Tump nods. "Fine by me, but it's up to El Hefe here. This is his roller coaster ride."

"If you're vouchin' fer the lady, that's fine by me then".

Django extends a hand in Inarra's direction. "Django Blint, Tracker of the Core Marshalls. Pleased t' meet'cha".

Inarra goes a bit white.  She looks at Tump with incredulity written plain across her face.  Then, in a supreme effort of will, she masters herself and takes Django's hand.  "Inarra, of the Sabersplice relic hunters.  Thanks for letting me tag along.  I won't get in the way of your...hunt."

"Well, if by vouching you mean, won't shoot you in the back." He gives Inarra a wink. "Then yeah, she's good."

"How's the job out here coming?"

When Inarra's attention is back on Tump, Django fights to keep his bearing and suppresses the corner of his mouth from forming smirk.

"We're at an impasse.  Something is actively jamming our communication below underlevel 10.  That's why I'm wanting to go down with you.  I want to look around in a more unorthodox manner than the team is willing to do to see if I can find the source of what's jamming us."  She pulls out a fancy looking sensor device.  "I don't think it's targeting Sabersplice specifically, or really even Ant Hill Ease.  Whatever this is, it's passive, but it covers the whole ruins."

She leans in and whispers her next words with a glance at the sky.  "I would lay even odds that Vexember'll have a hard time hearing what goes on through the screen."

Tump raises an eyebrow. "What exactly do you mean by unorthodox? Besides, if whatever is jamming communications over some as large as the ruins, you can bet there'll be countermeasures to protect it."

"What kinda counter-measures you reckon? We talking yer standard trip mines and other stuff what goes boom".
This message was last edited by the player at 01:33, Wed 23 Nov 2016.

"Something like that wouldn't surprise me, but I've seen others that can be a bit more debilitating over time. Like long term stasis fields. The can keep ya stunned long enough for the environment to pick ya off."

Inarra taps her foot while the two of you talk.  Finally, she rolls her eyes.  "Are we going or not?  Talk on the way.  Men!"  She strides off ahead, her short legs somehow managing to eat up the ground anyway.

Tump looks over to Djano, then back to Inarra. "Women...", he says under his breath.

He taps the slugthrower on his hip. "You know, one little tranq and problem solved. No?" He chuckles.

"Alright... let's go then."

As Django steps off he mutters to Tump "I don't thank tri-clorix rounds gone simmer that one down". Letting his two "guides" lead the way, he remains in the back of the group as they begin their initial steps down.

Ultimately, Inarra lets Tump take the lead since this is technically not her descent.  Her main purpose was to get the two of you motivated.

After Django describes the location where the explosion blocked the halls and where he ascended being chased by the serrataraptors, Tump is able to triangulate a couple of possible routes.  Looking at the known areas of the enormous building, what used to be the top floors, it appears that the Voidchasers should have made it out already.  It leaves only one conclusion...

...something has happened to them.

About two hours into the search, there is kind of an explanation.  The scenes of a recent battle against a mid-sized denizen are evident in a larger arboretum.  The sanctuary is out on a terrace that would have been out in the open air and sun in ancient times.  Now it hangs in darkness out over a 6km drop to almost certain death.

In the center of the arboretum is a vast hole, large enough to drive a transport truck through.  However, it's not just an empty drop.  It looks like some thought went into the explosions that cause it because only three sides of the platform detached.  The fourth remains intact, though it twisted the back portion of the platform up.  The missing floor forms a ramp down to a narrow balcony four floors below.  A door is missing, blown inward.  There are no bodies.

The most concerning thing is, whatever they were fighting, it would have been too big to go through that door and might still be around, hiding.

"Down it is, I suppose. Lest we want to find out what the others were fighting."  He looks around for any sign of movement. "Inarra, this path ought to put us well below 10. Keep your eyes peeled for whatever it is you're looking for."

Tump descends cautiously.

Django waits for Innara to descend after Tump, as he cautiously begins down after her. He draws both six shooters, and takes careful and deliberate steps to minimize the sound he makes, so as to better hear his surroundings.

At the bottom of the ramp, there is a pool of blood.  Any human that shed that much would not just be dead, they'd be a mummified corpse.  The blood most likely came from the beast.  That leaves two options:  it's dead, or its really, really angry.

The small hole in the door is completely dark.  It is impossible to see what lies beyond without focusing gear or tossing in a light.

Django holsters his pistols and produces his bullseye lantern, and using his fusion igniter, lights the lantern and adjust the hood to produce a forward beam towards the hole.

Something moves in the light on the far side of a large room.  It's furry and about the size of a multi-person transport.

Django over looks at Tump. "Uhhh... after you?" he says, rapidly retrieving a pistol for his main hand.

Tump lowers his visor and switches it to low-light mode, then slowly draws his weapon. "But look at how fluffy it is. It can't be that bad, right? A huge, fluffy, angry, critter the size of my apartment."

Inarra ignores the two of you and starts off around the open-air walkway around the side of the building.  It has a chest high rail to keep people from falling, but there are wide gaps all along it as far as the lantern light carries.  She has her sensor device out and doesn't seem to be paying any mind to anything else.

"You two go play with your new pet.  I'm going to check this out."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:39, Thu 24 Nov 2016.

Django, still looking at Tump: "I thank the lady is on t' somethin' a bit more preferable. I'd rather not tangle with fuzzy armored cars if I can help it".

"Lucky for us, it doesn't feel like playing right now." He keeps his weapon trained on the furry critters, but shifts more of his attention in the direction Inarra is going.

"Slow it down a bit would ya? This ain't a race. Running around with yer nose buried in that thing is a good way to set off traps."

Inarra continues until she gets to a large hole in the wall which leads into the interior of the building.  "I've got it!"

At that moment, a large rodent - right at the gaping hole - opens its mouth wide enough to swallow Inarra and screeches.  [Fort. DC 15 or be shaken for 1d4 rounds, automatic loss of initiative. (-2 on all rolls).]

Inarra opens her mouth, but if she screams, it cannot be heard over the rodent.  She has dropped her device on the ledge and both her hands are over her ears.

Whether she screams or not becomes irrelevant as the beast's head explodes in a horrific fashion.
"What the..." Ronan Bunderslaw's curse is muted by the falling of the beast's carcass.  "... are you people doing out here?"  Ronan put a modified, yet surprisingly small grenade launcher back beneath his jacket.
"Those things a a pain to take down,"  Ronan said.  "I've run into them before and frankly small caliber doesn't do the job.  Modified armor piercing grenade launcher.  Doesn't explode until the narrowed polymer shell penetrates it's target.  Then kaboom!," he said as he made a gesture with his hand designed to imply an explosion.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:07, Fri 25 Nov 2016.