Burn it! Cook the damn thing!

Flash proceeds smugly along as the team moves forward with the elemental. He even smirks as the vines pulls back at their approach. When they make another pass at the team nearer the security station he growls at the irony of not having a machete and levels his SMG.

A group of three vine clusters retract their tentacles before launching them at MITNick. A second cluster of three also launch tentacles, but at Steve. Unlike the first attack, these tentacles seem to have some weight to them.

Flash begins cursing "damn mages and worthless elementals" as the vines snake out at him around the flaming column. Being more of the stand and fight guy, he lets rip a pair bursts, one at each of the first two tentacles reaching for him.

MITNick dives back as the vines launch themselves at him from an impossible length. He barely has time for his eyes to go wide and yell before the killer plants are on him.
Rolls


GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF ME! JUST DON'T BURN IT!

MITNick is grabbed by the tentacles from the plant and it squeezes him - not trying to crush him so much as hold him in place.

The bursts from Flash's gun strike true as he drops one of the things after him.

Chester appears to be directing traffic as the elemental burns the densest cluster of tentacles.

Roll Perception.

MITNick struggles against the vines, trying vainly to break free. The only tool he has at hand is the shotgun, but the idea of ricocheting slugs kills that idea damn quick.

Chester keeps moving and throwing spells while the spirit does the same. They eliminate most of the vines and then turn to help.

Roll Initiative

Initiative= 6

Init(7) [1,1,4,5,4,2,6] 2 hits = 9

Flash continues cursing the 'Plants from Aztlan' and firing.

With the renewed effort the team is able to extinguish the plants, although Chester is having a little trouble extinguishing his elemental.

Perception.

Perception

Steve spots something near where the plants were located and calls out Got something. Looks like a keycard. You figure this is what the tinman was talking about?

Flash is looking in exactly the wrong direction as Steve makes his find. He scratches his head. How did I miss that...? I'm slipping.
"Let's get on with it then."

MITNick struggles as he pulls himself from the charred remains of the vines, stumbling and flailing, trying to keep from pointing the shotgun at anything with a pulse.
G'damn mother fraggin' slimy frag'n' oct'pus plant all grabbin' and twistin' and gettin' in ma' frickin' pants and pullin' at ma damn face and HOLY goddamn things in my pants MOTHER @%@#%@#%!$!

MITnick tears out the pieces of plant fiber that went up his pants, chucking the vine to the ground, then stomping out all that remains of the plant until it's a charred little pile. Eventually, he looks up at Steve with the key guard.

Yeah, that'd be it. Let's get to the el'vator.

G'damn little squirt, don't see him gettin' a fraggin' plant enema. Bet he wouldn't be so calm and collected then...


The dwarf continues muttering as he heads back towards the elevator.

The group is quickly able to reach the elevator and finds the voice of Tinman in the speakers once again.

Good. You made it back in one piece. Enter the card and come down to my level.

Once the team is on the indicated level the doors open and they are treated to a worm's eye view of roots and other large thick appendages of what is surely the plant's doing.

"Says the spider to the idiot fly" mutters Steve darkly.

Uh ... hey Flash man, how's 'bout takin' point again? I'll send the buggie ahead.

Hey Tinman, don't s'pose yer feelin' helpful and wanna give us some directions? Or say ... tips for avoidin' more things that want to dismember us?

MITNick again "fearlessly" sends the drone ahead to scout.

I believe that you will encounter more plant things shortly. Other than that, follow the AR map and you should be fine.

The team is greeted by the sound of slithering in the distance.

Chester ignites a flame in his hand.

Im ready.

As the team exits the elevator they are again greeted by humidity and the smell of plants. There are no lights working in the hallway area. However, there are emergency lights in the area indicated by Tinman as the "the prison."

Flash swaps out his partially spent clip for a full one as they ride the elevator. Mentally, he checks the safety and validates the round count. "I'm ready to blow this pop sickle stand and crank it up. Damn monster plants. Time for a stand up fire fight!" He snickers at the last, impressed with his play on words.

"Does anyone else have a bad feelin' about this?" mutters Steve as he nervously shifts the grip on his pistol.

Flash grunts. "Let's just do it."

While "Action FLASH Jackson" is revving up his engines, MITNick veers the tiny drone to "The Prison", sending back the feeds to the team to see what's in store for them.

The tiny little drone quickly moves down the corridor and finds large thick growths that seem to remind the team of roots. However, these appear to be tied into the eletrical grid wherever they are found. Finally the drone reaches the doors Tinman indicated as "the prison." The doors appear to be sealed shut and there is a light over the card reader slot.

Well, the way looks clear. Let's jander down there and see what there is to see. After you Real Action Hero.

The dwarf hefts his shotgun, again watching the groups back, and more proud of himself for doing so as there may actually be something behind them soon.

As the team makes its way down the corridor there are creeks and pops and the occasional hiss that seem to come from the roots - if that is indeed what they are. Although nowhere near as thick, there is also the same yellow gas from earlier that threatened the group's ability to breath. However, it is in much lower supply here. The team makes it to the door without any problems.

I say we do a pre-ermptive burn and just torch these damn things before they become a problem. I seen this horror trid before. We leave these "seemingly harmless" plants behind us, and later when we're gettin' chased by the big nasty lurkin' down the way, these things are what we trip over, adn the thing eats somebody.

Toast these things wizkid.

Flash smiles, "I'm all for a little fire- Hell, a lot of fire! Burn it!"

Chester rolls up his sleeves on his oversized hoody, cracks his knuckles, and holds his hand out and starts quietly chanting as the flames wiz around his hands, finnaly with a loud shout he sends fire ball winding down the hallway, torching the plant life in sight.

Magic-7
Spellcasting-3
Roll-3,3,3,3,6,6,6,6,5,5
http.invisiblecastle.com/veiw/219879/

As the fireball roars down the hallway, there is the popping and hissing sound of steam pouring through the the root system. Somewhere there is a noise - not unlike a scream.

The brief flash fades, leaving the charred remains of the larger root system with ash elsewhere. The whole area is thick with the smell of smoke.

The sprinkler system drips fetid water thick with algae as the fire alarms begin sounding. Otherwise, there is a stillness in the air.

MITNick quickly scans the systems that he has access to, checking for the fire suppression routines, and how to suppress them.
Browse

MITNick is quickly able to locate the appropriate valves and audio files. Once turned off the area returns to relative quiet with the occasional pop and hiss of burning wood and the smell of fetid water.

Ew... 'fetid'.

Let's get going.

The Shrubs-'o'-Death gone, and the murderous sprinkler system stifled, MITNick bravely urges Flash to lead the way, intent on finding Tinman's core, the cyberdeck, or hell, even a 3 1/2" floppy would be interesting at this point.

Chester walks quietly next to Flash as he scans the astraly periodicly just to make sure. He isnt looking for anything in particular, just potential threats. As he does this, he speaks to the team:

Anyone get the eerie feeling we're still being watched?

Steve rolls his eyes and pipes up from the back.

"Every motherfraggin' day of my life."

Chester notes faint auras - the after-image of life snuffed out. However, there is still the hint of life beyond the walls and floor.

The team soon reaches the door Tinman indicated. Steve notes that there is a control panel off to the side of the door.

Annoyed at the delay, MITNick finds some balls deep down and approaches the door panel, giving it a look over, and making sure everyone is ready for him to give the key card a try.

MITNick and the team are greeted by a room full of different equipment. Sitting on a table is a now out-of-date cyberdeck. Power is still on in the room but a few screens are still dark. There is a large tree like growth coming through the room. It appears to be a root.


Roll Perception

1 hit

The team hears the faint voice of the Tinman from a long disused speaker in a side console.

MITNick

MITNick lends an ear to the Tinman, while looking over the mainframe system and the deck. Getting an idea of what they're looking at might help decide if it's safe to simply takte the thing, and what else might be coming along with it.

Flash moves into the room with his typical bravado, SMG tilted sideways, gangsta-style. He looks around, visually sweeping for threats and security.

Tinman is giving instructions on how to disconnect various equipment and provide him a temporary home. It is fairly obvious once he explains it.

MITNick cant help but grumble aswhequickly follows the instructions laid out by the AI.

Goddam fraggin' waste.Come sneak out some deck, just ta' hand it over with some J, loaded up with a fraggin' AI. No way these guys'll see anything but dollar signs.

Frag it all. That talkin' microchip knows what it's doin', knows where it's goin'. Ain't my place ta' tell it it's gonna get cut up from shiny code bits. What the fra was this place, that a thinkin' program started here anyway.

Hey Tinman, what the frag was this place anyways? People eatin' plants don't exactly seem the type o' research that leads to tricked out decks and talkin' progs, ya' know.

A most excellent question. This was a research facility for several different branches of the company. Bio-medical, genetics and programing were under one roof. However, even I can not tell you why they were working together. It is my understanding that the plant was an accident.

Flash watches as MITNick does as he's told. The ork however keeps watch on the surroundings, listening as the duo dialog.

MITNick gives an interested little Hmm... as he continues his work.

Any other convenently travel sized "research projects" still around? Or maybe some mainframes still in good condition? The little dwarf can't help the fact that his voice rises slightly as he considers the potential pot 'o' gold here. There might be something to that old dwarven greed sterotype after all.