2024/05/29: Defending Zyth Part 12 Report
General Summary
Terana, Knight, Zaran, Kal'vus, Buzz, Sith
The evil demigod of magic Hoen was getting used to being outside again. He started working on fixing his realm. (It also turned out that in addition to de-aging Edna, he'd returned her to the barbarian class.)
The party got some work done and slept for the night, having come out of the dungeon late at night on the 24th. The engineers got to work finishing the Necrosa-detector and the second floor of the van. The engineer droids Buzz had left had fixed up the house and cleared (or at least found) the garden.
Edna, Hoen, and Zella were getting on well. Hoen and Zella would be heading into the city soon to get supplies for the dungeon (and also to go on a date and see what culture there was these days).
The engineering on the van was done before half the day had gone by. The party decided it was time to go check on that Necrosa tech.
Before that, though, Sith cast portent. There was promptly a flash of lightning and a crow fell out of the sky. Then went on fire. And possibly started decaying.
This was initially taken as a poor omen, but further exploration revealed it was a demonic crow that was apparently carrying some sort of necrotic cyst. The cyst was supposed to destroy the crow if it was compromised, but the fire compromised that measure, so it was just really horrible all around.
"Know History" revealed that the crow was on its way to the city on behalf of a small cult to the north. They had caught a normal crow and done horrible, vile things to it, then sent it to do something bad in the city. This, of course, was when it inadvertently became a participant in a particularly pointed divination.
Buzz got Hoen to physically reconstruct the crow so he could see what it looked like before it was destroyed, knowing that Necrosa has a whole line of research devoted to ocular divination and transmutation. Hoen discovered that the crow had a cybernetic part attached to the brainstem. It also had a pouch inside full of some demonic foulness, something that could be considered a bioweapon. When applied to some summoned rats, the stuff had no immediately obvious effect, but after a week of accelerated time, several of the rats turned demonic and started eating the other rats.
The cybernetics weren't Necrosa's normal style of tech, but they may have been inspired by her. Made by someone she trained or someone without the resources to do it properly, perhaps. Our heroes resolved to track down that cult when they had the chance, but after much deliberation they decided to continue the plan to check the city with the newly finished detector first.
The party drove to the city with the detector active. They quickly found multiple signals inside a record store. Apparently there was Necrosa tech on a set of Zyth albums being sold in a promo. The party bought the six albums and went about inspecting them in Buzz's frame of reference box.
The results indicated that there was a small, very well hidden spell circuit inside the CD. It would be powered by the life force of those nearby, and would apparently trigger some form of mental effect.
Buzz contacted Orb. Close inspection revealed that this mental effect was supposed to cause a resonance effect, increasing over time with repetition. It would make the song into an earworm, increasing the devotion and obsession of the fans.
The group searched further. They checked the building where they'd detected the original signal, but that signal was gone. They did detect a major signal at the meat packing plant.
Several of the party members went to get a tour of the facility. Apparently the plant is the source of a lot of meat in the city. The meat doesn't use animals: It's essentially magically lab-grown. No nerves, no cruelty, just meat.
One of their lead researchers is a widely renowned necromancer, Taradin. He's a very soft-spoken sort. Not into causing people any pain.
Something in the research area was pinging the detector. The sciencey folks pointed Knight, who was hiding in puddle form, toward the secure door blocking the way. Buzz got into a very detailed (and distracting) conversation with the tour guide in the meantime, discussing optimally efficient meat grinder designs. Knight discovered he couldn't dash while in puddle form, but with some momentum he was able to push under the rubber squeegee on the bottom of the door, however uncomfortable it might have been.
(Got detected trying to figure out how to leave, ended up negotiating with the archnecromancer, got him to let Terana in with the tricorder to scan the computer stack for whatever Necrosa tech was in there. Taradin actually wanted someone to come in to do industrial espionage so he could either catch them or get bribed. Buzz didn't join the rest of the group in the lab: He was too busy designing the ultimate industrial meat grinder with his new friend.)
The computer with the Necrosa tech wasn't even one of the research computers. It was apparently something to do with payroll.
Terana took apart the computer with Taradin's blessing. When she got it open, though, a small, black-skinned rectangular creature launched itself out of the frame and tried to flee. Terana wasn't so easily surprised, however.
Terana caught the creature with her bare hand, having removed her armor in favor of her Halloran civilian outfit. This was a mistake. The little monster configured itself an injector blade and punched it through her unprotected hand, injecting her with hostile nanites and before self-destructing. Fortunately Sith was on hand, and he handed her a scroll that made the nanites self-destruct before they could do much more than make her feel awful.
The lab's automatic lockdown activated the moment the nanites were released, so everyone was stuck inside until all potential dangers were neutralized. Taradin did myriad detection and killing spells to make sure everything was dead. He was very surprised that the little thing had been able to go undetected at all: The detection wards should have been able to find even inactive nanites, and that they didn't implied some very strong antidetection magic.
Lockdown was eventually lifted after thorough checks and cleansing. The meat experts were thankful for the party's help and wished them the best of luck finding the culprit, but they also quickly escorted the adventurers off the premises: They were going to have to have a whole health and safety inspection done after a scare like this, so it was clearly no longer a time for visitors. They were kind enough to hand over the (publicly available) payroll info that had been stored on the compromised computer in case it might be useful in figuring out why that monster was there.
The party returned to the weeniemobile and set out again. The next scan point was in the rougher part of town. And this one seemed to be moving at walking speed. Getting close, the party saw that the source looked like a big, chunky guy in rags. Kal'vus suspected there was something odd about him, and closer inspection revealed that there was something wrong with him. It was like his legs weren't the same length, and he was struggling badly even with that taken into account.
The party ended up doing a drive-by sniffing via Zaran. Orc, filth, urine, saltpeter, some other things. Terana, Sith, Zaran, and Kal'vus confronted him. One awkward mix of diplomacy and subdual later, the group had a cooperative (if dim-witted and panicky) half-orc on their hands. He was obscenely muscular, to the point that a panicked flail had launched Kal'vus through the air almost completely by accident, and his leg was horribly ruined, obviously having healed wrong after horrific injury.
Taking a closer look with his permission, Terana found the Necrosa device. It was a foot-long hexagonal thing buried into his left shoulderblade. The adventurers maneuvered Gork into a nearby abandoned building so they could try to get the device out. Zaran and the fighters (including Knight, who'd been called out from the van to help) pried the monstrous thing out with coordinated bladework, and then Sith and Zaran cut its legs off and killed it before it could escape. It took several of Gork's ribs with it and left a huge cavity leading almost to his heart, but it was nothing a good heal couldn't fix. Terana and Sith also managed to fix the poor man's leg. The ridiculous musculature deflated a bit once the device was out, and so did Gork's adrenaline levels.
It took Gork a few tries to make his mouth work properly again after he was put back together. He recovered quickly, though, and was soon able to tell his story. It seemed he'd been caught by another group of cultists. "Gangers down by the 7th. They've been chantin' and stuff." They had given him something to drink that he shouldn't have accepted, and he woke up with the metal thing in his back.
With the medical situation resolved and directions provided, Gork helped the party locate and kill the cultists. It wasn't a great deal of effort. They seemed to be worshiping some random demon lord. They'd come into possession of some equipment, which they'd been installing in local bums and unfortunates.
Pretty much all of that equipment was this same sort of enhancer and adrenaline-booster. Gork had been an experiment to see just how high they could tune their instant super-soldier devices without outright killing the patient. He had been fortunate to survive.
Rewards Granted
2 xp
Character(s) interacted with
Hoen, Zella, Edna, Tevitarian, Levistiana, that meat-processing efficiency specialist, Taradin, Gork
Created Content
Notes
Terana has healing nanites generated by her bone marrow. She was frustrated to find that all her nanites were destroyed when the hostile nanites were, but at least she'd replenish them over time.
Kal'vus
Sith
Zaran
Buzz Gizmo
Terana DelGarrod
Knight of Darkhome
Report Date
29 May 2024
Primary Location
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