Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, have arrived at the KIA Academy, looking for information regarding the great Stone Horse of Destruction...
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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.
Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable, but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades.
Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often. Previously "gave birth" to a litter of sentient earthworm babies, but recently has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair.
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. No Name has recently been fitted for a artillery device of the Ancients that chucks spears further than any human. Looking for trouble in all the right places. Former jousting champion of Fair-Town and has been awarded... a peacock he has named Chambray. He's recently been struck by a weapon by a strange race of people and transformed into... something else.
RHA-9: A lab assistant piece of "Living Metal" that seems to have befriended the group... for now! Currently getting repairs done by the Restorationists.
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Lathar stood up from being struck by a strange device by a weaponer from a strange race of blue-skinned humanoids. He seemed devoid of any emotion, beyond confusion.
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| Green Lathar was awful shiny |
Sonny dove through the cart and pulled out his laser pistol. Pete pulled out his blaster and did considerable harm to the strange weaponer, but the weapon ran out of ammo.
Sonny was finally able to return fire, but the laser struck the stumbling Lathar. Instead of taking damage, the blast seemed to ricochet off of the barbarian and strike the weaponer with great force, knocking them behind the blue-skinned archers.
Green Lathar growled at the Explorers, picking up his rifle and stepping towards Sonny.
A few of the blue-skins worked over to Squiggles' ditch, and the worm attempted to quickly burrow into the ground. The hard clay seemed unforgiving to the worm.
The other archers loosed a hail of arrows, causing minimal damage to the Explorers.
Pete reloaded and continued to fire, decimating one of the archers. They remained to be unfazed to the advanced weaponry, but Lathar was again distracted by the big blast.
Sonny, pulled down the box for the "Children's Alchemical Laser" and opened it. The device appeared to be in need of complete assembly. Poking over the cart to see Lathar distracted, Sonny began putting obvious pieces together.
Another flurry of arrows forced the Explorers to duck for cover, allowing the weaponer to get up on one knee and fire his weapon at the cart. A blinding white light enveloped the battlefield, a shockwave hit Sonny and the cart, and an explosion enveloped the weaponer and a number of surrounding archers, vaporizing them.
Sonny looked up after the shockwave to discover the cart had transformed into wet clay.... the and the steering wheel and roof were already beginning to droop.
Pete tried to make contact with Green Lathar telepathically, but failed. His mind seemed completely foreign to him. The green barbarian had run away from the explosion, and fell upon a large furry worm, desperately trying to dig into the hard soil. He pointed the sword at the beast, "You are my prisoner!"
Squiggles seemed relived to see the changed Lathar and not the blue-skinned archers, "Thank goodness, let's go!" and with that, Squiggles ran back to the cart.
Meanwhile, as the blue-skinned reinforcements appeared to withdraw, Pete notice a towering black figure at the far end of the clearing. The weasel secured himself behind some stones.
The large black figure began charging across the clearing, revealing four legs total, very horse like legs. Rumbling closer, the Explorers in view can see the shiny black veneer covering the horse-man. Most moved into cover, but Lathar tried to whack at the creature's legs, to no avail.
Sonny had finally assembled their version of the Children's Alchemical Laser and fired it at the beast. The blinding shot missed and tore a hole into the ground beyond it. The burnt, smoking energy cells fell out of the device.
The creature reached the road and and turned around, to attack the Explorers hunkered down by the clay-remains of the cart. Sonny fumbled with whatever power cells he had in his possession and jammed them in the spot on the laser. Another spin of the dial and press of a few buttons, and the blinding blast seemed to transform the beast into... flesh and hide? The beast was still alive, but had stopped, confused.
It stammered, "What? What's going one?"
Next: #52 -
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