Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

[BlueSlime]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

Exposure phase: The Alien Player places a PC exposure card on Lulu (Shrike).

Alien Card Play: "She killed the lab animals." Choose one PC (Shrike). All other PCs must give her a card. For each card that cannot be given, the Alien player draws a card.

Alien Card Play: "Someone got to the blood." Destroy Research Task or Draw two cards.

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As the women headed back towards the bridge, it was clear that one of them wasn't present. Where was Lulu? They were going to need her help parsing through the data from Outpost 31.

"Hey, I thought I heard a noise from the lab!" Mina yelped.

Looking at one another, the crew members ran to the lab, finding Lulu standing in the middle of the lab looking shocked. The feeling soon passes through everyone else, as all the research equipment is completely destroyed and the corpses of Marlisse and the Alien are gone. All the lab animals in storage on the far side of the room were dead... only upon closer inspection, it looked as though they had shed their skins, leaving no bones behind. A trail of blood ran up the wall from the cages and disappeared into a ventilation duct whose grate had ben torn through in the center.

"No!" Reiko said in alarm as a cooling unit's door was hanging open, showing an empty refridgeration unit. "The blood! It got to the blood! And the tissue samples as well! We needed that for a DNA test!"

The stern biologist rounded on Lulu. "Just what were you doing here all alone?! You're not a fighter! Why did you wander off from the group?!"

The little cyborg would find many suspicious looks thrown her way.

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Tassadar and Takimaru must pass a card each from their hand to Shrike. Then the PCs may all play cards.

Shrike, because you have been exposed, you may now discard one card face down per turn to the discard pile. It will get you an extra 2d6 to roll on an encounter. You do not have to do this however.

 

[Takimaru]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

Laura heads back to the bridge with the others, wiping the sweat from her forehead. Too many close calls as of late, it seemed, though at the same time she was somewhat relieved that the creatures were at least losing a few of their numbers, thanks to Veronica's firepower.

As she hears the news, the captain's shock seems to match that of everyone else's. Her azure eyes scan over the streaks of gore, the deflated animal corpses, the missing bodies of Marlisse and the original alien--and finally, the ruined blood samples... trying to make sense of it all.

Hearing Reiko chew the diminutive cyborg out, she eventually places a hand on the black-haired woman's shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. Laura looks to Lulu, maintaining her concerned expression, and speaks slowly, hoping to receive answers that would keep her trust intact.

"Lulu... What in the world happened here?"

~~~~~
1 card passed to Shrike (Lulu); PM'd to Blue.

Selected Team for Encounter:
Laura
Lulu
Veronica
Mina
Reiko
Aoru

Selected Team for Tasks:
Satellite Array - Riley, Halley
Standby (as the Satellite Array task is max occupancy 2, iirc?) - Maria, Faye, Mako

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

Lulu stands in the midst of the carnage, her back turned to the group when they enter. She turned around with a start when the group arrives. "Oh gods, you startled me, I-" She started, but was interrupted by Reiko, cringing slightly as she was yelled at. "I... I..." She started, withering under the genius biologist's harsh gaze, holding her hands up as if she had a gun pointed at her.

She managed to calm a bit once Laura took over though, looking panicked as she tried to explain. "I don't know captain, I swear! My backup drive had fallen out in the rush before, I was retracing my steps to try and find it, this was all like this when I got here, I only got here a minute ago I swear I wasn't thinking I'msosorry!" She blurted out in one long stream, starting to hyperventilate...

 

[Takimaru]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

"Relax," replied Laura, still trying to make sense of it all. She couldn't help but feel a little sympathetic towards Lulu, given the girl's frightened features, but still had to prioritize the crew's safety as a whole.

The captain pauses, taking another look at the evidence at hand before continuing. "So did you find your backup drive here? Either way, we're going to need you to analyze the data acquired from the outpost. If there's anything else we should know about these things, I'd like to know as soon as possible."

EDIT:
For Red Alert, add Maria and Mako to the encounter team.

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

Lulu nodded ad tried to slow her breathing, pointing where she had been looking when the rest of the crew had entered. The small drive was laying by the wall, the trail of blood from the cages passing right over it, leaving the smooth silver of the outside case looking tainted by red. "It's... Right there... It's got a bunch of work on it, but I don't wanna touch it..." She said, her breathing finally coming back to normal.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

Veronica surveyed the scene of carnage in the lab without holding any expression on her face, the pilot's gaze sweeping over everything present slowly and carefully for a moment before settling upon Lulu. She made no comment, still holding her rifle at the ready as she scanned for movement, but at the sight of the blood-covered backup drive, Veronica calmly says; "You were right now to touch it. We don't know how this thing spreads." The pilot quickly takes careful aim at the drive with her heavy sniper rifle and puts a single round through it, destroying the device without any hope of recovery. "No guarantee that it would have been safe no matter how well we cleaned it. Had to be sure." Those were the only words she said in defense of her actions as she turned back to the rest of the crew. "What now, captain? I suggest we keep all crew members on Red Alert until we know what it is that we're dealing with. That dog might not have been the only one of those things on the station."

(I PMed the card to give to Shrike to Blue.
Also playing this card: Red Alert : You may exceed the max crew on one encounter by two extra crew.)

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

Rolls for Satellite Array: 3, 3 (no success)

0/5

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Rolls for Review Evidence encounter: 6, 5, 4, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 2 (8 successes)

8/8 successes achieved. Alien? any cards?

 

[ToxicShock]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

Random sounds, almost like slithering, coming from the ducts made it hard for the team to focus, especially after seeing that blood streak leading up to a vent in the lab.

(Disturbing Noises: Cancel 1 Success)

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

"I don't know what's in there, but it's big and horny as fuck!" : 2 auto successes, needs cargomaster.

((Assuming Maria was one of the ones pulled from reserve, to speed this along.))

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

Actually, Maria was the one left in the rec room, so unfortunately you can't play that.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

(Okay REDO. Taki is bringning MARIA along and leaving FAYE out of the encounter because he goofed. Taki's card is still in his hand. Shrike plays 2 auto successes with her card as she posted. Toxic has no more cards in hand so the encounter is a success. Write up in a tic.)

 

[ToxicShock]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

(awww, ya didn't have to tell em )

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

The viewing of the holo videos is interrupted frequently by the scuttling sounds echoing down the halls. The gathered crew huddled around the viewing screens, each of them aware that something was out there, and perhaps even in here as well, lurking amongst them.

Riley and Halley had diverted from the group, suiting up into the specialized spacesuits used by "exterior engineers" for hull repairs and other space walk tasks. They were going to examine what, if any, damage had been done to the satellite array to see if they could get it up and running for Mina on the hardware end of things.

"I think we feel safer out in space than inside with those things," Riley quipped as the two of them headed towards the airlock.

Meanwhile, in the viewing room, Mina and Lulu quickly get the damaged video files repaired and boot them up onto the monitors for the rest of the crew to see.

The first ten or so recordings are fairly bland daily reports, but the tone of the eleventh entry of the final month's tapes changes its tone drastically. A tall woman with dark hair dressed in a lab coat is frantically tapping away at a keyboard, staring intently at the screen.

"Hello? Is this thing on? This is Dr. Rachel Creed of Outpost 31, New Eden Station. I'm recording this in case... in case we don't make it. 12 of my colleagues are dead or worse, there are only eight of us left. Our excavation team uncovered an alien life form from planet's surface two days ago. It was the find of the millenia, and we didn't want to compile a report until we had fully studied the initial samples. We thought they were frozen in the ice blocks we thawed them out of, certain that they were dead fossils... but they weren't dead, just in stasis. Somehow... they woke up, and they started to infect our crew. From what I can tell from the past..."

She pauses to check the clock on the wall behind her.

"34 hours of fighting for our lives, the creature's true form is malleable. I believe it to be a hive mind organism that exists purely in a white viscous liquid form, with the ability to replicate DNA samples that it has come into contact with. It seems to require a certain degree of intimacy with its victims, needing to almost fully saturate anything it wishes to replicate, but once it has, it can take control of its victim's form, and add to it what appears to be a monstrous visage - possibly its own preferred form, or perhaps some other lost civilization of alien still stored in the creature's DNA memory. We're still searching for a way to neutralize these things. Deep cold can immobilize it, but not kill it. It has an aversion of fire, but unless you're very thorough, we've found that even apparently dead samples may still be alive. Dr. Jenks believes that we might be able to corner the aliens in the outpost into the lower levels. We'll seal them off and then set a charge large enough to breach the lower hull but hopefully leave us safe up here with the stasis chambers. We'll be stranded here, but at least we'll be alive and able to wait out for the next supply ship to rescue us. But if we don't get this thing with the bomb... we may have to take things a step further. We cannot allow a creature this dangerous to infect the next crew that stops by the planet. The outpost needs to be destroyed, and so does the excavation site on New Eden. These aliens need to be destroyed or buried so deep they never find a way to thaw out. Dr. Rachel J. Creed, signing off."

There is a silence, then a prodding by Reiko to find out if there's anything more. Mina shakes her head.

"No other official log entries, though there is one visual record... it appears to have come from the headset recorder of the stations computer systems specialist. By date, it's the most recent evidence we have of what's gone on over there..."

"Then let's take a look," Reiko said grimly.

Lulu toggled a few switches and tapped in a command to the computer. Static filled the monitor for a few seconds and then suddenly they were all witness to a view of Dr. Creed under direct assault from an alien monstrosity!

Spoiler

From her expression and the pleasurable sounds she was making, without offering much of a resistance, it was clear that the alien had already done something to her. The computer systems officer making the recording was on the verge of hyperventilating, and it was clear that she was trying to prevent herself from making a noise. Unfortunately, moments later a hideous creature jumped out in front of her, its awful bulk taking up most of the doorframe. There was a scream and then another cut to static.

"We need to get to New Eden," Reiko says quietly but firmly, glancing up at Lauren. "We need to bury that dig site."

"How? The shuttle's been sabotaged?" asks Mina.

"We can take the Muse down into orbit. It'll be difficult, but it's our only option."
----------------------------------------
Review Evidence Encounter succeeds.

Next encounter:

Investigate New Eden Dig Site -- All players draw up to 5 cards.
--Crew: 2-4
--Skills: Pilot & Planetology
--Target: 3+
--Successes Needed: 7
--Failure: Add a die to the Alien Ship task.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

(Toxic I'm assuming you're going to continue with your not revealing a Tentacle Attack what with the Cargoloader still out there, but feel free to correct me if you want to.)

 

[ToxicShock]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

(Nah, you can continue)

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

"I'll get the ship ready for atmospheric reentry. It would be best if we didn't remain in gravity for too long captain, so we'll have to make this quick." Veronica says upon the suggestion that they take the Muse out of orbit and into the planet's atmosphere. Unless something else was required of her, she would proceed to go off and get to work, her rifle held securely in her hands.

 

[Takimaru]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

As the videolog plays, Laura shakes her head slowly, simply looking on in disbelief. She takes a few seconds to process it all, even after the terrifying scene of Dr. Creed comes to a close.

"This is just too much," she mutters. "To think that we're dealing with something this... versatile..."

The captain then looks to Veronica and nods her approval.
"Make it so," she replies. "I'm also going to need Lulu and Aoru to come with me for the away team," Laura adds, glancing over in the direction of the two.
~~~~~
(Suggestions for assignments, anyone?)

 

[Shrike7]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

((There's only one task left, isn't there?))

"Away team?" Lulu asked nervously. "I though we'd be staying on the Muse. I'll do my best, I promise!" She tells the captain, somewhat shakily.

 

[Takimaru]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

"As much as I'd love to just get out of here, I simply can't, in good conscience, let what occurred on Outpost 31 to happen to anyone else that comes to this strange place," she says in response to Lulu's comment, giving Aoru a slightly apologetic look for her reference. "We have to bury the dig site or at least find a way to leave some kind of warning. If the aliens find a way to sabotage the satellite array as well, we might never get the message back to Earth," she adds, preparing for the worst.

Laura manages a trace of a smile and nods to Lulu. "But thanks. We won't be long."

~~~~~
(Mm... yes. I was going to ask with regards to NPC's on the encounter, but it looks like don't actually have that much room.)

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Tentacles VS Humans Game #2

(We're in the exposure phase of the next encounter. Toxic, if you're playing an exposure card, please do so now. Then follow that up with any other cards you are intending to play.)