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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 743391" data-attributes="member: 94">SCENE ONE: LONDON TO NEW YORKSCENE ONE: LONDON TO NEW YORKOnce under way, Nemo seemed both eager and yet unusually at ease. Barking orders to his crew, he hustled off to his cargo area to begin tearing into boxes of technical equipment. “It’s here somewhere... You!” Nemo collared a passing sailor. “Run to the comms and tell them to scan every frequency.”Mina crashed into the room, all hustle and bluster like a rolling wake, and the rest of the group came rolling in behind her like so much flotsam and jetsam. “What are you doing?”“I’m going to contact Tesla.”“How exactly do you intend to do that, from the middle of the ocean?”“Electron pulses, modulation of amplitude, frequency... I won’t pretend you could understand my technological devices.”“And Tesla can?” Mina asked.Nemo stared blankly. “Assuredly. Now please... Follow me, or get out of the way, I have some modifications to make.”West cleared his throat. “If Tesla is on the run... and I’m not saying he is... don’t you stand the risk of scaring him into deeper hiding?”Quartermain agreed. “And if he’s met with foul play, surely they’ll be waiting for someone to contact him as well.”The group argued back and forth for some time, unable to decide whether to contact Tesla or to simply follow the leads they already had. Eventually they agreed it was worth a try, but the conversation bogged down again immediately. They couldn’t decide what they wanted to say to Tesla. What if other ears were listening, after all? Too little, or too much, either way could make matters worse. “Look, it doesn’t matter what we say,” barked Mina, “if you simply send it in a cipher that only Tesla will understand. We already know he uses encryption, so we’ll use a mathematical recursion, including three translations, pictographs over phonemes, and at least one ancient language with no known modern analog.”Griffin removed his glasses and peered closely at Mina. “What the hell... Are you a spy?”Nemo had finally made the necessary modifications to his ship’s communication array, and ultimately it was Nemo who settled on the simplest, safest message of contact. He wasn’t a man who made his decisions by committee. Not on his ship.At his command the Nautilus surfaced and he broadcast his message on the highest, rarest frequencies. He cleared his throat, pressed a button on the console, and spoke clearly into a small black grille.N E E D H E L P ? N E M O“Is he even gonna know who you are?” Griffin scoffed.Nemo stood tall. “All true men of science know Nemo.”“Now what?” asked Quartermain. “Well,” Nemo said, stroking his beard. “We’ll have to stay on the surface if we want to receive contact.”“Won’t that slow us down?”“Depends on the weather,” he said, “but the short answer is, of course it will. I recommend we return to the surface intermittently to check for a reply. In the meantime, I’m going to build a portable receiver that we can take with us overland. If we do receive contact, we can check back with the Nautilus at harbor and...”“Triangulate,” Mina said. “Clever.”---------------------Over the next few days they surfaced periodically, repeated the message, and waited for a reply. They were not far out of New York harbor when, at last, they received contact. But it was not what they expected. Nemo’s device was meant to translate incoming energy waves into sound, but all they heard was a high pitched whistling and chirping. “What is that?” asked West.The greatest scientific minds Britain had to offer were in agreement on one thing. Nemo looked at Quartermain. Quartermain looked at Jekyll. Jekyll looked nervous and twitched with every ebb and flow of the noise.“I can tell you one thing...” he stammered. “It’s intelligent speech.”---------------------Soon enough, they docked at New York. There was no fanfare or grand welcome waiting for them; their dock was nearly abandoned, save for a small messenger boy who ran straightaway to West.“Urgent telegram!” he yelled from two paces away. “Urrrrgent!”West took the scrap of paper and pressed a coin into the boy’s hand. W E S T. C O V E R  B L O W N. C O L.  M C G E E  I N  C O M M A N D. C A U T I O N. A.“Something’s up,” West said, handing the impertinent messenger boy another nickel to finally send him running.“Well,” said Nemo, trundling down the gangplank with his portable scanner. “No time like the present. Let’s see who’s out there today.”Nemo turned on his receiver. There was a moment of silence, then a loud crackle, pop, and whiff of ozone.Something appeared on the docks with them. It was vaguely man-shaped, though it seemed more a parody of mankind than any natural thing. It was hunched, mishapen, with long arms and wicked talons. Most unusual of all, it appeared to constructed entirely of crystal.As the group stood open mouthed, it took a wide swipe at Nemo and sent him sprawling away from his receiver. Griffin was the first to act as his self preservation instincts took over. He chose the better part of valor and dove behind a stack of barrels on the dock.West drew his pistol and started fanning shots into the thing’s chest, but the bullets merely glanced away from the hard carapace. Quartermain backed up and started fumbling with his own rifle, his fingers shaking, finally cracking the breach and ramming home two long, impressive looking slugs. “Oh my...” Jekyll squealed. Something was definitely not right with Henry. “Ohhhh....”Nemo regained his composure and his cutlass came whistling out and across the thing’s back—to no avail. But he had its attention. It clawed once at him, ripping through Nemo’s ornamental breastplate to the flesh beneath. Crimson blossomed on the captain’s chest.The creature’s other claw smashed down heavily on Nemo’s electronic receiver and sparks raced up its arm. It seemed to slow down visibly, but it was clearly undeterred.“It’s after the receiver!” shouted Mina. She leapt forward and pushed hard against the crystal construct. “Get off!”“Mina, no!” Quartermain lowered his rifle and grabbed at Mina, muttering under his breath. “Stupid woman!”“HI HO! WOT’S ALL THIS THEN? BIT OF A DUST-UP?” Jekyll was gone—Edward Hyde stood in his place, eight or nine feet of muscle and degenerate humanity.-----Edward bared a mouthful of pre-human fangs in some semblance of a grin and waded into the fight, knotted fists swinging like wrecking balls. He grabbed the crystal construct by one arm and dragged it into his gaping maw, but his other arm slid off the creature before he could get a proper grip. Consequently, his attack did little-at best he managed to chip one of his own teeth on its crystalline carapace.Either West was pre-armed with knowledge of Jekyll’s condition, or he simply didn’t care, because he continued to fan his pistols uselessly into the monstrous melee. Quartermain also managed to get off a shot-- and yes! A slight crack appeared where the enormous 60-caliber round slammed home. But clearly, it wasn’t enough. “We need bigger guns,” Alan mumbled.Mina shouted to the crew of the Nautilus. “The deck guns!”The crew stood agape, watching the spectacle, until Nemo too took up the call. “Load that harpoon!” he bellowed. He pointed to a colossal cannon-like contraption bolted to the deck. Polished-brass precision-tooled metal intertwined with colorful couplings that slithered back into the recesses of the submarine. It glinted in the sunlight and might perhaps have appeared beautiful, save for the wickedly barbed harpoon the crew rammed into place. There was no mistaking the Nautilus’ deadly deck gun as a thing of beauty.Save to Nemo, of course. He smiled with a father’s pride as the crew swiveled the gun into place and put the crystal construct in the crosshairs. A hiss of hydraulics presaged the onslaught and Nemo stepped aside just as the cannon boomed. The harpoon struck the construct full on, cracking it significantly, but ultimately bouncing off and falling to the dock.Griffin had finally shed his clothes and bravely approached the construct from behind-evidenced only by a small barrel of goods that mysteriously (and somewhat ponderously) lifted itself from the dock and came crashing down on the construct’s head... to no avail.Unfazed, the construct turned its attention to the most dangerous target it could find. Edward Hyde was soon dripping with his own blood-- a new experience, but apparently not an entirely unpleasant one. He grinned and grappled away with the construct with newfound vigor, trying once again to rend it apart.Griffin took advantage of the moment. He scooped up several coils of cable from the fallen harpoon and looped it around the construct's neck. Hyde seemed prepared for Griffin's plan, or at the very least he was the first to respond: he pushed away from the construct with all his might. West and Quartermain opened fire again, sending it staggering back a few more steps towards the edge of the pier. Just as the construct seemed ready to fall over the side, it straightened and regained its balance. Thinking quickly, Griffin grabbed the rope and jumped off the pier. The invisible man was not slightly built. His added weight was too much-- or just enough-- and the construct toppled off the pier. It sank like a stone into the murky waters of the New York harbor.Edward shook the blood from his eyes and smoothed down what was left of his vest and shirt. Setting his hat at a jaunty angle, he strode off into the crowd."WHERE CAN A FELLA FIND A BIT O' FUN AROUND HERE?"Though some folks had been mesmerized by the fight itself, the sight of Hyde striding towards them sent them all into a panic. Griffin had climbed from the water and stood glistening like a ghost, laughing while the water dripped off his naked body and women shrieked in horror.Edward shook the blood from his eyes and smoothed down what was left of his vest and shirt. Setting his hat at a jaunty angle, he strode off into the crowd.Only then did the rest of the League realize the mayhem around them. Mina rushed to soothe Edward while West moved to intercept the policemen finally arriving on the scene. His holstered guns were still smoking, but it was his federal badge and suave smile, flashing in the sunlight, that caught their attention."Nothing to see here," he crooned. Behind his back, he waved Mina past, and she hustled off after Edward.Mina hustled a few paces for every one of Edward's, but she caught him quickly enough. "Edward!" she cried. Edward rounded on her with a growl, and she quickly lowered the finger she'd been wagging in his face. Instead, she placed her smooth hands, palms down, on Edward's broad chest. Just enough to hold him back."Come back, Edward. Plenty of time for fun later. Let's you and I get something to eat first." She motioned him back to the Nautilus. Edward shrugged, and by the time they walked back to the docks, Mina was arm in arm with Dr. Henry Jekyll.-----Gathered in the Nautilus, the group looked out of the huge, bowl-like belly port-hole at the construct. It was standing there, destroying Nemo's portable scanner which had sunk to nearly the same spot. Over and over, the creature thrashed away at the equipment. It was beyond destroyed, but it did not cease."Net that thing!" Nemo ordered. Within moments, a huge net drifted down over the construct. It flailed its claws at the net, severed a few strands, but was soon hopelessly entangled. Soon, it stopped moving entirely.Nemo rang his communications officer. "Can we listen to it out there?""Aye, cap'n." They watched as an insect-like boom entered their view and slowly approached the creature.Sure enough, there was the high-pitched chittering noise they'd heard before."Tune in the scanner and pipe it down here, too," Nemo said. The scanner was silent for a few moments while the creature chittered away. Quartermain listened, deep in thought. "I... Gentlemen, I believe this creature is... Atlantean. It should have come to me sooner...""Atlantean?" said Griffin. "Great, he can f'in walk home."Abruptly, the scanner came to life. There was a brief exchange; a high-pitched whistle; and the construct exploded into a million glittering motes of crystal."Assemble a crew to retrieve those materials-- all of my equipment, and especially any bits of crystal you can find." Several crewmembers in bulky diving suits crept slowly through the murk and began collecting Nemo's samples. Nearly everyone looked on in eager anticipation, save for Mina and West. "This is a dead-end, here," complained West. "I'll have your portable laboratory transferred to my train and you can study it further on the way to Colorado Springs.""Aye," said Nemo. "I'm eager to see this train of yours, as well. I have heard... stories."West grinned, taking Mina by the hand and leading her to the upper decks. "I think you'll all be impressed.""I very much doubt it," grunted Quartermain.</blockquote>

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