Into the Volturnian Desert

[jedion357]

The alien is gravely wounded and is crawling away toward the center of the island. Rigel advances on him with the pistol but Kriss grabs his arms, "Rigel man, C'mon! We're on some sort of fungus and goota go!"

Gideon has drawn his blade but Kahn steps up, "He's right this fungus eats at and mutates your skin, it would be a mercy to put him out of his misery but the risk to yourself?"




Once everyone is back on board the raft a breeze of air is detected and the lopers are encouraged to swim in that direction.
Kahn explains what he deduced from his scans. The fungus mutates flesh aggressively and that the crazy ul-mor looked to have been infected with it previously. However, something cured him. Kahn has several scans of ul-mor from the tribe to use as a baseline. His scans of the crazy ul-mor revealed some form of advanced nanite in its blood but that the nanites winked out a second after he detected them. Like they all shut off at once because they sensed his scan. Others in the group looked at the reading on Kahn's med scanner and were astonished to see what had to be an very advanced medical nanite. The nanite was alien to anything anyone had seen before and not likely to be from the pirates, who would have gotten fabulously rich just selling them to the corporate medical establishment back in the Frontier.

Latter they came ashore and wandered through several caves. Dalmar detected a power source which lead to the discovery of a holographic wall hiding a door. The door was locked and of alien manufacture. It took some time to defeat its security and open it. As there door swung open an intense light blinded the teams eyes and....

You all wake up and the last thing you remember is... you're not sure. You think you escaped the mutating fungus came ashore and fell asleep. Then dreamed about.... you had a dream you think but its hard to remember and its all weird and confused... about a door and nanites.

Kahn shakes his head, "I thought I remembered discovering something important while scanning that crazy Ul-mor but it must have been a dream because there's nothing in my med scanner."

While everyone is groggy and trying to sort out their weird dreams, Kriss calls out, "Hey, I think the opening is this way. And how come we went to sleep without posting a watch?"
There is a brightening glow from the rising sun at one end of the cave.

[OOC- this isn't the best spot to leave things but I'll give it a till sunday night for anyone that desires to do something BIC or at this juncture; the tribe will meet your characters near the cave mouth and will want to know what happened to the ul-mor youth who rode the lopers you now have with you.]

[jedion357]

As the party leaves the caverns ul-mor are waiting. There is a gathering of several ul-mor tribes for the right of passage for young hunters.

when the story of the crazy ul-mor is relayed and the suspected killing of other young ul-mor that were braving the caverns as part of this right of manhood there is great anger and indignation. Its seems they believe that this crazy ul-mor is one that had been banished. Older leaders have to restrain young hunters from going into the cave to look for him. From time to time one youth braving the caverns is never seen again but to have 3 not make it is stunning. Kahn's warnings to the ul-mor concerning the mutating fungus seems to fall on deaf telepathic ears as they note the danger but seem to consider it part of the test for admitting a youth into the ranks of hunters and adults.

Preparations are being made for the big challenge tomorrow and for a feast lasting 3 days. It seems that there is a special event happening when "stars" (you believe its planets within the star system) and the moons are in alignment with the planet and star. The ul-mor seem to think its a special opportunity for some sort of religious like observance and have suggested you join in if you survive facing death.

A group of the team wander over to the arena being set up for the rights of manhood. It seems that the usual method is that all the youth seeking the status of adulthood in the tribe enter the arena and face a dangerous creature together. This time there will be two arena events, one for the ul-mor youth and one for the team. You are allowed to rest and prepare and the ul-mor present you with a straw dummy crudely lashed together that looks like a rough "X" and tell you to bring it to the arena tomorrow.

In the morning the elders of your tribe anoint you with paint markings to prepare you for the challenge to come.

[in sert any preparations your character has made for the coming combat]

You join the ul-mor at the natural amphitheater to observe the combat. About 20 young hunters are on the arena floor in a loose semi circle with their straw dummies held in front of them. A gong is struck and a cage at the far end is openned: bounding out comes a sight that astonishes you, the last time you saw this creature was a stuffed one displayed behind glass at the star port on Pale. Its a quickdeath. Some of you ponder the irony that the ul-mor also call this creature death and some get a chill knowing that the ul-mor intend for you to face one.

The quickdeath lunges forward and you see the ul-mor using the straw dummies to distract it from attacking them. This tactic is only successful you realize because the beast retracts its eye stalks as it attacks. With so many ul-mor hunters present they rotate out those you have lost their dummy with everyone getting a spear thrust into the quick death. The beast gets it turn as well using its poison dart to take out one hunter and gravely wounds two others before the massed spears of 17 hunters finally kill it.

Kahn attempts to render medical aid for the wounded but is restrained by ul-mor elders come forward and dip tentacles in the quickdeath's blood and redo the markings on the hunters. The three wounded hunters are borne away and the team is called forward. You are asked if you are ready and you've been instructed to use the straw dummy to distract the quickdeath.

[Once Far Off]

"Oh man. This is going to be fun." Rigel says wryly at the spectacle.

He nods his understanding to the Ul-Mor as they prepare to face the quickdeath. At least Rigel didn't have to worry about getting off the planet anymore. He was probably going to die today.

[Shadow Shack]

Gideon contemplates this "death" ritual that they will face. Mutterng out loud, he says "Hopefully it's just some primitive ritual that can be easily overcome with technology."

Then he sees the quickdeath, and his expression drops. "It's never that easy, is it?" As the battle progresses, he simply stammers


"I've got a bad feeling about this..."



(they used it twice per flick in Star Wars, so too shall I...total SW Quotes=7

[Terl Obar]

Dalmar racks his brain from what he remembers about quickdeaths growing up on New Pale. There was one in the museum there too.

"Well, this will be mostly useless," he comments looking at his laser pistol. "My best bet will probably be my machete and my axe."

Wandering over to the preparation area, he motions to the Ul-mor and askes if he can take one of the spears. Getting an affirmative response he'll carry it back to stand with the group.

Dalmar will shift his body structure around to have two legs and three arms. As they enter the arena he'll stick the spear in the ground hold the straw dummy with one hand, his machete in a second, and his laser pistol in his dominant hand.

When the quickdeath is released he'll fire off two quick shots with his laser pistol (both at 8 SEU draining his current clip - 35% base to hit). He'll then holster the pistol, grab the spear and hurl it at the quickdeath (25% to hit). That done, he'll shift the machete to his dominant hand, draw his hand axe with the other and wade into the fight (which will probably be upon him if the battle with the Ul-mor is any indication). He'll use the dummy as a "shield" and the machete as a sword (35% to hit, 3d10+3 damage). If he loses the machete for some reason, he'll switch to his hand axe (30% to hit 2d10+3 damage) or a spear (40% to hit, 2d10+3 damage) if one is handy.

[corkman]

Sitting next to Rigel and hearing what Gideon says, Kriss gulps and looks very worried. "Ah man! I didn't sign up for this. DId you see that thing take out three of their warriors? What the hell am I going to do against that thing man? Screw it Rigel! If I'm going out, I'm going out in a blaze of glory. If they could do it then we should try to swarm it and take it down like they did with the spears."

[jedion357]

Dalmar racks his brain from what he remembers about quickdeaths growing up on New Pale.

Dalmar addresses the others, " We should consider our assets, these thing have a tough hide that are designed to stop bullets and lasers. There are stories of people overwhelming them with enough laser fire but generally there were a lot of lasers used at high settings. More often than not the bounty hunters collecting bounty on the quickdeaths that still plague the environment of Pale use sonic weapons and like pikes to fight them. I'm sure they'll allow us a little time to prep what can we do to maximize our survival, what technological rabbits might we pull out of this hat?"

OOC: You can borrow low tech equipment from the ul-mor if you like.

[Once Far Off]

Sitting next to Rigel and hearing what Gideon says, Kriss gulps and looks very worried. "Ah man! I didn't sign up for this. DId you see that thing take out three of their warriors? What the hell am I going to do against that thing man? Screw it Rigel! If I'm going out, I'm going out in a blaze of glory. If they could do it then we should try to swarm it and take it down like they did with the spears."

"Agreed. We're not getting off this rock without taking risks. And death would be better than being stranded here." He heads over and grabs a couple of spears. His plan - leave one stuck in the ground as a spare, and use one in his hands like the Ul-Mor did - using the dummies like a shield. Those things are just way too fast.

[Shadow Shack]

Gideon will request a spear as well. After all, it worked for 85% of the primitives...

Gideon will utilize the straw dummy as "cover" (meaning distraction) for the first round and hurl the spear, then will attempt to work himself into battle rage (10%) and close in with blades once the dummy is deemed useless.

[corkman]

Kriss takes off all of his non-essential equipment that he thinks he is going to need to go into the arena with the Quickdeath and just sticks to weapons, ammo, and anything first aid related. He walks up and takes three of the spears from the Ul-Mor (if allowed that many) and sets up near Rigel. He uses one spear to secure his dummy to the ground, similar to what Dalmar did and sticks one of the extra spears in the ground next to him. The remaining spear remains in his hands ready to throw or stab at the monster as he uses his dummy to shield him.

[rattraveller]

Grekka prepares herself according to the rules of the ritual which are very important to a Vrusk to follow.

She says, "Let's get this party started."