Salted Wounds [IC], a Deep Black Sea game Options

[Gilga]

Anna said "Roaches barely touched me... I am quicker than I look." She paused and added: "That stench gas made me a bit sick, not sure if you have something to do with it. I bet it would go away on its own."

[ Spoiler ]

Anna has 1 stun damage + Nausea effect (double wound penalties) from the noxious breath attack by the stinker.

[Volker]

"Ask Nova if I can do something about it."

[Jack_Spade]

While the impromtu triage went on, Raph dived into the mind of the diseased creature:

[ Spoiler ]

Resist: 2d6t5 0, Critical Glitch

It's attempts to shake of the intrusion were so feeble, there wasn't actually any resistance. Instead Raph fealt himself almost invited.
First came the surface, a pain worse than a split molar that he could identify as the pure hunger of a starving man. It lay over everything, obscuring any conscious thought that wasn't directed at satisfying this hunger. Second came fear - a fear of everything bright and pure, a fear of pain and those who inflicted it. Instinct that made it look for shelter away from the light. These two drives were what was left of the will this person once had.
But Raph didn't stop at the surface. With just a little digging he found memories, recent memories. The creature and it's two hunting partners had dug tunnels through out the graveyard, breaking open new caskets without ever having to surface. The rotting flesh went to the two goblins, while the gnawer finished the bones. It was hard to make out, but the bunker was the place the three creatures had found by following their innate dual nature, digging their way forward to where the feeling of belonging was strongest. Raph realized that the creatures had been drawn to the particular background count found in the bunker - it aligned perfectly with the nature of the HMHVV victims, resonating within them. In fact they had begun to even drag the bodies inside this space to devour them where they felt both secure and empowered and where their hunger actually subsided a bit.
Digging through the memories, clawing deeper and deeper, Raph had to endure the horrors of three months of eating the dead - and on two occasions slaying homeless people to make them dead meat. Until he reached the point were darkness had happened. Raph pressed on - and was able to relive the moment when all this had happened to Thoma Jelinek, a dwarf boy of fourteen years. How he fled an abusive mother, landed on the streets and did whatever he had to do to survive. One of those things was getting bitten by a vampire and being left for dead in a ditch with barely a drop of blood left in his frail body. There had been only a short moment of sanity when he awoke. Time enough for a few tears, before the hunger came over him like a great wave hitting a paper boat. And still, after the constant pain and fear, there was still something of the boy left, something that was only able to watch, like an addict that knows exactly what the drug is doing to him and whose body will still stick the needle in because the craving is just too much to bear.

Again, Raph dug through the memories, looking for anything that the creature... no Thoma, might have seen or heard of Bean Si.
It took him a few seconds to realize that while the boy hadn't actually seen her, he nonetheless had witnessed something of her: Inside the bunker he had been drawn to her and the background count - the two having formed something... a resonance of sort. The boy had clearly assensed her astral signature shortly after she had left the bunker.
The old WWII bunker that had inspired three creatures made insane by hunger to claw their way through half a meter of concrete.

Now that he knew what to look for in the memories he went to the moments when the three creatures returned to their lair: And yes, once they had found signs of a foreign aura that had visited the room - Raph recognized it as the aura of an astral projecting mage that had cast a detection spell.
Shortly after that another disturbance had registered with Thoma - a foreign smell coming from the other side of the closed door that led upward to the hated light. By the time the three HMHVV sufferers had had returned to their home the visitor had gone again and so they hadn't wasted any time to investigate but instead feasted on the almost fresh body of a toddler.

Raph resurfaced with a jolt. The spell had ended because the heart of Thoma had suddenly stopped beating.


bnc was alerted by the bio-monitor that the creature had gone into cardiac arrest - there wasn't even ventricular fibrillation - just a perfect flatline as if a switch had been turned into the off position. The medkit already displayed instructions on how to perform chest compressions, although she could see that it wouldn't do much good as the brain of the creature also had stopped at the same time show any signs of activity...

[Luckace]

Wraith gasped with surprise as his spell suddenly ended, like when resurfacing from underwater. He stumbled backwards one step, leaning against the chapel wall. He blinked and seemingly needed a few seconds to adjust to the abrupt ending of his grim journey.
His gaze wasn't really focused on anything specific, as if his mind was still somewhere else. He made no attempts to save the goblin's life.
"ooff... That was... Dark. One... Gimme a moment.", and he tightened his coat as if he suddenly felt cold. After a couple of seconds of just staring at the goblin, he started to summarise what he had seen. Slowly, catching his heavy-going breath every now and then and apparently still thinking about the dead man's mind.
"So... the good news: There were the three of them that you met, no more. The hideout and the cemetery should be safe.

About Bean Si : Thoma... I mean, the goblin, saw her aura. They were drawn to it, to the bunker, lived there... and he assensed her. I saw her astral signature, she... She indeed has one now.

And he saw more: After she escaped, two visitors came to the bunker, shortly after one another. The first was a mage scanning the hideout with his mojo, venturing into their room. Our boy saw that one's aura, too. I... I think I'd recognise it, should I see it again. Gives us an edge against the Harvesters, assuming they sent the mage.
The second visitor he only smelled in the top room, but... But I'd guess Crusaders, as why should Rosenberg's mages undergo a second visit?
I wanted to ask him more, but then... Well. He died."

While talking, Wraith slowly got up from the chapel wall, looking quite worn out, but not injured or anything. He felt a confusing mix of sorrow, repulse, anger... And pity. Lots and lots of pity for that cursed creature bound to defile the dead. I'll pray for you, Thoma. You'll need it.

[ Spoiler ]

@Jack: wait, so the second visitor had left the toddler inside the bunker, as if actively feeding the infected? Or was the baby just random prey from some coffin?

[Jack_Spade]

[ Spoiler ]

The toddler came from the grave robbing creatures. The person who installed the trap didn't enter their lair

[Gilga]

Anna asked "So the goblin recovers from a gunshot wound, and jolts of electricity only to be killed with a mind probe spell? Is that spell normally so hazardous? Can you explain what happened?" She seemed genuinely curious.

She replied "Let's stash it in the safehouse. I think the little monster lived there."

[Luckace]

"Wha... No idea, this has never happened before. It's usually not hazardous at all. Perhaps it was the continuous shocks or..." he looked around the chapel, "no idea, really. Any questions about its... No, his memories? "
Before anyone carries the dead goblin outside, Wraith routinely checks astral sight to make sure they are alone. He also, after a moment of hesitation, reaches into the small basin with holy water next to the door, dips a finger into it and then forms a small cross on Thoma's forehead, softly murmuring "Rest in piece now, Thoma."

[ Spoiler ]

Astral Sight: 8d6t5 3

[Volker]

Even before Wraith starts to speak, bnc frowns and pushes him away to take a closer look at the goblin. She starts an audio-recorder to record Wraith's explanation and listen to it later to be able to focus on the creature. The death was too clean, too fast and too obviously right when the team started to get information out of it.
"Wait a second. Sharkboy, Wraith, please watch out for attackers for a second. Anna, please get me my chemistry box. Nova, please prepare the medkit."
She checks through all the record vital parameters and how they changed since the group applied the biomonitor. "Heartrate exploded, cortisol and adrenaline levels shot over the roof ... Whatever memories you led that fragging thing through, it didn't have the mental capabilities to stomach it."

[ Spoiler ]

As stated in OoC, I've altered the post to match Jack's description.

This is the old post:

Even before Wraith starts to speak, bnc frowns and pushes him away to take a closer look at the goblin. She starts an audio-recorder to record Wraith's explanation and listen to it later to be able to focus on the creature. The death was too clean, too fast and too obviously right when the team started to get information out of it.
"Shut up a second. Sharkboy, Wraith, watch out for attackers. Anna, please get me my chemistry box. Nova, please prepare the medkit. Ah, and: please. I'm not giving commands, obviously," she adds with a sigh.
She checks through all the record vital parameters and how they changed since the group applied the biomonitor. "I believe you didn't kill it, Wraith. Somebody else did."

Also, I didn't read the part of the mind probe as I don't want any in-game information bnc doesn't have. So don't be confused if I ask things that are being described there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Gilga]

Anna concluded "It was the Lord's wrath..." but she brought the chemistry kit nevertheless. She seemed eager to get back to the safehouse.

[SquirrelDude]

Sharkboy props himself up, leaning his shoulder against whatever is nearby and sturdy and resting his hand on the top of his bow like it was a walking stick. If he weren't wearing a mask he'd probably be picking his teeth with a toothpick.

[Volker]

[ Spoiler ]

As stated, I edited the last post. Basically, as the case was less urgent, she said it more friendly. Also I cancelled her assessment that the goblin was killed as it happened based on the description Jack later withdrew.

"Thanks, darling," bnc says as Anna carries the chemistry toolket. She compares the vital characteristics with the results of the blood analysis.
"Confirmed. It wasn't killed. The situation was, all in all, just a little too much for that little man-eater."

[Thanee]

"Let's get back underground and check out the rest then..." Nova proposed.

[Volker]

bnc replies eagerly.
Absolutely. I'll leave my meatbag behind, though. There are no evil spirits left for the moment, are there?"

[Jack_Spade]

Leaving the shelter of the chappel, the team realized quickly that the temperature had fallen a bit more and night had fallen truly over the vast graveyard. There was no sign of anyone else around - which wasn't particularly telling since visibility had gone down even more.
Still, GPS and memory was enough to bring the team back to the hidden entrance. Snow had built up again, hiding their previous visit's tracks. Once again the statue turned and admitted the runners into the darkness of the old bunker. Inside the room with the bones two other doors led away, one to the south and one to the north.

A careful examination of the place showed five rooms in total:
A small toilet that seemed to be connected directly to the Vienna sewers was the one room to the south. To the north followed a communal area that had housed something like an oldfashioned workstation as well as a small kitchen and two sofa's. As far as a bunker could offer it, this room had a cozy atmosphere. From this room two other doors led to a bathroom on the east side - complete with the remnants of a first aid station - and a bedroom to the north with two cots, separated through old and musty smelling curtains, not unlike a sickbay.

Everywhere, gear and everyday supplies still lay around, indicating that the evacuation had happened very rapidly.

[ Spoiler ]

There are no more threats down here,

tell me who wants to look where. You get +3 to your search check for looking carefully. You can either buy hits or roll individually or do teamwork checks

[Gilga]

Anna replied "If there are you'll die in a funeral home... So at least the logistics would be easy. Seriously speaking, we might not be leaving the bunker tonight given weather conditions and the fact that we'll take a careful look. Are you sure you want to stay behind?"


Once at the bunker Anna moved through the room looking distant. She was using her astral sight and was looking for items of emotional significance. She was looking at the communal area, the work area, the first aid station, and the bedroom. Then just to be sure - or perhaps as nature called the toilet, and the rest of the safehouse to be through.

[ Spoiler ]

I assume that astral perception is affected by BGC.
Psycometry (astral perception... 4 BGC): 8d6t5 3
Does she get the +3 dice for that task as well?
If So...
Psycometry (astral perception... 4 BGC): 3d6t5 1

[SquirrelDude]

Sharkboy immediately regretted stepping into the bunker as he started feeling the background count. What good are these magical powers if the moment you walk into a creepy bunker they turn chickenshit heel and run off He moved over and began tossing the bedroom to see if there was anything of interest.

[ Spoiler ]

Perception (searching): 13d6t5 5

[Luckace]

Wraith had followed Anna and Sharkboy inside the bunker.
"I'd rather not have us spend the night here. Both Harvesters and Crusaders know this place, and it's only a matter of time 'til the watcher returns. Plus, when the sun rises, it'll just be harder to explain five guys descending from a grave."

Wraith started his search in the north, checking the bedroom first, then moving towards the workbench and the communal area, and then the other rooms.
He also took the tlook for potential auras in the astral plane, however his astral sight was rather blurred the dark, reeking mist that seemed to shroud everything in the bunker. he cursed audibly. "This background count is making everything seem... fuzzy. it's like seeing though jelly, I can barely make out a thing."
He turned towards Anna, whom he had experienced rather capable at assensing. "Did you find anything with an astral signature? How about we look together, i'm not too wiz at assensing, but I will recognize Bean Si's signature, should we spot it."

[ Spoiler ]

Searching: 12d6t5 6
Read Aura: 6d6t5 1
Even if the 3 extra dice apply, he couldn't contribute more: additional hits for aura reading?: 3d6t5 0

[Thanee]

Nova went into the bathroom with the first aid station to search there.

[ Spoiler ]

Perception (Searching) 3 hits

[Gilga]

Anna replied "Sure, I don't mind an extra pair of eyes. It requires some patience to get used to the mana around here but it is completely doable. Just wait a bit longer until you get a good reading, then move on. It is not dark the entire time."

[Volker]

bnc leaves her meat body some 5 metres after the statue, in the area that's already controlled but still nearby. Once we know everything's safe, she posts James as a sentinel over the entry, and returns to her meat body.

For an instant, bnc is taken aback by how naturally Sharkboy searches her sister's bedroom. Some last remnants of decency buried within her complained that this one room, at least, shouldn't be searched by a male stranger with a total lack of empathy. She discards that primeval feeling within a second, though, as silly and childish.
When she comes down, her first natural target - the bedroom - is already crowded, and thus decides to accompany Nova in her search through the bathroom - the place where Kerstin would go if something strange begins happening to her body. She nods towards the semi-cyborg. "Anything interesting yet?"
bnc starts examining the room very closely, collecting potential DNA samples, analyzing strips with her chemistry toolkit as good as she can, collecting hair, checking any chemicals - and of course consulting the log of the medkit.

Afterwards, she turns to the common room as there seems to be the least commotion, and turns it over.

[ Spoiler ]

Bathroom: Perception: 16d6t5 7
I don't know ... can I use Nova's 3 hits as a teamwork test bonus on my roll? If so: Teamwork bonus: 3d6t5 1
That would be a total of 8 hits for the bathroom then (still below my mental limit).

Common room: Perception: 16d6t5 5
Two of the dice (one of which was a hit) are bonus dice from visual augmentation. If the clues are non-visual, I scored only 4 hits.

@Thanee: If Nova would support bnc in her search, please feel free to roll the bonus dice you grant bnc yourself and add them to mine.

[Jack_Spade]

Raph and Sharkboy took a very close look at the bedroom. Two footlockers, one filled with female fashion and one filled with expensive looking male gear. Those obviously belonged to Nacl - they were entirely his style and size. At the bottom they found a folded suit that they recognized as a custom tailored armored suit with an incredible fine weave.

The other box had practical, all weather clothing and only a modest supply of female underware - a bit larger than bnc but far from the size that Nova could wear. A close look through everything revealed a burner link that had it's antenna ripped out, making it more of an old fashioned PDA. The memory seemed to be empty. Another, even closer look inside the lid revealed a peeling piece of synth leather behind which they found two small data chips that from their make were obviously at least ten years old but seemed to have been used recently.

Meanwhile, Anna was busy ascanning the whole place. Now that the three infected were gone and the short but intense violence had stopped affecting the place, she was able to get a feeling for the building. Despite the long time, she could clearly feel the origin of the astral turbulence: People had died here from sickness and hunger. Following the astral markings she found the epicenter inside the sickbay. When she concentrated she could even feel the steel frames of the old WWII sick beds. Two patients who had died from hunger over a very long time while their bodies where bound to their beds. The event that had etched itself into the very stone of the place was fuzzy about the details, but clear enough on the event. It had to have been a nightmare for someone who had their awakening here while subjected to these sensations.


bnc and Nova looked for chemicals and found the usual cleaning supplies had been used liberaly to keep the all too common mold at bay. No blood, semen or other bodily fluids appeared to have been spilled here and any sweat had evaporated a long time ago. A small stash of auto injector cartridges came out from behind the mirror: They were numbered from one to five and had "Lazarus Combo" written on them with felt tip. The barcodes of the little tubes revealed that they contained: Crash, used in trauma patches, Hemosynth, a small nanite container with a Savior Medkit, Stim and a single dose of Kamikaze - the perfect mixture to get someone away from death's door and back into fighting shape.

bnc had some success with her DNA samples. Using her own as a baseline she ran a preliminary sampling on the two toothbrushes - which revealed one male and one female set of DNA. It took a few minutes for the med-computer to sample but afterwards she was absolutely sure, that the female set belonged to her sister. Possible gen therapies or mutations would take more time to decode of course, but that was something the enormous amount of cloud computing the matrix provided could handle. Idly she took a look at the second set and... ran the test again, making sure she hadn't contaminated the first sample, looking for a grey hair to retest.
But there wasn't any doubt - the male sample shared a related X-chromosom with her and her sister.

[Volker]

When bnc finds the Lazarus Combo, she checks its contents for expiration, then stuffs it into the sidepocket of her black hoodey.
---
bnc leans back on the sofa - after a minute or so she realized that the cramped floor of the bathroom wouldn't do for a makeshift lab, so she erected it in the living room. After having rechecked the fox's DNA, she bites her lower lip, pondering. From the way her central nervous system hat responded with a sense of familiarity in a definitely foreign person, she already had made guesses why a complete stranger would pour 100,000 euros in saving Kerstin's ass. This went far beyond comradeship. She loaded the transcribed recordings of her meeting with Nacl, reading through the whole conversation.
Jeez, what a fucked-up family they were.
bnc tasks her agent to create a genealogical tree for Eva-Maria Burgstaller.

"Eliza. From what you know - or can ask Dr. Salt - is it coincidence that three HMHVV infected dwarves from two different strains dwell at the precise place where some runners who were investigating a cure for a third strain hid?
Team, any findings?"

[ Spoiler ]

Which firewall rating does Eliza's commlink and/or deck and/or console sport?

[Gilga]

Anna enjoyed the psychometry experience, but it did not yield as much as she hoped. She and Wraith were able to glimpse into the distant past but the effect of the time spent hear by Kerstain seemed to have lost. Perhaps it was the powerful background count that suppressed anything that was less than starving to death... How awful was that?

She took a seat at the Sofa and sighed "I listened to ghosts - but none of it seems relevant"
She was hesitant at first but then continued "Then again, who knows what you might find relevant... You probably know in theory, emotional experiences leave a mark on this world, the more intense the stronger the mark. So I hoped that some of the things that Kerstain experienced here would have something of her left in them.

Whatever experiences she had here, they were washed away. I only felt the desperation and horror of people, as they starved to death in this place. Probably during the world war, though this is an educated guess. I think that anything Kerstain experienced here was mundane and shortlived in comparison to longterm starvation and desperation. Then again, I cannot imagine a short-term emotional experience that can top the horror and desperation of this place."

Her voice was sad and broke at the end and her eyes seemed wet as if she was close to tears. It was an emotionally charged experience, and it was difficult to shake off.

[ Spoiler ]

Dr. Salt....! Lo. I thought it was just me.

[Luckace]

"yeah, Shark and I got something.", Wraith replied to bnc's question.
" two well-hidden datachips. Quite old models, but apparently used not too long ago."
He had taken his helmet off for searching and had dust in his hair, as if having searched under the beds or so.

Bringing them into the living room, he Sat down next to Anna. "hey, you okay?", he asked with a concerned look at her. He hadn't seen nearly as much as her with his astral sight, but he had vaguely sensed the feeling of desperation and Death that covered the whole place. He could imagine that delving deeper into the bunker's past would be a rather gruesome experience.

Meanwhile, a short pop up had notified bnc that she now had three marks on Wraith's comlink.

[Volker]

bnc was glad about the distraction Anna provided. She herself still wrestled with the notion that Nacl might be her uncle. Yet she wanted to get a better idea of what the situation was before she blew out any unfounded ideas. Concealing her troubled mind was easier with a crying chicks the dudes can care for and about.
Also it gave her the opportunity to run away from all these emotions that rose up again when she skimmed through the conversation log. She needed to move forward, not glance backward.

"I can only imagine the horrors you lived through. Thanks for assensing the area, Anna," bnc says, but without a hint of empathy. It wasn't meant to be sarcastic in any way, she just had no empathy to spare at the moment. At least she pretends.
She looks up to Wraith while responding to the notification: <@Wraith<dnt wrry i wnt rape ur lnk more than id do w/o permission (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) >>
"Chips? That's good. Can you show me?"

She gets her Fairlight out of the pocket, and - for good measure - turns it offline. From her datajack, she pulls a long, thin cable and plugs it into her 'link, then takes the datachips and slams them into the corresponding slots, carefully investigating them before she attempts to read the file.

[ Spoiler ]

Matrix Perception (hot-sim): 2#15d6t5 4 8