Carpathia IV: Episode 67 - Date with the Saveas
Space, NCCS Shadowdancer
Gathering once again around Joust's adventure table, the senior officers engaged again in their role-playing adventure to take their minds away from the impending Savea visit to the Shadowdancer. Previously, the group elected to take a route through the cave away from the heavy breathing in the hopes that they might not encounter any high-level monsters too soon and, if they were lucky, some treasure. On the table was a holographic representation of the drippy, mossy cave. The demon stepped carefully ahead of everyone else, carrying a torch to light their way. The others scanned the ground, looking for anything of interest
Joust: Roll for perception.
Everything else was virtual, but the dice for the game was real. Minnie picked up the dice and gave it a little toss onto the table.
Minnie: Sixteen!
Joust: You look to the left and spot the glint of metal holding together an old chest made of decaying wood. Water drips from above, running down the front of the chest and pooling at its base.
Tamati: A treasure chest!
Teren: We should open it. That'll be a job for our thief.
Ramei: I'm up! I wanna try to pick the lock.
Joust: Roll for lock picking.
Ramei took the dice from the table and gave it a toss.
Ramei: Hmmm... Eleven.
Ramei's character on the board took out his lock picking tools and started fiddling with the treasure chest.
Joust: You take out your lock picking tools, but discover that the lock is fused.
Teren: I suppose I should stand guard while they're working on that.
Joust: In that case, roll for perception.
Teren struggled to pick up the dice from the table, his giant, fur-laden paw ill-equipped for grabbing small items. For a few moments, he only succeeded in shuffling it around the board before finally getting it into his paw. Without any ceremony of shaking the dice around, Teren simply dumped it onto the table.
Teren: Ugh, four.
The demon character on the board stepped away, frantically waving the torch around and squinting into the darkness ahead. Meanwhile, the tokki pulled one of his knives from his belt.
Ramei: I suppose I could try using one of my knives to pry it open.
Before the tokki could tackle the chest again, a tentacle reached down from the ceiling and snatched the demon unawares from where he stood.
Joust: Focused on the chest, you don't notice a juvenile stalactite monster hanging from the ceiling. It scoops up your warrior and is now bringing him close to his big, toothy mouth.
Tamati: What should we do?
Nalma poked Ramei in the ribs with his elbow.
Nalma: Your time to shine, Mr. tokki.
Ramei: Me?
Nalma: I think a good tokki kick will be a lot better against something made of stone than my little throwing stars. What do you think everyone? Shall we do a diversion, then?
Minnie: I'm in.
Tamati: Sounds good to me.
Joust: All three of you, roll for diversion.
Nalma, Minnie, and Tamati each rolled the dice in turn and called out their numbers.
Nalma: Nine.
Minnie: Eighteen!
Tamati: Uh, two.
The nekohuman character picked up a rock and threw it at the creature, striking it below the mouth, which seemed to faze it only for a few seconds. The mage had much better results, sending a fireball directly into its face. The komodo simply ran around in little circles, arms flailing and potions clinking together in her bag.
Joust: The creature suffers no damage from the rock or the fireball, but the fireball causes the creature to be temporarily blinded and it flails its tentacles around.
Ramei: Time for me, then.!
Ramei picked up the dice and, after a quick breath, rolled.
Ramei: Thirteen. I hope that's good enough!
The tokki character leaped high into the air and landed a solid kick on the tentacle clutching the demon.
Joust: The creature shrieks and drops the demon to the ground. Its tentacles flail around the ceiling and appears, at least temporarily, uninterested in any of you.
The demon character sat up, rubbing his head. A moment later, he got to his feet and pulled out his sword.
Tamati: Bail?
Everyone nodded enthusiastically.
Ramei: Back to the entrance!
All the characters on the board fled from the stalactite monster, back the way they came. Nalma spoke to Ramei, not as his character, but in reality.
Nalma: If you combined some human martial arts with your tokki kick, you would be a very powerful character indeed.
Ramei: I'll remember that.
A beep echoed from Joust's intercom.
Aire: Senior staff to the bridge. We will rendezvous with the Savea ship shortly.
Joust saved the game and powered down the table. The characters, in the middle of running away, faded from the screen as everyone abandoned their chairs, already on their way out the door.
Joust: We're on our way, Captain.
Everyone on the bridge watched in awe as the sparkly tokki ringship approached. Very few had ever been very close to one and pictures did not do it justice.
Teek: Funny that a culture known for stealthy spaceships would have anything that looked like that.
Nalma smiled at this, for though he didn't care much for the inhabitants of this particular ringship, he did feel a certain amount of pride in its engineering.
Nalma: Check your sensors. It may look ridiculously over the top by the naked eye, but the sensor readings on it are going to be very muddled.
Teek looked down at his console.
Teek: You're right. It's reading as a tokki ship, but the sensors are confused about the size and whether or not it's even there.
Nalma: These ringships are the biggest and best, used only by either the very powerful or very wealthy. Sad to say, Rhalma Savea is both, being the head of one of the wealthiest clans in Tokkastra and also Third Minister of the Tokkastran Men's Parliament.
A beep from Tayet's direction interrupted Nalma's wistful thoughts.
Tayet: Captain, I'm receiving a communication from the tokki ship, text only. It reads, "Let's get this over with."
Aire and Joust both looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
Aire: Charming. Tayet, message back and bid them welcome to the Shadowdancer. We are ready to receive their shuttles at any time convenient to them.
Tayet turned to his console and started pecking at the keys.
Tayet: Yes, Captain. Preparing message.
Joust didn't bother to lean in close or attempt to conceal his sarcasm when he spoke to Aire next.
Joust: This ought to be fun. I hope they don't stay long.
Commissioned art in this episode from:
AvareonArt
Zelbunnii
Thatwildmary
Colourbrand
