Light Quest: a CK2 Style Quest in an 8-Bit Dystopia

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A Quest in which you play as Dr. Light and his attempts at trying to bring some hope back to a dying city.

Whether he keeps a spark of hope inside him or falls to the city like everyone else is up to the choices you make.
Unrest in the House of Light: Part One
"This City... She's Been Dead... For Years Now..."

The City of Light, named after the hero Doctor Light before his passing, was intended to be the hub of humanity's new home in a distant galaxy after the Invader War ended with Earth's destruction. The City was intended to represent a fresh start on a new planet, one that was selected by the best and brightest minds of mankind to serve as the new cradle of humanity. The survivors of Earth had endured a long and difficult voyage to their new home, losing entire fleets of ships to natural disasters, alien pirates, and even more unexplained happenings. It didn't get any easier when humanity had finally arrived at their new home, either. The 'cradle' they had hoped for was desolate, a windswept world filled with hostile flora and fauna. However, humans were a resilient species. They got to work, setting down the infrastructure they needed from their Arkanoid ships including factories, habitat blocks, and agricultural hubs. Dr. Light had even created devices to aid humanity and automate the terraforming process in the form of M.U.L.E. Walkers and the L-Series Manufacturing Robots (or Lemmings).

It was more work than humanity anticipated, but they endured. There were problems that cropped up. Overpopulation was an issue and while the lack of housing was mitigated somewhat by the Lemming robots, a critical lack of oversight led those machines to develop infrastructure that was both labyrinthine and nonsensical at times. In addition, the various colonies outside and beyond the city had either gone dark or had long since regressed into becoming petty fiefdoms fighting against both each other and the natives. Still, Light knew they would fix these problems so long as everyone rolled their sleeves up and worked together to get it done. With the Systems Integrated Monitor, or "S.I.M." installed at the heart of the city, nobody would want for water, gas or electricity while the necessary housing was being built and would also start to get the Lemmings back on track by providing a centralized intelligence to control the literal fleets of terraforming robots. Things were bad, but they were getting better. But then they got worse. It started small. Wily had taken the Wily-Light Organization that they had built together and had turned it into WilyCorp. Wily assured Light that with Light as the moral heart of the organization, he was worrying over nothing.

He was hesitant. But he still trusted his friend.

Some time later Light Labs exploded, taking the hero of the city with it. Saboteurs were blamed, enemies of the city who hated Light for conflicting reasons that were yet a mystery. Dr. Wily, furious over the death of his friend, had announced that he would do everything that was possible to find these villains and bring them to justice. Little did anyone know, Dr. Light had survived that explosion. Contained within a medical drone he had been working on at the time, the little machine had moved him away from the wreckage towards someplace safe. The City was massive, even only a few years in. The massive zone even had a name- Monsteropolis. There were zones within zones that even people who were born and raised within couldn't recognize and chart their way through. They served as a good hiding place as Light recovered from his wounds.

Light was distraught. He knew who set off that explosion. He wished he didn't.

To Light's horror, The City continued to spiral downwards. Wily grew more and more authoritarian- first mandatory curfews, then increased surveillance. All in the name of the public good. Vid-screens broadcasting whatever Wily wanted the people to see and hear. When even that wasn't enough? New bioroids of his old friend's own design; "Sniper Joes" and "Robot Masters", were rolled out as a "peacekeeping" force. The S.I.M. was dismantled, infected by a virus and stripped of anything useful; not just by Wily, but others as well. That wasn't the worst of it. WilyCorp wasn't the last. New corporations followed Albert's footsteps that lacked even his restraint. The biggest being Eggdyne and Metpharm. A whimsical man, Dr. Eggman was the CEO of Eggdyne and was laser focused on progress, even at the expense of the world around him. The sole reason as to why the City is as polluted as it was, Eggman doesn't even remotely care about the lives underneath him and doesn't do much to hide that.

A good thing for the uplifts, who flocked to his zones in droves, preferring his indifference to rampant racism that the species had faced regularly in the other zones. It also meant that his zones had the shortest life expectancy out of any of the other locations in the city. Unless you were rich or well connected, of course. Then you literally lived above the common masses. Eggman operated mostly out of the Mobius Archipelago within the Metropolis Zone, rolling out wave after wave of "brain chip" equipped badniks as an answer to Wily's bioroids.

Metpharm, on the other hand, was a complete mystery. Originally a collection of biologists, agriculturalists and ecologists, they all came together to form Metpharm, the largest and one of the only sources of medicine, biological research and genetic augmentation in The City. Their CEO is a mystery of which there were only rumors; everything from alien takeovers, a being literally created from scratch to lead the company or something even stranger being theorized but when asked, employees barely breathe a word about them. Metpharm has their center in Palm Zone, which is unlike the rest of the city in that it's not a metal behemoth, instead a verdant paradise where an AI called "Mother" handles the people's every want or need. These three weren't the only ones, merely the most powerful. Other corporations had popped up, such as SilphCo or ZEED, the latter of which began acting as a collection of brick and mortar stores and a courier service once communication between corporate zones began to break down.

Light watched as the city he had hoped to build was corrupted by these giants. He watched as the people gave up, few people fighting back and those that did often being as bad as the Corporations they fought. He saw things that should have been causes for hope or celebration turn sour, like the arrival of the lost colony fleet that had been sucked into a rift in space early on in the voyage only to find their idyllic world burned to the ground by war and the survivors left homeless and destitute. News broadcast after news broadcast of complete tragedies, only to be blown off with a laugh and "so glad we're not over in that zone." There was no hope. The dream he had tried to build had died in its crib.

Light wondered what he was going to do. He paced around, scratching at the scars that were still healing around his body. Something needed to be done. Anything. He wasn't the type to just give up. Not without exhausting all of the options. The city needed to get back on track. It needed help. But how? The city was dark. Colder than he remembered. Was it time to change with it? He racked his brain, trying to look back through his memories to find how things went so wrong. Could he have stopped Wily somewhere in the past? Sat him down and talked to him? Why did he do this to him?

He leaned against a wall, taking a breath. He was ready to make his decision.

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What Decision had Light Come To? [Select One]

[ ] "I refuse to let this city destroy my soul. The people need to know that no matter how dark the city gets there will still be light, but only if we work together and have hope that the future will turn out for the better."
Light is unwilling to bend on what he believes in.

Gain Trait: An Honest Soul


[ ] "This city has changed. I can no longer recognize it. Perhaps it's time to adopt a few changes of my own."
Light is willing to bend his morals in small ways in order to accomplish his goals.

Gain Trait: A Mercurial Mind
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Light's near death experience changed him. He was feeling many things, but one stood out among them all. What was it? [Select One]


[ ] "Everyone failed in the end. Myself. Wily. The City. This is collectively our fault. We could have done better. We should do better now."

Gain Trait: Remorseful

[ ] "He betrayed me. We've been friends for years- we survived the destruction of Earth together! That… that bastard! He won't get away with this!"

Gain Trait: Wrathful

[ ] "So few people are fighting. Most have given up. Is there any point trying to fix things?"

Gain Trait: Depressed

[ ] "There's so much to do. I have so little time to do it. I need my lab back."

Gain Trait: Traumatized

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His decision made, Light stood leaning over a table, finally free from the last of the bandages. Scattered about on the table were various plans- diagrams, decoded messages and maps to various places around, below and even beyond the city. He had a choice to make. Stay in the city, hiding right underneath Albert's nose. It was risky, very risky, but the city needed him and it afforded too many benefits to consider leaving. However… he could also flee into The Pipeworks. Thousands of people went missing every day. He could be among them. In truth, he barely knew much about what lay beneath beyond what little he could scrounge up in a short amount of time and the various rumors of cults, mutants and chemical runoff.

Still, he had contacts. People who had worked with him and had a vested interest in keeping quiet about it. Groups like the Driller Commune. Or he could find the Caravan of Dreams. He could likely find more about a more benevolent cult, but that would take some time. Light peered down to the final scattered plans. The Outlands. The world was as wild as it was vast and reports said that the lemmings wouldn't reach the outlands for another few decades. It was rough, untamed and far from The City. Most people here completely wrote them off as uneducated, dangerous yokels, and largely ignored them with exception of the various trinkets, stories or popular creatures that showed up occasionally. Various stylized images of the chocobo were plastered in almost every konbini store, for example.

The flora was as hostile as the fauna and he couldn't hope for modern conveniences or parts for his projects, as they would be rare unless he allied with somebody who had connections to the city. Still. The outlands were almost completely unexplored and that same lack of consideration meant the outlands were a near perfect place to hide that wasn't covered in sewage. It also meant he had some level of freedom. While he would need to be careful, rumors or stories of a Dr. Light that survived would be declared bunk by the majority simply because it came from the Outlands of all places. Albert likely wouldn't be fooled, though. He'd come looking.

Where Did Light Choose To Go? [Select One]

[ ] Dr. Right Behind You
He chose to stay in the city.
The city is massive, almost continent-spanning, and we will primarily be focused around the WilyCorp zones. More specifically, Monsteropolis, which is basically several zones smushed together of which WilyCorp Towers stands directly in the middle of. The further you go out, the more dilapidated the city looks. This is (mostly) CAPCOM related zones, though things like the SNK, Mishima Autonomous Zone and the street fighter shared universe areas like Metro, Auharu and others are nearby in their own zones. River City is somewhere in that direction too. Raccoon City Zone shares a border with Metpharm (bordered by Arklay Mountainous Region) and it's where Wily's S.T.A.R.S program has their main stomping ground. Better outfitted, though. They're Cult Hunters in this Universe. You want to strike Wily right at the heart of his base, here's where you would do it. The Robot Masters have their own little bases located all over the place. Mind yourself though. Wily doesn't like you. He thought he killed you, after all.

[ ] Light In The Depths
He chose to descend into the depths of the Pipeworks.
The city is as deep as it is tall, and just as wide. Like above, this will primarily be Nintendo stuff. Dig Dug, Kirby, even the Mario Bros are messing around down here somewhere. It's a nasty place, full of chemical runoff and whatever escapes into the sewers (which happens to be a lot of things. Thanks, Metpharm.) What chemical runoff doesn't end up here ends up in the Outlands. As a result things tend to see in the dark down here, and the fungus has literally taken a life of its own. Entire zones have also been swallowed, forever-dark locations lit up only by ghost lights and glowing fungus often haunted by weird ghosts and other spooky things. There's rumors that there's a freaky giant turtle-dragon scheming at the molten core of the Pipeworks, too. Here's where you go if you want to deal with mutants, strange fungal growths, rampant terraforming robots, spooky ghosts, insane cults, (Kirby has one of his own- The Cult of the Devourer) and your very best impression of Zaunite culture, since it's not all that far off. There are entire communities down here and not all of them are friendly. Most of them are downright criminals.

[ ] Light in the Distance
Light chose to take his chances in the outlands.
The Outlands. The land of the JRPGs. And things like Castlevania. Yes, unfortunately Dracula spawned somewhere dark and spooky, much to the chagrin of the last survivors of the Belmont family who were sure Earth being blown up was the last they would see of the bastard. 'Short and Brutal' would be the terms that would best describe the place. Well, except for Kong Country, which seems to be doing just fine. If you like magic, the great outdoors or weird, psychic stuff there's no place in this setting that deals with the Dreamlands more than the Outlands. The flora is just as vicious as the fauna, and both are often oversized, guns and tanks have been replaced with more reliable things like massive swords and bows, and there are native species like the Goron and the Moogle that you can chat it up with. It's a Magi-Techno Barbarian paradise, if you're into that. Like He-Man or She-Ra, if they lived in a JRPG world. Still, the place has its quirks. You'll still find some friendly, if hardy, people here. Even some of the monsters are friendly, and there's odder sorts, too. Like funny magicians in hats arguing with cloaked figures on whether 'Fire' or 'Frizz' is the superior fire-aligned spellword, or barely clothed girls offering strange things called 'Puff Puffs'. It's an unexplored wild rife with exploitation and research. We know this because that's exactly what the other corporations are doing too.

Depending on your choice, you will be able to pick from up to 5 factions from those locations, or choose to go alone and build up your own faction.

=========================​

Hey there, everybody. Welcome to LightQuest! What is LightQuest? It's a CK2/3 based quest centered around Dr. Light and his attempt to bring some hope to (or just take bloody revenge against) a cyberpunk dystopia. This takes place within the 8 Bit Dystopia setting, in which various retro video games to a soft cutoff point of the PS1 era games are smashed together inside a sprawling cyberpunk hellscape. If you want S.T.A.R.S fighting against a death cult dedicated to Kirby, Little Macintosh entering into the King of Fighters tournament or Solid Snake joining with Simon Belmont to take down Dracula, this setting is for you.

The heroes still exist (actually, everyone's stories are just getting started), but everything is all jumbled and they have a hell of an uphill battle to fight. Maybe you can help them. They're gonna need it.

The default goal of this quest is if not freeing the city from the corporations, then at least taking down Wily. This can change depending on your choices as Light might find other problems needing solved beforehand, but by default that's where the quest is focused. Regardless if you end up fighting against Wily or the Corporations or not, ideally you'll be bringing some Light to a City that desperately needs it. Whether that means setting it all on fire or instilling some hope and hurting the corporations is up to you.
 
Unrest in the House of Light: Part Two
Light huffed as he ducked his way under a pipe, trying to follow his guide through a maze of tunnels and small caverns. Jack, an old friend from the Driller Commune he'd met on one of the Arkanoid ships, had some of his "boys" to help smuggle him into the pipeworks through one of the old express freight elevators the commune used to trade supplies with the corporations and other groups like the various plumber organizations and the occasional mercenary or gang. Besides the always useful supplies, they often traded maps as well, the commune having been lucky enough to gain an old copy of the ones the Mario Brothers used in their occupation. Which was the map Jack was using now to help guide Light through the upper levels of the pipeworks.​

"You alright back there, Thomas?" Jack called, a note of amusement in his voice.

"Y-yes, I'm alright. I didn't know how bad it was down here. Is it really like this everywhere in the pipeworks, Jack?" Light asked, nearly missing slamming his head against a pipe that jutted out an odd angle.

"Yep." Jack said, popping the p. "Them lemmings don't really care if these tunnels are easy to navigate. They just dig down. You think it's bad now, this is just the upper level. This is where most of the folk stay. Too dangerous further down. Even them hardened city criminals don't go down too deep. They's too afraid." Jack explained. "Oh, watch yourself. Bit of a drop here."

Light stumbled from the drop, having been too caught up in his own mind to hear his friend properly. Light began to grumble, but Jack just chuckled in return.

"There's a bigger cavern not too far ahead. It's close to the commune. You'll be able to see a pretty good way down. Lotsa kids come up here, see the sights. Might not be as pretty as some of the Earth ones though." Jack smiled, "But we make do." He said, helping Light up a jagged step and motioning outwards towards the cavern with a patchwork mechanical claw.

Light stepped next to his friend, looking out into the massive cavern. It was lit up to a certain extent by a uneven line of wooden poles, each one having a different light on them. They were clearly salvage in some way, most with different models or colors- one of them even being a pole with several smaller lights taped onto a bigger one. The light poles continued downwards for quite a ways down along a curving incline, leading into a small village of sorts made of metal that sat comfortably overlooking a cliff, a curving green pipe serving as a sort of railing. He knew those buildings. They were old digging machines and some of those premade, blocky outposts clumped together to serve as housing.
It was a little too far away for him to see in detail, but bright colored lights seemed to cover some of the converted buildings.

These light poles stood in stark contrast to the pitch darkness of the pit, only lit up by bright patches of colorful glowing moss along the other side of the gulf. The massive green pipes intersected with one another, some curving upwards or downwards and others turning sharply at 90 degree angles. The pipes were bright green, but at a certain point they too were engulfed by the darkness. Strangely, there was a few pipes that jutted out here and there, churning out a waterfall of green-tinted water.

It was certainly pretty if a bit of a surreal view, but Light was too caught up in the maze-like nature of the pipes. They were all over the place and there wasn't any sense or purpose to their movement beyond leading down. These pipes were massive enough that a pair of people could fit inside them and comfortably move around. He shuddered to think about what navigating those pipes would be like, seeing how they often turned around on one another. Or dropped down suddenly. Was this also his and Albert's fault? The S.I.M. was supposed to manage these machines, but they had been so busy with everything else they didn't keep track of the manufacturing robots. Now the underground was a mess.
"Beautiful, aint she?" Jack asked.

"It's... something, alright." Light said, running a hand through his hair. "Alright. I need to get to work. Is there anywhere we can set down these maps and plan out where I'm going to stay for the time being?"

"Sure thing, I think I can set aside some space for ya. And don't worry. My boys will stay quiet about you surviving 'n all. We'll make sure the rest of 'em stay quiet too." Jack told him, patting Light on the shoulder as ran to go wave down some workers coming out of a nearby tunnel.

Before he followed after, Light took one last look at the view before him. He sighed. It wasn't going to be as simple as just taking down Albert, was it? This entire planet needed his help. The City, The Pipeworks, even the Outlands. He'd pay more attention this time, too. If there was going to be any hope for tomorrow he'd have to. He supposed there were worse parts to start than the foundation.

=========​

Where Did Light End Up? [Select One]

[ ] The Upper Pipeworks [Alone]
A small, ramshackle building with no occupant he found that was out of the way of the normal paths people would take through the pipeworks. It was closer to Monsteropolis and in turn his old friend, which came with some benefits and drawbacks. He'd have to be careful not to be spotted by anybody on Wily's payroll, but there was more access to parts and the fact that most don't bother looking too hard in a maze. He did manage to build a friend, though.

--> [ ] His name was Rock.
--> [ ] Her name was Roll.

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[ ] The Upper Pipeworks [Driller Commune]
He'd felt he needed to pay the Commune back the goodwill and the danger that came from helping smuggle him in. Luckily, there were a lot of things that needed fixing and he was one of the ones that helped make a lot of the equipment in the first place. At the very least he could get some of the broken mining Mets back online to minimize some of the danger to the member of the Commune.

Jack the Driller joins you as a Hero Unit.

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[ ] The Upper Pipeworks [The Battletoads]
While trying to find a place to lay low, Light came across a strange sight. A group of black suited ninjas in a martial arts brawl with a bunch of mutants. The mutants seemed to be matching them in skill, but the ninjas were overrunning them with numbers. Taking a chance, he joined the fray- not as a combatant but as a distraction, giving the mutants enough of an opening to win the fight. They introduced themselves as Rash, Zitz and Pimple and offered to let Light stay at their hangout as long as he could pull his weight.

Pimple the Battletoad joins you as a Hero Unit.

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[ ] The Deep Works [Mushroom Village]
Light had gotten lost as he went deeper into the Pipeworks to learn more about how badly the Lemmings had gone off course, only to be attacked by a group of roaming biomonsters. He was saved by a strange group of short, mushroom headed mutants and brought to their village. Initially worried about being eaten (though he would deny it) he would come to find the 'Mushroom People' friendly. They told him tales of a monstrous lizard king in the deepest part of the pipeworks and it's prophecy against the surface world and asked for Light's help in defending the village and its inhabitants against the dragon king.

Toad the Mushroom joins you as a Hero Unit.


Alright, I don't think I'm going to do another 24 hour post. Let's give it a two hour moratorium and then I'll close out the next one around 4 PM EST tomorrow.
 
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Bioroid Creation #1: DLN-002 - "Roll"
Light stood hunched over the endoskeleton of a bioroid, a dim light illuminating the room. Jack was kind enough to allow him some space to make into a lab as Light's current house was in no shape to hold one. That would have to be fixed if he wanted to make more bioroids as he didn't want to intrude on Jack's life more than he was already going to. The man in question waving off his concern, besides. There were children gathering outside to watch as he booted up a dusty computer and begin to lay down the various boxes of parts and tools he would need to build his new creation. A friend.

He had decided to fire up one of his old prototypes, DLN-002. Roll. She would look like a young human girl, but beyond that everything was a question mark. With a small smile as he waved to some of the kids, he began to focus on task at hand.




Physical Appearance [Optional (Blonde and Blue Eyed is Default]
It does not have to be natural colors. Go wild, if you want.

[ ] Hair Color [Write In]:
[ ] Eye Color [Write In]:

Initial Personality [Pick Three]

[ ] Friendly: Light designed Roll to be friendly and considerate of others. A bright child with a smile on her face that always tries to see the best in people. Hopefully as an example for others to follow. If nothing else, a friendly face is always better to be around.

[ ] Vigiliant: Light designed Roll to be sharp-eyed, watchful of trouble. The pipeworks were dangerous and could change in a moment. A keen mind on the lookout for danger was always a benefit. There was always the worry of her of being too suspicious of people or overcautious of everything... but was that a bad thing in this day and age?

[ ] Reserved: Light designed Roll to be somebody you could lean on in a crisis, a disciplined sort of person that could keep herself and others calm when things were breaking down, even if he refused to make her truly emotionless. She would be quiet and unflappable, but might come off as cold if she didn't have any warmer traits about her.

[ ] Curious: Light designed Roll to have a love of knowledge and always willing to fan the flames of her curiosity. There was always the risk of her getting into trouble trying to satisfy that curiousity but a love of learning and always being willing to find the answers herself was always a good trait to have.

[ ] Passionate: Light designed Roll to have an excitable nature about her and to throw herself into the things she cared about, always ready to go out looking for a new adventure. He gave her a love of life and living and always being willing to experience new things and be enthusiastic about the things she came to enjoy.

[ ] Elegant: Light designed Roll to have an elegant personality. She would have a love of luxury and fashion and always be graceful with her movements and speech, if maybe too refined. In hindsight, it would have been incredibly cruel to do this given he lived in the pipeworks, but if anybody could pretty it up it would be up to her.

[ ] Whimsical: Light designed Roll to be full of fun. She'll be a bit unpredictable at times but always in the pursuit in putting smiles on other people's faces. The city would need these types of people to breathe life back into it and an opponent that doesn't take you seriously would anger the enemies she might face. If she faced any at all.

============================================

Initial Purpose [Select One]:

[ ] An Assistant: Light created somebody that would keep up with him. Her processing power and ability to comprehend things are optimized and a significant amount of Light's own knowledge of the sciences, along with some other more useful things that he himself lacked are downloaded into her knowledge base. She would assist him in his endeavors, though beyond a bioroids natural strength and durability would lack much combat potential. Why on earth would an assistant need to fight, though?

[ ] A Protector: He doesn't like it, but Light needed somebody to protect him. He... wasn't in any state to even begin the idea of trying to fight. It always seemed cruel to build a soldier... but maybe a protector would be a better word for it? She would be given reinforced ceramic titatium plating, subdermal armor and a stronger endoskeleton and power core would work on the physical side of things. A general knowledge of combat and some forms of martial arts would be downloaded into her brain, but she'd lack the sheer ferocity and level of skill of some people in the city. She'd have to learn that on her own.

[ ] An Operative: Light's target was Wily. He had just picked somewhere to live that was literally under his line of sight. He needed somebody who could sneak around and accomplish things without being found out or even erasing somebody's footprint. The physical part was easy. Although he had to use a lighter frame and endoskeleton, which would hamper her ability to fight she hopefully wouldn't need to. She'd be lighter than a human and a few bits of hardware that would help muffle her sound along with small bits of equipment to help break into things to round that out. The rest was downloading the appropriate knowledge into her brain.

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Supplemental Upgrades [You Have 3 Parts and 5 Slots for Upgrades]

Large Frame [3 Parts]: Making your robot bigger is not a simple a task as everyone would like to believe but by making the machine bigger you can place bigger, more powerful hydraulics and actuators along with more surface area for ceramic titanium, which makes the machine bigger, stronger and more durable as a result. It does come with the drawback of making them a little slower and a lot heavier to start and they won't be able to fit everywhere. They can also be pretty intimidating. This uses up all of the bioroids 'slots' to place.

Ball Joint Torso [3 Parts]: By modifying the torso to instead sit atop an enlargened ball joint and doing the same for the rest of the frame you can vastly increase the bioroids flexibility at the cost of it looking much less human, which some might consider a drawback. This reduces the profile of the robot and will allow them to fit inside even the smallest of cramped spaces. They will be smaller and weaker as a result, but damn near silent and invisible. This uses up all of the bioroids 'slots' to place.

Enhanced Mapping Software [2 Parts]: The pipeworks are a mass of winding pipes and tunnels and even the best and most veteran can get lost down here. A bit of software to fix that issue by downloading maps into its memory and using some extra programs to keep updating them with new knowledge once it's discovered. Going a step further by pairing the programs with a piece of hardware than can emit a high frequency pulse that can show nearby physical or geological data makes sure the bioroid and those with them can never get lost. This takes 2 slots.

Improved Speed and Reflexes [1 Part]: It's a simple thing to put better actuatiors on a robot and call it a day, it's another to connect it to the machine's reaction speed and pull every bit of preformance out of the parts as you could. As a result this robot is quicker to move around and reacts more quickly to things- a fraction of the time a human would take. Not only would it protect the bioroid from danger and allow them to react more quickly but it would provide an advantage in a fight should it ever come to it. This takes one slot.

Experimental Geothermal Energy Converter [1 Part]: A testy little device that converts ambient light and geothermal energy into more power for the bioroid to use. It's meant to keep the bioroid operational down in places where the light doesn't reach but it can be expended to provide a temporary boost in power and speed at the cost of taxing the bioroids body and leaving them low energy for a while. The benefits are obvious if you could get it to work right. Maybe you could even use it to power other equipment? This takes 2 slots.



Let's get building. There will be a 2 HOUR MORATORIUM and we'll end the voting around 4 PM EST tomorrow. After this we will start Turn 1. I'm pretty excited to start this, so without further ado let's get on with it. I will be periodically updating some setting stuff as well, now that we know for sure where we are and where we're going. Votes should be done by plan.
 
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Turn 1
Light sighed as he set down a box, feeling a little gross from the dirt and grime accumulated from the work he did. This was it. It was finally time to get to work. He felt full of energy and completely overwhelmed at the same time. He closed his eyes and took a breath. One step at a time. He heard the sound of tinkering somewhere deeper in the house. Roll. His new assistant. His daughter. A girl that was almost as intelligent as he was and just as interested in robotics, which was a surprise. The curious and passionate part of her personality had melded together, creating a girl with a love of learning and a willingness to get into anything and everything to learn more about it.

Almost immediately after her creation she tore into various construction robots to see how they worked, even managing to fix a few broken ones for the commune once she had figured the robots out. He was proud of her. She did have a few odd quirks though. Like bossing around her creations and 'punishing' them for making mistakes. It was a little worrying, but it was benign so far.
"Roll?" Light called, maneuvering his way through the various stacks of boxes and parts.

"Back here! Just," Roll responded, followed by the sounds of strained grunting, "trying to get this thing working!"

Light found Roll laid on the ground, covered in dirt and... something green while she worked on a pipe in what looked like a really basic bathroom. "Do you need help?" Light asked, reaching for a wrench to help her before she slid her way out, a grease covered face and matted brown hair greeting him. "Nah, I got it. It was just being stubborn." Roll told him, wiping off her face with a rag.
"So, Dr. Light! What are we doing today? Today's the day, right?" Roll asked, green eyes full of energy. Light chuckled and nodded. "Today's the day." Light's nose rankled, the smell of the sewer pipes finally hitting him. "Perhaps we should build a shower first."



FACTION ACTIONS

[ ] Clean Up the Yard [DC 50 / 80 / 100] (Mutually Exclusive with Camouflage the Yard):
This place is dangerous and no place to live. Taking some time to fight back and tame the wider area by removing local biomonster nests, removing old and broken pipes and machines and cleaning up the toxic waste and roaming chemical clouds will do wonders for making the area safer. Unfortunately it means essentially claiming the area for ourselves and making our presence known. This could possibly attract bad actors, but surely it would provide some other benefit?

[ ] Hunt Down Dangerous Elements in the Upper Works [DC 70]:
There's the wider area around our base that needs to be fixed up, but also the dangerous elements of the upper works. We'd be going off of rumors rather than targeted strikes against known entities but going around looking for monsters that threaten the area and taking them down could make the area safer to move through as well as net us some local popularity. It does come with the cost of randomly roaming around, increasing the chances to be seen.

[ ] Stage Raids against WilyCorp Zones [DC 70]:
Now that I've settled down a bit, maybe it's time to take the fight to the surface. By attacking key locations that we know about we could do some damage to WilyCorp's operations, but I'm working off of old knowledge that may not apply to the city anymore. This option also comes with the problem of being seen by Albert, which is a risk I don't think I'm willing to take right now. The option is there, regardless.
[ ] Reach Out to the Driller Commune [DC 30]:
They've done so much for us. They helped me by smuggling me into the pipeworks as well as provided me a temporary lab to build my first assistant. They've even lended me construction equipment and parts under the guise of "paying back old debts". Surely there's something I can do for them, as well. We're allies and neighbors, after all. I just have to get a hold of a man called Taizo, who is apparently the unofficial leader of the commune. Maybe we can get one step closer to an actual community down here, rather than a separate enclave of neutral parties?

[ ] Look into Friendly Communities in the Upper Works [DC 50]:
The Commune can't be the only people down here in the Pipeworks that are willing to interact with one another. Jack said something about something called the 'Caravan of Dreams' led by a cyborg named "King" that roams through the underground and protects people who stumble into the pipeworks or have nowhere else to go. Maybe there's more than just them out there? We should at least reach out.

[ ] Look into Friendly Communities in WilyCorp Zones [DC 70]:
My main objective is Wily and while we live underneath him, having a community to reach out to on the surface carries many dangers, but a benefit in having a group on the surface as eyes and ears, maybe more. There has to be somebody who hasn't given up hope yet.
[ ] Renovate the House [DC 50]:
This base is a ramshackle mess. A rundown building that has a pipe sticking through the middle that will need to be removed or diverted if we want to make this place livable. A home would be nice to have, I think. I'll also require a lab space to build some more bioroids. Oh, and one for Roll as well, who seems just as interested as I am in robotics. If nothing else I'm glad we have something in common... even if she's a little odd about her machines. I should probably look after that.

[ ] Start up AM/FM Transmissions [DC 50] (Guaranteed Attention):
Perhaps it's time to look into AM/FM Transmissions to show that I'm alive. That should breathe some hope back into the city. The cost is attention. Even if I reduce my presence down to rumors from a few pirate stations Wily will surely catch onto the fact that I'm alive and begin looking for me. I should only do this if I'm truly ready for the consequences... but maybe it's time that the world knows the truth. That hope still exists, even in a dying city.

[ ] Look into Major Problems in the Upper Works [DC 60]:
I cannot believe the situation down here in the pipeworks has gotten so bad. How did Albert and I not notice this? Was he aware and just didn't care? Did somebody bring it up and I was too busy to look into it? This can't stand. We need to figure out the major areas of failure and do our best in trying to clean up the mess. This could do wonders in fixing the area and making it more livable

[ ] Scavenge for Parts [DC 30]:
The underground is full of broken bots and carelessly discarded material. It might take some doing to find something worth using, but finding more parts to build more bioroids could only benefit us in the long run. We'll just need to move carefully so as to not fall onto anything dangerous while we go searching.
[ ] Camouflage the Yard [DC 50]: (Mutually Exclusive with Clean Up the Yard):
The place is a mess but I must remember why I'm down here in the first place. To hide. By hiding our base of operations and breaking more things in strategic areas we'll better hide our operations by making the area more difficult to move through. It will make it worse on the people around us as our zone is a major 'road' through the upper works, but perhaps we can find or create another way around for them?

[ ] Tap into WilyCorp's Information Network [DC 70]:
One of the first steps into planning against your enemy is to tap into what they know. This will take away much of risk and random chance of physically looking into WilyCorps operations and reduce the chances of being seen... but we'll need to be careful in disguising our presence in the network. We'll also need to sift through the useless from the useful, but I have nothing but time right now. If we do this right we'll also have access to the camera network, which will allow us to see the state of the zones in more detail.

[ ] Investigate the Robot Masters in Monsteropolis [DC 70]:
The Robot Masters are in control over the WilyCorp Zones. They can be reprogrammed if we can get to them, but we currently only know a general idea of where they're located. Sending somebody will be dangerous but finding out where the Robot Masters are, what they're doing and what they have will be incredibly useful in taking down Wily. If we can make the Robot Masters work for the people then the city can only benefit from it.

[ ] Look into the 'Human' Enemies in the Upper Works [DC 60]:
While stumbling around the dark looking for criminals and monsters would be easy, it's time consuming and entirely based on getting lucky. Having a better picture over the 'human' problems of the underground like biomonsters, mutants and criminal networks would make it easier to target these groups and help fill out our knowledge of the underground. Knowing who not to trust is a benefit in itself, I would think.

[ ] Investigate the other Corporations [DC 60]:
As much as I consider WilyCorp to be the worst among them, they are not. Albert is... remarkably restrained compared to his peers, a fact which causes me no end of despair. It won't be the end of our problems by just taking down Wily. In fact, I imagine the fight will only grow more ferocious after we take him down. We need to look into the other corporations and see what we're really dealing with on those fronts.

[ ] Go On An Expedition in the Pipeworks [DC Variable]: (Requires at least 2 Heroes)
The pipeworks remain largely unexplored. Who knows what we'll find if we go searching?

[ ] The Upper Works / The Lower Works / Beyond the Maps
[ ] Assign Hero
[ ] Assign Hero
[ ] Assign Hero

[ ] Draw Up Plans for Project MEGA [DC 100]:
We'll need more than just a simple bioroid if we're going to take down Wily. We'll need a warrior. Something either converted to or built from the ground up to be something that fights for the good of the people and defends them against people like Albert. It will take time, but drawing up of what exactly we'll need to focus on for our "Mega Man" will be important for the fight to come.

[ ] Improve Geothermal Energy Reactor Research [DC 50]:
I think I stumbled onto something important with my experimental geothermal device. Making a more efficent generator that relies on ambient light sources and geothermal heat could be a decent start on reducing our reliance on Wily's energy systems. Proliferating them across the underground could provide the rest of the underground with the same benefit- not having to rely on Wily's whims might further distance these people from his control.

///

PERSONAL ACTIONS

Dr. Light has FOUR personal actions

[ ] Create Another Reploid [LOCKED / Renovate the House First]:

Roll is a dramatic upgrade to working alone, but leaving two people to do the work of several hundreds is going to stress us out. Maybe building a brother or sister might be worth it?

[ ] Spend time with Roll:
She's only been alive for about a week and she's already all over the various machines around the zone. She's more energetic than I programmed, which is a good thing, if a bit tiring to keep up with her. She does have a bit of a worrying habit of bossing around the robots she makes, though. I may need to pay more attention to that. Surely she wouldn't mind her old man helping her out with a few robots.

[ ] Spend time with Jack:
Jack is a good friend, if a bit of a distant one. The friendship is built mostly on his admiration of 'The Hero of the City', which is unfortunate. While you don't like drinking too much, taking some time out of your schedule to just talk and really catch up might help me take it easy a little bit.

[ ] Tinker with a Project:
Maybe winding back a little bit and working on some of my old projects might produce something of value. If nothing else they'll serve as new inspirations for parts that I can apply to my machines.

[ ] Buckle Down and Focus (3 Actions / +10 to the chosen Action):
We can't waste time. [Increases Stress]
[ ] Which Action?

[ ] Build Some Helping Hands:
Father and I are only two people. We'll need more hands if we want to get anything done. Luckily I have just the solution. Servant Men! Servbots? I've gotten the ideas from the METs and some of the various old machines father and his... friend used to build together. Just a little cuter. Maybe a little bit of yellow for color? Pink to make it pop?

[ ] Spruce up the Area:
Dirt brown and radioactive green are the dominant colors of the area, plus a few stranger colors from the glowing moss. They'll have to be synthetic, but maybe a dash of color is needed to really make the place homey? If nothing else they'll generate some oxygen. That was one of the few good things Robotnik designed.

[ ] Look after Father:
Father is old. He's also incredibly stressed. Following my programming by acting as his assistant might reduce the weight on his shoulders a little bit. A smiling person would do wonders for his mood, I think.


Alright. Turn 1 is completed! I will be finishing up some setting stuff during the rest of the day, but the main four corporations and the character sheets have been posted. I'll be updating the rules a bit too, since it looks like I'm missing a thing or two. Mostly about heroes and their actions.

You can assign a hero to one faction action and I'd like for you all to vote in plans. There will be a two hour moratorium and then we'll end the vote tomorrow at 4 PM EST.
 
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Turn 1 Results
/// Turn 1 Results ///

Clean Up The Yard [1d100 = 94 - 10 (Light's Martial) + 25 (Roll's Martial) + 5 (Working Together) + 10 (Buckle Down and Focus) = 124] CRITICAL SUCCESS

Thoma Light - Log 003 - 200X

We've managed to do more work in only a handful of months than I had originally planned. The zone that surrounds our lab is almost completely clean and free of harmful elements. Even better, the device and the mech that it's connected to that Roll had created for me allows me to work remotely and distance my physical self from harm. As much as I've protested she's refused to let me work out there myself... and I cannot help but feel a little relieved. She even coded a little game out of it. I'm proud of her. She's exceeded even my greatest of expectations. My geothermal generator exceeded expectations as well. That little spark of genius also has my daughter to thank.

In just a few short months we've managed to do so much. It might be too early for such optimism, but I can't help but feel we'll be alright. But that's me getting off track. We've managed to find something. An old Metpharm facility that served as a biomonster nest, as well as something a little more interesting...

To be continued in: Interlude - Tunnel Trouble

Reach Out To The Driller Commune [1d100 = 14 + 35 (Light's Diplomacy) = 49] SUCCESS

I have managed to make contact with Taizo Hori, one of the people in charge of the Driller Commune. He's happy to see us and I am happy to work with them as well. I've known of Taizo but we unfortunately ran in different circles. I respect the man for all he's accomplished, however. He looked tired. It can't have been easy taking up the tasks the SIM was doing. I only wish that they didn't have to do as much. Perhaps with some help we'll make this place somewhere worth living in?

To be continued in: Interlude - Tunnel Trouble

Renovate the House [1d100 = 29 + 10 (Light's Stewardship) = 39] FAILURE

*There is a sound of clanging in the background*

Unfortunately not all news is good. We've come to a bit of an issue with renovating our new home. It seems the building is built on several pipe networks, which in retrospect explains why the house is not only abandoned but also shaped the way it was. Luckily we do have access to machines that can fix that problem but-

*The sound of clanging grows louder, more insistent, like somebody is beginning to beat on a piece of metal repeatedly*

Ah, oh dear. Roll's trying to do it herself. She really should listen to me sometimes. I may be old but I can still operate a machine! I'll have to cut this short, I need to go help her.

The house has not been renovated. The DC has been lowered slightly.

Look into the 'Human' Enemies in the Upper Works [1d100 = 74 + 10 (Light's Intrigue) = 84] SUCCESS

Ah, well. That's done with. Where was I...? Ah! We did manage to learn more about what enemies we may face while we're down here. Most of it is mutant in nature, as you'd expect. A group called the Mutant League controls the Upper Works part of the EA Zone and are a collection of several mutant 'teams', which constantly compete a violent variation of football in games both above the surface and below it. They're on fairly neutral terms with the "De Caps"- Er, "De Caps with a Z", a group that folded themselves in with the X-Syndicate. There exist two "teams" of the Mutant League nearby: "The Metro City Smashaz" and "The Pipeworkz Shellcreepaz". They're a bunch of violent thugs but they're not worse than the De Capz. Maybe we can get into contact?

The De Capz are cruel. A wild and violent bunch of mutants and the augmentation obsessed who use the tunnel networks to smuggle everything from weapons to people and make money from it- most of them going towards the Eggdyne part of The City. That... does not bode well. It looks like the rumors of people being used in the creation of the badniks might unfortunately be true. The mutant league seem to be a bunch of hooligans, especially what I hear about their bloodsport, but they pale in comparison to the De Capz. They're also more numerous than I'd heard, considering they're considered a small gang up on the City but given what I know now about the Pipeworks I shouldn't be surprised.

There are other gangs down here, but these two are perhaps the largest of them all. Of course, gangs aren't the only things to worry about. Biomonsters, created mostly by Metpharm for some unexplainable reason or the toxic runoff of the city, are incredibly dangerous. Even the least of them are capable of dealing with a bioroid and often need entire teams of people or a single person with as many firearms and explosives as they can carry. It was pure luck that we managed to catch a nest of them while they were hibernating off of the drillers they ate.

We found a couple of nests that we could go around and strike to make the place safer... but I think I'd rather focus on improving the defenses of our 'zone' first. The damage they did to Roll's machine was severe...

There's also been some noise about cults, but they don't come up here that often. I'll have to focus on that if we want to learn more about it.

Learned about Biomonsters, The Mutant Leauge and the De Capz / X-Syndicate.

Improve Geothermal Energy Reactor Research [1d100 = 73 + 30 (Light's Learning) = 103] CRITICAL SUCCESS

The research was a success- moreover Roll's thoughts on making the generator feed off of biohazardous waste and the more dangerous varities of underground plant life was a stroke of brilliance. It took some work to make sure there wasn't any dangerous aftereffects but in the end we've designed a generator that converts the more dangerous parts of the pipeworks into something that puts out clean energy and is even beginning to eliminate the dangerous gases that one can occasionally stumble into while they travel down here. It's a generator to clean the underground. Each step we take is another that unites the pipeworks. We'll need to work on it more if we want to make it smaller or more efficient but what we have is already enough to do a good amount of work.

To be continued in: Interlude - Tunnel Trouble



/// Personal Actions ///

Buckle Down and Focus [~~~]

I had expected some level of stress to come with focusing so much of my being on working on making our home a little safer but I never imagined it would work out so well. I have Roll to thank for that, I imagine. Between her actively helping me with my work and even going out of her way to program and build a remotely operated construction machine for me to use so I wouldn't have to exert myself too much meant that any stress I might've gained was completely nullified. Roll. I'm proud of her, but I wish she would rely on her father some.

Stress gain nullified, new action unlocked. Remote Operate a Machine [3 Personal Actions]. 'Traumatized' trait halved for one turn.

Spend Time With Roll [1d100 = 77]

Roll is incredibly passionate about who she is and where she came from. Always eager to jump into things and learn more about them, but with enough of her senses about her to pay attention to the world around her. She seemed happy enough to help her father with building a few small toy machines to give to the kids over at the driller commune. Her machines follow her around like baby ducks, chirping after her even. They seem like basic prototypes of something she's making blueprints for but she's refused to show me, saying that it's 'a surprise'. I'm happy she's so enamored with her programming. Blues... was somewhat similar. Ah, I've gone and made myself unhappy. I wonder how he is doing. The city cannot possibly be treating him well.

Will he think I am replacing him? I can't think about that. Anyway! Roll! She has a tendency to boss around her creations and be a little cruel when she believes they need to be punished, but she also worries after them like a mother hen would her chicks. One of them even fell down a small crevice in the ground and Roll was nearly beside herself with worry until it poked it's head up and climbed out of the hole. It's cute. I don't think I have to worry too much. I may need to step in if she becomes too cruel but her punishments are pretty benign in nature.

She's preforming better than I expected, but seems a more unhappy than one would usually feel when things don't go her way. She's a bit of a perfectionist, it seems.

Learned more about your daughter, Roll.


Look After Father [1d100 = 100 + 1d100 = 14 = 114] EXPLOSIVE SUCCESS

DLN-002 "Roll Light" - Log 001 - 200X

I wonder if I'm doing this right? Do I sit in front of this screen and just talk, then? I think so. Anyway, hello! Dr. Light decided to let me have my own series of logs. He says they'll help gather my thoughts about things. What to talk about, I wonder? Ah! We managed to clean out the zone surrounding the lab for the most part, although I think it needs a little more reinforcing before it's good. I think Dr. Light agrees with me. He's a bit of a worrywart, though. Even when I made him that remote operated machine he still seemed like he wanted to be out there in person. I kept having to talk him down from it.

Humans are squishy, after all. He's older than most, too. Besides... I've seen the way he reacts to things. I don't think he notices when I catch him. He'll stare off into space or flinch when loud noises occur. Though... I guess that isn't that strange. Hmm... He'll wake up screaming from a nightmare and he'll occasionally call me 'Albert' when he's really spaced out. I don't think he's really processed what's happened to him, yet. I'm not sure how to help him. He really doesn't like conflict. I wonder why he seems so dead set on fighting against Doctor Wily, then. Hmm. I'm happy to help him in any way I can. I think pushing to make sure he doesn't have to be physically present should help a little, but I wonder if he might come to rely on it. Would it be a bad thing if he did?

Hmm. Something to think about. I think I like this 'Log' thing. Maybe I'll even make my own creations do it too. That could be fun. Anyway, back to work! I really need to make sure this lab space gets carved out. It won't feel like a real home until I do. Oh! I do have one other thing to say...

To be continued in: Interlude - Tunnel Trouble
 
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Interlude: Tunnel Trouble
"...Be careful, Roll! The scans are showing this area to be particularly unstable!" Light called after his daughter, alerts coming through the VR device as a cute little pixelated version of his daughter popped up and began warning him about the instability of the last few tunnels they were clearing out.

The young girl in question simply bounced away ahead of him in her dusty pink mining gear as if the suit and the drill and pump she was carrying weighed next to nothing.

"It'll be fine, father. You designed me, after all. I can handle myself." his daughter explained, as if being designed by him made her somehow invulnerable to damage or malfunction. "You did outfit me with a device that allows me to detect these instabilities myself, you know!" she said, teasing him.

"Besides! After all of these months we finally get to really put that new generator we've been working on through its paces and check out that weird glitch we found while we were doing all of those scans way back when! Aren't you a little curious about that?" Roll asked, practically vibrating with excitement.

Light wasn't nearly as excited. He couldn't be, not with the dangers he was facing. The worst part about it was he wasn't really there next to his daughter, so if something happened to her and this machine broke down, he wouldn't be able to do anything about it from his side. The machine Roll had built for him through the use of old scrapped parts and a donated mining robot was a work of art and it made him genuinely proud of his daughter, more so than he already was. She was so smart and always curious about her surroundings- quick witted and passionate about both protecting him and her own work as well. She was as close to human as he could currently make and so far had surpassed all of his expectations…

… He just wasn't sure about using the machine. It was undeniably useful, especially during combat with some of the biomonster nests they had found while cleaning the debris. He was stronger, tougher and able to do far more than his physical self. He just… still wanted to be out there, helping his daughter in person.

To make matters worse, his arguments against using the machine were often shut down, usually in ways he could only grumble about rather than find fault in. And yet he was afraid. It made him wonder why he thought he could build a machine to fight Wily in the first place, to worry about their safety as much as he was doing now. He sighed through the connection, trying to put on a smile.

"I am, Roll. But we can get there while still being careful about this. Besides, we can't start until Taizo's boy Suzumu gets here, so there's no point in rushing there anyway."

Roll shook her head and sighed. "I wonder what's taking him so long. It's not like Network 48 is as much a maze as it used to be, anymore. I told him to be punctual!" she ranted, stamping her feet.

"Now, Roll. I'm certain the Hori family are quite busy people. He'll be here." Light chided softly.

That was an interesting character quirk of his daughter's. The tendency to hold others to strict standards, including her own creations. Those who fell short often regretted it. He'd been worried about it, but found she was equally as motherly to those who followed her, though in a sort of bossy way that made him scratch his head a little.

Roll simply humphed in response, leaning against a brick wall as she kicked a rock and grumbled something the device couldn't pick up on. Chuckling, Light began to set down the final generator and start putting it together. This particular location they'd chosen was a critical junction of the tunnels where the chemical spill had built up, completely blocking the last few tunnels he had left to explore and repair, so this last generator needed to be a bit larger than the other ones and required a pump to use effectively.

Tunnel Network 48 (or Network 48, as the locals called it) had changed quite drastically since Light and his daughter's arrival. Once an abandoned tunnel, its distance from most of the major underground safe zones like the Driller HQ meant that it rarely saw any maintenance; and that was before rumors of driller teams and explorers going missing had started happening. After that, it had become a wreck, full of debris, broken pipes and chemical and gaseous runoff that contained god-only-knew-what dumped there by Albert and the rest of his kind.

Clearing it out had actually taken much less time than anticipated, though was occasionally stymied by the fact that there were biomonster nests further within Network 48's winding maze.

The hardest part wasn't the bodies they'd found after clearing out the nests. Old bones and fresh corpses, some of which were so ruined they could only be identified through their driller equipment or ripped apart personal belongings. In one case, a heartbreaking message scribbled on the back of an incredibly outdated map. No, the hardest part was actually the people Light had made sure to get the bodies back to. He'd tried to make it a point to personally deliver them, but for a few he had to leave to the Driller Commune to deal with as they belonged to The City proper.

As a result, Light often got to witness the expressions of those who knew their family and friends were dead, but still hoped they were out there somewhere to change in various, heartbreaking ways. It drained him, but he always felt it was the only right thing to do.

Roll took it the worst. Light did try to teach her about Death, especially in this new world the two had found themselves in, but he imagined it was a completely different experience actually seeing the bodies. She grew quieter when she found them, more determined and violent with each biomonster nest they cleared.

Eventually, the job was (mostly) finished. People started to use the tunnel network more. At first it was mostly the Driller Commune, but then others too. The worst of the tunnels, the ones that terminated into lone, broken Lemmings half-buried in rubble or the areas deemed too dangerous were walled off and marked. Even the pipes were navigated and marked on a map, officially updating the area map to what the locals called "The Plumber Standard". He gave a copy of these maps to the Driller Commune, of course.

The last real job was the generators, which were completed and placed in places where they'd do the most good, though for this final one the Driller Commune sent out somebody to watch the machine at work.

Almost as if called by his thoughts, a bright pink and blue mining suit had appeared at the end of the tunnel, the smiling face of Suzumu Hori waving energetically as he raced towards the duo. The young man was bright, energetic and was a shining beacon of positivity in a place mostly devoid of it.

"Dr. Light! Dr. Light! I didn't miss the generator, did I?" The young man called, only to be stopped dead in his tracks by the hand of Roll.

"Now, you listen here, Suzumu Hori! I told you to be here way earlier! Dr. Light and I have been waiting for so long he's even dozed off to sleep!" the girl said angrily, the boy rubbing his helmet sheepishly. Before the boy could say anything, Light stepped in.

"Roll! That's no way to greet somebody, especially somebody who has taken time out of his day to come help with our project." Light scolded her, causing the girl to withdraw with a pout. The boy waved it off.

"Aw, don't worry Dr. Light. I'm sure she has her reasons. 'Sides, I was late. I just got sidetracked by ninjas! They were fighting with a group of anthro mutant frogs! They went like 'whoosh' with their attacks and some of them even transformed into objects! The big guy even turned into a bat that one with the glasses used to knock like, 50 of them away down a pipe! It was so cool!"

Roll didn't seem convinced. "Now who would believe a weird story like that?" she questioned, her arms folded with a glare.

This the boy seemed a little upset about. "I'm telling the truth! Look!" he said, bringing out a camera device… that was broken. "Oh, no! I must have broken it when I went down that pipe to get away from one of the ninjas!" he cried.

"Uh huh." Roll said, skeptically.

"It's true!"

Light cut in, finally finished with the generators. "Roll! We don't know enough about the underground to say for certain what he saw was true or not. There very well could be mutant anthros down here." he explained.

"Yeah, but why would actual ninjas be down here? That's a little far fetched, isn't it Dr. Light?" She asked.

"There are all sorts out there in the city, Roll. If I recall correctly there are ninjas out in the outlands. Or they could be a gang driven down into the Pipeworks. Or ninja themed couriers for some company above." Light said.

"...I suppose." Roll relented. With a huff, she turned to the boy, who was still fiddling with the broken camera. "I'm sorry. I'm sure what you saw really happened, but that doesn't mean I've forgiven you for being late!" she told the boy. She held out her hand. "Here. I'll fix it. It won't take much and I'll make sure to return it."

Suzumu's eyes brightened. "You really will?!" he asked. Roll rolled her eyes. "Yes. It might take a while, since my father and I are busy. But I'll get it done when I can."

Suzumu hugged her, causing the girl to blush and stammer. "Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyo-"

"Errgh! Enough!"

Light chuckled, content to watch the interaction between the two. "Alright! The machine is done!" he said, waving the machine's arms to get their attention. "Suzumu, would you like to do the honors? I'll have Roll explain what it does. Be nice, Roll."

"Yes!" the boy shouted excitedly, rushing over to the machine. Roll, more composed, walked over to the machine.

"Alright. This generator is a device that can run off of geothermal heat, chemicals or in desperation, any nearby biomass you can find in the underground and will convert it into clean energy. This conversion process can even extend to the air with a switch, but consumes a lot of power and generates a lot of heat, so avoid using it for extended periods of time!" Roll began to explain, pushing up a set of glasses she set on her face before she was interrupted by Suzumu with his arm raised.

"What happens if we leave it on too long?" He asked.

"It will overheat and damage the machine- not only that, but the machine will run too hot for humans to safely touch it. Luckily, yours truly put a failsafe that will simply shut it down before that happens!" she preened, her glasses twinkling.

"What's with the pump?"

"Ah! That's how it will suck up chemicals, especially for submerged areas like this. Watch!" she said, pressing a button and turning the machine on. Immediately it came to life, the pump animating with a cartoony sniffing sound before beginning to suck up the nearby chemical pool.

"Ta da!" Roll presented proudly. "When you turn it on it first checks for geothermal heat - it won't find any here because it's pretty cold - but then it goes for chemical waste and then biomass. I even added a little sound effect! So cool, right?" she asked excitedly.

Suzumu didn't share nearly the same amount of excitement, but still had a smile on his face. "Yeah, it's pretty cool! This would actually be super useful, actually!" he said. He turned to Light. "Hey, Dr. Light! Is it okay if you share this with The Driller Commune? I imagine we could do a lot of good with this!"

[ ] Of course! You'd already planned on it in fact. [Give generator schematics to the driller commune.]

[ ] …I'm not sure. Maybe. [Don't give them the schematics, but will unlock an option to do so.]

[ ] …I think I'll just build them some machines, instead. [Don't give the commune the schematics, but will unlock an option to build machines to give to them.]

[ ] … Sorry, but no. [Don't give them schematics. Send Suzumu home disappointed.]



It took two hours before the last of the fluid had been pumped out of the tunnel. Roll had ended up going back to retrieve another pump to make sure to speed up the process and Suzumu had left to get back to his own group. What Light found was interesting. This tunnel was almost perfectly clean- it went from brick stone and packed dirt to what looked to be metal chrome, though it'd been heavily corroded by the chemicals. The tunnel was just large enough for his machine to fit, but if he got into any fights he would be in trouble.

There were some arguments about who was to go first and in the end it was Roll that was chosen- not only because of her more advanced scanning systems, but she would be much more maneuverable compared to how cramped the machine would be. Light didn't like it, but was appeased when she told him that she'd make sure to stay close.

So down they went. The clock on the device read they had been walking for a good 30 minutes before they came to a door. They were confronted by a logo of a green amoeba with three dots connected by lines on the door, along with what looked like a damaged keypad. Metpharm. This was a Metpharm facility. Light was put on edge, something that even Roll could feel.

"What do you think Metpharm was doing down here?" She asked.

"Nothing good." Light answered.

"...Should we try and investigate?" Roll asked, stepping over to the keypad to investigate.

[ ] "...Yes." [Begins Mission - Stage 1-1: Metpharm Labs.]

[ ] "...Perhaps Later." [Unlocks option for the Metpharm Labs Expedition. You'll still close this area off so people don't wander in.]

[ ] "...No." [Some secrets are better left buried. Closes off the area permanently.]



GM's Note
I Live!

I did update the rules a little and added a whole section for bioroid creation you guys can check out above. I also gave Light an extra personal action to use and buffed his and Roll's character sheets, as well as added the item called The Donner Wels Machine, which affects the stats of whoever uses it. I changed the critical rules to be a little less ridiculous, as well. Other than that it's a bunch of little stuff. A few minor tweaks here and there to make more sense, that sort of thing.

As for the update itself... I still think I suck at character interactions. They feel pretty stilted to me, but maybe that's just me. I hope you guys enjoy it and sorry for the wait!

The vote closes in 24 hours. Let's say an moratorium's an hour.
 
Mission 1: Stage 1-1 - Metpharm Labs [Entrance]
"...Yes. It would be best for us to take care of this now, before anyone gets hurt." Light sighed.

Roll nodded her head and began to crack into the keypad. It didn't take her long at all before the door slid open, revealing the dark hallway within. The corridor was partially lit up by glowing pink moss and what appeared to be some kind of similarly glowing mushroom growth. The moss seemed to cover the entire area, blanketing the area and making it look like grassy patches were taking over the sterile white and green color palette of the laboratory inside. There were strange masses covered in moss as well, but it was too dark to see.

As they stepped into the corridor - Dr. Light having asked to go first - the light shined from the Donner Wels to better illuminate the area and the masses.

The masses were bodies. The mossy growth seemed to partially or fully overtake the corpses, where mushrooms started to sprout through the ratty doctors coats the corpses were wearing. They looked as if they had died before the moss got to them, puncture wounds all over their corpses, with much of the mushroom growths sprouting out from those same wounds. Light shivered, thankful he was currently remote piloting a machine.

"Roll, stay close. Whatever is in here is likely very dangerous." Light warned, "and don't touch those mushrooms!" he said, Roll's finger jerking away from the mushroom she was trying to poke at.

"What do you think happened here, father?" Roll asked him, warily stepping over a fallen corpse in her way. "These people looked like they died before all this stuff got to them."

Light hummed, his voice crackling through the speaker. "Nothing good. I'll admit to not being all that familiar with Metpharm, beyond their achievements in medicine and genetic enhancements. I thought they did good work… but that was before Albert and the rest of the city…" Light said, his voice trailing off.

"Whatever they're doing now is unethical and highly immoral. I hope I'm wrong about this, but I imagine they're responsible for our home's previous state. I thought about doing something similar myself a while back by breaking everything further to keep us hidden." Light guessed. "I just chose to make the Network 48 more livable and reintroduce it to the underground's inhabitants. It might be that I wasn't the only one with that idea."

Eventually they came to a large open area that branched off into three directions. There was a desk alongside one of the walls, on it was a smashed computer and a corpse sitting at the console, his head having a puncture wound dead center of his skull- mushroom growths sprouting out of the wound, his eyes and his mouth. It looked like he died screaming. Roll gave the corpse a wide berth, hiding behind the bulk of the machine slightly before a glint of a map caught her attention.

There was a map on one of the walls, though it was partially covered in moss. This seemed to be the main entrance. To the middle was the elevator down to the labs on the second floor as well as what looked to be the maintenance area tucked away in the far right corner, along with a bunch of meeting rooms. To the left was something called Containment and Processing, as well as Chemical Storage. The right wing seemed to have both the Security wing as well as personnel locker rooms and the common area.

"Hmm…" Light pondered. "If we want to learn anything from the computers in this place we'll need to find the power. That'll probably be in the maintenance area. It looks like there's also stairs here, so we can head down without it. We also need to be careful of whatever is still here, because I imagine nothing has escaped since the entrance was flooded. The longer we spend in this place the more likely we'll be noticed." Light said, grimacing. "I imagine whatever it is will be in the labs. It's just a feeling I have."

Roll nodded, smiling. "Well, whatever it is, we can handle it together!" she said, pumping her fist in the air. "So, which way should we go first?"

[ ] Head Left to Containment and Processing and Chemical Storage.
[ ] Head Right to the Personnel and the Security Wing.
[ ] Head Down to the Labs.
[ ] Head to Maintenance.
[ ] Check out the Desk.



Not a big update, but we're zooming in now so these will be pretty quick. Let's say 1 hour moratorium and the voting ends in 24 hours.
 
Mission 1: Stage 1-1 - Metpharm Labs [Hallway]
Light hummed. "I think we should go right. The personnel and the security wing are this way." he decided. Roll cocked her head. "Not the labs or maintenance?" she asked.

"...No. While I don't think we'll be able to find anybody alive down here, we can hope." he explained, beginning to step down the hallway towards the security wing. "Moreover, heading this way means we might come across a security or personnel keycard that we can use for the future. Hopefully."

"What if we come across an electronic door? We wouldn't be able to get into it." Roll asked.

"I'm sure we'll figure something out. If we have to, we can break into it with the Donner Wels." Light said, shifting the machine. "Now come along, Roll. I don't want us to split up."

"Ah! Wait a moment, why don't we check the desk first?" Roll said, rushing over to the desk.

Searching the Desk: 1d100 [97] + 10 = 107

"Uh… Doctor Light?" Roll said after a moment. "You may want to come look at this. The body… It's moving. Sort of. It's like it's on low power mode, or something."

Light moved over, concerned. Indeed. It was breathing, if only slightly. No life signs. That… wait. He saw it. The spike in his head. On closer inspection it looked like some kind of giant cactus needle covered in something fleshy, but it was pulsating with a soft pink glow. An infection, maybe? That would make this a drone. Infected via puncture wounds, even. Light didn't know what kind of creature could do that but Metpharm clearly found a way. A cactus needle, though? It looked like it was fired from something and to his memory he couldn't remember any kind of plant that did that sort of thing. Wait, wasn't there a creature from the outlands that did that…?

Agh. He couldn't remember. The more worrisome part of this was how it sensed things. The growths covered both its ears and its eyes. It… no, it's nostrils. It can smell. They weren't triggered likely because neither he or Roll were currently organic. Could they have lucked out that much? No, maybe there was another factor he was missing. Maybe another creature acted as a control mechanism? A sort of Hive Queen or Robot Master type deal?

Still…

"Good work for noticing that, Roll. We should be a little more careful not to wake them further from now on." Light said, using the machine to give her a thumbs up.

"Look, Dr. Light! There's more!" Roll whispered, shifting behind the desk. His breath caught at just how close she was to that… thing. She came out with some kind of handgun. After walking her through on how to check it, they found it to be loaded with some kind of incendiary rounds. A single round was missing from the magazine. Whatever that creature was was weak to fire, then? Or maybe it was just a last resort that failed. His own personal dislike of firearms warred with his desire to keep his daughter safe before he sighed and told her to arm herself with it.

"And be careful! That isn't a toy." He told her. She nodded. At least it was a ranged option. That drill and pump that the drillers had could be used as an effective weapon and his work in the tunnels had proven it, but he doubted it would be effective against whatever was down here. Light sighed. He wasn't expecting to step into a horror movie today. Hopefully he and his daughter fared better than those poor souls usually did.

The two quietly made their trek down the hall, this time with their weapons ready. They avoided stepping too close to the drones in fear of waking them and made their way down to the hall. The hall was carnage. It looked as if several scientists and security officers tried to flee down the hallway but were caught, pulled back and slaughtered. Moss covered bullet holes and what looked like scorch marks. What's worse was that there weren't only human bodies, either. Strange mushroom creatures that looked somewhat like the images of those mushroom people that lived further down in the pipeworks, but… wrong. They were sickly pink with distended heads covered in cactus spines and moss. There was also what looked like some sort of quadrupedal creature entirely made out of neon pink meat that was incredibly discomforting to look at. It was like a dog stripped of its skin, fur and bone, except the muscle and tendons were wrong and bent in the wrong places. It didn't have any eyes he could see, either.

"...What happened here?" Roll asked, horrified.

"The folly of man, I suppose." Light smiled, grimly. "I didn't think Metpharm was this far gone." He whispered, mostly to himself.

Then again, he didn't think Albert could blow him out of a window inside his own lab, either, could he? Was he just blind? Was everyone like this and he just tried to believe otherwise? He shook himself out of those thoughts. He needed to focus. The fighting seemed worse the further they went towards the security wing. Strangely, not nearly as much fighting could be seen heading from the personnel room. Was it because that's where those monsters came from? He didn't know.

"W-which way do we go, Dr. Light?" Roll asked.

Direction?
[ ] The Security Wing
[ ] The Personnel Wing
[ ] Head Somewhere Else
-[ ] Where?

Do you search the bodies? (This does include poking at the creatures.)

[ ] Yes.
[ ] No.



Man it's fun when you miss both of your own deadlines you set. So, I did end up rewriting this a little (the original had you go straight to the Personnel Wing and I didn't like it so much). As such, because I made another search roll in the personnel room, you guys have another 97 waiting in the wings for next roll, which you can use whenever. Hopefully this new version flows a little better.

There will be a 1 hour moratorium and voting ends in 24 hours.
 
Mission 1: Stage 1-1 - Metpharm Labs [Security Wing - Entrance]
"...The security wing. I still feel we'll find something useful in there." Light said. "Be careful not to touch the bodies, Roll. We don't know if they'll wake up and attack us or not."

Roll nodded her head. The two moved down the hallway, Light taking the front and Roll hanging back, her pistol readied. As the two went further down the hallway the fighting seemed to get worse, finding more and more of the moss covered bodies sprawled on the floor, bullet holes and needle spines embedded into the walls and even the body armor of a few of the corpses. One of them seemed like they were even shot in the back, possibly by accident.

Eventually, they made it to the security wing. Inside was a similar massacre. There was a pile of bodies in front of the barrier to the armory, as if they were trying to get inside and were fought off by the surviving security personnel. From what Light could see, they were able to fend them off successfully, as there was no breach in the door or the reinforced glass beyond a few cracks. He peered down inside the opening and found more bodies- this time of the security officers. The vents behind them were open, with one of the bodies hanging out of it. Pink moss covered the walls near the vents, as well as the bodies inside.

…The creatures came through the vents, then. Whatever they were attacked them while they were distracted. That would mean whatever ordered them around was pretty clever, enough to plan this out at least. It likely they even turned out the lights first and then attacked security, leaving the facility at whatever mercy it had in store for the survivors. They'd have to check the maintenance room to confirm that theory, though.

Light didn't see a way into the armory beyond the door and the slots in the front. It was also powered off. They could probably break through the door with Donner Wels, but the noise or at least the vibrations or whatever it was that they were triggered by would certainly wake the monsters. At least, the ones that weren't assuredly dead. He wasn't going to stop to count, since all of them were reading dead to his sensors.

Outside of the armory, there was a door to the locker rooms that were also covered with bodies, likely forced out by whomever wasn't lucky enough to make it into the armory area. The rest of the room was in disarray. There were tables and chairs thrown about, damaged vending machines and what looked like another room that read 'Security Feed' that was almost glowing pink from all the built up moss and some kind of growth was expanding from the doorframe. They weren't getting anything out of that. It looked like it was about to explode if something touched it.

Light hummed. The locker room or the armory. He turned to Roll.

"What do you think we should do? It doesn't look like we can get into the armory since everything is powered off, but if we do that we're almost certainly going to wake something up." He asked.

Roll seemed to think about it. "We'd likely have to fight either way. If I were locked in that locker room and monsters were trying to get in, I'd block the door using some lockers. But those monsters likely found another way through the vents, so I doubt there's any survivors. I could probably force it open, but the monsters inside could wake up." she said.

"I'm a little frustrated, though." she huffed. "If this was a testing facility like we presume it was, there should be a backup generator, especially for something as important as the security wing. Why isn't that running?"

"I doubt it would be any easier, Roll. We'd still need a keycard or something to get through. We don't know how long this facility has been down here, either. The backup could be all tapped out. Or the backup could have been tampered with. Whatever controlled these drones seems pretty clever." Light explained.

"Hrm." She pouted, before sighing. "Well, anyway. Most of these guys were shot dead. There probably won't be that many waking up if we do make some noise. We might not be able to close the entryway into the wing but as long as we don't use a gun we might not draw any more attention."

Light hummed and looked at the opening slots of the armory. It was large enough for people to fire through and still be protected by the hardened glass. It seemed large enough for Roll to slip through, but that would mean having to ditch the bulky Driller suit she wore and he didn't know how dangerous that would be. They would certainly have a security key in there and probably more weapons… but Light didn't like the risk.

But then again, staying in this facility too long was a risk as well, wasn't it?

[ ] Head to the Locker Rooms.
[ ] Break through the Armory Doors with Donner Wels
[ ] Have Roll slip through the opening slots of the Armory

[ ] Head somewhere else?
- [ ] Personnel Wing, Front Desk, Containment and Processing, Maintenance, Stairway, or Leave the Facility.



Surprise post! I managed to take some time and get it out immediately. I know we've just started and these are also going to be short since we're going from room to room but I'm wondering what you all think of them so far. Too slow? Anything to improve? I kind of like the slow-paced dungeon crawler vibe and it also goes well with the exploration/mystery deal that comes from what I see as the pipeworks part of the setting (mystery and exploration), but there's some part of me thinks interludes should be nice and snappy and laid out more like a traditional Mega Man or arcade style mission type deals.

Anyway, Moratorium is in 30 minutes and voting ends in about 12 hours.
 
Mission 1: Stage 1-1 - Metpharm Labs [Armory]
It was actually a pretty difficult decision. Having Roll slip through the opening would be far quieter, but it would leave her alone and bereft of the protection from the Driller suit, even if it wasn't exactly made for this kind of situation. Wrecking the door would be far easier, but it would also certainly make enough noise to wake the drones. Or the vibrations from tearing through the door would, anyway. He wasn't quite sure what activated them beyond their olfactory senses, which were useless to them at this time.

"Alright, Roll. Get ready. I'm going to break through the door." He told Roll, who nodded and began to creep back to a position that would give her full view of the room. He pressed a few buttons on the controller, overclocking the bulky machine, rushing the door with a crash. The sound of tearing metal and breaking glass could be heard and he winced at the noise on instinct as the pink moss began to glow much brighter to an almost fluorescent hue and the drones began to move, their bones and muscles snapping and cracking as they rushed towards his machine.

Roll was the first to move, dashing through the first group with her drill and smashing through them, bowling over one of them and slamming the others into the walls with enough force that they gave an audible crack before they dropped and didn't move any further. The one that remained was immediately, almost ruthlessly executed with a drill jab while it was prone, its skull bursting pink gore onto the suit and its visor.

The creatures within the armory had awoken as well, but Light was slightly faster than they were. He wasted no time crashing into them, using the momentum from before to smash a few into the wall, crushing them between the wall and his machine, causing bone and long unused muscle to snap and pop. A thin spider's web of cracks could be seen where they impacted the wall, leaking pink fluid. The survivors he'd missed in his charge had managed to clamber onto his machine and began beating on it, but didn't do much at all in the way of damage. It all ended when Roll, having finished her fight, quickly leapt into action and used her drill to finish them off, the drill tearing through them with little resistance.

"Dr. Light! Are you alright?" Roll asked, panic in her voice.

"I- I'm alright, Roll. Just a little… shaken at the moment." he told her, using the machine to give her an awkward pat on the shoulder.

"What about you? These were people at one point. Are you…?" Light asked. His daughter huffed.

"More angry at whatever did this. I…" she started, looking down at her bloody drill. It was covered in pink gore. "...don't like killing people, even if it's just zombies who only used to be people. But even you said it yourself. The underground is dangerous. I won't always get to choose." She exhaled. "That doesn't mean I won't try diplomacy first, though. I think we'll be surprised at who might listen down here." she smiled.

She looked around. "Well... diplomacy with something that has the intelligence to converse with. That also isn't taking people over as drones. Hmm…" she hummed. "...This may be harder than I thought."

Light chuckled. "Don't worry. You're doing great." 'Better than me, in any case.' he thought to himself, solemnly.

All was quiet within the armory, and even the moss started to dim. They might have dodged waking up whatever intelligence was guiding these drones. It was good to know that loud enough noises did indeed wake them, even if it was more likely the vibrations that came with them. They went down pretty easily, too. Though that might just be because both of them were made of metal. They seemed to beeline straight for whatever made the noise, so they likely didn't, or couldn't, smell the two.

Light couldn't hear any banging from the locker room, so it was likely they were far enough away to manage not waking the other drones.

Before he could say anything, Roll bounced forward towards the armory doors. "Goodies!" she exclaimed, wrenching the door open and rushing in. Light was a little too big in his machine to really fit inside but tried to get a better look anyway. He shook his head with a smile.

Roll was currently trying to open the case to what looked like the precursor to the Driller Suit, an old armored MOPP suit that the military used back on Earth, though a little more advanced. It was heavier than the driller suit, but offered more protection. There were a few modern gadgets attached to it as well. With it was what looked like some kind of rifle that he recognized from the ships he fled from Earth in by the Telstar icon on the side, but he wasn't a gun nut and couldn't remember what it was called.

Eventually Roll managed to pry it open and get inside, quickly trading in her old suit for the new one. It looked a little big on her, but she seemed to take it in stride, holstering her handgun and securing the drill and pump around her waist. She slung the rifle over her back, giving Light a happy thumbs up that made him smile before going deeper within the armory.

She returned a little while later a little less happy, gripping what looked like a datapad and a couple of grenades, along with what looked like a keycard wrapped around her hand.

"Roll? What happened?" Light asked, concerned.

"...I managed to get one of the doors open and found a body. They looked like they were shot from behind, judging by the bullet wound on the back of the head." she explained, handing over the datapad before beginning to move out. He looked at Roll, before looking back at the datapad. Most of it was just back and forth messages from staff and other people. He opened the last message.

"K.

If you're reading this, you'll find that stuff you're looking for when you go grab a cola. It shouldn't be too hard. As for me? I'm leaving. This job was already stressful enough and that was before that asshole took charge and decided to play god with his little prophecy child. Apparently whatever was going on down in Site Alpha wasn't good enough for him. Wanted to make his own version. Well, good fucking luck to him.

I didn't survive Earth only to deal with more fucking aliens. If the bigwigs find out about what's going on in this place we're all fucked. Especially if they take a look at Containment and Processing. That's if 'Experiment 08' doesn't kill us first. I've seen the way it acts. It waits and watches for people to fuck up before it nabs 'em. The fact that we've got to feed it several bodies a day is worse. Had to spin up some kind of treasure story about Tunnel 48 to get more poor bastards down here to feed it. After we destroyed the place trying to keep it secret.

The hell does he get off using a Cactuar, anyway? Fucker's are mean and turn whatever they see move into pincushions. Smart little assholes, too. Adding onto whatever alien DNA they're using is asking for bad news. Human DNA, too. Dumbasses. I'm catching a ride with Trioptimum up to Citadel Station. Apparently they want my knowledge on those old school reactors. Better than this hellhole. Least I won't be turned into fodder or experimented on.

Look man. You should bug out too. I left you my keycard in my locker. The combi's 0451. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm taking this chance while everyone is busy and getting the hell out of here.


M. "

Light looked down at the Keycard.

Marc Steinberg, Level 5 Security Access Card.

Well, that was the security card handled. It looked like this K. individual was shot from behind shortly after he got the message. Was it in the middle of the attack or before that? More information about the threat he was facing, too. It didn't bode well. But they were better armored, now. Those grenades could come in useful, too. Light wondered what they meant by 'grab a cola.' The vending machines here were broken and none of them appeared to be selling any kind of cola. There wasn't even a Nuka Cola machine, which he saw pretty much everywhere these days.

"Roll?" Light asked. She shrugged her head.

"...I'll be fine. We normally see the aftermath of those biomonster nests AND we've been trudging through corpses for about an hour. Just wasn't expecting to see somebody's body stuffed away in some nook after they were shot. They didn't take the keycard either, so it was probably personal, or something." She patted her cheeks, or rather the visor. "Ah well, we can deal with it later. For now, exploration!" she announced, pushing forward.

Light hummed, concerned. Or they didn't need it. It sounded like that new scientist in charge was a problem. He sighed. In the end she was right. They could talk about it later… though he might have to force the issue if she didn't bring it up herself. The mission was exploring this place and finding what happened here and it was quickly turning into "- and also deal with the monster in the basement, too". They were better equipped now, at least. The question was, did they try to head to the lockers next or did they go somewhere else?

[ ] The lockers are here. We may as well finish off the Security Wing.
[ ] Head Somewhere Else
--[ ] Personnel Wing, Front Desk, Containment and Processing, Maintenance, Stairway, or Leave the Facility.

You've gained: 3 Grenades [Each one is 5 Damage on a Successful Attack], A slightly too big Old Earth Armored MOPP Suit [-10 to Enemy Martial Rolls], A Telstar Marksman [Allows for Ranged Martial Attacks, +5 Martial], a Level 5 Access Card and a lot of bad feelings.



Alright! Next post is done. You guys have used the 97, which means you gain grenades and a keycard (along with some lore and a hint for another secret somewhere else). Roll did very well on the combat rolls. Ended her fight on Round 1 and came in with the steel chair drill on Light's Round 2. I think I've finally gotten into a rhythm to work on these posts, so they should start coming out a little faster. I think I'm gonna make this voting round 24 hours like usual, though.

Moratorium is 30 minutes. Voting ends in 24 hours.
 
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