ADVENTURE 78: ERADICATOR BASE
PC Roster:
NPC Roster:
Game Session Date: 30 May 2020
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"There!" cried Binkadink, pointing up into the sky.
The others looked to where he was pointing. There was a spot of color in the sky ahead and then in the blink of an eye, for the briefest second, a much larger shape - but one that vanished almost immediately. The larger shape had looked to be something along the lines of an inverted step pyramid, three levels deep with each level smaller than the one above it. When it disappeared again after less than a second, however, the original spot of color remained and that turned out to be a yellowish insect, crawling upside-down in the air.
Immediately, the heroes whipped out their various rifles, not to shoot at the insect but to get a better look at it through the scopes; Binkadink had instead pulled out his binoculars and was getting the insect into focus. "It looks like a bee, all right!" he said to the others. "Is this the apidox?" he asked, passing the binoculars over to Genevar, who was sitting behind Aithanar on Digger's strong back.
Genevar looked up at the insect, which seemed to hover in mid-air. <That's it!> she said telepathically to the others. <It's starting to make a nest at the bottom of Eradicator Base!> The little mutant frowned in thought. <If it builds a nest there, it could mess about with the base's propulsion unit or muck up its anti-gravity....>
"What happen then?" asked Gilbert.
<Then Eradicator Base will fall from the sky, and if the Eradicators are inside, in suspended animation, they'll all die!> Genevar had no actual idea the Eradicators were in suspended animation inside their cloaked, flying base of operations - it was just a reasonable explanation for her as to why they suddenly disappeared centuries ago during the early days of the Shadow Years, when the DNA bombs went off and the mutagenic viruses started turning people and animals into monsters. Legend said that the Eradicators would one day return, at the time of their greatest need, and Genevar desperately wanted to believe that...but she was well aware the legends said the same thing about King Arthur and he'd never bothered showing his face.
"So we need to take out the apidox no matter what," mused Finoula. The heroes had plenty of different ways to head to the top of the flying base using a variety of magical means at their disposal and she had been giving some thought about possibly bypassing the fight with the apidox altogether. But if its presence on the bottom of Eradicator Base threatened the base's stability, they'd have to kill it or at least drive it away.
"It doesn't look like it's noticed us yet," observed Hagan. As he said that, the inverted pyramid flickered into visibility for a half-second, appearing and disappearing like a flash of lightning.
"Prep spells," replied Gilbert and the others responded immediately by casting those pre-combat spells they were used to having in place when about to enter a skirmish. Darrien and Finoula cast their traditional barkskin spells on themselves and then the half-elf cast both a bear's endurance and a cat's grace spell on his jackalope mount, Droopy-Ear. Hagan and Gilbert each cast a stoneskin spell upon themselves and their familiars and then the half-orc sorcerer cast the same spell on both Aithanar and Genevar. He followed that up with a fly spell upon himself and, at Binkadink's request, another upon Obvious. "This will be fun!" said the awakened jackalope enthusiastically.
Gilbert cast a shapechange spell upon himself but held it at bay for now; he could always assume a different form as needed with the spell already in place. He then cast the traditional Rary's telepathic bond spell on the entire group and, after Genevar reminded everyone that an apidox's stinger held a particularly virulent venom, the heavyset mage drank a potion of neutralize poison just in case it was needed. Finoula did the same, while Darrien cast a delay poison spell upon himself before dropping his figurine of wondrous power to the ground and activating his ebony fly.
"We ready?" Gilbert asked the others as he set his slingshot of rock shrinking and Mudpie, currently the size of a pebble, down on the ground before him. Then he shapechanged into a red-skinned pit fiend and bent to retrieve both his slingshot and his familiar.
"Ready," replied the others and then Gilbert, Hagan, Obvious, and the ebony fly rose into the sky, the last two carrying Binkadink and Darrien respectively, flying up towards the oblivious apidox and the flickering Eradicator Base above them. Back on the ground, Aithanar raised his stun rifle and Finoula fingered her lightning bolt amulet while MARCI, Genevar, and the hoppers grouped together, looking up at the scene of impending battle.
In mid-flight, Hagan cast a polar ray up at the apidox - he'd have preferred hitting it with a meteor swarm but was afraid he might damage whatever technological magic kept the floating base in the sky. The spell-ray struck true, freezing a patch of ice onto the mutant bee's right wing. Another ray blasted up beside him, this one fired from Aithanar's stun rifle; it too struck true. Then a blast of living lightning flew up at the apidox, hit it just behind the creature's narrow neck, and then rebounded back to the ground, where Finoula resumed her elven form. Obvious charged straight for the insect, Binkadink's glaive slicing through its thick outer carapace as Obvious's antler-tips did likewise. Darrien chose to send his ebony fly off to the right, firing multiple shots with his laser sniper rifle as he did so.
Thinking the others could handle the apidox handily, Gilbert flew to the top of the floating base and was surprised to find the invisibility effect that kept Eradicator Base hidden from view from below did not apply to the top of the structure. From his vantage point, he could look down upon the top level, an empty deck in the middle surrounded in a ring by a series of one-story buildings, each about 10 feet tall with the exceptions of the corner buildings and the long one to the south, each of which stood 15 feet tall. There were numerous doors all along the buildings, leading the wizard to believe each was likely a one-room structure not connected to the others from the inside. Two other features of note caught his eyes: the two projections sticking out from the long building to the north, each pointing towards the center of the upper deck, and the three large squares carved into the middle of the deck, looking to be something along the lines of covered pit traps.
As Gilbert dropped down to the corner of the top deck and landed, he loaded Mudpie into his slingshot and fired him at the floor. Upon impact, Mudpie reverted to his full, 16-foot size and his master cast a quickened fly spell upon the towering earth elemental. Gilbert was well aware that Mudpie was not comfortable being separated from the solid earth below him and this spell at least would allow the elemental to return to the ground under his own power if something were to happen to Gilbert. Unseen by the pair, four spherical figures rose from the corners of the structure, each propelled by a series of silent, whirling blades rising up from the central sphere like a beholder's eye-stalks. Four metal constructs built in the shape of a spider also lurked along the building rooftops, each of the eight devices aiming their visual cameras at the pair of intruders standing on the deck before them.
Hanging below Eradicator Base the apidox, slow to respond to outside stimulus, was just now realizing it was under attack. Hagan cast another polar ray at it and Aithanar fired another shot from his stun rifle before the massive insect darted forward, grabbing at Obvious with its front limbs and stabbing at the jackalope with its wicked stinger as it stretched its abdomen down beneath its body. The stinger stabbed deep into Obvious's stomach and the venom did its work almost instantaneously, stopping the jackalope's heart. His involuntary thrashings caused him to wriggle free from the apidox's grip and both he and Binkadink plummeted down to the desert ground beneath them. Both hit the sand hard, sending plumes of dust billowing all around them, but while the gnome fighter crawled back up onto his hands and knees a moment later, Obvious was quite dead. His litter-mates crowded around him, nudging his lifeless form in an effort to wake him up.
Up on the top deck of Eradicator Base, several of the doors raised up, releasing the humanoid forms housed within. The first was a blaster droid, who stepped out of his alcove and immediately sighted at the towering, red-skinned figure standing in the northwestern corner of the deck. Recognizing it as a non-human entity, the blaster raised its left arm and - its targeting capabilities enhanced by the four security drones flying above the corners of the base and the four skittering, spiderlike security bots scampering along the rooftops, all of whom were connected together in a remote link not unlike the Rary's telepathic bond spell the heroes had active - shot Gilbert in the back with his energy weapon. Two more humanoid constructs stepped out of their stations, the doors having risen to let them out, and approached the intruders. These droids had stunning devices affixed to the ends of their arms and had been programmed to take any hostiles alive for possible interrogation. Electrical surges sparked at the ends of their weapons as they advanced.
<Obvious is down!> Finoula called to the others over the link, then activated her lightning bolt amulet again and blasted up at the apidox and back down to the ground again. Binkadink, roaring in a wordless fury over the death of his riding mount and best friend, pulled the laser sniper rifle from his back and fired shot after shot up at the apidox; it was his only way of getting his revenge since his one method of getting up to the mutant bee at the aerial base had just been slain. From his perch upon the ebony fly, Darrien fired his own laser rifle at the apidox.
Two more doors opened up and a pair of humanoid droids exited from their alcoves; these were shock troopers with electrified claws in the place of hands. They too advanced upon Gilbert and Mudpie, who had noticed the imminent approach of a half-dozen metal constructs clanging along the metal floor. Looking at the approaching horde, Gilbert also noticed the security bots skittering along the rooftops and the drones flying overhead, all pointing at him with their camera-lens eyes. Then another door opened and a grappler droid approached, this one less human in appearance than the others; it was boxy, with arms sticking out from its sides ending in metal pincer claws and its head was a flattened disk with sensory apparatus sticking out in various directions. It too veered Gilbert's way, claws open for grasping.
Despite the powerful, fiendish form he currently wore, Gilbert had no stomach for hand-to-hand combat against a riot of metal constructs with unknown powers. He stepped to the side and leapt into the air, flapping his powerful wings to escape - but not before one of the subduer droids managed to zap him with its stunning device. Still, that was all the various robots could do before Gilbert dived over the side of Eradicator Base, casting a maximized enervation spell at the apidox who had proved to be quite deadly after all and was still fighting on despite having been bombarded with spells and rays for all this time. The spell drained a bit more of the mutant bee's vitality and now it was possible to see the creature's moves were becoming somewhat more sluggish; the multiple stun rays were starting to take effect, it seemed.
Mudpie was not a fan of aerial flight but he was also not a fan of keeping his master unprotected, so with a stifled scream he leapt over the side of Eradicator Base and slammed a boulderlike fist into the apidox's face - after all, the earth elemental had no fear of being injected with venom. Hagan cast a third polar ray spell at it and Aithanar continued firing his stun rifle from below. But the apidox was looking for nearby victims to attack and while Mudpie was right there in its face it recognized it as not being edible. That being the case, it flew past the flying earth elemental and made a bee-line for Gilbert, not at all discomfited by the wizard's pit fiend form. Gilbert was unable to dodge out of the way in time and the insect's stinger stabbed deep into his side; the wizard took comfort in the fact that this fiendish form made him immune to all poisons.
Up on the Eradicator Base's upper deck, three more doors opened and the three soldier droids stepped out, taking up defensive positions since there were currently no enemies in view. The grappler, shock troops, and subduers followed suit. The blaster droid stood in the center of the deck, arms raised and ready to fire at any enemies who might approach. But while the security bots kept their camera eyes deployed to cover the entire upper deck, the four flying drones all flew over the sides of the flying base and dropped down until they could see the apidox in combat with several flying members of species unknown.
Finoula blasted up at the apidox again, transforming her elven body into a living lightning bolt, resuming her normal form once back down on the ground. Binkadink continued firing up at the beast with his laser sniper rifle, screaming in fury all the while. Finally, the combined efforts of the various heroes overcame the mutant bee's defenses and its wounded body plummeted from the air, the stun blasts finally having overcome it. It crashed down into the desert sand in an explosion of grit and Binkadink immediately dropped his rifle, pushed past the mourning jackalopes to get to his glaive by Obvious's cooling body, and went rushing over to the downed apidox with his blade held high. Then, before the stunned insect had a chance to recover, the gnome brought his reverberating blade crashing down at the narrow neck holding its head in place. With one downward slash the apidox's head fell to the side of its body.
With the apidox out of the fight, Darrien landed his ebony fly back down by the jackalopes to regroup. Gilbert and Mudpie joined them (the earth elemental with no small sense of relief) and the portly mage - still quite heavy in build even as a pit fiend - briefed the others on the metal constructs he'd seen up on the top level of Eradicator Base.
"We can go over that later," Binkadink interrupted. "Can you--?"
Gilbert knew exactly what the gnome was asking. He walked over to the side of the downed jackalope and shooed Obvious's siblings aside. Then, reaching down to Obvious's furry muzzle, he placed a clawed hand onto it and cast the words to a limited wish spell. Concentrating fiercely, Gilbert rewound time for just the two of them, plucking Obvious out of the way of the apidox's stinger at the last possible moment. Thus, while the jackalope had now still been hurt in battle his wounds had not been fatal; with a start, Obvious crawled back up onto all fours and MARCI approached to inject him with a healing dosage from one of her finger-needles.
That done, Gilbert went back to discussing what he'd seen on the deck of Eradicator Base. "Got bunch of mechanical men running about with weapons built into hands up there," he said. "Only one with any ranged attacks, though."
<It's probably a standard defense setup,> suggested Genevar. <The Eradicators wouldn't want mutants from taking over their base while they were in suspended animation.>
"We not mutants!" Gilbert argued.
<Well, you look like you are - at least from a human perspective,> countered Genevar. <Well, except for you, Gilbert...when you're not a big devil-man.>
"Maybe I drop pit fiend form, see what these metal men do when they see real human like me," mused Gilbert. He looked around. "Okay, we try new plan. Everybody ready?"
Darrien remounted his ebony fly. Binkadink did the same with Obvious, whose fly spell was still in effect, but he promised himself he'd just use his jackalope buddy as a means of transport to the floating base; he wasn't going to send Obvious into battle against these "robot" things. Gilbert, Mudpie, and Hagan flew back up to Eradicator Base under their own power, with Binkadink and Darrien following on their aerial mounts. Finoula activated her lightning bolt amulet for a fourth time, but this time when she blasted herself up to the bottom of Eradicator Base she resumed elven form before returning to earth, staying adhered to the bottom of the floating base with her boots of spider climbing. She felt around on the invisible structure, trying to find a door or window.
Binkadink had recovered his laser sniper rifle but kept it on his back while he held his reverberating glaive in both hands. As they approached, he used his weapon to slice into one of the security drones spying on them from just below the level of the bottom of Eradicator Base. Seeing the ease with which he brought it down, he sent Obvious to go intercept another one and sliced through it as well.
Gilbert landed on the rooftop of the northern central building and resumed his human form. Then, a quickened spell at the ready just in case, he stepped forward to the edge of the roof and started to try to address the robots. The blaster droid immediately swiveled his rifle arm at the mage and Gilbert cast his readied dimension door spell, sending him 40 feet backwards in midair, where Mudpie caught him easily by the shoulders. The earth elemental held his master safely until Gilbert concentrated on another form, shapechanging into an astral deva. In this form he could fly at will with his feathered wings, but more importantly he had a tongues ability that would allow him to communicate with the defensive force of trigger-happy droids. Of course, they'd be able to tell he wasn't a human while he wore that form, but one thing at a time.
The soldier droids had massed over by the building where Gilbert had been, energy blades rising up out of their mechanical hands. Hagan flew up over the side of the base and, seeing a mass of metal constructs arrayed out before him, finally got to cast the meteor swarm spell he'd been holding off on so as not to damage the engines keeping Eradicator Base afloat in the sky. He targeted the grappler droid, and the grappler was destroyed instantly by the four flaming meteors that struck its metal body. The subsequent explosion damaged the other defensive droids to various levels of degree, but none of them were likewise rendered incapable of movement. Still, it had been an expressive explosion, a view echoed by Wezhley, cheering on his master while perched upon his right shoulder.
The blaster droid, however, now had a viable target and shot a ray at the flying half-orc sorcerer, the blast just barely missing Wezhley as well. The subduer droids approached, sensing the possibility the flying mutant might fall within reach.
Having failed to find a hatch anywhere along the bottom - and realizing even if there was one it would take forever to find when the invisible base could only be seen for a half-second or so every few minutes as the field flickered off and on - Finoula walked cautiously up the side of Eradicator Base, eventually coming back to the top. She found herself on the same rooftop Gilbert had just recently fled in desperation. On her way up she saw Binkadink and Obvious going drone hunting; they destroyed a third drone before the fourth and final one scooted back up to the top of Eradicator Base, where it was hopefully safer.
Obvious dropped onto the roof of the observation platform at the northwestern corner of Eradicator Base and Binkadink leaped down onto the deck, his glaive ready to deal damage to these metal robot-men-things. Darrien popped up at the other end of the base, picking off the spiderlike security bots with his own laser rifle. Two of them fell in just over as many seconds as the ranger aimed and fired, as adept with this strange new weapon as he was with his own trusty Arachnibow.
Their security drones and bots being picked off - there were now only two of the spiderlike constructs and one flying drone - the droids all followed the instructions of the unseen controller and scurried back to the nearest recharging station, the doors slamming closed once they'd entered. Then they plugged into the receptacles and were charged back up, the worst of the damage they'd sustained fixed on at least a temporary basis - if they survived this assault they'd no doubt need further attention by the repair droids.
Gilbert landed on the rooftop he'd so recently abandoned and took the moment of non-combat to cast a bear's endurance spell on himself. Even though switching forms using the shapechange spell healed a bit of damage each time a new form was assumed, Gilbert was a cautious man and liked ensuring his own safety whenever possible - you never knew when some giant brain-on-legs was going to zap your mind into temporary oblivion on this crazy world!
Hagan, eager for the robots to return so he could blow up more of them, passed the time waiting for them by casting a magic missile spell at the last flying drone, sending it crashing over the side of the base. And then the doors opened along the inner sides of the top deck of Eradicator Base, the recharged droids emerging to deal with these enemies. The subduer droids were the first out, one of them attacking Binkadink who was more than happy to attack right back. Finoula ran across the rooftop, unfurling her flaming burst whip of thorns as she did so and sending the tip of her weapon snapping down at the droid attacking her gnomish friend. Binkadink's glaive scored a groove across the thing's chest and sparks erupted from where he'd hit it; apparently it had taken some kind of internal damage from the strike. Obvious leaped down and flanked the subduer from behind, not only striking the metal construct with his antlers but perhaps more importantly preventing it with his bulk from getting back into its recharging station.
The shock troopers were the next to exit, the tips of their built-in hand-held weapons sparking as if in anticipation. They headed over towards Binkadink and Obvious, currently the only intruders within range.
Darrien, noticing the charge in his laser rifle was getting low, stowed it on his back and replaced it with his Arachnibow. Then, pulling arrow after arrow from his quiver, he destroyed the last two spider-bots in rapid succession. Gilbert flew forward and cast a maximized chain lightning spell on the assembled droids, destroying outright all but the two subduers and the two shock troopers, from whose bodies smoke arose, testifying to some internal damage of their own from the spell. Seeing this, Hagan followed up with a chain lightning spell of his own - and now there was only a sole subduer droid left on the field of battle. Binkadink's reverberating glaive made short work of that one.
The way now looking clear, Binkadink sent Obvious back down to fetch Aithanar, Genevar, and MARCI, leaving the other five hoppers below to fend for themselves for awhile. Once he'd ferried the trio up to Eradicator Base, though, he returned to his litter-mates' sides. They were happy to see him, if somewhat confused as to how he was no longer dead any more (not that they were complaining).
Now that he was in astral deva form, Gilbert's inherent tongues abilities allowed him to read the words on the signs printed in the strange language of this strange world. He had MARCI check out the buildings labeled "Medical Bay" (in which she was able to restock some supplies she could use in her own internal medical stashes) and "Droid Repair" (which she reported contained spare parts of no use to her own mechanical design). And then, seeing the two small rooms jutting out of the front of the central building to the north (a combination "Briefing Room/Lounge," which Gilbert opted to bypass for now) were both labeled "Stairs," he opened to door to one of them and headed down to Deck Two.
Lights came on as he entered the middle deck, illuminating the entire level. There was a walled-off room in the southwestern corner and a pair of long tables against the east and west walls, upon which sat various tools of some type, but of more immediate interest were the six humanoid forms made of molded metal and that odd substance Genevar had called "plasteel." Three of them were the size of a normal human and these stood on raised platforms between the two sets of stairs leading up to Deck One, the one in the middle obviously built for a woman. The three larger shapes stood on platforms in the northwest, northeast, and southeast corners of the deck. The signs on the fronts of the platforms identified the "superheroes" on display: Titan, Ogre, Banshee, Wraith, Spriggan, and Goliath.
<Guys!> Gilbert called to those above. <Found what we looking for!>
Everybody rushed downstairs to see what Gilbert had found. They stood with mouths wide open in awe - except for Genevar, who looked around in confusion. <This is their armor,> she confirmed, <but where are the Eradicators?> She indicated a series of yellow stripes along the southern wall. <Their aircars are missing. Don't tell me they aren't even here!> The ten-year-old mutant looked about ready to cry, her hopes of finding her heroes and bringing them back from what she assumed had to be stasis of some kind looking to be shattered.
"There's another level below us," pointed out Binkadink. "Maybe they're down there." Genevar insisted on checking out the room in the southwestern corner first, but it was just a repair shop filled with spare parts, calibration equipment, and various tools.
A single set of stairs led down to Deck Three. But a quick walk through the many rooms on this level showed that while this was the habitation level - complete with six bedrooms, a lounge area, a kitchen and dining area, latrines, and the engine room keeping the entire structure airborne - there was nobody there. Nor, Genevar was sad to see, were there any stasis chambers.
<They've got to be here somewhere!> she insisted. <Or a clue as to how we can find them!> She ran back up the stairs, to the top deck, insisting they hadn't checked all of the rooms up there. Sure enough, they hadn't - as became apparent when they opened the door to the room next to the "Communication Room," this one simply labeled "Controller." Gilbert shapechanged out of his astral deva form, taking on his true appearance as the controller droid spun to face them.
The controller had been built in only a vaguely humanoid form; its head was a half-sphere atop its blocky body with an antenna sticking straight up and its hands were mechanical claws from which smaller, more dexterous "fingers" could be extended. Without contact from any of its security bots or drones, or any of the various defensive droids it sent into battle to defend Eradicator Base from the incursion of mutants, it realized it was - for the first time since its construction, several hundreds of years ago - truly on its own.
However, the heavyset man standing immediately before it, although wearing quite ridiculous-looking clothes made of what looked to be homespun cloth, appeared to be a pure strain human. The controller verified this with an invisible scan of Gilbert's form. "Pure strain human status confirmed," it said aloud in its unknown language, then focused its attention to those standing behind the man. From the pointed ears and green skin coloration it could see using only its visual senses, these were surely mutants of some sort!
"It okay, they with me," Gilbert said, his incomprehensible words translated immediately by MARCI. The medical android translated the controller's follow-on statement for Gilbert's benefit: "I have a message from the Eradicators, to be given to the first pure strain human to appear on Eradicator Base."
"Let's hear it," Gilbert replied, MARCI once again translating for him.
The controller spun in place and activated a switch. A screen above it came to life, showing the image of a dark-haired man. He began speaking, MARCI translating for the benefit of Gilbert and the others crowding in behind him.
"My name is Harrison Carey," the man said. "You probably know me better as Titan." He turned, showing a group of five figures seated behind him. "These are my friends and loyal companions, Victoria Richard, Banshee; Axel Jacobi, Wraith; Logan Pierce, Spriggan; Daniel Fredericks, Goliath; and Alexander Mann, Ogre. We've...we've all seen better days. This video message is serving as our last will and testament."
<Look at them,> Genevar said with a wistful expression in her mental voice. <They're starting to mutate.>
Sure enough, the ten-year-old mutant had caught on at once what the camera was just now focusing upon. Victoria had a pair of fangs starting to protrude past her upper lip and her skin was growing patches of scales. Axel's nose had darkened and what at first had looked like a beard proved to be fur sprouting all across his face, giving him a distinctive ursine appearance. Logan's face looked fine, but the bones in the fingers of his left hand had apparently dissolved, leaving the five ringed appendages growing out of his left hand - which wriggled as if of their own accord - looking like nothing so much as a bunch of wriggling earthworms. Daniel had no teeth, but the beginnings of what would likely become pedipalps were growing along the sides of his mouth; his spidery appearance was enhanced by the six black eye-spots growing on his forehead. Alexander had white feathers growing in his eyebrows and his hands were twisted things of scales and sinew, well on their way to becoming talons.
A sudden movement drew the attention to the pair of small, feathered wings rising up from Harrison's shoulders; his facial features, upon closer inspection, looked to be somehow feline. "We were stupid," Harrison admitted. "We tried to get some of our family members to safety and we all got the virus. We're turning into abominations, the very things we've been killing in the streets as they manifest." Harrison looked plaintively at the camera, the pupils in his eyes quite noticeable vertical in shape. "We're not going to let this run its course. We're done for: we'll let the controller at Eradicator Base hand over everything to the next human who shows up free of the mutant virus. You, whoever you are: you'll find our combat armor downstairs on the second level. Find others like you, pure-blooded humans free of the taint of mutation. Carry on our mission, as best you can. And as for us...." Harrison raised a pistol to his head; behind him, the others did likewise.
"Humanity will prevail!" Harrison called out, and then the screen went black to the sounds of six small explosions. Wordlessly, the controller switched off the screen.
Getting the controller to accept the others as "honorary humans" was easy enough; Gilbert merely commanded the droid to annotate its scans of each hero as "human" in its internal logs and then that was that. MARCI downloaded her files of the Common tongue of Kordovia to the controller and just as easy as that it was capable of communicating to them in their own language. They learned Eradicator Base had landing struts and a ramp that could be extended from the southern part of the top level, so they had the controller land the structure and extend the ramp so the six jackalopes could be brought on board. While it was on the ground the Kordovians took the opportunity to remove all traces of the apidox's attempt at constructing a hive on the bottom of the base, not wanting it to interfere with the operation of the anti-gravity field that kept the flying building in the air.
That just left two decisions to be made: how to get Eradicator Base headed back to the Transdimensional Conduit Generation Complex where they had first entered this world (and which was their only way back) and how to decide which Kordovian was going to take on the role of which combat armor "superhero."
On that latter front, Finoula was the easiest: as the only woman in the group, she inherited the Banshee armor. With assistance from Genevar, who knew the most about what each armor system could do, they decided Gilbert would take the Goliath mech; it had a hatch that opened in the middle of the construct's body, so he could cast spells through it as needed, closing himself in after spellcasting had been completed. Binkadink took the Spriggan armor, but that was because the previous owner, Logan Pierce, had been a small man and the gnome fit best in the cockpit of the vehicle. Darrien took on the Ogre suit and Aithanar the Wraith suit; like Finoula's these were less piloted vehicles like the other three and more like enchanted armor one wore, although in this case this was enchanted with technology. (Genevar assured them their armor was much more like this "Iron Man" fellow the little mutant kept on about.) That left Hagan in the Titan armor, but in his case it had been preordained by a message in a table, carved there by Pythagoras Greymantle after his mind was broken by the Far Realm. "One day I'm going to be a titan," he recalled the message had said. "Looks like today's the day."
It took some doing (since they lacked what Genevar called "GPS coordinates," whatever they were), but the group finally found their way back the way they'd come and Eradicator Base floated serenely over the Transdimensional Conduit Generation Complex. "We even a couple days early," Gilbert gloated. "Give us plenty time to practice in these metal suits."
- - -
And that ended our five-adventure excursion into Gamma World. The six heroes now have either combat armor or a combat mech to pilot in the last two adventures of this campaign. I knew from the beginning I wanted to visit Gamma Terra at some point in the campaign and since I had the idea to tie in Iron Man type combat armor I also decided this should occur only at the tail end of the campaign.
For each of the six superheroes, I found an image I wanted to use and designed the armor's capabilities around the picture. I used the tracking method used in Star Fleet Battles, in that each suit has a number of points per round that can be allocated to different systems: life support, mobility (in the case of the mechs), and their various weapons and other powers. (Some have force fields, some have pulse guns, some have jump jets, Wraith has an invisibility field like the entire Eradicator Base and Banshee has a sonic scream, etc.) At the end of this session, I went through the various systems for each armor and gave the players their sheets to study between now and our next session (in two weeks if the current pattern holds).
So the next adventure will take place when Malrin casts a bolt of electricity at the lightning rod at the Oerth end of the gateway between universes and the heroes can return to their own world. Genevar, MARCI, Obvious, and his five litter-mates will all be permanent emigrants to Oerth; Logan's already planning on hunting up the poorly-crafted pipes of the sewers that summon rabbits and similar creatures instead of rats (from their early adventure, "Bad Hare Day") to summon dire rabbits, which he knows exist on Oerth, so the jackalopes can find mates outside their own immediate family structure.
The apidox was a plastic bee I bought for a buck at Target years ago; the various defense droids were the handful of "Rogun Robot" toys we still had around from when my boys were little.
Incidentally, Aithanar made it to 9th level at the end of this adventure - that's probably the last bit of leveling up in this entire campaign.
- - -
T-Shirt Worn: My "Iron Man 2" T-shirt featuring Iron Man and War Machine, to represent the combat armor and mech suits of the Eradicators.
PC Roster:
Binkadink Dundernoggin, gnome fighter 20
Darrien, half-elf ranger 20
Finoula Cloudshadow, elf ranger 20
Gilbert Fung, human wizard 20
Hagan, half-orc sorcerer 20
NPC Roster:
Aithanar Ivenheart, elf fighter 8
Genevar, humanoid mutant
MARCI, humanoid construct
Game Session Date: 30 May 2020
- - -
"There!" cried Binkadink, pointing up into the sky.
The others looked to where he was pointing. There was a spot of color in the sky ahead and then in the blink of an eye, for the briefest second, a much larger shape - but one that vanished almost immediately. The larger shape had looked to be something along the lines of an inverted step pyramid, three levels deep with each level smaller than the one above it. When it disappeared again after less than a second, however, the original spot of color remained and that turned out to be a yellowish insect, crawling upside-down in the air.
Immediately, the heroes whipped out their various rifles, not to shoot at the insect but to get a better look at it through the scopes; Binkadink had instead pulled out his binoculars and was getting the insect into focus. "It looks like a bee, all right!" he said to the others. "Is this the apidox?" he asked, passing the binoculars over to Genevar, who was sitting behind Aithanar on Digger's strong back.
Genevar looked up at the insect, which seemed to hover in mid-air. <That's it!> she said telepathically to the others. <It's starting to make a nest at the bottom of Eradicator Base!> The little mutant frowned in thought. <If it builds a nest there, it could mess about with the base's propulsion unit or muck up its anti-gravity....>
"What happen then?" asked Gilbert.
<Then Eradicator Base will fall from the sky, and if the Eradicators are inside, in suspended animation, they'll all die!> Genevar had no actual idea the Eradicators were in suspended animation inside their cloaked, flying base of operations - it was just a reasonable explanation for her as to why they suddenly disappeared centuries ago during the early days of the Shadow Years, when the DNA bombs went off and the mutagenic viruses started turning people and animals into monsters. Legend said that the Eradicators would one day return, at the time of their greatest need, and Genevar desperately wanted to believe that...but she was well aware the legends said the same thing about King Arthur and he'd never bothered showing his face.
"So we need to take out the apidox no matter what," mused Finoula. The heroes had plenty of different ways to head to the top of the flying base using a variety of magical means at their disposal and she had been giving some thought about possibly bypassing the fight with the apidox altogether. But if its presence on the bottom of Eradicator Base threatened the base's stability, they'd have to kill it or at least drive it away.
"It doesn't look like it's noticed us yet," observed Hagan. As he said that, the inverted pyramid flickered into visibility for a half-second, appearing and disappearing like a flash of lightning.
"Prep spells," replied Gilbert and the others responded immediately by casting those pre-combat spells they were used to having in place when about to enter a skirmish. Darrien and Finoula cast their traditional barkskin spells on themselves and then the half-elf cast both a bear's endurance and a cat's grace spell on his jackalope mount, Droopy-Ear. Hagan and Gilbert each cast a stoneskin spell upon themselves and their familiars and then the half-orc sorcerer cast the same spell on both Aithanar and Genevar. He followed that up with a fly spell upon himself and, at Binkadink's request, another upon Obvious. "This will be fun!" said the awakened jackalope enthusiastically.
Gilbert cast a shapechange spell upon himself but held it at bay for now; he could always assume a different form as needed with the spell already in place. He then cast the traditional Rary's telepathic bond spell on the entire group and, after Genevar reminded everyone that an apidox's stinger held a particularly virulent venom, the heavyset mage drank a potion of neutralize poison just in case it was needed. Finoula did the same, while Darrien cast a delay poison spell upon himself before dropping his figurine of wondrous power to the ground and activating his ebony fly.
"We ready?" Gilbert asked the others as he set his slingshot of rock shrinking and Mudpie, currently the size of a pebble, down on the ground before him. Then he shapechanged into a red-skinned pit fiend and bent to retrieve both his slingshot and his familiar.
"Ready," replied the others and then Gilbert, Hagan, Obvious, and the ebony fly rose into the sky, the last two carrying Binkadink and Darrien respectively, flying up towards the oblivious apidox and the flickering Eradicator Base above them. Back on the ground, Aithanar raised his stun rifle and Finoula fingered her lightning bolt amulet while MARCI, Genevar, and the hoppers grouped together, looking up at the scene of impending battle.
In mid-flight, Hagan cast a polar ray up at the apidox - he'd have preferred hitting it with a meteor swarm but was afraid he might damage whatever technological magic kept the floating base in the sky. The spell-ray struck true, freezing a patch of ice onto the mutant bee's right wing. Another ray blasted up beside him, this one fired from Aithanar's stun rifle; it too struck true. Then a blast of living lightning flew up at the apidox, hit it just behind the creature's narrow neck, and then rebounded back to the ground, where Finoula resumed her elven form. Obvious charged straight for the insect, Binkadink's glaive slicing through its thick outer carapace as Obvious's antler-tips did likewise. Darrien chose to send his ebony fly off to the right, firing multiple shots with his laser sniper rifle as he did so.
Thinking the others could handle the apidox handily, Gilbert flew to the top of the floating base and was surprised to find the invisibility effect that kept Eradicator Base hidden from view from below did not apply to the top of the structure. From his vantage point, he could look down upon the top level, an empty deck in the middle surrounded in a ring by a series of one-story buildings, each about 10 feet tall with the exceptions of the corner buildings and the long one to the south, each of which stood 15 feet tall. There were numerous doors all along the buildings, leading the wizard to believe each was likely a one-room structure not connected to the others from the inside. Two other features of note caught his eyes: the two projections sticking out from the long building to the north, each pointing towards the center of the upper deck, and the three large squares carved into the middle of the deck, looking to be something along the lines of covered pit traps.
As Gilbert dropped down to the corner of the top deck and landed, he loaded Mudpie into his slingshot and fired him at the floor. Upon impact, Mudpie reverted to his full, 16-foot size and his master cast a quickened fly spell upon the towering earth elemental. Gilbert was well aware that Mudpie was not comfortable being separated from the solid earth below him and this spell at least would allow the elemental to return to the ground under his own power if something were to happen to Gilbert. Unseen by the pair, four spherical figures rose from the corners of the structure, each propelled by a series of silent, whirling blades rising up from the central sphere like a beholder's eye-stalks. Four metal constructs built in the shape of a spider also lurked along the building rooftops, each of the eight devices aiming their visual cameras at the pair of intruders standing on the deck before them.
Hanging below Eradicator Base the apidox, slow to respond to outside stimulus, was just now realizing it was under attack. Hagan cast another polar ray at it and Aithanar fired another shot from his stun rifle before the massive insect darted forward, grabbing at Obvious with its front limbs and stabbing at the jackalope with its wicked stinger as it stretched its abdomen down beneath its body. The stinger stabbed deep into Obvious's stomach and the venom did its work almost instantaneously, stopping the jackalope's heart. His involuntary thrashings caused him to wriggle free from the apidox's grip and both he and Binkadink plummeted down to the desert ground beneath them. Both hit the sand hard, sending plumes of dust billowing all around them, but while the gnome fighter crawled back up onto his hands and knees a moment later, Obvious was quite dead. His litter-mates crowded around him, nudging his lifeless form in an effort to wake him up.
Up on the top deck of Eradicator Base, several of the doors raised up, releasing the humanoid forms housed within. The first was a blaster droid, who stepped out of his alcove and immediately sighted at the towering, red-skinned figure standing in the northwestern corner of the deck. Recognizing it as a non-human entity, the blaster raised its left arm and - its targeting capabilities enhanced by the four security drones flying above the corners of the base and the four skittering, spiderlike security bots scampering along the rooftops, all of whom were connected together in a remote link not unlike the Rary's telepathic bond spell the heroes had active - shot Gilbert in the back with his energy weapon. Two more humanoid constructs stepped out of their stations, the doors having risen to let them out, and approached the intruders. These droids had stunning devices affixed to the ends of their arms and had been programmed to take any hostiles alive for possible interrogation. Electrical surges sparked at the ends of their weapons as they advanced.
<Obvious is down!> Finoula called to the others over the link, then activated her lightning bolt amulet again and blasted up at the apidox and back down to the ground again. Binkadink, roaring in a wordless fury over the death of his riding mount and best friend, pulled the laser sniper rifle from his back and fired shot after shot up at the apidox; it was his only way of getting his revenge since his one method of getting up to the mutant bee at the aerial base had just been slain. From his perch upon the ebony fly, Darrien fired his own laser rifle at the apidox.
Two more doors opened up and a pair of humanoid droids exited from their alcoves; these were shock troopers with electrified claws in the place of hands. They too advanced upon Gilbert and Mudpie, who had noticed the imminent approach of a half-dozen metal constructs clanging along the metal floor. Looking at the approaching horde, Gilbert also noticed the security bots skittering along the rooftops and the drones flying overhead, all pointing at him with their camera-lens eyes. Then another door opened and a grappler droid approached, this one less human in appearance than the others; it was boxy, with arms sticking out from its sides ending in metal pincer claws and its head was a flattened disk with sensory apparatus sticking out in various directions. It too veered Gilbert's way, claws open for grasping.
Despite the powerful, fiendish form he currently wore, Gilbert had no stomach for hand-to-hand combat against a riot of metal constructs with unknown powers. He stepped to the side and leapt into the air, flapping his powerful wings to escape - but not before one of the subduer droids managed to zap him with its stunning device. Still, that was all the various robots could do before Gilbert dived over the side of Eradicator Base, casting a maximized enervation spell at the apidox who had proved to be quite deadly after all and was still fighting on despite having been bombarded with spells and rays for all this time. The spell drained a bit more of the mutant bee's vitality and now it was possible to see the creature's moves were becoming somewhat more sluggish; the multiple stun rays were starting to take effect, it seemed.
Mudpie was not a fan of aerial flight but he was also not a fan of keeping his master unprotected, so with a stifled scream he leapt over the side of Eradicator Base and slammed a boulderlike fist into the apidox's face - after all, the earth elemental had no fear of being injected with venom. Hagan cast a third polar ray spell at it and Aithanar continued firing his stun rifle from below. But the apidox was looking for nearby victims to attack and while Mudpie was right there in its face it recognized it as not being edible. That being the case, it flew past the flying earth elemental and made a bee-line for Gilbert, not at all discomfited by the wizard's pit fiend form. Gilbert was unable to dodge out of the way in time and the insect's stinger stabbed deep into his side; the wizard took comfort in the fact that this fiendish form made him immune to all poisons.
Up on the Eradicator Base's upper deck, three more doors opened and the three soldier droids stepped out, taking up defensive positions since there were currently no enemies in view. The grappler, shock troops, and subduers followed suit. The blaster droid stood in the center of the deck, arms raised and ready to fire at any enemies who might approach. But while the security bots kept their camera eyes deployed to cover the entire upper deck, the four flying drones all flew over the sides of the flying base and dropped down until they could see the apidox in combat with several flying members of species unknown.
Finoula blasted up at the apidox again, transforming her elven body into a living lightning bolt, resuming her normal form once back down on the ground. Binkadink continued firing up at the beast with his laser sniper rifle, screaming in fury all the while. Finally, the combined efforts of the various heroes overcame the mutant bee's defenses and its wounded body plummeted from the air, the stun blasts finally having overcome it. It crashed down into the desert sand in an explosion of grit and Binkadink immediately dropped his rifle, pushed past the mourning jackalopes to get to his glaive by Obvious's cooling body, and went rushing over to the downed apidox with his blade held high. Then, before the stunned insect had a chance to recover, the gnome brought his reverberating blade crashing down at the narrow neck holding its head in place. With one downward slash the apidox's head fell to the side of its body.
With the apidox out of the fight, Darrien landed his ebony fly back down by the jackalopes to regroup. Gilbert and Mudpie joined them (the earth elemental with no small sense of relief) and the portly mage - still quite heavy in build even as a pit fiend - briefed the others on the metal constructs he'd seen up on the top level of Eradicator Base.
"We can go over that later," Binkadink interrupted. "Can you--?"
Gilbert knew exactly what the gnome was asking. He walked over to the side of the downed jackalope and shooed Obvious's siblings aside. Then, reaching down to Obvious's furry muzzle, he placed a clawed hand onto it and cast the words to a limited wish spell. Concentrating fiercely, Gilbert rewound time for just the two of them, plucking Obvious out of the way of the apidox's stinger at the last possible moment. Thus, while the jackalope had now still been hurt in battle his wounds had not been fatal; with a start, Obvious crawled back up onto all fours and MARCI approached to inject him with a healing dosage from one of her finger-needles.
That done, Gilbert went back to discussing what he'd seen on the deck of Eradicator Base. "Got bunch of mechanical men running about with weapons built into hands up there," he said. "Only one with any ranged attacks, though."
<It's probably a standard defense setup,> suggested Genevar. <The Eradicators wouldn't want mutants from taking over their base while they were in suspended animation.>
"We not mutants!" Gilbert argued.
<Well, you look like you are - at least from a human perspective,> countered Genevar. <Well, except for you, Gilbert...when you're not a big devil-man.>
"Maybe I drop pit fiend form, see what these metal men do when they see real human like me," mused Gilbert. He looked around. "Okay, we try new plan. Everybody ready?"
Darrien remounted his ebony fly. Binkadink did the same with Obvious, whose fly spell was still in effect, but he promised himself he'd just use his jackalope buddy as a means of transport to the floating base; he wasn't going to send Obvious into battle against these "robot" things. Gilbert, Mudpie, and Hagan flew back up to Eradicator Base under their own power, with Binkadink and Darrien following on their aerial mounts. Finoula activated her lightning bolt amulet for a fourth time, but this time when she blasted herself up to the bottom of Eradicator Base she resumed elven form before returning to earth, staying adhered to the bottom of the floating base with her boots of spider climbing. She felt around on the invisible structure, trying to find a door or window.
Binkadink had recovered his laser sniper rifle but kept it on his back while he held his reverberating glaive in both hands. As they approached, he used his weapon to slice into one of the security drones spying on them from just below the level of the bottom of Eradicator Base. Seeing the ease with which he brought it down, he sent Obvious to go intercept another one and sliced through it as well.
Gilbert landed on the rooftop of the northern central building and resumed his human form. Then, a quickened spell at the ready just in case, he stepped forward to the edge of the roof and started to try to address the robots. The blaster droid immediately swiveled his rifle arm at the mage and Gilbert cast his readied dimension door spell, sending him 40 feet backwards in midair, where Mudpie caught him easily by the shoulders. The earth elemental held his master safely until Gilbert concentrated on another form, shapechanging into an astral deva. In this form he could fly at will with his feathered wings, but more importantly he had a tongues ability that would allow him to communicate with the defensive force of trigger-happy droids. Of course, they'd be able to tell he wasn't a human while he wore that form, but one thing at a time.
The soldier droids had massed over by the building where Gilbert had been, energy blades rising up out of their mechanical hands. Hagan flew up over the side of the base and, seeing a mass of metal constructs arrayed out before him, finally got to cast the meteor swarm spell he'd been holding off on so as not to damage the engines keeping Eradicator Base afloat in the sky. He targeted the grappler droid, and the grappler was destroyed instantly by the four flaming meteors that struck its metal body. The subsequent explosion damaged the other defensive droids to various levels of degree, but none of them were likewise rendered incapable of movement. Still, it had been an expressive explosion, a view echoed by Wezhley, cheering on his master while perched upon his right shoulder.
The blaster droid, however, now had a viable target and shot a ray at the flying half-orc sorcerer, the blast just barely missing Wezhley as well. The subduer droids approached, sensing the possibility the flying mutant might fall within reach.
Having failed to find a hatch anywhere along the bottom - and realizing even if there was one it would take forever to find when the invisible base could only be seen for a half-second or so every few minutes as the field flickered off and on - Finoula walked cautiously up the side of Eradicator Base, eventually coming back to the top. She found herself on the same rooftop Gilbert had just recently fled in desperation. On her way up she saw Binkadink and Obvious going drone hunting; they destroyed a third drone before the fourth and final one scooted back up to the top of Eradicator Base, where it was hopefully safer.
Obvious dropped onto the roof of the observation platform at the northwestern corner of Eradicator Base and Binkadink leaped down onto the deck, his glaive ready to deal damage to these metal robot-men-things. Darrien popped up at the other end of the base, picking off the spiderlike security bots with his own laser rifle. Two of them fell in just over as many seconds as the ranger aimed and fired, as adept with this strange new weapon as he was with his own trusty Arachnibow.
Their security drones and bots being picked off - there were now only two of the spiderlike constructs and one flying drone - the droids all followed the instructions of the unseen controller and scurried back to the nearest recharging station, the doors slamming closed once they'd entered. Then they plugged into the receptacles and were charged back up, the worst of the damage they'd sustained fixed on at least a temporary basis - if they survived this assault they'd no doubt need further attention by the repair droids.
Gilbert landed on the rooftop he'd so recently abandoned and took the moment of non-combat to cast a bear's endurance spell on himself. Even though switching forms using the shapechange spell healed a bit of damage each time a new form was assumed, Gilbert was a cautious man and liked ensuring his own safety whenever possible - you never knew when some giant brain-on-legs was going to zap your mind into temporary oblivion on this crazy world!
Hagan, eager for the robots to return so he could blow up more of them, passed the time waiting for them by casting a magic missile spell at the last flying drone, sending it crashing over the side of the base. And then the doors opened along the inner sides of the top deck of Eradicator Base, the recharged droids emerging to deal with these enemies. The subduer droids were the first out, one of them attacking Binkadink who was more than happy to attack right back. Finoula ran across the rooftop, unfurling her flaming burst whip of thorns as she did so and sending the tip of her weapon snapping down at the droid attacking her gnomish friend. Binkadink's glaive scored a groove across the thing's chest and sparks erupted from where he'd hit it; apparently it had taken some kind of internal damage from the strike. Obvious leaped down and flanked the subduer from behind, not only striking the metal construct with his antlers but perhaps more importantly preventing it with his bulk from getting back into its recharging station.
The shock troopers were the next to exit, the tips of their built-in hand-held weapons sparking as if in anticipation. They headed over towards Binkadink and Obvious, currently the only intruders within range.
Darrien, noticing the charge in his laser rifle was getting low, stowed it on his back and replaced it with his Arachnibow. Then, pulling arrow after arrow from his quiver, he destroyed the last two spider-bots in rapid succession. Gilbert flew forward and cast a maximized chain lightning spell on the assembled droids, destroying outright all but the two subduers and the two shock troopers, from whose bodies smoke arose, testifying to some internal damage of their own from the spell. Seeing this, Hagan followed up with a chain lightning spell of his own - and now there was only a sole subduer droid left on the field of battle. Binkadink's reverberating glaive made short work of that one.
The way now looking clear, Binkadink sent Obvious back down to fetch Aithanar, Genevar, and MARCI, leaving the other five hoppers below to fend for themselves for awhile. Once he'd ferried the trio up to Eradicator Base, though, he returned to his litter-mates' sides. They were happy to see him, if somewhat confused as to how he was no longer dead any more (not that they were complaining).
Now that he was in astral deva form, Gilbert's inherent tongues abilities allowed him to read the words on the signs printed in the strange language of this strange world. He had MARCI check out the buildings labeled "Medical Bay" (in which she was able to restock some supplies she could use in her own internal medical stashes) and "Droid Repair" (which she reported contained spare parts of no use to her own mechanical design). And then, seeing the two small rooms jutting out of the front of the central building to the north (a combination "Briefing Room/Lounge," which Gilbert opted to bypass for now) were both labeled "Stairs," he opened to door to one of them and headed down to Deck Two.
Lights came on as he entered the middle deck, illuminating the entire level. There was a walled-off room in the southwestern corner and a pair of long tables against the east and west walls, upon which sat various tools of some type, but of more immediate interest were the six humanoid forms made of molded metal and that odd substance Genevar had called "plasteel." Three of them were the size of a normal human and these stood on raised platforms between the two sets of stairs leading up to Deck One, the one in the middle obviously built for a woman. The three larger shapes stood on platforms in the northwest, northeast, and southeast corners of the deck. The signs on the fronts of the platforms identified the "superheroes" on display: Titan, Ogre, Banshee, Wraith, Spriggan, and Goliath.
<Guys!> Gilbert called to those above. <Found what we looking for!>
Everybody rushed downstairs to see what Gilbert had found. They stood with mouths wide open in awe - except for Genevar, who looked around in confusion. <This is their armor,> she confirmed, <but where are the Eradicators?> She indicated a series of yellow stripes along the southern wall. <Their aircars are missing. Don't tell me they aren't even here!> The ten-year-old mutant looked about ready to cry, her hopes of finding her heroes and bringing them back from what she assumed had to be stasis of some kind looking to be shattered.
"There's another level below us," pointed out Binkadink. "Maybe they're down there." Genevar insisted on checking out the room in the southwestern corner first, but it was just a repair shop filled with spare parts, calibration equipment, and various tools.
A single set of stairs led down to Deck Three. But a quick walk through the many rooms on this level showed that while this was the habitation level - complete with six bedrooms, a lounge area, a kitchen and dining area, latrines, and the engine room keeping the entire structure airborne - there was nobody there. Nor, Genevar was sad to see, were there any stasis chambers.
<They've got to be here somewhere!> she insisted. <Or a clue as to how we can find them!> She ran back up the stairs, to the top deck, insisting they hadn't checked all of the rooms up there. Sure enough, they hadn't - as became apparent when they opened the door to the room next to the "Communication Room," this one simply labeled "Controller." Gilbert shapechanged out of his astral deva form, taking on his true appearance as the controller droid spun to face them.
The controller had been built in only a vaguely humanoid form; its head was a half-sphere atop its blocky body with an antenna sticking straight up and its hands were mechanical claws from which smaller, more dexterous "fingers" could be extended. Without contact from any of its security bots or drones, or any of the various defensive droids it sent into battle to defend Eradicator Base from the incursion of mutants, it realized it was - for the first time since its construction, several hundreds of years ago - truly on its own.
However, the heavyset man standing immediately before it, although wearing quite ridiculous-looking clothes made of what looked to be homespun cloth, appeared to be a pure strain human. The controller verified this with an invisible scan of Gilbert's form. "Pure strain human status confirmed," it said aloud in its unknown language, then focused its attention to those standing behind the man. From the pointed ears and green skin coloration it could see using only its visual senses, these were surely mutants of some sort!
"It okay, they with me," Gilbert said, his incomprehensible words translated immediately by MARCI. The medical android translated the controller's follow-on statement for Gilbert's benefit: "I have a message from the Eradicators, to be given to the first pure strain human to appear on Eradicator Base."
"Let's hear it," Gilbert replied, MARCI once again translating for him.
The controller spun in place and activated a switch. A screen above it came to life, showing the image of a dark-haired man. He began speaking, MARCI translating for the benefit of Gilbert and the others crowding in behind him.
"My name is Harrison Carey," the man said. "You probably know me better as Titan." He turned, showing a group of five figures seated behind him. "These are my friends and loyal companions, Victoria Richard, Banshee; Axel Jacobi, Wraith; Logan Pierce, Spriggan; Daniel Fredericks, Goliath; and Alexander Mann, Ogre. We've...we've all seen better days. This video message is serving as our last will and testament."
<Look at them,> Genevar said with a wistful expression in her mental voice. <They're starting to mutate.>
Sure enough, the ten-year-old mutant had caught on at once what the camera was just now focusing upon. Victoria had a pair of fangs starting to protrude past her upper lip and her skin was growing patches of scales. Axel's nose had darkened and what at first had looked like a beard proved to be fur sprouting all across his face, giving him a distinctive ursine appearance. Logan's face looked fine, but the bones in the fingers of his left hand had apparently dissolved, leaving the five ringed appendages growing out of his left hand - which wriggled as if of their own accord - looking like nothing so much as a bunch of wriggling earthworms. Daniel had no teeth, but the beginnings of what would likely become pedipalps were growing along the sides of his mouth; his spidery appearance was enhanced by the six black eye-spots growing on his forehead. Alexander had white feathers growing in his eyebrows and his hands were twisted things of scales and sinew, well on their way to becoming talons.
A sudden movement drew the attention to the pair of small, feathered wings rising up from Harrison's shoulders; his facial features, upon closer inspection, looked to be somehow feline. "We were stupid," Harrison admitted. "We tried to get some of our family members to safety and we all got the virus. We're turning into abominations, the very things we've been killing in the streets as they manifest." Harrison looked plaintively at the camera, the pupils in his eyes quite noticeable vertical in shape. "We're not going to let this run its course. We're done for: we'll let the controller at Eradicator Base hand over everything to the next human who shows up free of the mutant virus. You, whoever you are: you'll find our combat armor downstairs on the second level. Find others like you, pure-blooded humans free of the taint of mutation. Carry on our mission, as best you can. And as for us...." Harrison raised a pistol to his head; behind him, the others did likewise.
"Humanity will prevail!" Harrison called out, and then the screen went black to the sounds of six small explosions. Wordlessly, the controller switched off the screen.
Getting the controller to accept the others as "honorary humans" was easy enough; Gilbert merely commanded the droid to annotate its scans of each hero as "human" in its internal logs and then that was that. MARCI downloaded her files of the Common tongue of Kordovia to the controller and just as easy as that it was capable of communicating to them in their own language. They learned Eradicator Base had landing struts and a ramp that could be extended from the southern part of the top level, so they had the controller land the structure and extend the ramp so the six jackalopes could be brought on board. While it was on the ground the Kordovians took the opportunity to remove all traces of the apidox's attempt at constructing a hive on the bottom of the base, not wanting it to interfere with the operation of the anti-gravity field that kept the flying building in the air.
That just left two decisions to be made: how to get Eradicator Base headed back to the Transdimensional Conduit Generation Complex where they had first entered this world (and which was their only way back) and how to decide which Kordovian was going to take on the role of which combat armor "superhero."
On that latter front, Finoula was the easiest: as the only woman in the group, she inherited the Banshee armor. With assistance from Genevar, who knew the most about what each armor system could do, they decided Gilbert would take the Goliath mech; it had a hatch that opened in the middle of the construct's body, so he could cast spells through it as needed, closing himself in after spellcasting had been completed. Binkadink took the Spriggan armor, but that was because the previous owner, Logan Pierce, had been a small man and the gnome fit best in the cockpit of the vehicle. Darrien took on the Ogre suit and Aithanar the Wraith suit; like Finoula's these were less piloted vehicles like the other three and more like enchanted armor one wore, although in this case this was enchanted with technology. (Genevar assured them their armor was much more like this "Iron Man" fellow the little mutant kept on about.) That left Hagan in the Titan armor, but in his case it had been preordained by a message in a table, carved there by Pythagoras Greymantle after his mind was broken by the Far Realm. "One day I'm going to be a titan," he recalled the message had said. "Looks like today's the day."
It took some doing (since they lacked what Genevar called "GPS coordinates," whatever they were), but the group finally found their way back the way they'd come and Eradicator Base floated serenely over the Transdimensional Conduit Generation Complex. "We even a couple days early," Gilbert gloated. "Give us plenty time to practice in these metal suits."
- - -
And that ended our five-adventure excursion into Gamma World. The six heroes now have either combat armor or a combat mech to pilot in the last two adventures of this campaign. I knew from the beginning I wanted to visit Gamma Terra at some point in the campaign and since I had the idea to tie in Iron Man type combat armor I also decided this should occur only at the tail end of the campaign.
For each of the six superheroes, I found an image I wanted to use and designed the armor's capabilities around the picture. I used the tracking method used in Star Fleet Battles, in that each suit has a number of points per round that can be allocated to different systems: life support, mobility (in the case of the mechs), and their various weapons and other powers. (Some have force fields, some have pulse guns, some have jump jets, Wraith has an invisibility field like the entire Eradicator Base and Banshee has a sonic scream, etc.) At the end of this session, I went through the various systems for each armor and gave the players their sheets to study between now and our next session (in two weeks if the current pattern holds).
So the next adventure will take place when Malrin casts a bolt of electricity at the lightning rod at the Oerth end of the gateway between universes and the heroes can return to their own world. Genevar, MARCI, Obvious, and his five litter-mates will all be permanent emigrants to Oerth; Logan's already planning on hunting up the poorly-crafted pipes of the sewers that summon rabbits and similar creatures instead of rats (from their early adventure, "Bad Hare Day") to summon dire rabbits, which he knows exist on Oerth, so the jackalopes can find mates outside their own immediate family structure.
The apidox was a plastic bee I bought for a buck at Target years ago; the various defense droids were the handful of "Rogun Robot" toys we still had around from when my boys were little.
Incidentally, Aithanar made it to 9th level at the end of this adventure - that's probably the last bit of leveling up in this entire campaign.
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T-Shirt Worn: My "Iron Man 2" T-shirt featuring Iron Man and War Machine, to represent the combat armor and mech suits of the Eradicators.
