Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, assisting the Hissers of Notex with the sky falling....
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Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout. Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers. Recovering from his injuries from the Glow near Ulmin.
Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with trusted Restorationist ties.
Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often. Recently "gave birth" to a litter of sentient earthworm babies.
Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend. He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters. Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does. Looking for trouble in all the right places. Recent jousting champion of Fair-Town and has been awarded... a peacock he has named Chambray.
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With a new stairwell uncovered in the back of the new cafeteria, it was determined that Sneaky Pete would confirm his nickname and go down them to see where these lead. After a few flights, the weasel was shocked to see daylight... and the slightest hint of fresh air? The dust on the stairs evolved into layers of fine gritty soil. The secret to this mystery was a door, leading to the outside, wedged open many, many moons ago, just enough to let in air, light, dirt, and probably some sort of vermin.
Peeking out, it appeared the door to the outside was on the side of the mesa opposite the village. With the stairwell leading further down, he ran back up to fill in the the rest of the group. The Explorers decided to follow Pete back down, and, after grasping no further information, Squiggles led the group down the additional stairs.
Like the the first stairwell they uncovered, the concrete stairs transitioned to an open metal staircase, about half the width, but instead of finding another storage room at the bottom, Squiggles splashed into a large body of water.
The earthworm quickly jumped up a step, "Water, you know I hate water. Nothing good comes from it."
Lanterns focused their glow over a calm body of water surrounded by the normal inky darkness. About five foot above the water, they could see a ceiling of some type, off away from the stairs.
Sonny used his Plant-hood for the team's advantage to step further and investigate. He took two steps further and dove forward into the water. For a plant.. and one accustomed to book-learning, no less, he showed considerable aptitude in swimming, diving further down, and finding a flat bottom to this pool.
Coming back up, with only the odd glow of the lantern guiding him back, something incredibly large swam by him. Sonny froze, as best as sunflower underwater could. The creature, it was definitely not a piece of debris, was much larger than a normal.
The creature didn't seem to notice Sonny, as it swam around him, but as the scales of it brushed up against him, the sunflower started feeling tired and more lethargic by the second. He proceeded to surface, his frond arms flailing up first, before his head surfaced and his face went back into the water.
Seeing his friend in peril, Lathar two two steps in to try to reach him. Squiggles grabbed the barbarian by the belt to hold him steady.
Pete whipped out his flintlock pistol and fired from behind them all, scaring everyone for a half second, before a second scare jumped out of the water.
The weasel's shot missed a large fish with nasty teeth break the surface of the water and bit Lathar on the lower leg.
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| You need heart to fight these guys. |
The fish put a considerable wound on Lathar and stayed there, although it wasn't latched on. A shocked Lathar pulled out his sword, stabbed the animal, then swapped to the sword to his left hand, and with his right, grabbed Sonny out of the water and stumbled up the stairs.
No one noticed that Sonny had still been conscious slowly stabbing at the fish with his dagger while Lathar saved him.
Pete pulled out his other flintlock and fired, killing the beast. The water erupted in a churning frenzy as the large fish was torn apart and pulled under the water.
Squiggles and Pete grabbed the sunflower to allow the barbarian to stumble unencumbered back up the stairs to the room with the open door.
As Lathar hit the floor and the other scurried for something to bandage his leg, Squiggles could only yell out, "I don't how many more times we need to learn the lesson.... WATER BAD!"
In the time it took for everyone to stop Lathar's bleeding, Sonny finally felt the ability to talk return.
"That... was not... good."
Pete was happy Sonny was getting better, "If it had been be, I would have been eaten whole."
They all decided to rest up in this room, and got to listen to at least two more explosions outside, similar to the falling items that were falling on Notex. The remnants of a dust cloud rolled into the room.
Using the cloud as a sign, the group worked their way back up to Level 2 and down another hall. Most of the rooms were quarters of some sort, but nicer accommodations. They accumulated some basic ancient money, worth a few domars, and a number of syringes, filled with a clear liquid. The syringes were distributed equally among the group.
Sonny tossed the coins to Lathar. Lathar looked at him incredulously, "Stop trying to buy my pain."
"Hey, you saved my life, it's the least I can do..."
They found another bathroom, but no bodies littered the floor. Instead a huge crack in the floor was filled by a iridescent ooze that seemed to beckon them.
Lathar was near insistent to investigate, "As a pure-human, I'm resistant to these things." but they had no containers to hold a sample of the ooze. Sonny also kept staring at the large dent on the room's door, where something was hitting it from the inside.
Finding a larger room with four beds, one for each of them, they decided to take another quick break before continuing...
Rummaging through the desks, they found a clear plastic container, holding a toy of a horribly mutated bear.
"Sonny, open the box, we can use it to collect the ooze, " was all Lathar was worried about.
"Hold your steggons, Lathar, we're resting, and I'm looking at this bear thing."
Sonny sliced that shiney tape that sealed the box and took out the toy. The toy felt oddly weighted, so he made a small cut with his knife. Many tiny, plastic beads poured out the toy's bum.
"Is it dangerous?" Lathar asked.
"The toy? No, it's normal, by all accounts."
"Then I shall take it, and it's small, round entrails. It looks cute."
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| Hundreds of years in the future, Beanie Babies might finally be worth something. |
GM Notes: GM Quandry of the Day. How look can mutant plants stay underwater? Not something I could find in the 4th edition rulebook. I figured plants could survive many minutes in still water, but once they got waterlogged and wilted, it was nothing but doom. Luckily thirty seconds was all he needed to discover that he was the right character to jump in, although he was still susceptible to the fish's poisonous skin.
Next: #33 - He's Not a Heavy Colonel
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