Zepher

Varen will defend Zaria before they both move to their positions.

OoC: My bad. You can attack, but there's a penalty for it being out of the optimal range. May mean it's not worth it. Still, you could try to do something else! Rally Kirwin before they attack, for example? Seems a shame to waste an action.

@KotZ do you want to also attack? Haha.

"I don't know if that's wise, Kirwin. This room is the only way we can access the rest of the ship."

OoC: I should be down two spirit and we need an initiative order. Also, not totally sure why Zaria is blinded? "Now we know that works. Let's go, Captain. Can't have you sitting here, ready to be infected again." Merei casts healing light on the Captain, and backs up the stairs, getting to D2. "Perhaps we should have distributed the things we found in space."

"Well, that taught us something," says Merei. "I wish one of us had purging font. But, hopes and wishes aren't much use. Let's see if we can't save the good captain. Forgive me this experiment, Zaria, Varen." With her flames still burning bright, Merei rushes at the captain as quickly as she can, hoping that the heat and light her body naturally gives off will drive the strange tendrils from the captain's body. She will again cast gravity sink, trying to pull the captain in towards her so that the tendrils will be forced to evacuate him instead of puppeting him away from the charging celestial. OoC: Who the hell knows, but I don't have many other ideas!

"I truly don't think that is wise," Merei mutters to Kirwin, flaring angrily as the captain aims at her good friend. "Talking is all well and good, but I would rather do it in a safe setting. There is growth in this room. Zaria, prepare yourself. Let us see if we can get the captain somewhere more reasonable." Merei, never having dropped her Terminal Disk, casts gravity sink, attempting to pull the gun from the captain's hand and towards the party.

“Where is the rest of your crew, captain?”

100%, @The Legonater! Merei stated her position, and then purposefully removed herself from the situation. @Kintobor, who wanted to destroy it, and @KotZ, who wanted to take it, do whatever makes the most sense to your characters! She knows what she is doing by stating intention and then leaving - trying to force your hand to respect her intent or ignore it, and any which way things break she will gain some intel, either about Hart or you guys, and she's happy with any information about anyone.

"Kirwin, let's try these recordings first. If they are unsuccessful, we can try hacking our way through, but I imagine that will be difficult."

"It seems contained for now. If you are absolutely certain we must destroy it, Zaria, you may. But I would like to study it more first. It seems a shame to give up any information that can be gleaned from this, and it is well contained at the moment. Even an attempt to destroy it may be more dangerous than its current state." Merei returns to the hallway. "I believe we are now faced with just the Bridge or Engineering - the entrance to the Mess has been collapsed. Kirwin, can we try playing some voices outside either and see if we can open them up?"

Really lovely, love the asymmetrical roof and the nice little log pile, and the color-scheme over all! Really committing to the white snow everywhere makes it seem chilly but with the wonderful red POP! What piece did you use for the building stones of the porch?

"I don't like the idea of destroying it entirely. We don't know what it is yet, or how it ended up here." Merei looks down at it. "But I don't want to put people in danger either." Merei searches the room, trying to see if there is anywhere they can secure it more safely. "This way our decision can be made when we understand more, Zaria."

I've said it before, but I'm hopeful I'll be able to read all the other quests in full. Looks like a real dangerous and fun battle, Endgame. I sort of like how swingy combat can be - vitality is tough to come by! And a big shout out to my MM @The Legonater for letting me use some backstory and a skill check to add some flair to my character! Really appreciate that! A goodie and oldie collaborative story telling situation! Also, as much as I want to read the other quests, hope some people are following Mission #7. The Legonator and my fellow players are all really killing it.

Merei walks a little closer to the container, but doesn't get too close. "This presents a dilemma. It seems to be important evidence, but I'm not sure how safe it is to take this with us. Much less aboard the shuttle. What do you all think?"

"This is no longer imagination or speculation anymore. I am resistant to both, but when facts lead us to conclusions, we must respect that. Something very bad happened here. And it looks like Greenlaw, and her investigation of whatever interacted with Bugsby, disappeared before Luce. During the hallway lockdown, it would look like." Merei glances over at her friend Kirwin, and the device they are holding in their hand. "You, my good friend, are a genius. We are needing to override voice activated locks, and you are carrying around voices. We should try playing these back by locks and seeing if they can get us anywhere. Remaining on high alert. And if these voices don't work, we must collect others. Does anyone else need anything else here?" Merei's eye slit surveys the room. "Whatever Greenlaw was studying was once in this room. I fear it isn't anymore, but does anyone want to look for it?" Hearing Greenlaw describe the test subject's fear of fire, Merei will look inward and attempt to summon the nuclear fusion she knows lies deep within her. OoC: I never want to abuse the fact that Merei in theory gives off light or heat mechanically, but the fact that she is part star is important to how she views herself, and I can't imagine her not summoning that in this moment. Let me know what you think. If there is a check involved, it'd be religion for very specific reasons related to the religion of her homeworld.

"I have seen scary media, my friend. Traveling as I did, I had a lot of time to spend with myself in the Aether. Most of it was spent on research. Some of it on entertainment. That is why I am being particularly cautious." Merei accompanies Kirwin over to the computer, looking around the room for any signs of either supplies or struggle. "A second room with no one alive in it. I don't know if we should take heart in the fact that we've only found two corpses, or if we should be concerned. Is it possible the majority of the crew has safely locked themselves in one of the two areas we can't access? Should we just knock?"

As with all quests I'm not on, I paid some attention to Quest 5 with the intention of, one day, going back and reading it! Maybe that's how I'll spend a bit of my time over the Holiday break. But overall I thought it seemed fun, though, WBD, I'm kind of with you - the open world quests never quite do it for me. I feel that a "move around and slay things" style quest is just hard to dig my teeth into - there's inherently not a lot of character growth that can happen. That being said, it seemed well done, just not my favorite style. The sets, as always, looked fantastic, and I really loved the big dead drake at the end. And @Peppermint_M, I think you raise an interesting point, one that Endgame echoes here. Characters are going to take a while to blossom, both as we discover who they are, and as they reveal themselves. We kind of need quests that engage them to reveal their motivations - otherwise, they're just mercenaries! Which is totally cool! I think that's the legacy Sandy left us with the game system - sometimes, we just want money and glory, until eventually it becomes personal as the world gets built out.

"We need not be cautious. Either Greenlaw is on the other side of the door, friend or foe, or they are not." Merei opens the door and peers inside. "Hello?" she whispers.

"Ilbery." Merei whispers, adding another name to her list. "It appears I should have given into my imagination. The recordings confirm that Bugsby is indeed on that table, and additionally that Hart seems to be suspicious. I'm glad our friends on the Actaeon have said they are not in his inner circle. Whatever Hart was freighting, either for themselves or others, seems dangerous. And I think some people, either aboard or higher up, knew. Leading to this shortcut through dangerous space. But this is speculation, not fact. The fact, at the moment, is we will need voice activation to get to the two places we most need to get to. Meaning, more than ever, we will need someone from the crew alive." Merei clutches her disk. "I'm nervous for Luce as well. The note seems to be written in a panic, and probably after the last recording, and in both her final recording and in her note she is stuck in here. Where is she now?" "We should move. I'm not sure Engineering is an option, but we can try. The collapse limits options as well. We will need to move towards the bow of the ship. The science lab seems a good choice. We can see if Greenlaw is there."

"Kirwin or myself may be of some help." Merei walks forward and peers at the monitor. "The figure in the Hall was Greg R. Wood, by the way. Our number of names is increasing. Jamie C. Luce. Artemis Callaghan. Greg R. Wood. And our aforementioned trio as well. I am worried the more names we learn, the more fatalities we are adding to this list. At this point I'm just hoping we find someone alive." She says the final part rather pointedly at Varen. "Do you think the figure there, on the medical bed, is Bugsby? And our letter was written by Jamie?" She halts, and lowers her voice to admonish herself. "No. We don't know anything truly, yet. Find all the pieces before trying to put them together," she mutters as she plays all three recordings.

Merei leaves the arm where she found it, not wanting to separate it too drastically from the body it belongs to. Before she leaves, however, if she is close enough to the body, if it is not under too much debris, she checks to see if it had any means to cause an explosion and collapse of the tunnel. Returning to the others she looks at the note. "It doesn't mean anything to me, no. But we didn't ask the name of anyone on this ship. Apparently corridor passes were something one must request, though. And we now have some names. Greenlaw. Bugsby. Joan. I think in our very short time aboard we can already begin to draw the conclusion that something horrible happened here. Remain very alert. Have we checked this room for supplies? Once we have, I think it is best we head directly to either the Head or Engineering. Carefully."

Merei would like to make a medicine check on the arm, trying to determine if it is attached to a body and, if not, what severed it, as well as a perception check (I guess? or Engineering or Insight? Not sure what makes most sense) trying to determine what exactly caused such a massive bit of destruction to the interior of the ship. She keeps her flames low, trying not to draw attention.

I assume we didn’t happen to wander by right when they are seconds from life and death hahaha. This is the same as someone unsheathing their sword or cocking their gun. Just getting ready.

I was about to ask about that! It bugged me all game, especially since I was wearing one hahaha. I couldn't tell if it was a weird gambit by Hinckley to confuse people or something, especially with no follow up hats in following nights, but it seemed like such a bizarre scum gambit I didn't pursue it. Oh man, well appreciate the night actions all being centered on me - could have been a very different game honestly if that first night went different!