Session 3
Invisible, Milo stepped out back onto the roof, followed closely by Syd, whose form was blurred with the speed granted by Haste. Everyone else except Xerxan followed and quickly discovered that the roof was empty.
Surrounding the turret, Milo crept up and spun the hatch open, jumping out of the way as he did. A gruff dwarven voice issued out, followed closely by the dwarf himself. He stood there, glaring out at the party, waiting for them to respond.
Milo quickly realized that he was the only one able to understand the dwarf, so he crept close to Zoltan and whispered in his ear to move his lips to Milo's words. While Zoltan stood there trying to mimic the sounds coming from directly in front of him the dwarf slowly turned his attention towards him.
The negotiations were brief. The dwarf wanted to know who they all were, while Milo wanted to know the same thing. Apparently the dwarf was waiting for someone or something to come back to the prison. Finally though, Milo offered the dwarf a choice.
“If you leave peacefully and don’t harm the guards, we won’t have to kill you.”
The dwarf snorted and opened fire, moving to slam the hatch of the turret closed.
Unfortunately for the dwarf, Syd was faster. As the dwarf’s hand reached for the hatch to the turret, a small fiery ball flew from Syd’s hand through the turret’s hatch and over the dwarf’s shoulder.
Fire exploded from within the turret, and when the flames cleared, only a smoking dwarven corpse remained in the hatchway. Milo moved forward to check on the destruction, and barely managed to avoid the blaster shot that suddenly burst from the turret! Someone was still inside, and alive!
Suddenly the hatch slammed closed, and the turret began to rotate around to point towards the party. Zoltan and Milo started racing along, trying to wrench the hatch open as it turned.
As the turret came in sight of Syd, he pulled up a magic Shield, then raced forward and slid underneath the turret’s field of fire. Orendil mimicked Syd’s movements as Alahandra mentally screamed as she was nearly crushed from Syd’s dodging.
Milo finally managed to get the hatch open, and was nearly brained as Zoltan threw a Sleep Grenade right past his invisible ear. Zoltan and Milo entered into the now cramped turret to find a very awake and very alive halfling female. A gunfight burst out inside of the enclosed chamber, blaster shots bouncing back and forth between the two parties.
Finally, however, the female halfling lay dead and Milo and Zoltan were victorious. Milo began tinkering with the turret, attempting to understand the controls. Zoltan exited while Syd entered, assisting Milo in figuring out the turret's controls.
Once Syd and Milo figured out how the turret worked, Milo removed the Flux Capacitor from the circuitry, effectively disabling the machine. Exiting out of the turret, the party began to discuss what should be done next.
Suddenly Xerxan rushed out from the small medical wing, clutching at his side, blood dripping from between his fingers. Following behind him was a large drider, fangs still moist with Xerxan's blood. Syd, being closest, shot out a ray of absolute blackness towards the creature racing towards him.
The drider turned towards him, and the only thing keeping it away was the magical shield from earlier. Milo, Orendil, and Zoltan all opened fire as Xerxan collapsed to the ground as the drider’s poison paralyzed his muscles.
Knowing his shield would not hold long, Syd backed away, but not before being cuffed by one of the drider’s legs. Head ringing, Syd backed away as the area the drider occupied was suddenly filled with impenetrable darkness.
Milo and Zoltan rushed to the turret. As soon as the got there, Milo reconnected the Flux Capacitor while Zoltan jumped into the pilot’s chair, activating the radar on the turret.
A Fireball exploded within the darkness as the radar finally came on and registered …
… nothing. The drider had disappeared something. Looking over the side of the roof, the party saw what must have been nearly the entire population of prisoners running from the prison. Of the drider the party saw nothing.
In time the drider’s magical darkness faded, and again the party searched about for any signs of the beast. About to give up, suddenly Orendil noticed something at the corner of the building. Approaching, he realized it was some kind of webbing! The drider had somehow spun a web and climbed down to the ground from the roof.
The party had accomplished what they had come onto the roof for, as well as figuring out the path of the drider that had attacked them. Zoltan fired off a few shots from the turret before Milo again disconnected the Flux Capacitor, and everyone began preparing to leave somehow, someway. The only real question was Xerxan.
Propped up next to the turret where the party had put him, Xerxan still remained incapable of movement, just like Alahandra. Where Syd could easily carry Alahandra, however, Xerxan was another matter. No one in the party could manage to lift him, much less carry him down the elevator shaft service ladder.
Despite disagreements, everyone eventually agreed that Xerxan had to be left. No one really trusted him, both for his ancestry and for his role in everyone’s unjust imprisonment. Further, there was simply nothing that could be done with him. Setting him into the turret to keep him out of the elements, the party climbed down the service ladder for hopefully the last time.
Taking the advice they had given all the prisoners, the party exited out of the prison, but instead of running away, the party skirted around the perimeter and entered the area the guard’s had earlier told them was the hangar.
Right away, several boxes of supplies were noticed stacked in one corner, as was a
non-functional robot lab in another. Most important, however, were the two hover transports and the hover tank that were sitting there.
As Orendil made to enter one of the transports, he again noticed the webbing from before. The drider had retreated down here into this transport! Leaving that one alone, the party checked the other two vehicles. None of them had an abundance of fuel, and the tank was out of ammo. The supply boxes were searched but if any ammo or fuel had been stored there, it had been taken at some earlier time.
While Milo, Zoltan, and Syd began divvying up the supply crates, a minotaur sporting a large blaster rifle, and an orc entered into the hangar. At first relations were tense, but quickly the two groups found a common goal: escape from Prison Aphex.
The orc introduced himself as Razoul and discarded his prisoner jumper for a spare set of clothes found in the supply crates. The minotaur, who was named G’Bangrak was unable to find any clothes that fit, but was happy to help with the drider situation.
Moving over to the infested transport, the minotaur pulled open the hatch and simply stuck the barrel of his rifle in. The sound of ricocheting blaster shots echoed throughout the hangar until suddenly the minotaur stepped back from the now smoking hatch and jumped down, drider taken care of.
Syd helped Orendil cannibalize the fuel from the other two vehicles as the last of the supply crates was cracked open. Making sure everyone had equipment they wanted, the party set about getting into the hover tank.
As the sun slowly started to set at the Aphex Prison, a hover tank suddenly burst out of the hangar. It was riding in a northern direction and, oddly enough, had a minotaur with a large rifle riding on top of it. Anyone who noticed would probably think it an odd sight indeed.
