also doesn't think she's been able to grow through anything but physical upgrades. All other methods to search for Miles had failed, so Knight and Buzz once again turned to the Compass of Dream's. After a minute or two, RN-77 asked why (and how) they were following the directions of a compass without a pointer. The others could see where it pointed, but she couldn't. With what was technically very uninformed permission from the android, Buzz impulsively used Phoenix Gate on RN-77 to "make her better". Chaz-Achk-Thuum giggled as he worked. Long story short, RN-77 had a nascent soul, and this may have boosted that. It mostly felt tingly. After some discussion, RN gave Buzz a burner phone so she could call him for tech questions if needed. With RN-77's help, they identified that there was a giant, cybernetically modified Abigail-type brawler who the compass had been pointing to. He's monstrously muscular. Apparently he's a local champion and he switches up his fighting style regularly. Knight and Buzz retrieved Kal'vus and filled him in. Kal'vus became the big man's next challenger. The man was introduced as Gunrail. It turned out he was a dab hand with nunchaku. Kal'vus took some hits, but managed to hit the man in the back of the neck enough to dislodge something. It appeared to be a little USB drive with a soulgem in it. With that gone, Gunrail's fighting style got a lot less precise. While Gunrail flailed angrily at Kal'vus, Buzz managed to retrieve the drive with telekinesis. It contained the soulgem of someone named Jaer. It seemed that some idle speculation by the observing adventurers was correct: Gunrail had taken the souls of warriors so he could use their power and skill for himself. Kal'vus was able to dislodge two more chips before Gunrail realized what was going on. Enraged, the hulking fighter broke the rules of the arena by unleashing a projectile weapon stored in his arm, and then when the announcer declared him a cheater and called for bystanders to intervene, Gunrail transformed himself into a giant form and shouted that he'd kill them all. His declaration was short-lived. While he was able to shrug off some nasty attacks from the assembled adventurers, his horrifyingly resilient cybernetics were nothing in the face of RN-77's unstoppable force. She leaped onto his chest, wrenched it open with brute strength, and then wriggled inside. The fight ended with a small squelching side from inside. It was when the grey-haired, somewhat pretty android climbed back out that the truth was revealed. Her hood had fallen back amidst the action, and with her head uncovered she was recognized as Roen, the android member of Zyth. She left quickly, clearly embarrassed. Buzz sent her a telepathic message telling her to hide in the wienermobile, but it remains to be seen whether she will take that advice.
Rewards Granted
~30 soulgem drives, including Miles Gargos
3 XP
Missions/Quests Completed
Save caravan master Miles Gargos from his captors.
Character(s) interacted with
Azhar, Gork the Half-orc, Archnecromancer Taradin, unnamed techno-knight, unnamed bounty hunter, Roen, Gunrail
Created Content
Notes
On the creepy building: "On a one to ten rating, that was Dark Souls." The fighters among the party recognized that Roen is decently skilled and ridiculously strong. She was built to fight kaiju, and it's clear that she has the power to get that job done.
