In the big console room holo-display, the travellers can see faint bluish light from the white dwarf star, spilling over the rocky, scarred contours of the airless world where the TARDIS has traced the Mailman's capsule.  Contemporary star catalogs give it the designation 185224-995482, not even tagged with a name.

The TARDIS scanners have constructed a map of the territory around the jump capsule's destination.  There is an array of structures there, in an eerie mix of styles.  Parts of it look to Trav and to Sereth like the typical blocky buildings and domes of a mining outpost, and Trav has seen setups like this before.  This body would have been within the star's corona during its red giant phase, and the eons of nuclear fire blasting it would have have left the body rich in radioactive isotopes and heavy metals, worth an outpost in a dead system to exploit.  According to the sensors, most of the really dangerous material has decayed by now, so radiation is not particularly far above humanoid tolerance.

But the presumed mining camp has other alien geometric shapes interspersed throughout it, and all the structures are overshadowed by huge, curving pylons that tower over them like the feelers of a colossal insect or the rotted-out ribs of a titanic carcass.  The TARDIS instruments show that these pylons are titanium-cored polycarbide, interlaced with complex heavy metal circuitry: Trav interprets this to mean that they comprise an immense subspace antenna array.

The sensors are also showing substantial power output around and below the compound from multiple sources.  This background is making it difficult to pick out any life readings.  Trav can tell, however, that some portions of the facility hold a breathable atmosphere and some are in near-vacuum.

According to the TARDIS, there are also a variety of powerful active scans being made from the outpost, up and down the electromagnetic spectrum.

Smoke Alarm outlooked up at the holo-picture-spout, eyespying the new world. All around was a garden of bleak grey rocks under a teeny white star. Short, yawny hosues and domes sat amidst huge curving pylons, tall as towers. It outlooked like a ginormous cleaner's claw had burst out of the floor and grabbed a village and was slowly crushing it to bits. It was a lights-out, yawny, hazardous, dead place. Smoke chewed her lip in unboldness. 'I don't like it. Mayhaps we should be outgoing.'

The TARDIS floats behind an asteroid, hidden.

The Traveller has powered down the TARDIS. The lights are down, and even the fishies are absent, lending the control room an undersea air, shadows of green and blue playing off of faces and objects, with light coming up off of the TARDIS control panel.

In response to Smoke's comments, Trav opines - "I'll drop you off if you want, that goes for anyone. But if this Mailmain wanted the remains of a Time Lord, he or she is dangerous. I need to get to the bottom of this. So, if you want out, let me know know." Using visual sighting and passive sensors, Trav takes a look at the various architectural styles used in the outpost, examines the spectra of the scans, and also looks at the local manifestations of artron energy and the Time Vortex. If these people are time travellers, she should be able to tell. Trav has instructed Chibi to go into infowar defense mode, preserving the integrity of the data systems.

OOC: Maybe Perception+Science+Research Capsule? The TARDIS may have a better perception than me - I only have a two! Maybe I need to start wearing the glasses again ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 03:41, Mon 08 Sept 2014.

Smoke Alarm shook her head and blue locks, a small smile on her face to hide her unbraveness. 'Uh-uh. Didn't say I wanted to be outgoing. I'm not letting you outgo alonesome.'

OOC: Yes, that sounds good.  I'm calling this a Difficult roll.

Trav smiles warmly to Smoke. "If you're around then I should have no reason to be a scaredy-cat. Now, let's see what we have here." She looks over the flat screens and holos.

15:18, Today: The Traveller rolled 18 using 2d6+11 with rolls of 4,3. TARDIS sensors - TARDIS Awareness 3+Science 6+Research Capsule 2.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:26, Mon 08 Sept 2014.

After studying the readings for some time, Trav can't find any evidence that she'd call a smoking gun for temporal capability.  The ambient power emissions are making it very hard to rule that out with certainty.

She really doesn't like the look of those pylons, however.  She doesn't recognize the design straight out.  However, their internal power routings look like they would allow some dynamic reconfiguration and they show a disturbing amount of sophistication: well beyond local tech levels, and quite at odds with the off-the-shelf jump capsule.  In all likelihood, the capsule was meant to deceive the "Mailman's" casual contacts as to his, her, its or their capabilities.

Trav blows a lock of blonde hair out of her eyes. Every instinct in her screams trap. Of course, those are the best kinds to go into.

She works to find the area least blanked by radiation. "I'd love to get a map, but if I actively scan, then that will probably alert them to the fact that we're here. I want to talk to this Mailman jerk. I'm fine with striding into the middle of the place, but I want to make sure that all of you and Sweet Boy is safe. Ideas? I could just drop us in the middle of the place, but it reminds me of a cage."

She points to a spot on the map, one deep inside the complex, but where radiation emissions should be easy to cloak a TARDIS entry. "I could just drop here, and we could walk around the place and look around. I sure as hell want to get a closer look at those pylons."

OOC: There may be safer places to go, but Trav wants to get a closer look at those Pylons. We can also argue that simply being here is an expression of Trav's Insatiable Curiosity and Impulsive traits. Only at her Companions urging did she not throw the lever down!
This message was last edited by the player at 03:50, Tue 09 Sept 2014.

"We are almost certainly going to be discovered. If we don't land in the middle but somewhere out of the way, it is going to take longer for them to find us. That's good, it gives us time to look around and gather information. I also think that having time to look around is going to be important in how the Mailman is going to deal with us. We could have placed bugs or explosives or something. The Mailman would be very interested in how we got here and what we did or saw in that time."

"Not quite. If we land somewhere out of the way, we have to move to find anywhere; and no information is going to be that easily found out of the way. The greater the risk of discovery, the more likely we are to find something useful."

The Draconian shook his head, and frowned thoughtfully.

"It's not so much whether we get discovered, it's how the Mailman reacts." A snort. "What kind of name is 'the Mailman' anyway?"

'So long as we can track back to the talkiphone box, we won't get caught in a mouse-trap. It's our peasy-easy fire-escape.' Smoke said, ever confident in the power of the talkiphone box. 'Anyhow, the Mailman is probly not expecting visitors all the ways here-out, so mayhaps won't be setting lots of mouse-traps or picture-takers or taking peoples to the cleaners. No need to eyespy the unoccupied apartments. We can make an unseen in-way and outlook first.'

She jabbed a finger at the screen, pointing to an innocuous and dilapidated side-building of the old mining camp. 'I think if we appear the talkiphone box here, we can make it our brainquarters, and start making unseen in-ways to other buildings to outlook and eyespy before we're eyespied. We can get some knowhow of these little buildings and the plans of the place before we outgo to these towers.' It was a Kangly plan, or a rat's plan: find a safe place, control it, then scurry back and forth between neighbouring places to learn the lay of the land, starting with what was familiar before growing bold enough to explore what was strange. It was time consuming, but safe. 'Ah, what Stan said.'

OOC: Some notes relevant to Smoke Alarm's strategy:

Some of the buildings have connecting passages between them and some do not; as noted earlier, it looks like some are disused and aren't having an atmosphere maintained in them.  The pylons in particular are separated from the heart of the base.  You can stick to safe areas or make trips in vacuum.  In the latter case Trav has basic space suits on board.  Normal space suit use doesn't take any rolls but if you need to try something fancy that may be Ingenuity + Technology or Coordination + Technology.

I mentioned radiation above and you should figure that the danger from that is negligible unless you get stuck in it for days.  Space suits would protect you as well.  Gravity is low but present -- you can ignore that unless you start doing some climbing, which would be both easier and more awkward.

If you're not all going to stay together, let me know how you'd be splitting up; also, if a given group is looking for particular things.

Rather than doing a step by step dungeon crawl, everybody can make some sort of roll to gather information, and that can be skill focused (e.g. Awareness + Science, Awareness + Technology, Awareness + Knowledge) or generalized "outlooking" (Awareness + Ingenuity).  If there's something particular you're looking to find out, let me know.

For every group, someone should make a roll for sneaking.  I'd figure this for Awareness + Subterfuge, since it mostly involves trying to watch for watchers rather than being quiet and hidden in this case.  Or you can make a case for a different roll, with an appropriate spin.

Trav nods. "Good as any then. Ok, we're going in!" She throws down the materialization lever!

As the travellers get a look around the interior of the outbuilding, they get a better picture of what they're dealing with.  There are a few pieces of machinery and electronic equipment within -- it looks like it may once have been a monitoring station -- but these look as if they're half-disassembled.  Contrariwise, the walls, floor and ceiling are festooned with snaking cables, metal panels and small component clusters that appear to have been placed almost at random, and all humming with power.  It's almost like a dilapidated cottage with its furnishings gone to rot, and its surfaces overgrown with mold and fungus and creepers, only rendered in mechanical growth rather than living flora.

There is an atmosphere in here, airlock hatches to the outside, and a hatchway leading toward the more closely clustered structures.

Trav is out first. "What a dump." Walking around like she owns the place.

She takes a clear look around, while giving everything a pass with the sonic. "Let's see what's interesting."

'Outlooks like home-sweet-home.' Smoke Alarm said, without sarcasm or affection, reminded of all the scrap and rubbish that got dumped in Fountain of Happiness Square. Mess wasn't something to be unbrave of; one could lose-and-find and recycle almost anything in a good dump. 'It's all intresting to someone.'

The Kang outlooked around the mechinery and puters, occasionally pocketing things, hunting and scavenging for anything that didn't belong. Like the cables and whatsits added all over the place. It had all come apart, but they didn't all go back together. She followed the maze of cables and gadgets, trying to eyespy the purpose of it. Someone was trying to fix up more than a broke Fizz-Ade dispenser.


OOC:
10:50, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 15 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 5,3. awareness(4) + technology(1) + keen senses(2).

As Smoke Alarm pokes around the area, she starts to get a creepier and creepier feeling.  There are a lot of things she sees that she doesn't have the knowhowing of, but the similarity to Paradise Towers continues to grow on her, with one big difference.  Lots of the machines in the Towers had been broke-down and safe to ignore, so you only had to worry about Cleaners and things that you could see coming, but this room feels a lot like it's watching all the time.  Even though she can't identify actual spy-eyes around them, the feeling won't go away.

Trav's scan shows that the construction is nearly as haphazard as it looks.  She could probably spend hours and hours just deconstructing the functionality in this one room.  A lot of it is computational substrate for a deliberately decentralized system: there are sensor processing nodes without the sensors, power regulators running code for equipment that is nowhere in the vicinity, and the like.  The scan also indicates that there are nanobots in the room cannibalizing the building and the old machinery and laying down new electronics even now.  It's not taking place at a great rate of speed, but it's happening.

The whole thing has Trav nearly as edgy as Smoke Alarm.  She feels like she ought to recognize it, but she's seen so many things, it could be something she's long forgotten....

Trav is tapping her temples. "Damn it, old woman, this is familiar, familiar, familiar!" She's snapping her fingers. "Come on, middle aged brain!"

<OOC: How many SP would it cost to remember that fact?>

"Do you have any idea what those cables are for?" Stanley asks Trav. "And if we don't know what it is, isn't it dangerous for Smoke to poke around and steal stuff?"

OOC: Actually, I'm willing to give you one for Trav to continue not to remember it instead of rolling Ingenuity + Knowledge to figure it out.

A wry grin.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that."

Hunting around, reaching under puters and climbing on mechinery, Smoke grew increasingly alarmed. Her hazard sense was tingling, like bugs crawling on her skin. She couldn't see any picture-takers or spy-eyes, but that didn't mean there weren't any, only that they were well unseen. If the outdoors outlook of the mining base in the grip of the weird pylons had disturbed Smoke Alarm, then actually being inside was making her jumpier than a long-haired Kang in a room full of Rezzies in rocking chairs. Or something like that. Like when Power Point had dared her to go down to the Basement — long after the Great Architect had gone, but his evil remained, always eyespying, always hungry.

'I don't like the outlooks of this.' she muttered, returned to Traveller's side and unwilling to get lost-and-found in this place. 'I think mayhaps we're being eyespied... It's a cleaner's nest. 'Ware cleaners.' she warned the others, who were not Kangs and not wise to the ways of lights-out rooms like this.

While everyone works at puzzling out what to make of their surroundings, Trav is the first to notice that the power being routed through the area has increased.  Some of the junction boxes and components start to show yellow and red warning lights.

According to Trav's readings, the increased power isn't dangerous to those in the room, and there isn't a discernible pattern of systems engaging or powering up.  What it is doing is making stressed power lines and components emit soft buzzes and hums.  These sounds start to shift and oscillate, changing in pitch, frequency and volume.

<OOC: So that gives me 6 SP right now - highest Trav has ever had. I hope she doesn't need them.>

This was the worst time to get memory blockage."You're right, Smoke. Let's trot. Thattaway." Trav starts a brisk walk towards the north. "Our pal probably knows we're here. Let's not get split up."

This always happened when he tried to be sneaky. A shake of his head.

"If he knows we're here; why not wait for him to come get us, hmm?"

'Then he'll be outcoming to us, all ready-steady.' Smoke Alarm retorted to Sereth. 'But if we outgo to him, we'll be ready-steady and can eyespy his carrydoors.'

At Traveller's direction, Smoke Alarm scampered ahead to the wayhatch that led deeper into the complex, intending to take point or whatever the Kang equivalent was. She sniffed around the wayhatch (literally!), outlooked through the window, worked out how to open it before heading into the carrydoor beyond. 'Traveller, can you mayhaps break so it doesn't lock closed behind us?'


OOC: Taking point, scouting ahead.
14:47, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 17 using 2d6+9 with rolls of 3,5. awareness(4) + subterfuge(3) + keen senses(2).

Out past the hatchway, Smoke Alarm sees that the weird way that equipment is built up on the walls continues and is thicker down the long corridor that stretches off a long way ahead, until, she sees, it ends in a crossing "T" intersection.

Smoke Alarm can heard clacking noises echoing down the corridor, probably rebounding down from a long way away because she can't see any movement.  (She's reminded of the noises made by the spider-y cleaner living in the Tower back on New Vegas.)  There is sparse lighting ahead, placed randomly amid the construction, and the light is a harsh yellow color that turns orange and green if it hits her eyes in the wrong way.

The noises being generated around the travellers follow them as they move, continuing to change and shift with increasing speed.   They start to hear distinct tones and sounds taking shape.  Vowels.  Consonants.  Sibilants and fricatives.  They start to form whole syllables in a rasping whisper.  Finally everyone hears the voice being born from the walls around them hiss these words:

hhhhelp

mmeeeeee

Smoke Alarm sneaked down the carrydoor, quiet as a mouse, and getting increasingly tense and agitated. Brave and bold as a Kang should be. This was getting well weird. The puter parts and cables and wires seemed to grow along the walls like flowers and vines and creepers. And she the clickety-clackety of a spider-cleaner ahead. The Kang was reminded uncomfortably of the gardens and parks outside the Towers, growing wild and with dogs and cats hunting in the undergrowth. Her dog bite began to itch with the rememory. Could you get electricky gardens? Did puters and picture-takers grow from trees? Did cleaners prowl among them?

Then she started as the walls began to talk. Whatever they said, the Kang heard "Hungry!" The Great Architect!


OOC: I figured I should roll for courage: 16.
21:14, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 16 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 6,3. ingenuity(3) + resolve(2) + Brave(2).

Trav replies to Sereth - "Because I don't like waiting on people. This asshole wanted a piece of Gallifrey, he'd going to get one, but a lot more than he or she bargained for."

As Trav gets up to the hatch that Smoke indicates, she nods. She sonics it, looking for the locking mechanism and locking it shut. She's not destroying it, in case they do run into something that they want to slam a door behind.

OOC: Ingenuity+Tech+Sonic?

"Uhmm..." Stanley takes a step back, unsure how to react to the unnatural voice. Is it a type of trap or an alarm? If it is a trap then it is a pretty good one, because someone or something is clearly asking for help and Stanley can't just ignore that.

The voice comes from all around them, so he just turns towards the nearest wall and begins to talk loudly and clearly, hoping that that person would be able to hear him.

"Hello? Do you need help? What's the matter? Where are you? I am a doctor so I might be able to help you. Just tell us where you are?"

Even as Smoke Alarm hesitates, she remembers that they'd beat the Great Architect.  Because of the braveness of Pex, yes, but also through Blue Kangs and Red Kangs and Rezzies and even Caretakers all with their own sorts of braveness.  And with the Doctor who held them together.

She can almost hear the oldster with the funny-sad eyes talking in the back of her head as she thinks of it.

"Goodness, Smoke Alarm, being afraid's nothing to be frightened of!  Bravery with nothing to be afraid of is no sort of bravery at all.  No, a Kang could be perfectly safe and never feel afraid, if she stayed all the time in her brainquarters, but Smoke Alarm, that's not what a Kang is for."
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:23, Wed 17 Sept 2014.

OOC: That works.  Nothing is actively resisting you at this time, but you can make a target in case it becomes important.

"Ignore it!" The Draconian snaps.

"Someone's playing games. Taunting, misdirection. What do you do when you make your home base? You make sure it's defended. If you can't defend it with troops; you make the enemy think it is, or you make them think what is not true. This isn't his trap. This is his defence system."

There's a pause, as the ambient humming cuts out.  It comes back, and then the voice firms up a little, more coherent than before.

Doc. Tor.

...Doc-tor...?

Hhhurtss.

Hhhhelpmmee.

Down ahead.

Down to the cccccenterr of the cold and the sssharp.

Hhhhurrry.

Cant stop the signal.

"Sereth. We never ignore a cry for help, no matter the risk. Your warning is noted, however, please be our eyes." She aims the sonic in the direction of where the cry is coming, past Stan. "Yeah, a trap, maybe, but things get bad for trappers when I'm trapped. Also, I trust Stan's instincts."

OOC: Awareness+Tech+Sonic?

Trav's scan isn't too revealing: since the voice is being generated from the modulated manipulation of the electronics and machinery all around them, the effort is rather like to deduce the location of the brain's speech center from inside a person's larynx.  It's clear enough that the control signals are propagating from ahead of the group, but it will take moving ahead and perhaps working some triangulation to get a better idea.

OOC: You won't need a roll to do that; if you just want to follow the scan as you go, whoever is narrating that can just say so.

Brave and bold as a Kang should be. Smoke Alarm told herself, thinking of the Doctor's inspiration long tick-tocks ago. She would certainly never be unbrave of an unalive cleaner, nor unbold to be outgoing on. She made herself as strong and unbending as concrete and girders, but kept her unbraveness, to make her run faster and hear sharper. Brave and bold as a Kang could be.

Smoke Alarm pulled out her arrowgun, fitted a bolt, and started footing it down the carrydoor again, feeling bolder though not braver with the weapon in her hand. She'd give a cleaner cold and sharp.


OOC: I'm out at the zoo tomorrow and likely won't have a chance to post.

Trav on the other hand is quite fearless, doing a little trot as she tracks down the signal. She wants to find out what is generating it - partially out of concern if it is someone, and partially because she really wants to get to the bottom of this place and why the hell it's nagging the depths of her memories so.

"We are going to try and find you. Just stay where you are. Don't worry." Stanley replies to the voice, becoming more and more convinced that this isn't a trap.

Stanley turns to Sereth, before following Trav and Smoke down the corridor. "I am sorry Sereth, but I really believe that this is someone asking us for help. This isn't a defence system: not everyone would try to help."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:42, Wed 17 Sept 2014.

OOC: Story point to Stanley for being true to his Code of Conduct.

As Smoke Alarm and Trav foot it ahead in advance of the others, they come up to the crossing corridor.  Now they can see that it curves slightly as it goes off in either direction, like it's running around the outside of a big circular area.  This matches up with what they recall observing from outside the complex.

Trav's scan shows that the control signal source seems to be coming from the center of this circle -- at the moment it's still ahead of them and angled down a bit.  Everyone can feel a rhythmic throbbing through their feet -- it's fairly mild, but noticeable.

All at once, they hear the clacking Smoke Alarm noted earlier, off to their left and clockwise around the curving corridor they've ended up at.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:09, Thu 18 Sept 2014.

Trav immediately flattens against a nearby wall and grabs Smoke's wrist join her. Hopefully it's enough to hide from whatever is coming!

OOC: Coordination or Awareness+Subterfuge or Athletics+SP?

OOC: Coordination + Subterfuge would be apropos.

As usual, folks, don't feel like you need to play Simon Says to attach a roll to your actions: the rules usually aren't that ambiguous, and it helps things progress.  If you haven't rolled and I want you to, I'll let you know.  If you spend an SP on a roll I thought was unnecessary, you won't lose it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:09, Thu 18 Sept 2014.

Smoke Alarm tensed as she felt the doof-doof sound through the floor. There was some very big mechinery somewhere, mayhaps a hair-conditioning unit, but she thought darkly of a basement masher or a shredder, gobbling up and recycling Kangs into soylent green. Whatever it was, she was determined to find out for Traveller.

Then she eyespied Traveller was behind her anyway, pulling her against the wall as they earspied the clickety-clackety cleaner down the carrydoor. Smoke Alarm pictured the oltrimotive bi-curval scraping blades of a Cleaner, and didn't need to be told. But Smoke pulled Traveller away from the wall, pointing her to make a better hide-in in the carrydoor they'd just come from, crouched behind some protruding puters, before she followed.


OOC: I think we're still in the T-junction, so the corridor we came from should be good to hide us. Smoke will try to help Traveller hide (Cooperation for +2?) as well as herself.
19:29, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 14 using 2d6+8 with rolls of 3,3. coordination (5) + subterfuge(3).
19:30, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 17 using 2d6+8 with rolls of 5,4. coordination (5) + subterfuge(3): hide Trav.

While Smoke Alarm and Trav start to pull back along the wall, they get a little tangled up in each other, and the thing making the noise makes its way around the curve of the corridor before they're out of sight.  It whips around to focus on Smoke Alarm.

When Smoke Alarm gets a peek at what is approaching, it's not exactly as expected.  Most of it is eight thin and snakey segmented arms, connected together in a little metal box at their center -- from the way it's standing, apparently tinkering with some of the gizmos on the inner wall, she imagines the arms reaching out from the center of a box to the corners at its top and bottom.

Trav's reaction is rather more visceral.  The design of the thing overall isn't something she's seen before, but extending from the small central body of the thing, there's one component that she recognizes all too well:



OOC:

The Guardian, for the NPC Clacking Thing, rolled 17 using 2d6+6 with rolls of 6,5. Detecting Trav & Smoke: Awareness(4) + Subterfuge(2).

Trav gets a look of unadulterated horror, then rage - it's like she's seeing something from a nightmare.

It could be something else. In one hand is the sonic, and in the other hand is the turbo pistol. Her thumb swipes, and the whine changes pitch, and the circular chamber glows red.

Trav hisses as quietly as she can - "Everyone, stand back, behind me. If there are gods in this world, please don't let this be what I think it is."

ooc:Do I need a roll to confirm with a scan if this thing is some form of Dalek?
This message was last edited by the player at 13:33, Thu 18 Sept 2014.

Caught out of the hide-in, Smoke Alarm suddenly found herself eyespied by the long-legged spider-like pool cleaner. Cleaner! Quickety-split, Smoke Alarm raised her arrowgun, matching Traveller's own reaction but not nearly her depth of hatred and unbraveness.


OOC: Taking the Movers or Fighters turn.

Stanley notices the change in Trav's behaviour and the unusual choice of words. Trav and Smoke brandishing their weapons also concerns him, so he does as Trav says and stands back.

"Why the weapons?" he whispers to Trav. "Isn't that the person needing our help?"

"Stan," she says, quietly. "I don't think I ever told you about the Daleks."

Trav continues to scan. What's at the center of that contraption?

In an even voice, Trav says, "I'm the Traveller. We're not hostile, we're here to help. Please identify yourself." Smoke, who is closest to her, can tell she's shaking. However, the Turbopistol, with much effort, is being lowered, down, towards the floor. It could just be some other ocular device. It could just be flotsam or jetsam. Relax, keep it together. Trust your companions. This isn't Relnax.

350 years ago, and it still seems like yesterday - the day that the 2nd Traveller lost everything.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:43, Thu 18 Sept 2014.

Smoke Alarm wasn't so quick to lower her arrowgun. 'Brave and bold.' she reminded Traveller, eyespying her unbraveness. There was nothing wrong with being unbrave or unbold, the Kang knew; the key was in overcoming it. Pex the Cowardly Cutlet, Pex the Brave, had showed them that.

Trav's scans are puzzling.  The central unit hadn't looked nearly large enough to contain a live Dalek mutant in the first place, and the reading on the sonic isn't turning up anything biological.  Nor, when Trav addresses it, does it respond; it briefly focuses on her as she speak, but seems to lose interest.

But the thing still holds a menacing stance, bobbing back and forth on its four lower tentacles with two upper "forearms" craning up like the pincers of a mantis.

As Trav lowers her gun, it focuses in on Smoke Alarm, and its "legs" tense and bunch up....

A simple look; then steps between the -whatever- and Smoke Alarm.

He still believed his companions were making a rather crucial error in judgement; but it wasn't his job to ensure they made no errors. It was his job to ensure those errors didn't cost them.

Until -they- decided that maybe it was a mistake though, his sword remained at his side - but not in his hands.

"It's a machine," says Trav. "Smoke, lower your arrowgun. It seems programmed to respond to hostile moves." Trav gets some color back again, and exhales. She carefully holsters her turbopistol, but keeps her sonic out. "I don't think it wants to throw you down the trash chute, Smoke, just unfriendlies." The sonic is pointed at the floor, but everyone knows that she can use it against the robot in a second. And to Stan: "Stan, I think whoever was calling out for help is past this thing. I'd rather let it go past us. It probably has rudimentary self defense protocols. I'd rather not get into a fight."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:24, Fri 19 Sept 2014.

At Traveller's words, Smoke slowly lowered her arrowgun, though she too could shoot it pretty quickly if she needed to. She still didn't trust the spider cleaner; the Cleaners in the Towers had been said to be safe and friendly, until they attacked. 'And if mayhaps I am unfriendly?'

"It's allright. Easy. easy. I have my sonic out. It's just a confused old machine, that's old. Let's just let it pass."

Trav is hoping that's not a real Dalek eye stalk, and that thing doesn't have Dalek programming in it.

The robot's eyestalk remains fixed on the group, but it backs away from them by several steps, and several of its arms reach up to an area on the wall where Trav and the others can see opened panels and exposed circuitry.  It starts working on the electronics there: there's the bright blue light of a micro-welder and Trav can see the tentacles extending probes and tools to carry out its work.

Trav motions for the team to tip toe past the machine, and let it do its work unmolested.

Out comes the sonic again. She's seeking the source of the cry for help.

''Ware the spider cleaner.' Smoke warned Sereth and Stan, then led the way past it, footing it carefully and ready to roll out of the way of its many attachments.

"No, you haven't said anything about them." Stanley whispers back. He cautiously looks at the robot. "Is that one of them?"



Stanley nods. "It doesn't look like that thing needs help."

"I'll tell you about them later." A pause. "They were as close to objective evil as living creatures could get. They and I have a long, long history." In response to Stan's question, she shakes her head. "No, thankfully. If it was - well, there'd be a lot of running, shooting, screaming."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:22, Sat 20 Sept 2014.

With Smoke Alarm leading the way, the travellers continue clockwise around the ring hallway.  They pass up a couple of long corridors leading "outward" on their left, as Trav's scans continue to indicate that the control signals are coming from the "hub", which remains on their right.

Finally there is a shorter corridor on the right.  Smoke Alarm holds the others up and crouches down at the corner to peer around and down the hallway.  (After a moment the others' heads pop around above hers to sneak a peek -- Trav, then Stanley, then Sereth at the top.)

They can see that the corridor heads a short distance, then angles down a ramp for about twenty feet, then levels to end up at a big round iris-valve hatchway.  In the corners of the wall above the hatchway, little turret-like devices with camera lenses scan the approach.  On the left side of the hallway next to the door, there is a control panel.  Trav notes with some apprehension that the panel is designed around a round featureless control surface the width of a hand's span, at just the right height for the sucker-arm of a Dalek travel machine.

Smoke outlooked up at the heads above hers. ''Ware picture-takers.' she said of the spy-eyes. Unfortunately, with the big round door at the end of the carrydoor, there didn't seem to be any way-in that wasn't eyespied by the cleaners. The spider cleaner back there might have let them by-pass, but the cleaners here surely wouldn't let them get down into their brainquarters. 'No footing it down there unseen.' She kept her outlook, eyespying the carrydoor for useful scrap, wires, and plugs, as well as vents for ducts or hatches for underfloors or overceilings.


OOC: Is this passage bare, or covered in the electronic growth seen elsewhere? Are there any obvious signs of ventilation or air-conditioning (moving air, vents)? Is there any underfloor or overhead cabling or piping we can access? That is, can Smoke crawl through a duct or crawlspace?

Smoke Alarm looks around.

As they've moved farther and farther following Trav's guidance, the built-up machinery on the walls has seemed to be layered thicker and thicker, although it also seems to have been built into more obviously functional structures with a little more organization.  The panel that Trav noticed, for instance, has something of that same constructed look, like it's an addition or reworking of whatever original security control was there.

But older structures can still be seen beneath the new machines.  Smoke Alarm can remember seeing ventilation covers on the ceiling of the corridor as they've moved along; there are a couple in sight now, although they're partially obscured by new devices.  From her brief look down at the hatchway toward the central area, she'd seen one there as well, which suggests that the old ventilation system led into that area as well.

It might be a challenge to get one of the vents open without disrupting the equipment around it, though.

As they approach, Trav crinkles her nose. "Sereth. You seem the person here besides myself who has done the most space travel. Have you ever head any stories about the Daleks? It's not unreasonable to assume that since I survived the Time War, that at least one or more Daleks may have, although I tried my level best."

OOC: FWIW, Sereth, you can spitball whatever level of Dalek knowledge seems appropriate to you: you already alluded to the Doctor, and the Cultures part of your Knowledge specialty seems appropriate.

A snort.

"I know of the Daleks. Even -my- people wary war with those creatures. How much of what I know is old stories from before your Time War, and whether it is proof they survived, I can't help you with that." A considered pause. "Now is as good a time as any to ask - do they have specific weaknesses? If any -did- survive, I'd rather it wasn't purely up to you to stop them." A glance to the other two. "And let's face it, if even -half- the stories I've heard are true, those two will be dead before you can tell us how to help."

"We still don't know who the person asking for help is. Maybe he or she is in control of the cameras and the door? They were using that electronic stuff on the walls to communicate." Stanley brings up. "That means we wouldn't need to get there unseen, which does indeed seem impossible. We could just walk up there, say hi and the patient will open the door....hopefully."

Trav scowls at Sereth. "With respect, Ambassador, former companions of mine had absolutely no combat skills have utterly humiliated and defeated Daleks. The reason why is that Daleks regard free will and creativity as anethema. Also, you severely underestimate Stanley and Smoke. Stanley stood at my side against an Osirian. His gentleness and morality make him as formidable as your honor does. The humans of early Terra have defeated Daleks on several occasions, without my or the Doctor's assistance. The Daleks are gone, but indomnitable humanity endures."

"Dalek weaknesses - universally, Daleks are narrow minded and think in terms of war. While amazingly creative in terms of destruction and murder, that's all they really know how to do. Daleks are very easy to anger, on a certain level easy to confuse, and will always obey orders. Daleks are absolutely convinced of their own superiority. This can be an anvil on which to break them. If Daleks can't figure out a straightforward strategy, they will retire from the field and reconsider. Remorseless logic guides their actions, guided by a hatred of all non-Dalek life. Daleks crave leadership, from figures such as the various Dalek Emperors and the creator, Davros. Daleks sometimes fall to infighting over definitions of Dalek purity. Daleks are the ultimate racists."

"When meeting a Dalek, aim for the central eyestalk. Beware their delta wave weapons and their plungers. Some have force fields and all have immensely strong dalekanium armor. Focus fire as much as you can. Use terrain, collapse buildings, draw them into ambushes. Even flying Daleks move slowly. If possible, always kill a Dalek, because a Dalek will always try to kill or enslave you."

With his remark about relying on her to stop the Daleks, Trav smiles sadly. "Ambassador, if you try to match Daleks force for force, then you've lost. I can't beat Daleks alone, and I never have. Cunning, ingenuity, compassion and courage has defeated them, every single time. If we run into one down here, we're running, and then regrouping. Like Obi-Wan Kenobi said in Star Wars, there's always alternatives to fighting!"

Trav talks like someone who has been at war with these things for literally centuries.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:37, Mon 22 Sept 2014.

Trav scans around with the sonic. "Yeah, but let's bare in mind that this may still be a trap, or maybe that this Mailman needed the Corsair's sample because someone needed medical help. If the legacy of the Corsair is needed to save someone's life, then I'm apt to be more generous. Let's keep eyes and hearts open. Tricksy, this is."

Smoke Alarm outlooked up at Stanley. 'If they control the door, then they wouldn't need to ring for help, they could foot it out fancy-free.' Rising, she returned to the others to talk over the plans, her Kang mind working through the puzzle of making access. 'Mayhaps I could creepy-crawl through the hair-conditioner ducks, but we'd have to shift the tech to get to the vents, or go back a long ways.'

'Anyways, we don't have to go with all speed. The cleaners are ignoring us. The one on the talkiphone will keep. Let's us go roundabout the hub and mayhaps we'll eyespy something else.'

The voice being carried through the walls and mechanisms has been quiet as the travellers have moved through the complex and debated their plans.  As Trav continues to scan, she does detect that power levels around the whole area -- for kilometers! -- have been building since they started to search.

OOC: If you're opting to look for some other openings to exploit as Smoke Alarm suggests, please give me some ideas.

Trav doesn't like the idea of Smoke crawling around in vents alone in dangerous places, but she admits to herself that crawling around alone in dangerous places is what Smoke Alarm does. "Sounds good, babe. We'll go back around like you suggest them, and if you see any good creepy crawly space, you take advantage of it."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:39, Mon 22 Sept 2014.

Stanley doesn't look convinced. "That person could be hurt in such a way that they can't walk. Then they wouldn't be able to "foot it". I don't know...maybe we should hurry. We haven't heard that voice in a while. That person could be bleeding out in there.  I am afraid trying to find another way might take too long...."

Stanley turns to the wall and begins to talk. "Um...hello? Are you still there? How are you holding up?"

Whilst he waits for the voice to answer he turns to Trav. "I feel a lot for just walking up to that door and knocking, especially if that person doesn't answer. And if they do...maybe ask them if they know another way in?"

Trav hms. "I have an idea."

She runs up to one of the walls. "There's an old truism in theatre - if you can see the audience through the curtain, they can see you. If I can trace back the circuitry where that sound is coming from, I may be able to make it so that we can talk to whoever is asking for help. Of course, we may be giving away our position, but we were spotted by a robot, so this Mailman probably knows we're here."

Trav is tracing for that speaker circuitry. She's looking for a lead where she can connect up one of the phones, and they can speak back to whoever is calling for help, as well as perhaps map the network and find out where they this person is.

OOC: Ingenuity+Tech+Sonic?
This message was last edited by the player at 20:49, Mon 22 Sept 2014.

OOC: You can roll that.  Note that the voice was certainly answering back to Stanley before without a hook-up of any kind, and you know that it's not an actual speaker system, but all the equipment in the walls being forced to emulate a voice.  However in theory you might be able to wire in directly and get a more secure signal.

I will have another post later related to Stanley's question.

OOC: 20:37, Today: The Traveller rolled 26 using 2d6+16 with rolls of 6,4. Ingenuity 8+Technology 6+Sonic 2.

Trav pops off an access panel and studies the signal flow that she's been tracking.  It's all being modulated through the control and return diagnostic signals routing throughout the complex.  Taking Stanley's phone, she pops the back cover and in the space of some minutes, she hard-wires the phone into the wall.  The phone gives a drunken bloop as she resets it and hands it to Stanley.

Now everyone can hear the voice coming over the phone.  It's clearer than the version formed by the forced manipulation of the base machinery; it still has a definite synthesized quality to it, though Trav is relieved to note that it does not carry the harsh rasp of a Dalek vocoder.

Stilll here

nnowhere to go

nno way to go

itss ssstarting up

cant hold for llong

As Trav continues to scan, she sees that the source of the signal still seems like it's coming from somewhere beyond the door to the hub that they spotted.  But there's new activity in the complex systems as well -- electrical probes that seem to be trying to trace down the newly established communication!  That search is still going on, which is bad, in that whoever or whatever is carrying it out hasn't given up, but it's also good, in that it doesn't seem to have pinned down Trav's efforts yet.

OOC: The Guardian, for the NPC The Mailman, rolled 21 using 2d6+13 ((2,6)).  Good Success for your roll.

With a quick 'Build high for happiness.' Smoke Alarm footed off with all speed, running all the way roundabout the central hub of the complex, always outlooking to her right to eyespy any carrydoors, ducks, or crawlspaces leading deeper in. Was there a back door, a unseen outway or inway, or was it all no entrances? This was getting to be like getting to Roof or to the Basement, but all laid out flat. At least there were no alleviators.


OOC: Running around and looking for entrances:
09:34, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 15 using 2d6+11 with rolls of 1,3. awareness(4) + ingenuity(3) + keen senses(2) + sense of direction(2).
I assume that takes the minutes Traveller took to hook up the phone.


She got back in time to see Traveller had hooked up a talkiphone to the puter stuff, and she heard the weird voice again, a bit clearer now but just as creepy and cleanery. Why couldn't it talk proper? Why couldn't it just foot it out? She remembered Drinking Fountain show-and-telling about how she'd gone to the Basement with the Doctor and Bin Liner and Fire Escape. "Hungry!" she had roared, scaring the littler Kangs like her. She said the voice had come out of all the mechinery and speakers of the mincers and mashers and burners and crushers. It seemed just like this to Smoke Alarm. 'Is it a puter-brain, or a brain in a puter?' she wondered to Traveller, feeling rather unbrave and unbold.

Smoke Alarm has to sneak past a couple more of the creepy spider-cleaners as she scouts, but they're not being aggressive, not yet.  They do eye her thoroughly as she goes around.

She finds that the ring corridor carrydoor does in fact circle all the way and meet up with itself again, and she spots and sneaks past a couple of additional entrances into the hub that look just like the one she'd noticed already.  Both of those are likewise covered by spy-eyes.

However, she does find one of the overhead ducts ducks that looks clear of over-built machinery, around the ring and back closer to the original hallway back to the TARDIS.  She's pretty sure she could pop it open and wriggle in if someone gave her a boost.

"I don't know, babe, but whoever they are, they need our help. Let's foot it, like the Doctor would want us to. The Mailman is looking for us, and we need to find the voice before the Mailman finds us." Trav offers to boost Smoke Alarm up. "Hey Stan, give me a hand, and Sereth, keep watch?"

She can almost feel him, in his pork pie hat and that silly ass question mark cane, trotting down the corridor at their side. She can forgive herself just a little for being the Marshall and the Time War when she carries on for him.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:03, Tue 23 Sept 2014.

"The voice does sound robotic. I thought it was because of the way it communicated using the electronics on the wall, but if it the voice is still robotic through the phone... don't know much about electronics, so I fear that I might not be able to help the thing when we get there."



"Yeah, sure." Stanley replies and goes over to help Trav and Smoke.

A nod; his eyes conflicted.

"As you wish."

Tracking back around the ring carrydoor, Smoke pointed out the other inways until she got to the clean vent. 'This one. Build high for happiness.' she told the others, then let Trav and Stan boost her up. Smoke wiggled and tried to jimmy off the vent cover before she creepy-crawled inside.


OOC: And now a message from niece, inspiration for Smoke Alarm:

==£^&€((((((()(₩₩

)^/^% £!!!   ?????!!&&&&*£^^^  kk kk kmknnjkkllp
Kk ppl kmknnjkkllp 9ppptffg kmknnjkkllp j j kmmhgggu
Ii77hjnm

Smoke Alarm manages to get up into the ducting.  It's curving slightly ahead and behind her to follow the ring corridor.  There's a considerable amount of dust in here and a limited amount of light (from other vents) but she can see up ahead some faint reflections where another duct is cutting across perpendicular to the one she's in.

OOC: Coordination + Subterfuge + Sense of Direction if you want to sneak your way to the hub to get a better picture of things there.

Your big black handle talkiphone has an embedded camera, so you can keep the others apprised of what you can see without making any noise if you want.

Smoke creepy-crawled through the spacious ducks, slowly but surely incoming to the centre of the hub. The Kang had a good sense of direction, always having the knowhow of where she was facing and where she was outgoing, even if she didn't always know left from right. She didn't even really need to see, since she could only eyespy ducks anyway. She pushed ahead of her her talkiphone with its picturetaker, showing-and-telling the others what she did.


OOC: Roll is 15. I'm on my tablet while babysitting, so...

Smoke Alarm makes her way to a vent that, by her best guess, is over the area on the other side of all the spy-eyed doors.  She peers down through it, aiming her phone for the benefit of the others.

She can see banks of controls and lights down through the slats, in a wide round area with the same harsh lighting as the rest of the complex.  They surround a column leading down into the very center of the room, and Smoke Alarm's view of that is a little obstructed, but it looks like the column ends above a thing like a round chair.

There's a form sitting in the chair, and it might be a person, but if it is they are at least partly encased in black metal.  Smoke Alarm can see what might be a shoulder and arm and the side of the person's head, but they're all horribly melted-looking, and there are lots of wires and tubes running around and into the casing and the skin.  At several angles there are shiny metal rods jutting into and out of the figure, and there is a hat-like array of the same rods encircling what the figure's head would be.

There's a distinct rhythmic sound coming from all the equipment in the room:  It sounds like this.

As Smoke Alarm watches and studies the figure, there's a very human, strangled-raspy sound that comes from it.  The room lighting flickers, and some new lights start flashing purple in the room.

OOC: Today: The Guardian, for the NPC The Mailman, rolled 15 using 2d6+5 with rolls of 4,6. Detecting Smoke Alarm: Awareness(3) + Subterfuge(2) + Scan(2) + Impaired Senses(-2).  (The last is for Smoke Alarm being in the ductwork where the Mailman has no pickups.)

+0 is a just-barely-succeeeded roll, so Smoke is not detected, but it comes with a side complication as described.

Out in the hallway, Stanley's phone comes alive again.

Hellllllp

Cant keep it ffooled mmmuch lllongerr

Its going to sssssend the ssssservicersss sssooon

It knows sssomeone'ss heere

The lighting flickers, and some garish mauve flashers start to blink in the hallway.

Creepy-crawling down hair-conditioner ducks was tricksy and hard and tiring, but a Kang wasn't one to be put off by all that if they were trying to go into some place that they wanted to be, or get out of some place they really didn't want to be. Smoke caught her raggedy clothes on protruding screws, banged her head and knees and elbows on the sides of the duck, and waded through a blanket of dust. She didn't mind the dust; it let her track back to the entrance, and it showed the tracks of what had comeout before her. No rats in here, and no cleaners either. Safety for Kangs. Even if the dust stirred up did make her eyes sting and her nose tickle. She muffled a sneeze in her elbow and carried on.

But as she creepy-crawled into the bowels of the complex, seemingly deeper into its Basement, she started to feel all unbrave and unbold again. It seemed to grew darker and heavier, those claw-like towers weighing down on top of her. Would a duck-cleaner comeout after her? She could get stuck tight. And always there was that weird mechinery sound ahead, like a heartbeat, like something not unalive. Her own heartbeat seemed loud enough, drumming in her head. Brave and bold as a Kang should be, she told herself, pushing on.

Then she cameout to the end of the line, the last vent that had to be an inway to the hub. Pointing her talkiphone's picture-taker, Smoke Alarm outlooked through the last vent to eyespy... what? She could barely make sense of it, had no idea of it. Down, past the puters, she saw the man in the chair, surrounded by mechinery — and she couldn't tell where the man ended and the mechinery began! A great architect! she realised with horror. Then the man made a noise, and the warning lights came on, and she nearly jumped into the roof. Had it eyespied her? Brave and bold, brave and bold....

She laid herself flat, shrinking away from the ghastly sight, and thumbed a text to her friends.

U I-spy it? Wot is it?


OOC: Just a courage check: 15.
19:51, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 15 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 5,3. ingenuity(3) + resolve(2) + Brave(2).

"Sweety. Can you get the phone's camera to zoom in a bit better?"

It can't be him. It can't be.

I killed him at Arcadia.

Trav looks like she's about to jump up in their after Smoke.

Stanley can tell Trav is shaking a little.

"An old enemy of mine may be here," she whispers.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:11, Wed 24 Sept 2014.

OOC: Probably an Awareness + Knowledge roll to get a read on what your post is hinting, Trav.

Come to think of it, Stanley can probably make his own assessment with Ingenuity + Medicine + Empathy.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:11, Wed 24 Sept 2014.

Stanley looks at Trav and Sereth, confirming that they also heard what the voice said. "They know we are here."

He can't help but sense the distress in the voice's words. "Just hang in there a little longer. We are trying to get to you."



"Him? Who is he? I think I can see some wires or something." Stanley asks, whilst looking closely at the mysterious figure in the images Smoke is sending back. "Is he...is he the one asking for help? "

OOC:
00:18, Today: Stanley Newton rolled 17 using 2d6+10 with rolls of 1,6. Ingenuity(4)+Medicine(4)+Empathic(2).

Sereth didn't react -much-, though he did take his sword out.

"IF it is him, how dangerous is he?"

Not even a -hint- of an I told you so in his voice.

OOC: Sereth, you can add a Story Point for your steadfast paranoia caution.

This is not to endorse your conclusions, so much as your consistency. :D

Trav purses her lips. "Exceedingly. But let's not jump to conclusions."

Trav tries to boost herself up to follow Smoke.

OOC: Coordination+Athletics?

"Also, I'm a different woman," says Trav, as she tries to climb into the hole. "If the creator of the Daleks *is* here, and I hope to the hells he is not, my first priority will be to rescue this victim and to protect all of you. I am not the Marshall. I am the Traveller." She says that like it's a grave promise.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:57, Wed 24 Sept 2014.

Looking at the figure and the apparatus set up around it, Stanley is reminded strongly of some of the advanced life-support facilities he saw back on his first trip into the future, when Amanda and her mother were giving him a tour of a real 24th century hospital.

It looks like the person there has substantial portions of his anatomy damaged or missing, and the machinery is going to amazing lengths to keep their organs running and their brain functioning.  Even though part of what it's doing has to involve pain management -- if that person is the one sending the messages, Stanley's astonished that they're able to be so coherent given their state -- Stanley can see that the person is suffering: he's seen enough of that in his time to tell when it's genuine.

Trav pauses. Her face grows sad for a moment. "Maybe."

The thought of Davros, begging for mercy, trapped by someone else. Of course, it was most likely all a trap or trick of it was him and if he had any choice.

But she finds that, yes, she would still help him, even if he were to spit curses in her face. If he's alive, he deserves a chance. She's not in any position to judge if anyone deserves one. Anyone can change - she did.

She thanks all of those she's known ever since she gained this new face that she could come to this forgiveness. "We gotta hustle. Someone needs help. Gimme a boost?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:01, Wed 24 Sept 2014.

OOC: No roll needed just to get into the ducts.  However, you'll discover that they are not comfortably Trav-sized.  You'll need to make a Coordination + Athletics to wriggle through them, and if you want to do it quietly you'll need a Coordination + Subterfuge; note that your increased difficulty would cancel out the penalty to detect you there.

Stanley could try as well with the same caveats if he wanted to.  Sereth is just plain too big to fit.

OOC: -heh-. A wriggler down vents a Draconian is not.

As the others help Trav get a grip and pull herself up to the duct, the three of them there can hear metallic clacking and the mechanical hum of servos advancing up the corridor.

It seems at least one of the spider-robots is on the way....

Still in the duckting, Smoke Alarm didn't knowhow what was outgoing outside or what the others were talking about. She got her picture-taker to zoom in and give a bigger picture to Traveller, then continued to eyespy the architect in the mechinery. She was reminded of the metal-faced Forgetting Ones in the factory where she'd lost Mister Mop and the others. Then too she'd been exploring the waste disposal shoots when she'd comeout to find them all gone or turned in Forgetting Ones and her all alone. She hoped she wouldn't comeout now to find Traveller and Sereth and Stan and the talkiphone box all missing.

Wot now? Mayhaps go insid? Comeout? she texted her friends, anxiously awaiting news.

"I think I am going to follow the others, if you don't mind." Stanley says to Sereth. "That seems to be the quickest way to get to the patient..."

OOC:
11:04, Today: Stanley Newton rolled 10 using 2d6+4 with rolls of 2,4. Coordination(3) + Athletics(1).

Stanley starts to squirm his way through the duct after Trav with the smell of stale dust in it nose, and just a hint of machine oil.  He follows her for about a dozen yards when he feels his shoulders wedged in at the spot where a bracket constricts the duct slightly.

OOC: I should have mentioned that navigating the duct was a Normal(12) difficulty.  Stanley, you can either spend a Story Point to improve your result to a success, or if Trav or Sereth comes up with an amusing way to unstick you, you can count that as assistance taking you to success.

Either way someone should narrate how this happens.

Trav, you may take this as an illustrative warning for your own efforts.... :)

Trav is reminded of all things when she wore her first face, when she was squirming with lanky Roy Fokker in the bowels of the mighty SDF-1, working to beat the Krayloss to hidden laboratory of Zor, hidden deep within the space fortress. She twists and does when she did then - she uses her turbopistol on a careful, modulated low power setting, making the metal around them stretch like putty to accomodate them. "I'm shooting with you, Stan, not at you." She's repurposing her pistol to behave more like a somewhat less accurate but stronger version of her sonic, which would be too weak for this job.

<OOC>I'll still be happy to do that Athletics roll, but since we're kind of found, all bets are off. For stretching more widely the ducts, perhaps Marksman+Technology+Turbopistol+Turbopistol SP?

OOC: I don't mind spending a Story Point to make it a success and get unstuck.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:30, Thu 25 Sept 2014.

OOC: Let's just say Stanley spends the SP and Trav's gimmick works: for that, the two of you can reach Smoke Alarm and keep your own position and presence obscure.  Sereth is still out there, but, diversion?

Note that despite having Daleky components the robots don't have any sort of weapon, besides metal arms, and they're not as tough-looking as the robot he fought at the bank.

He stands guard, as it were. He won't attack first, but if one comes at him, he will slice and dice. (Hopefully... he doesn't have anyone else this time.)

"Yeah...thanks." Stanley says, a bit embarrassed that he got stuck. Trav's using her turbopistol allows him to push the metal out of the way and crawl further. "Don't forget to put the pistol back to it's usual setting."

Smoke Alarm loitered in the duckting, eyespying the cleaner man in his chair and feeling like a little mouse peeking down people's brainquarters, not having the knowhow of anything that was going on. And where were the others? They hadn't responded to her text.

Then she heard scuffling and bumping, echoing down the ducks behind her. Someone was stuck. Well, it was no cleaner and certainly no slippery Kang. Confined in the duck, she couldn't outlook back to eyespy, and didn't dare call out. So she texted.

U there?

Smoke Alarm doesn't get an answer, but shortly Trav scoots up behind her, and it sounds to Smoke like one of the others is right behind Trav.  There's no opportunity for anyone to maneuver past each other in the duct, but there's some space to move beyond the vent.

Trav thumbs back the turbopistol to stun, and hopes she doesn't have to use it to kill anyone. While killing Davros or Daleks isn't a violation of her promise she made to herself so long ago (indeed, she's killed many Daleks and Cybermen with the weapon, although often reluctantly), killing is bad for the killee and deforms the killler.

Trav makes sure that Smoke has room to work, and follows her lead.

Smoke Alarm heard Traveller creepy-crawl in behind her, relieved to have a friend nearby. But with no plans and the need for quietness, she had no idea what they were to do next. But where else were they outgoing, but climbing into the cleaner's closet? Smoke Alarm reached her fingers through the vent and tried to push it out without dropping it. Later she'd work out how to climb down...

Smoke Alarm places the vent silently on the inside of the duct.  So far, so good....

Sure that the architect couldn't eyespy her with that bucket on his head, Smoke Alarm poked her head further out of the duck to get a better outlook of the room and to eyespy a safe way to climb down there...


OOC: How far down is it? Can Smoke climb down, or do I need to jump or grapple-gun down?

Poking her head for a quick eyespy, Smoke Alarm sees that there are some other scanning camera lenses positioned around the area.  They don't happen to spot her when she takes her look, and she thinks she can see some places between the consoles and machinery that are out of their view, as long as she can get to them.

OOC: Jumping should be trivial for Smoke Alarm.  It's about a dozen feet to the floor.

The Draconian just stood still, ready and waiting, casting an anxious eye or two towards the vent, wishing it was smaller...

But someone needed to be here.

Smoke Alarm withdrew into the duck, then twisted around until Traveller could glimpse her face. Smoke pointed to her eye, pointed to the picture-taker on her talkiphone, then made a finger-wagging motion, and let them work out Kang hand-signals on their own. Rolling back around, she contemplated how to get out. She couldn't go feets-first out of the duck, which left heads-first.

Pulling herself forward, she shot out of the chute and into the air. Whee! Then she dropped down, whoosh with hands out. The Kang landed in an impressive handstand, then flipped herself over and behind a puter. Ta da!


OOC: You said jumping was trivial, so I just rolled stealth, 13. Would adding Kang Fu for +2 be okay?
10:52, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 13 using 2d6+8 with rolls of 2,3. coordination (5) + subterfuge(3).

Smoke Alarm dives for the cover of the console and makes it there with a flawless tuck-and-roll -- but she must have been a hair too slow, because there is a reaction, and it is swift and powerful.

The room flares with brilliant light.  In the flash, Smoke Alarm sees her vision twist on itself so her sleeve looks white and her hand looks blue.  There's an explosion and a shower of sparks as a beam blasts into the top of the console from the far wall, near one of the spy-eyes!

From up above in the duct, the hairs on the back of Trav's neck stand straight up.  The discharge of a beam disruptor is unmistakable.

OOC: The Mailman, rolled 18 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 5,6. Detecting Smoke Alarm, again: Awareness(3) + Subterfuge(2) + Scan(2)

With that against your 15 (Kang Fu certainly applies) you're detected but the weapon fails to draw a bead on you before you get to cover.

Sereth's battle-honed senses warn him of the discharge of an energy weapon echoing down the vent.

Just as he's wondering whether he should move to help the others, the value of his caution is borne out as one of the spider-robots comes scuttling down the hallway at him.  There's no mistaking its posture, this time.  Segmented metallic arms whip out at Sereth as the mechanical thing springs to the attack!

You've got the option to move away from the robot, but in case you don't, it will move to you, attack(-2) and block(-4).

The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 14 using 2d6+4 with rolls of 5,5. Attacking Sereth: Strength(3) + Fighting(3) -2.
Today: The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 11 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 6,3. Blocking potential counterattack: Strength(3) + Fighting(3) -4.

Note: slightly goofed what those rolls were per the rules, but this should be correct.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:35, Tue 30 Sept 2014.

Smoke Alarm flinched at the splosion, and was surprised to see her hand turn blue. Cool! She really was a Blue Kang! Getting into a hide-in, she outlooked back to see what she'd thought was a picture-taker was also a light-spouter. Okay... She reached for her arrowgun...


OOC: Taking the Fighters position

UNder attack! The Draconian's sword was already out, waiting, and, whilst starting with a block, then moved for the counter attack.

OOC: At work, so no rules on me. Feel free to mix mistakes.

13:48, Today: Sereth rolled 18 using 2d6+9 with rolls of 6,3. Blocking - Strength + Swordsmanship.
13:49, Today: Sereth rolled 15 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 3,5. Counterattack - Strength + Swordsmanship -2.

CHING!  CHING!  Sereth drops into guard position and executes flawless parries against the lashing metal tentacles.

Then his family honor blade flashes through a wide arc that cleaves through two blocking spider-arms, down and through the heart of the the spider-robot.  Sparks spray from the thing and it falls in twitching pieces.

Looks correct.  Robot picked the wrooooong fight.  It has Tough to take two points off Sereth's damage of 8, but it just doesn't help.

You have some time now to react, call the others to find out what's up, or do what you like.

Stanley being the last one to get in the duct can't see what is going on, but hears the explosion in the room. This probably means that they are shooting at Smoke. "Trav, what's happening? Who is shooting at Smoke Alarm?"

He barely took any pleasure in this victory - it had been a robot; and not even one built for defense, not really. He then growled, and texted the Traveller.

"Robot attacked. Hearing an energy weapon. You okay?"

From where she's crouched on the floor, Smoke Alarm hears the machine-bound figure in the center of the room struggle to croak out a word.

"Noooooo...."

"I don't know!" Trav starts to rapidly shimmy out, to try to get to where Smoke was to help her out.

Was that a Dalek delta wave weapon?

As Trav drops into a crouch from the duct, both turbo pistols are out, powering up with their characteristic VREEEEEMMM. The pistols are toggled to the machine disrupt setting, which shouldn't hurt organics but destroys weapons. Trav opens fire on the beam weapon that is firing on Smoke!

OOC: Coordination+Marksman+Turbpopistols+1 SP from pistols. Wanna look cool shooting dammit
09:53, Today: The Traveller rolled 23 using 4d6+9 with rolls of 4,2,2,6. 2d6+Coordination 4+Marksman 3+Turbopistol 2+TP SP 2d6.

This message was last edited by the player at 13:55, Tue 30 Sept 2014.

Stanley is staying inside the duct, safe from any gunfire. He could follow Trav into the room, but it would be better to let Smoke or her deal with the threat first.

Trav has targeted and fired before she has a chance to register the nature of the weapon.  A Dalek gunstick.  It's mounted on a big metal track that runs all around the perimeter of the hexagonal room along with several others like it, and a like collection of eyepieces.

But Trav's burst sizzles straight into the weapon before it has the chance to discharge again.  Electricity crackles and arcs along the track, and the weapons and sensors blow or short out in spectacular fashion.  Some of the lights and readouts in the room wink off; others trip on.  The humming through the floor is loud and insistent now.

Finally Trav looks at the figure in the center of the room.  Definitely humanoid, it's being held upright by the machinery encasing it.  And even though the similarity is haunting, her initial reaction is: It's not him.

OOC: If you want to take a shot at investigating and figuring out what's going on here, you can try Ingenuity + Knowledge + Sonic

Smoke Alarm had aimed her arrowgun and was about to launch a weaponised pencil at the shooty things when Traveller zapped them all instead. The Kang turned a disappointed face up at her friend, complaining 'Trav! I was outgoing to do that!' Though mayhaps it would have taken her a lot more pencils...

She rose, deftly scanning the room for more hazards with her arrowgun held at the ready, with the precision and alertness of a soldier. 'Outlooks sound and safe. Comeout.' she gave the okay.


OOC: I assume it's safe now?
This message was last edited by the player at 02:22, Wed 01 Oct 2014.

Trav sighs, for several reasons. "I'll let you shoot the next one, ok, baby?" She smiles apologetically. "I'm glad your shipshape and safe, you're very brave and bold."

Trav carefully approaches. "I'm the Traveller. This is Stanley, that's Smoke Alarm. We got your signal. We'll get you out of here." That's strangely the exactly same speech she had planned for Davros.

"Stan, this person here may be a prisoner. Can you please examine and help them?" She holds her phone in the crook of her shoulder as she examines this contraption. "Sereth, this is Trav. We're all right. We ran into some opposition but I took care of it. This looks like old jury rigged Dalek technology, probably left overs from The War. I suspect that they were either defending themselves or being held prisoner. Please stand by." She pings him their location, so as to help him find his way to them if he so chooses by the long way.

As her sonic examines the strange frame, carefully, she gently says, "Hello. Who are you? Don't worry, we're here to help, and we won't let anyone hurt you."

23:05, Today: The Traveller rolled 24 using 2d6+16 with rolls of 5,3. Trav examines the strange frame - Ingenuity 8+Knowledge 6+Sonic 2.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:07, Wed 01 Oct 2014.

Nothing zaps or splodes at Smoke Alarm as she pokes her head up.

As Trav scans the imprisoned person, she's able to confirm his human physiology... what's left of it.

As she scans around the rest of the room, she finally recognizes what she's looking at.  It's the heart of a Dalek seed factory.  The thing must have survived the end of the War and landed here, where it started to carry out its programming.  Build.  Grow.  Reproduce.  And very possibly other functions, besides... given those big pylons.

That may explain the unfortunate person wired into the heart of the system.  With no guiding Dalek mind, the seed factory must have appropriated a victim to introduce a sentient random factor into its program matrix.

When Trav addresses the person in the machine, he struggles to cough out "K-k-k-kuvas."

Trav finds herself unconsciously shaking with rage, for once the Marshall and the Traveller in absolute agreement. Now, it all makes sense. Thank goodness that the sample of the Corsair was intercepted - it may have meant the rebirth of the Daleks themselves. They could still be in a very great deal of danger.

"We don't have much time. Stan, we have to extract Kuvas from this thing. Please, ease his pain." She takes his hand. "We will do everything we can to get you out of this thing and get you home, Kuvas, I promise." She calls out to Smoke Alarm - "Smoke! Be outlooking for anything with an eyestalk or that looks like a pepperpot or speaking in a nasty, grating voice. Far worse than any cleaner or architect - Exterminators, they are, death with one eye." The Kang talk came easily now.

Trav hands Stan her Ipad. "Stan, I'm going to send to you as complete readings as I can. You see, my old enemies, the Daleks, would sometimes capture people and use their genes and brains to grow more of themselves or soldiers. It's... it's hard to explain." It seems painful for Trav to even remember. "We're not leaving until we get him out. I will not leave anyone as I was left. 30 years. 30 years before I regenerated. 30 years. It's what the Traveller would have wanted, so it's what the Traveller will do." Trav starts to work, carefully but quickly looking to disconnect Kuvas from the system without threatening his life. "Please help me save him, Stan."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:25, Wed 01 Oct 2014.

'As a Kang could be.' Smoke Alarm boasted, then clambered over the puter to hunt around the room before advancing on the architect in the chair, her arrowgun pointed at some vital-looking piece of electric mechinery. She was still suspicious that this was all a trick or a trap. She knew well how the cleaners had cosplayed at scrubbing wallscrawl when they weren't scrubbing up people, and how Rezzies had called for help when they wanted Kang for dinner. ''Ware the architect. Mayhaps he'll try corpolektroscoppy. Moving brains!' she warned Traveller and Stan as they footed closer.

But Traveller had the knowhow of something she said was far worse. Worse than cleaners and kang-eating rezzies and brain-stealing architects? 'Okay.' she said, then climbed on top of a puter to get a good outlook of the whole room, eyespying the picture-takers and fire-spouters on the roof, and covering the doors with her trusty arrowgun.


OOC: Keeping outlook: 15
16:48, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 15 using 2d6+9 with rolls of 3,3. awareness(4) + ingenuity(3) + keen senses(2).

Kuvas is looking helplessly past Traveller toward the other consoles.  "Suh.  Suh.  S-s-signal."

As Smoke Alarm looks around the room, she sees a big display with a picture of a big circle on it.  It takes a moment for her to get it, but she realizes it's a picture of the whole place they are in, with this central room, the big ring corridor, and other hallways.  The middle part of the picture shows two blue dots and one flickering blue one (which becomes clear and solid when Stanley drops out of the vent).

In the ring part of the picture, she sees one blue dot, and two red ones circling around the ring toward it.

Slowly deciphering the picture-spout, Smoke's dark widened in alarm as realised where Sereth was and what had comeout for him. She whipped out her tallkiphone, soon ringing the egg-head 'Sereth! I-spy two cleaners footing it down the carrydoors! They'll catch you if they can!'


OOC: Are they moving fast, and are they on one side or both sides of Sereth? If Smoke got through one of the doors, where would she come out in relation to them?

OOC: They're moving at a decent speed, but likely not too fast for a fleetfooted Kang to intercept.

As outlined earlier, there are actually several doors out from the control center, so I'll say you can pick how you want to come out in relation to them.  With a little coaching from Trav, Smoke Alarm can work the doors and shut down the eyes.

'Run, Sereth! I'll save you!' she called heroically. After all, the egg-head was a slow-poke and big and only had a kitchen knife. What could he do against spider-cleaners? Smoke Alarm checked the map on the picture-spout against the map in her head, and quickly picked a door leading out into the outer carrydoor. There, she frantically outlooked for a way to open it. 'Trav! Door-lock!'


OOC: Smoke will pick a door that takes her behind the robots. Then we can flank them and break them between us.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:02, Wed 01 Oct 2014.

Sereth just frowned as he answered the phone.

"More? They just don't know when to give up."

He had been preparing to follow the directions to the others, but if more of those robots were on the way...

Trav aims her sonic at the door that Smoke indicates, unlocking it.

Stanley crawls out of the duct after Smoke gives the signal. He is finally in the same room as the patient. The first thing he does is taking a close look at the mechanical and electronic parts of the "chair". What is it for? Life support? Something else?

"Okay...okay. I'll do what I can." Stanley assures Trav.  "It is just that...he seems pretty dependant on the machinery and if he is specifically engineered that could make things even more complicated. I have to know what I am dealing with before we can start to disconnect stuff. I know that you want to get Kuvas out as quickly as possible, but first I have to know which parts are there to keep him alive and what they do. Especially if we want to move him. It is going to take some time... and no guarantees that disconnecting him without serious consequences is even possible."

Stanley addresses the creature in the chair. "Hello, Kuvas. My name is Stanley Newton, I am a doctor. You don't have to say anything, I can see that speaking takes a lot of effort for you.  I am going to examine you and the machine you are in to see if I can help you."

OOC: I am going to spend a SP on my medicine roll:
22:05, Today: Stanley Newton rolled 26 using 4d6+8 with rolls of 5,2,6,5. Ingenuity(4)+Medicine(4)+2d6(SP).

This message was last updated by the player at 20:09, Wed 01 Oct 2014.

Trav scowls. "Well, maybe we don't have to entirely disconnect him, but perhaps make the machinery that's keeping him alive *mobile*." If there's anything Trav knows, it's mechanical systems and cybernetics. She helped in the bottom up design of Robotechnology throughout all 4 of it's eras, she's seen and worked with the technology of the Cybermen throughout all the ages of history they have appeared in, and most important, she has struggled with and understands the sciences of the Daleks better than anyone alive.

"There was once a very evil man named Davros," she says,as she continues feeding Stanley information about the frame while examining it herself. "I killed him at a place called the gates of Elysium, back when I had red hair. He had a set up kinda like this. It would be mad ironic if I reconfigured this so that Kuvas here could get away and we could save his life, right?" She grins, thinking it'd be pretty awesome if a facsimile of a Dalek travel machine could *save* a life.

Amongst the work, Trav wants to make sure that Kuvas won't be affected by any Dalek programming. Being a Dalek isn't a matter of physical form or even genetics - as Davros himself boasted to her at Arcadia, it is an idea.

OOC: Rolls, to assist Stan or understand what Kuvas is connected to?
This message was last edited by the player at 20:34, Wed 01 Oct 2014.

'Ta! Build high for happiness!' Smoke thanked Trav as she unlocked the door, then hit the doorbell to make the big round door open. Exit time! The Kang took cover behind the wall, outlooking around the corner and pointing her arrowgun at the nearest of the shooty things.

Stanley studies the life support unit, with Trav looking over his shoulder and checking the technical implications.

The good news is that most of the systems are relatively isolated.  It looks like there are components that are either doing the work of, or supporting, his heart, lungs and kidneys; those have small drains for waste removal, but apart from that, those systems just need appropriate power input.

Kuvas is being sustained by an IV drip from an external reservoir, and keeping him alive would involve either figuring out a way to replace that feed, or decouple it from the system around it and move it with him.  It's a pretty bulky device.

What Stanley is less sure about is the portion of the device with the metal probes extending directly into Kuvas' skull.  Trav is pretty certain this is the connection for the mental interface that the seed factory system is using to access Kuvas' cognitive and reasoning function.  The device doesn't have manual controls for this, but after Trav pops an access panel, she thinks she could cause it to disengage.  From the communication he has had with Kuvas, and the evidence of him being able to consciously manipulate the base systems, Stanley is pretty confident that Kuvas' mental function is much higher than his capacity for speech indicates.  What removing the device would do to that, he's not sure.  It really doesn't look like the whole machine was meant to allow for extracting the person inside it.

As Stanley is moving in front of Kuvas, near the end of their study of the machinery, Kuvas looks squarely at him.  "S-stanley.  N-no.  S-signal."

OOC: It will take some time with Stanley and Trav working together to set up something that would stand a chance of keeping Kuvas alive, and that would probably involve quickly transferring him into the TARDIS where Trav could set this up.  It would be an Ingenuity + Technology roll (difficulty 27) for Trav, with Stanley's analysis giving her a +4 in addition to other bonuses she may have.

To figure out what state this would leave Kuvas in afterward, Stanley would need to make another Ingenuity + Medicine roll (difficulty 18).  The good part about that is that he can add whatever amount Trav makes her roll by, as a bonus.

Figure that you're talking on the order of hours to do this.

The eyes and shooters flanking the door don't react to Smoke Alarm.  She is able to scoot out into the hallway and, as planned, come up behind the spider-cleaners as they scurry down the hall toward Sereth.  Forewarned, the Draconian is on his guard.

As Smoke Alarm comes into view of the robots, the one that's tailing the other pauses.  Then it performs a peculiar motion like a somersault, rolling first onto its "forearms" and "forelegs", then repeating that movement.  It reminds Smoke of moving her home-sweet-home shipping carton by tipping it onto its face, then its top, and so on.  When the spider-cleaner stops, it's now standing on what were all of its upper arms, with its eyestalk pointed back toward Smoke Alarm.

Smoke Alarm skidded to a halt before the flip-flopping cleaner, her arrowgun leaping to cover it. 'Back, cleaner! Back to your closet!' she warned fiercely. Traveller had said not to attack them earlier, so she gave it this one chance to play nice.

Sereth just stood, waiting.

"I wouldn't bother giving it a chance. I've already had to kill one."

He didn't turn his gaze from the other ones though.

Despite Smoke Alarm's fair warning, it doesn't appear the robots are having any of it.  Each of them scuttles rapidly forward, one toward Smoke Alarm, one toward Sereth.

OOC: Normal fighty.  Both of the robots are going to try a slightly different sequence from when the one went after Sereth: first move, then block / dodge, then strike.

Hack and slice.

"I hate robots. They don't learn."


13:18, Today: Sereth rolled 15 using 2d6+9 with rolls of 4,2. Attack.
13:19, Today: Sereth rolled 12 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 2,3. Block - Str + Swordsmanship -2.

'Then we'll take them to the cleaners!' Smoke Alarm yelled, loosing a bolt at the cleaner, right at the lens of its eyestalk!


OOC: Shoot it in the eye lens, Attack 21
11:19, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 19 using 2d6+10 with rolls of 6,3. coordination(5) + marksman(3) + crackshot(2).
And +2 for AoE: crossbows.

Sereth has the measure of these things, and he's able to slip inside the reach of the one coming for him before it can bring its arms to bear.  With a powerful uppercut, he hews the body of the robot apart into two sparking pieces.

Smoke Alarm's shot with her trusty arrowgun goes tried-and-true into the eye of the advancing cleaner, with a fizz of electricity.  It keeps coming, though, slashing at her with two pointy tentacle-arms -- but it swings wildly, losing track of Smoke, and she dodges past it.

When it makes its roll-and-flip, the cleaner's ruined eye swings back and forth, trying to pick her up.  Seeing its vulnerability, Sereth is able to move past the robot that he downed, slip past its defenses and disable it.

OOC:

The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 9 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 6,1. Attacking Smoke Alarm: Coordination(3) + Fighting(3) -4.
The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 16 using 2d6+5 with rolls of 5,6. Dodging Smoke Alarm: Coordination(3) + Awareness(4) -2.
The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 8 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 3,3. Attacking Sereth: Coordination(3) + Fighting(3) -4.
The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 8 using 2d6+4 with rolls of 3,1. Blocking Sereth: Strength(3) + Fighting(3) -2.

Smoke's arrowgun gets her to a +5 for its normal damage of 4.  Shooting the eyestalk does this damage to its Awareness, which is 4.  And I'm saying that the classic Aim For The Eyepiece! maneuver bypasses its Tough.

Blinded, it's going to be easy pickings.  Technically, I think Smoke should have to roll her defense, but I also think that with all her stuff she won't be able to miss a 9.

OOC: I couldn't even miss a 9, and she's better at avoiding hits than me.

Trav grimaces. "We need your help, Kuvas. Let's try this." Trav tries to route her Ipad into Kuvas' speech centers, so that his mental faculties can communicate text and image to them. There's a lot more going on here, and they need a better explanation. "They way we're going, this will take far too long."

OOC:Tech+Ingenuity+Sonic?

OOC: Go for it.  Call it Hard (18).

Getting it right in the picture-taker, Smoke cheered wildly then quickly fell back as the blinded spider-cleaner threw its feets overhead, doing the exact same tip-top move as she scrambled back.


OOC: Dodging with Kang Fu: 14
13:39, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 14 using 2d6+10 with rolls of 2,2. coordination(5) + fighting(3) + kang fu(2).

Continuing the tip-top move, Smoke Alarm flipped herself heels-over-head until she had her tummy flat to the ground — not prone but crouched low as a rat under the cleaner's tentacles. She was about to put another arrow in the cleaner's exhaust fan when Sereth got behind it and chopped it in half. She sprang back to her feet as the whole spider-cleaner hit the floor where she'd been with a crash and clatter. Smoke Alarm ran over and kicked it for good measure. Well, you never can tell.

'Told you I'd save you!' she crowed to Sereth, grinning widely with the excitement of breaking a cleaner, then looked appreciatively at his big knife. 'So that big kitchen knife does do something.'

He just shook his head quietly, shaking his head in disgust at them.

"It is not a kitchen knife. It is an important symbol; and I feel somewhat dirty using it to deal with such easy targets. Are the other two okay?"

So saying, he glanced about, making sure no more were coming.

'A cymbal? You bang it to make muzak?' Smoke Alarm inquired curiously, looking at Sereth's knife in a new light, as an amazing combination of weapon and tool and instrument. Mayhaps she could put strings on her arrowgun and make it a fiddle?

'Sound and safe they were, but they're getting the architect out of his mechinery chair. That'll be a hazard in tick-tocks, I know.' The Kang thought it was a bad idea, sure the architect Kuvas had a trick or a trap or else the cleaners did. And where was the Mailman? She'd rather smash all the puters and mechinery and make an exit with all speed.

OOC:09:55, Today: The Traveller rolled 28 using 2d6+16 with rolls of 6,6. Ingenuity 8+Technology 6+Sonic 2 - Trav arranges coms for chair bound guy.

Trav pops open a secondary panel in the back of his chair. "Hold on." The sonic whirrs. "I knew that sabotaging Davros' chair 4 times would eventually pay off. Design is way similar."

Their patient should now be able to clearly talk and send images through a protected channel on the Ipad.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:58, Thu 02 Oct 2014.

Even after the examination Stanley isn't completely convinced that getting Kuvas out unharmed is possible. There are an awful lot of unknowns and possible complications. Leaving Kuvas in the chair might be the best option, medically speaking, but Trav was adamant about not leaving him in there.

Even with Trav's help this is not going to be easy.

Stan sighs and looks at Trav, "It is not looking good...this is going to take a lot of time. We are going to have to find or make something that can provide power to the artificial organ units. We have to move those and the reservoir. Of course we need something to more permanently replace the chair and install Kuvas into it...I think we can do it...but not moving him is almost certainly going to be better for his health. Are you sure that that is not an alternative?"



"No signal? What does that mean? What signal?" Stanley frowns, trying to figure out what that signal could be. Kuvas had mentioned a signal before, sounding very concerned. He waits for Trav to finish messing with the chair, so that Kuvas can reply using the protected channel.


OOC:
Going to spend another SP.
23:51, Today: Stanley Newton rolled 14 using 4d6+8 with rolls of 2,1,2,1. Ingenuity(4)+Medicine(4)+2d6(SP).

Wow, some bad rolls :(

OOC: Can Trav donate a Story Point? I'm sitting on 5 of them right now.

Trav is still furiously working with Kuvas' chair. "Smoke, baby. How quickly can you hotfoot it back to the TARDIS? If we can't bring this fellow back to Sweet Boy, we can bring Sweet Boy here. No one gets left behind."

"Stan," she says grimly. "One extreme possibility is that we can perform a destructive download of his brain into some equipment that I have onboard the TARDIS. People are information. Also, with what I have onboard, we can grow him a new body. I think the Corsair would be good with that. But that's extreme." A pause as she finishes. "Can you do something for his pain?"

Sereth had made his disagreement with this trust plain from the outset, but he just smiled grimly at Smoke.

"Well, it'll be our job to make sure they're not disturbed then. Can you find a place to hide for yourself? I'd prefer if any future dangers only think it's me to worry about."

THen her other statements sunk in, and he shook his head. "Not cymbal. Symbol." A frown. "It.. represents who I am."

"Destructive download? That does sound pretty extreme." Stanley replies, in the meanwhile grabbing a syringe. "I think I can do something, assuming that he is human or biochemically close enough to human. I have to make a guess about the dosage, though."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:50, Thu 02 Oct 2014.

Borrowing the sonic from Trav, Stanley confirms that Kuvas' biochemistry is close enough to human that the usual pain medications should work.  After he administers the drug, Kuvas grows less agitated, though he seems slightly less alert.

As Trav finishes her adjustments to read Kuvas' speech impulses through the Ipad, the two of them hear it say.  "What...?  Oh."  Kuvas gives a little sigh, but it's not the desperation he was showing before.  The translated speech is deliberate and stilted, but not the struggle it was.  "Thank you. Stanley.  The signal."  Kuvas' expression grows a little more intense.  "It's the machine.  The one that made me part of it.  It was waiting.  Waiting to hear."  He gives a little wince.  "It had me finding things it needed.  It did not know about hiring people.  Agents.  Thieves.  It found that out from me."

He hesitates.  "It had me look for any thing that had to do with Time Lords.  It found one.  At last it had an answer from the person that was to fetch the thing for it.  Now it is sending a signal.  It is telling what it found."

OOC: Stanley, you can take back that last SP you spent.  Nor do you need Trav's help to salvage that roll.  I think I misled you in my OOC about what that Hard Medicine roll was supposed to be for: it was going to be for keeping Kuvas from having a medical crisis / getting a brain injury when you and Trav actually carry out some kind of transfer, and you haven't actually done that yet, so you can save that for when you and Trav figure out how to proceed.

Sereth (and Smoke Alarm, if he neglects to prevent it) are able to make a quick sweep of the local portion of the complex, at least as far as the areas holding atmosphere.  They find no more of the spider service robots, nor are any appearing on the scanner back in the control room.

Smoke Alarm raised a blue eyebrow to Sereth's explanation of the cymbal knife, rather confused. 'You're a big knife?'

After sweeping the carrydoors to lose-and-find there were no more cleaners, they tracked back to the hub. Smoke answered Traveller's question with 'I can track back to the talkiphone box in tick-tocks, peasy-easy.' confident as ever. But she found herself being overloaded with tasks. What it was to be Kang the Only. 'But Sereth wants to me to find a hide-in and keep outlook for more cleaners while he be's cleaner-bait.'

She outlooked to the architect in the chair, hearing him talk. The whole thing really creeped her out, made her skin creepy-crawl and her neck prickly cold. This was somewhere outside her knowhow, but she knew what the Great Architect had done to the Chief Caretaker, and what she knew was that it was all utterly wrong. 'Is he the Mailman?' she asked, rubbing her arm.

"The Mailman is the machine.  Or the Mailman is the face of the machine that talks to those who did its work out among the stars and the planets.  The machine used me to become the Mailman... I think... but I am not the Mailman.  I am Kuvas Mirn!"

He eyed Smoke Alarm for a moment.

"In a sense. I am my Emperor's, and through his, for now, the Traveller's sword. I do not like to descend into violence; but on occasion, there is no other recourse. And when it must be done, it is better be done fast, than slow."

He eyes the human? in the chair.

"What machine was it? An ordinary machine wouldn't have done that." He frowned. "What's going on here?"

He looked... well, he looked the same as always, most likely, except for a simmering anger behind his eyes. This was not combat. THis was not -honorable-. To trap someone like that, was -cowardly-.

"I do not know what the machine is or where it is from.  It is the machine that is rebuilding the whole of this place.  That made the transceiver array.  That caught me and made me part of it."  He pauses.  "It made me think for it.  It is still making me think for it."

"Yes, you are. I'm the Traveller, pleased to meet you, Kuvas Mirn. I'm glad to have given you a voice." She's immediately at work, tracking that signal. "Consider us the return to sender stamp."

Trav, as she is chatting, is working the system. Where is it all transmitting to? "Kuvas, I won't lie to you. It's hard to tell where the machine ends and where you begin. What do you wish, and how far do you want me to go? I have a responsibility to you, but I also have a respsonsibility to the world. I have to keep the secrets of my people safe. Do you know if this thing is transmitting what you know to anyone who is alive or active?"

Her mind is racing. If this machine is using Kuvas to think for it, maybe there's a way she can help Kuvas gain control.

OOC: Ingenuity+tech+sonic to map the network and find the transmitter and main logic core via Kuvas?
This message was last edited by the player at 05:17, Fri 03 Oct 2014.

"Please, do what you can for him."

Trav smiles as she is behind the chair, working, "The Sword of the Traveller? I am not worthy of that title. You are always the Sword of Draconia, and it's my privilege that you and Smoke Alarm are both here. I'm not worthy of two people as brave as you two."

Trav looks helpless. "You see, I'm afraid that if I block the network's mental interface from Kuvas, I may kill him. What is controlling him is also keeping him alive." She seems like she's being faced with an impossible choice.

Trav is working furiously to map the place's network.

"So, I have a plan. First, I am transmitting some instructions to both of your phones. There's a map - I'm tracking down two places. First will be whatever this place is using as a transmitter. That has to be disabled. The second is the master logic core that is in control of this place, if it matches the layout of most Dalek factories. That has to be destroyed. As it will take me hours to get Kuvas out of his chair, I think the wisest thing to do is for me to get with the two of you, stop by the TARDIS quickly and jam the transmissions that this place is making, do a quick hop and destroy the transmitter, and then hop again and destroy the main core. I'd feel most comfortable leaving Sereth back here with Stan and Kuvas and have me and Smoke destroy this places master system, but I am open to ideas - that is, if I can find it."

"But, Kuvas, this is all impossibly dangerous. This all depends on what you want. It seems as if you have a measure of free will. I'm not sure that we can get this done in time."

She taps into her phone keypad - a quick signal to the TARDIS - she's having Chibi jam whatever signals she can detect from the transmitter array that Kuvas described. Whatever was being transmitted was not getting off of this platform.

"Kuvas. What do you wish for us to do?"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:29, Fri 03 Oct 2014.

"This place is a Dalek factory, most likely from the Time War. This place needed a sentient mind - so this man was forced to think and plot against his will."

"I am -always- the Sword of Draconia. But I am currently loan." A slight smirk.

When she described her plan, he listened intently.

"I am of two minds. On the one hand, if they figure out what you're doing they'll be coming after you. You have a stated ideal, one which I heartily applaud and endorse, of non-violence. Do you have a plan for if/when they come after you?" He then sighed. "However, Stan must be able to work unmolested, and the other option might be to go after him. On balance, your plan seems wise."

He then turned to Smoke.

"Smoke. Look after her. Look after as only a Draconian could." He breathed deeply. "In my absence, you are her protector. In my absence, you represent me. I cannot make you a knight of Draconia; but until I rejoin you, you are as good as that." He then turned away, and focused his eyes on Stanley.

"You're great, baby. He was the mailman, but not any more. He needs our help."

'Okay.' Smoke Alarm outlooked at Kuvas in a new light, sympathetic to his plight, realising he wasn't the great architect of all this after all. She thought of Kangs in bins and Rezzies down chutes, all made unalive to feed the hungry architect in the basement, all because he needed bodies to put his brain in. 'Like lots of friends of mine, the cleaners took you to the cleaners and recycled you. I'm sorry.' she murmured at his grisly face. But she remained puzzled. 'Seems like a lot of to-do just to deliver some letters.'

She listened closely to Traveller's plans, and then to Sereth's words. He didn't need to tell her to outlook after Traveller, she'd do that anyway, and almost complained that she was brave and bold and didn't need to be told what to do. But this seemed very important to him, like all that stuff about being a sword. She nodded solemnly to the egg-head. 'Okay. I'll outlook like a dragonian and I'll outlook like a Kang too. I'll be brave and bold as a Kang could be, and be a fast sword like a night on dragonia.' she vowed. 'And I want you to be brave and bold as a Kang should be. And knowhow to run away.' she returned in kind. Brave Kangs knew when to fight and when to run away. Scaredy cats didn't know the difference.

'Build high for happiness.' she said to Sereth and Stan with the building-hands, toss-over-the-shoulder gesture.

OOC: I'm out of time this morning so I'll have to respond to all this later; in the meantime this is a reasonable roll.

OOC:13:38, Today: The Traveller rolled 23 using 2d6+16 with rolls of 5,2. Map Kuvas's Network - Ingenuity+Tech+Sonic.

Stanley monitors Kuvas a while for any other side-effects. The reduced alertness is a common side-effect and not something to be worried about.

Stanley listens to Trav's plan and Sereth's comments. "I agree, it sounds like a good plan. Also, I am sure that both Kuvas and I feel a lot safer knowing that Sereth is here to guard us."

"If all you could do is to stop the pain, stop the pain once and finally, I would be content and I would not blame you," he says.  "If there is some thing more that you think you can do for me, I would take the risk that it would fail.  I do not think the machine's plans can be allowed and I would accept what you chose to do to stop them.  As long as you promised that, if there was to be pain, that it would end."

Trav's scan with the sonic finds the two locations she's looking for.  The source of the transmission is easiest to find: there is a junction station driving all of the massive pylons, which are currently beaming out an intense data stream.  This is in a building on the surface in the middle of the big array.  There doesn't seem to be any atmosphere there.

The master control signals appear to be coming from a location about fifty meters directly below the control room.  Trav's scan doesn't make it clear that there is a route down there, but there does appear to be some empty space around the equipment generating the signal, enough to get the TARDIS into at least.

Trav's phone beeps at her.  A picture of her Chibi-agent appears.

"Boss!" it chirps.  "Jamming the output from the pylons is taking a serious fraction of the power I've got to use on it!  And there's worse!"

A profile of the transmission signature shows on the phone.  It shows that the artron flux from the signal is now indicating trans-temporal transmission to multiple locations and time zones.

"FUCK. Stanley, we need to put him to sleep, NOW. Sorry, Kuvas! We'll get you out, I promise." Trav knows Dalek code - using some code she personally stole from Dalek Emperor himself, she inputs a priority command that all data transmission is to cease at once, by the highest Dalek directive. She doesn't expect it to hold, it's to buy them time. "It's making the mailman deliver Time Lord secrets across time and space! We need to stop the signal!"
OOC:22:37, Today: The Traveller rolled 29 using 4d6+16 with rolls of 1,2,6,4. Ingenuity 8+Technology 6+Sonic 2+Sonic Story Point - Temporarily Jam The Signal!

Once Trav inputs the code, for better or for worse, she dashes as fast as she can for the TARDIS!
This message was last edited by the player at 02:40, Sat 04 Oct 2014.

Kuvas relaxes and his eyes close.  By now Stanley has figured out what most of the monitors on the machinery mean by comparing them with his own medical observations, and they're showing that Kuvas is still stable, but with the mental interface shut down, he has gone dormant.

With that done, the readouts Trav is seeing about the TARDIS's signal jamming indicate that the transmissions are being blocked, for now -- the pylons are still at full strength, but the TARDIS systems are better able to cope now that the Mailman's adaptive encryption measures are no longer nearly as effective.

The TARDIS logs have captured a list of space/time coordinates where the signal has already been beamed.  Whether there is anything at any of those locations to receive it, Trav has no real idea.

OOC: The Guardian, for the NPC The Mailman, rolled 20 using 2d6+16 with rolls of 2,2. Sending the signal: Strength(8) + Technology(6) + Technically Adept(2).

(Strength in this case reflects the power output the Mailman is capable of using.  It's a lot.)

That 9+ success also gets you the destination coordinates.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:30, Sat 04 Oct 2014.

'What?!' Smoke Alarm exclaimed in shock, despite not knowing the importance of these Time Lord secrets. Beside, Traveller had shouted a Bad Word. 'I knew we should have brung a dog!'

Remembering her vow to outlook for the Traveller, and how hard that was since she keep running off without her, Smoke Alarm hared off after her, soon overtaking and footing it ahead to the talkiphone box with all speed. She dove in through the doors, shooed an Us into its hide-in, then outlooked as Traveller got down to work.

Once inside, Trav immediately starts twisting handles and throwing down levers.
"This place was stealing secrets of my people. Like, how to make talkiphone boxes, maybe. Terrible things that were used during the war. Who knows what. My people did bad things during the war, Smoke - I did bad things for them. I'm responsible." Her skin crawled at admitting that, but she wouldn't back away at what she did as the Marshall. "I won't see those things hurt anyone. We need to see that the war ends, for good. I locked up the war before I went away, Smoke. Someone is trying to unlock what's left of it. It was all nightmares. I can't have that happen again."

She throws down the lever, trying to accurately jump that 50 feet.

OOC: Trav will wait long enough for anyone who wants to come, and then slam down the lever. Coordination+Transport+Old Tardis?

OOC: Ingenuity + Transport... I think Old TARDIS isn't a numeric adjustment, just determines what you get to build into it.  Make it a Hard because you're making a very short jump into a limited space.

OOC: OK, time to drop in one of my personal Story Points, the one I got back from Stan. it's about that time. Ingenuity+Transport.
01:44, Today: The Traveller rolled 25 using 4d6+12 with rolls of 4,3,5,1. 2d6+Ingenuity 8+Transport 4+Story Point 2d6.

This message was last edited by the player at 05:44, Sat 04 Oct 2014.

More shoplifters? Smoke Alarm wondered at Traveller's words. How does a tower shoplift? But Traveller's next words stirred up the dust in her brain, all her talk of war and bad things scavenging through her rememories, of the hungry times, the to-do times, and of before time started. 'I done bad things too.' Smoke Alarm admitted quietly, kicking at the floor. She felt unbold to say it aloud, she didn't even have the knowhow of it, only Rezzies and red paint and a hole deep inside and why she preferred her arrowgun to the kitchen knife. 'I spose that's what Wars make people do.'

She looked up, curious as a cat, at Traveller's last words, impressed. 'You can lock up a war? And unlock one too?' The old ones said the Inbetweens had gone off to a war. Maybe a war was a place locked away behind a door somewhere, and if the door was unlocked everyone could come back together and put the world to rights.

The TARDIS materializes within a circular chamber about twenty feet high and little more than that across.  There is a column of complicated electronics running from floor to ceiling in the middle of the area, and the walls are likewise festooned with equipment; a complicated pattern of cables reaches out from the column to the walls.

Crawling in and over the walls and the cables are another pair of the service spiders.  Their eyestalks focus on the door of the TARDIS as it opens.

Stanley takes a last look at the monitors, before sitting down. Even though Kuvas is currently dormant, his condition could change, so he has to stay here.

"Good luck!" he says to Trav and Smoke as they leave.

''Ware cleaners!' Smoke Alarm told Traveller, diving through the opening doors first. The Kang tucked and rolled to dodge the cleaners' ray-guns, then landing on her feet she pointed her arrowgun at the nearest cleaner. She took but a tick-tock to aim, the whole world loitering around her. Just like bullseyeing womp rats in Beggar's Alley back home... She fired, sending a reinforced 2B pencil fitted with a shard of sharpened steel and pigeon-feather fletchings arcing across the chamber and right for the cleaner's eyepiece.


OOC: Fighters turn.
First action, dodge as required: 14
15:11, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 15 using 2d6+10 with rolls of 3,2. coordination(5) + fighting(3) + kang fu(2)

Second action, aim for the eyepiece! 18 (including −2 for second action)
15:06, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 20 using 2d6+12 with rolls of 2,6. coordination(5) + marksman(3) + crackshot(2) + crossbow(2)

Trav snaps her fedora, and now it is blue, with a darker blue hat band, matching Smoke's colors. "Eyespying and outgoing. Brave and bold as a Kang should be!" The two pistols VREEM up, and she could think of no one else she's rather have at her side right now - although several she wish were also here.

Trav opens fire, both guns blazing, as Smoke ducks and rolls! Her turbopistols lance out in ionic fury!
14:32, Today: The Traveller rolled 11 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 3,1. Coordination 4+Fighting 1+Indomnitable 2 - Dodge roll and Trav looks bad ass!
14:34, Tue 07 Oct 2014: The Traveller rolled 26 using 4d6+7 ((4,5,4,6)) - Trav has both guns blazing!

The robots spring forward, one at each of the travellers.

Trav's guns catch the leaping spider-bot at point-blank range.  Its central body is shredded by the blast, but Trav is caught by its lashing tentacles as the robot's momentum carries it straight into her.  As she picks herself up, she sees that she has a few painful lacerations on her forearms.

Smoke Alarm jumps and rolls nimbly aside as the second spider-bot leaps down and scuttles for her.  She puts the bolt squarely into its eyepiece as if she's been dogs-eyeing these things all her life.  It clatters past her, smacks into the instrumentation on the wall, then backs up and turns around, trying to find a target.

OOC: The robots attack first, dodge second: they're aggressive here in the brainquarters.

-12 Dodge on Trav: Fantastic hit for Trav

-7 Dodge on Smoke: Good hit for Smoke.  As before, the combination is good enough to blind the robot.  The pair of you can either put it out of action harmlessly, or perhaps find some other use for it -- it's intact except for the eyestalk.

+2 Attack on Trav: Minor hit: Damage is 3 (Strength) + 2 (Sharp tentacle) halved, rounding down to 2.  Put 1 damage each against Strength and Coordination.

-1 Attack on Smoke: Miss

The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 12 using 2d6+5 with rolls of 2,5. Dodging Trav: Coordination(3) + Awareness(4) -2.
The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 12 using 2d6+5 with rolls of 1,6. Dodging Smoke Alarm: Coordination(3) + Awareness(4) -2.
The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 14 using 2d6+6 with rolls of 3,5. Attacking Smoke Alarm: Coordination(3) + Fighting(3).
The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 13 using 2d6+6 with rolls of 4,3. Attacking Trav: Coordination(3) + Fighting(3).
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:02, Tue 07 Oct 2014.

With the blinded cleaner going all marco-polo, Smoke Alarm outlooked back at Traveller as the other broken cleaner crashed into her. 'Trav!' she cried in alarm as it left red paint on her arms, but it didn't outlook too bad. The noise only made the cleaner outlook at her, so Smoke stayed quiet and scampered away. She put a finger to her lips, then loaded a new bolt to her arrowgun; this one used to be a screwdriver.


OOC: I should probably reload my crossbow. So, move and do this round.

Trav winces as she takes long scratches up her arm - nothing too serious. "I'm OK." One pistol gets holstered while she drops a cartridge out of the other one and reloads. In her other hand comes the sonic. Finding the master control nexus, she points the direction. "That way." She runs forward, counting on Smoke to watch her back.

There's not very far to go to reach the control nexus.  As Trav gives the processing system a thorough scan, she finds all the unmistakable hallmarks of Dalek design, but it's at a very primitive level of mental activity even for a Dalek battle computer, and far less than a living Dalek or a Cyber-planner -- possibly not even sentient at all.

The blinded spider-bot continues to try to track the two, but now it's proceeding with its left side feeling out to trace its way along the wall.  After Smoke Alarm has reloaded, it's still working to get its bearings.

'But the cleaner?' Smoke began as Traveller footed off. Even damaged, they couldn't leave it behind them, between them and the talkiphone box. The Kang sighed and footed up to the blinded cleaner, deciding to finish it off and taking the opportunity to look for an exhaust vent, plug hole, or disk drive she could shoot. She aimed and fired the screwdriver into it, but mayhaps this was too easy a target for the Kang.


OOC: Finishing off the robot, attack 15. If Smoke can't see a weak point for Crack Shot, then make it 13. Damage is 2/4/6.
14:30, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 15 using 2d6+12 with rolls of 1,2. coordination(5) + marksman(3) + crackshot(2) + crossbow(2).

Smoke Alarm's bolt smacks neatly into the rear of the spider-robot's brain-case, but it goes zinging harmlessly off the robot's metal hide.  Given such a clear indication of Smoke Alarm's probable location, the robot reverses direction and heads straight toward her!

OOC:

The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 10 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 2,5. Dodging Smoke Alarm: Coordination(3) + Awareness(0).

I'm going to say that unlike the eyestalk, there's no particular trick shot you can identify on the blinded cleaner.  So it's a minor hit, and unfortunately the robot's Tough shielding defeats it.

The robot is going to try attacking you on the next turn, though it will get a penalty for not being able to see.

"Crap! Missed it!" Trav swings around, hoping to get a shot off at the robot. "Sorry, babe!"

Trav takes a shot at the remaining robot.
09:47, Today: The Traveller rolled 15 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 6,2. Coordination 4+Marksman 3+Turbopistols 2 - Shoot at last robot.

Clang! Smoke Alarm was a little disappointed; she'd have done better to use the screwdriver to undo the screws. She backed away, ducking tentacles and skipping back, playing keep-away from the cleaner, blinds man bluffing, or marco-polo, or something!

Eyespying Traveller comeout behind, the Kang jumped left, turning the cleaner about and putting it between her and Traveller, and its backside right in line with her zap-guns!


OOC: Dodging with a side-order of trying to set-up a shot for Traveller, so cooperating to give Trav a +2.
23:05, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 16 using 2d6+10 with rolls of 1,5. coordination(5) + fighting(3) + kang fu(2).

As Smoke Alarm decoys the robot, it leaves itself wide open to Trav's fire.  The central body of the robot shudders and sparks, and the machine goes limp.

Now the central processing core is quiet except for the hum of ventilation fans.

OOC:
It gave it a shot, but against a total of 17 it's toast.

The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 11 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 4,6. Dodging Trav: Coordination(3) + Awareness(0) -2.
The Guardian, for the NPC Spider Robot, rolled 11 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 6,2. Attacking Smoke Alarm: Coordination(3) + Fighting(3) -3 (blind).

Trav marches over to the main data core. She scans it, first for booby traps and such. Then, she gets to work, breaking out her other tools. She uses her sonic to emulate a Dalek data probe, taking command of the entire structure in the same brutal way Davros himself would. "Smoke, I'm going to try to free Kuvas. But more cleaners may be coming. Can you please watch my back? She smiles back at the girl - not so innocent as she seems. But that's fine.As Davros would simply engage command protocols to have Kuvas released and kept alive for study.

"Davros" issues this command - there has been a security breach! Secure Dalek data is being broadcast - all communications will now cease! The organic factor will be safely release for later examination, while all systems are to immediately shut down, and all security units are to remain at their positions! There is to be no questioning, but obedience! Trav is even considering spoofing the old bastard's voice.

Trav hopes this isn't an installation from one of the Dalek civil wars. But on the other have, that three eyed trogolodyte always left himself back doors and override protocols.

OOC: What rolls do you need? I have 3 SP left.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:11, Fri 26 Aug 2022.

OOC: If you actually want to try to BS the system by imitating Davros, that's a heck of a lot more entertaining than just sonic'ing the damn thing to me.  So if you like you can roll Presence + Knowledge and add a free Story Point.

Mind, you may freak the hell out of Smoke while you're doing it.

Smoke Alarm whooped as the cleaner was broken, jumping up and down in glee. She footed off to retrieve her missed bolt, then tracked back to inspect the cleaner's smoking wreckage, poking it with the old screwdriver and outlooking for some other weak point on the small, boxy body. But apart from the spy-stalk, there was none. Mayhaps next time she could shoot out the hinges on all those legs?

Following Traveller again, Smoke nodded. 'I'll keep outlook.' she promised, then found a good outlook-in while she loitered as Traveller worked, quietly reloading her arrowgun. This tower was strange, it made her skin creepy-crawly. All cleaners and mechinery and puters. Not a home-sweet-home for people, only the unalive and architects.

Trav is working frantically. "Smoke, sweety, I'm going to be sounding like someone very bad. Don't be frightened, OK?" She is working her Ipad so that the system will percieve with it's sensors instead of Trav, the infamous Davros and a group of Bronze Daleks from the Time War.

Trav ahems. If nothing else, she knows she could the old bastard's cadence down. She begins by downloading his authorization protocols.

"STATION, REPORT. IDENTIFY, IMMEDIATELY! DEACTIVATE ALL DRONES AND REPORT ON ALL ACTIVITIES FOR THE LAST 1000 RELS!" Modulated by her Ipad through a throat mike she had in her bag, it comes out as something of a shock!

22:47, Today: The Traveller rolled 30 using 4d6+13 with rolls of 6,4,4,3. Presence 3+Knowledge 6+Voice of Authority 2 (It's Davros)+Indomnitable 2 (C'mon It's Davros)+free SP.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:48, Thu 09 Oct 2014.

Curious, Smoke Alarm outlooked as Traveller said she'd be changing her voice, but wasn't prepared for what came out. Brave and bold, she wasn't frightened by it. Instead, at the eyespy of Traveller making bizarre mechinery talk, Smoke burst into raucous giggles.

Back in the control room and down in the processing core, there's an audible kchunk, and the power output that has been making the whole place thrum starts to cycle down to a more placid background level.  Sereth and Stanley see that panels all over the control room start to change their readings, and by checking a few of the monitors that Trav pointed out before she left with Smoke Alarm, Sereth is able to work out that the big transmitter array is powering off.

Stanley is startled when the support unit holding Kuvas makes some electronic noises and the monitor panels there change.  With a click and a hiss the probes retract from the sockets in Kuvas' head.  Stanley is relieved to see that the equipment appears to be maintaining Kuvas' basic life support.

The unit down in the processing core starts to disgorge data, which Trav hurriedly starts picking up with her iPad.  She sees that there is a good bit of information on operations being conducted remotely by "The Mailman" in a similar manner to the way it worked with Kellnar.  A lot of the nature of these tasks and jobs is obscure -- for example, it is carrying out a great volume of perfectly legitimate stock and futures trading to amass wealth to finance more "speculative" goals like hiring Kellnar.

Analysis of the bogus sample sent back by Trav via the jump capsule seems to have identified it as non-Gallifreyan, but it appears that the mere fact of its arrival engaged a set of protocols to broadcast the fact to numerous sets of space-time coordinates.  It appears not to have passed on details of the sample, but a warning of suspicious activity.

Continuing in Davros' voice - "EXCELLENT. THIS INTELLIGENCE WILL BE MOST USEFUL IN OUR ONGOING CONFLICT WITH THE TIME LORDS. THE ORGANIC SUBJECT IS TO BE DISENGAGED COMPLETELY AND REMOVED INTACT FOR MY PERSONAL EXAMINATION, AFTERWICH ALL DALEKS WILL TEMPORALLY SHIFT AMD RELOCATE TO PRIOR TEMPORAL RENDESVOUZ COORDINATES. THIS INSTALLATION WILL SHUT DOWN COMPLETELY EXCEPT FOR MINIMAL POWER, AND AWAIT FURTHER ORDERS. I MAY HAVE USES FOR THIS INSTALLATION IN THE FUTURE." A chorus of Dalek voices croaks back, "WE OBEY! WE OBEY! CARRY OUT DIRECTIVES IMMEDIATELY!"

Trav feels a certain kind of sick, like she wants to clean out her esophagus with lye. "Smoke, Davros was the most horrible and unfunny person I ever met."

Phone Text - Stan, let me know when you get Kuvas removed. Get him back to the TARDIS ASAP. Once you're all in, I'm blowing this place.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:51, Thu 09 Oct 2014.

"Okay..." Stanley quickly checks the monitoring equipment to look for any drastic change in Kuvas' situation. "The patient is still stable, that's fantastic news. Now that the probes are gone we can move him. We probably should move him, because I don't know how long these systems can keep him like this. There are just a few things I have to do before we can actually move him."



"Oh?" Stanley looks at his phone. "A text from Trav, she says she is going to blow this place up. She is just waiting for us to move Kuvas to the Tardis."

Stanley hurries to get Kuvas ready for transport, making sure that aren't any stray tubes or wires still connected.

"Sereth, could you give me hand?"

OOC:
Transfer time? I don't know if you want me to use the previous roll (14) or do a new roll.
23:45, Today: Stanley Newton rolled 22 using 4d6+8 with rolls of 5,5,1,3. Ingenuity(4)+Medicine(4)+2d6(SP). .

SP: 5 left
 

Stanley starts working on getting the life support system safely disengaged from the surrounding machinery and stabilizing Kuvas for transport.  As he'd largely worked out before, the systems aren't meant to operate independently of the associated power and nutrient supplies or waste removal, so he's going to be dependent on hooking up to corresponding systems on the TARDIS.  However, in the time he's been waiting for Trav, he has been able to get a good idea of how to cushion the metabolic shock of shutting down the machines and physically moving Kuvas, and some of the pharmaceutical knowledge and supplies that he has picked up in his time learning from Amanda have turned out to be very useful.

In about a half hour, when he's ready to disengage everything, the TARDIS materializes back inside the control room proper.  Stanley and Sereth begin the process of transferring Kuvas over.  Now if Trav just has everything ready....

OOC:

Stanley's roll handles his part of the job with a Good success, per the TN from message #142.  Now Trav needs to roll Ingenuity + Technology per that message.  We can assume that Trav can navigate back okay, and has used her steal-a-little-time trick to get the necessary equipment set up.  So she can use the Research Capsule bonus.

Unless she fails the roll, you can move Kuvas while keeping him no worse off than he is now.

'That's why we should laugh at him.' Smoke Alarm told Traveller, though she had to admit privately that the cosplay was beginning to make her feel all creepy-crawly, reminding her of the Great Architect in the Chief Caretaker. Unalive and mean and uncaring of people. She didn't think she wanted to meet this Davross. 'Can we backtrack now?'

Trav keeps skimming the data on the iPad while she works on setting up the TARDIS medbay facilities.  A lot of the time-space interstices where the seed factory was transmitting are likely to be safe: the Skaro Davrosphere* was a cinder vanishing into a singularity the last she saw it, for example.  Several of the locations that the iPad converts for her are disturbing, though:

55 CANCRI THREE, HUMANIAN EPOCH, FIRST INTERSTELLAR AGE, MOON OF STORMS
EARTH, EOCENE EPOCH, SOLAR MAXIMUM AGE, WEST AUSTRALIA REGION
EARTH, HOLOCENE EPOCH, HUMAN PRE-INDUSTRIAL AGE, EAST ASIA REGION

* Like a Dyson Sphere.  Except for the obvious

"You know, Smoke, you're right. Ahem. I hope I never have to do that again. Hah, I did laugh at him quite a bit. That despicable troll!" That's what Trav always called him - in her smooth New England accent, as the girlish 2nd Traveller, and as the imperious Marshall. "Looks like we get the last laugh. He'd be furious that we used his voice and codes to save someone. Great work, Smoke, thank you!"

Then, she trots down to the infirmary. It's not that big, and is attached to a much larger sciences lab, but it has a collection of medical equipment from across time and space, including a full operating theater (research capsule, pockets). Trav works to assist Stanley in treating Kuvas, especially making sure that he has not been psychically, genetically or even quantumly compromised by Dalek technology. In fact, she assists Stan in placing him in isolation, since she needs to make sure he isn't carrying any Dalek nanotechnology or bioweapons. She's also working to make the poor man as comfortable as possible.

OOC: 01:28, Today: The Traveller rolled 22 using 2d6+14 with rolls of 4,4. Ingenuity 8+Technology 6 - Get TARDIS ready for Kuvas.

'Of course I am! Meany-heads are all just cowardly cutlets in the centre.' Smoke Alarm said wisely. She backtracked to talkiphone box, with a few more wary eyespies at the broken cleaners left along the way. Then, while Traveller and Stan shifted Kuvas the mechinery man, she loitered outside, keeping outlook for more spider-cleaners.

Finding a hideously blank wall in the old building, Smoke Alarm got her paints out and started to wallscrawl. She painted stark lines and vivid colours, in a child-like style but reminiscent of the most ancient cave-art. She drew a spider-cleaner, its eyespy-stalk and stabby tentacles dripping with red paint picked out clearly. She also drew the along-walls eyespy-stalk and zap-guns. These were all obvious hazard signs for future visitors to this nasty place. Then she added Traveller with her zap-guns, Sereth with his sword, and herself with her arrowgun, attacking the cleaners just like they had. She even drew an arrow to the hair-con ducks, showing they were safe hide-ins and unseen in-ways, a picture of Kuvas in the mechinery, and left a little talkiphone box to show they come-out. All this show-and-telled what they had done and show-and-telled visitors how they could break the cleaners. Thus Smoke Alarm left wisdom on the walls for future Kangs who might comeout this way, and she show-and-telled their story. Through her wallscrawl, she might never be made unalive.

Trav and Stanley finish getting Kuvas' support system set up in the infirmary.  When they power everything on and bring him back to awareness, Stanley goes through his vital signs, which look to be acceptable, and starts to run him through a series of basic cognition tests.  Kuvas seems to be finding it easier to speak and respond to his environment than he did when he was hooked up with the mental probes.

"It does not hurt so much as it did," he says.  "It is only... numb.  Thank you.  But...."  He looks troubled, and Stanley even thinks that's a bit of a good sign; Kuvas was not so expressive before.  "What do you mean to do with me now?"

Trav smiles. "I'm not sure. First, we help you recover, or get you to a place that can get you treatment. Also, I'd like to learn more about you and how you fell into that horrible place. That node was setting up some sophisticated operations - I was going to take some of those funds and set them aside for you. It seems the least that you deserve." She pulls up a chair next to the frame where he rests.

"After that, that's up to you. Do you have any family or loved ones? I'd like to see you live as good a life as you can. I went through an experience somewhat like what you went through, and being with my family helped me recover. We can take you anywhere you need to go."

"Stan, what would you recommend for an initial treatment plan?"

As Trav says this, she already has Chibi tracking down the operations of the Mailman, quietly seizing control of the various relationships, databases, communications and accounts that the seed factory was using Kuvas for.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:30, Sat 11 Oct 2014.

Stanley is really glad that the transfer was successful and that Kuvas seems better off than before. "Well, the tests all indicate a successful transfer, so first of all congratulations. Obviously, your condition needs to be closely monitored and you'll have to take some drugs to help your body to better adjust to the new situation. The transfer has been quite a shock for your body and so your chemical balance needs some fine-tuning. Some more permanent alternatives have to be found for some of the fluid filtering machinery and some other small things, but that's nothing to worry about for now."

"So my plan would be to first let you rest for a bit and monitor how your body reacts to the new filtering and feedback systems. Then replace the parts Trav improvised together with more standard and durable alternatives. I don't think I have the exact expertise to do that correctly, so we'll have to find a hospital or somewhere where they know how to do this and get their hands on standard artificial organs."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:56, Sat 11 Oct 2014.

Kuvas gives a long and halting story about being sent into the 185224-995482 system to do a salvage survey on the mining base: from what you gather, he was a reclamation engineer working for a company that had bought exploitation rights to the system and was investigating the base, which apparently was much older.

When Trav looks into the records of the Mailman's activities, she finds that it has been operating for hundreds of years, and actually acquired and dissolved Kuvas' employer, hiring operatives from other systems to destroy the company's records of title.

Kuvas apparently did not have any close living family; when he makes an effort to explain his background, Trav finds that he's probably about eighty years out of date.

Trav is also attempting to date The Mailman. There have been literally thousands of Dalek empires. Most of them were erased from history by The Moment, and then locked out of history by the Time Lock. It was a one-two punch that made both the Time Lords and the Daleks nothing but half remembered phantoms and legends. Normally, the Mailman would have been able to create Dalek embryos from the likes of Kuvas. But with the entire history of that malevolent species erased and the universe repaired by the amazing work of the Moment, Trav couldn't help but marvel at the work of her ancient forebearers.

Still, even Omega's work wasn't fool proof, and this looked like a leak. Trav consider herself morally and ethically bound to keep the universe safe while she was still here.

Stan can actually find her with a long leather bracer, cycling through records. Unlike most of her gear on the TARDIS, it's a sleek design, and it looks new. She seems to be downloading some records into her Ipad. Trav fans can recognize the device as the Marshall's Time Ring.

"Ya know, Stan? The worst thing about the Daleks and Time Travel is that they suck the fun out of everything. We should be riding with Paul Revere or something. Oh man, Paulie, what a crush I had on him. But here I am, cleaning up after those one eyed fuckers. Even dead, they're messing up my life. Heh. But hey, I am really glad they're all gone."

As a pre-scripted routine starts to index the technology they found on that station against what Dalek technology Trav has encounted in the past, through a holo display above the TARDIS display panel, Trav opines, "everyone was so beautiful there. I was actually really scared it would be Relnax all over again." A scutter comes over with some coffee. "Thank you, baby."

"I think the best place to drop Kuvas off may be a hospital on New Earth. It's high uptime, and I think they may have the expertise to deal with Kuvas' unique situation."

"Yeah... I am glad I never met them. Seeing what they have done to Kuvas is enough for me. Technologically and biologically quite the achievement, but it wasn't done to help him, you know? It is not even some sort of cyborg augmentation, they just changed him for their own purposes. In my opinion he was treated like a part of a machine, not like a sentient human being. I'm sure that I'm not telling you something you didn't already know..."

Stanley pauses.

"I heard the anger and fear in your voice when we saw the robots and again when we found Kuvas. The way you react and what they did to Kuvas tells me a lot about what sort of creatures they were. So yeah I am also glad they are gone." Stanley shakes his head, as if to dismiss his current train of thought. He points at Trav's injured arm. "How's your arm? Want me to take a look at it?"



"Okay...I can't really recommend any hospital for a situation like this, so I'll trust your judgement." Stanley says with a smile. "New Earth sounds futuristic enough."

Trav ohs, and takes off her jacket. She hadn't even noticed she had been hurt.

As she rolls up her arms and allows Stan to treat her, she demurs, "The Daleks." There's a pregnant silence. "They cost me *everything*." There's not even any anger in her voice, but moreso just deep sadness and regret. "There's not much more to say." A pause. She sit at the table next to the seats near the control console, the time rotor thrumming in the darkness of the control room, powered down for night cycle.

"You already know parts of it. What else do you want to know?", she whispers.

All she can do is sit there, looking wounded and tired.

Trav is having a hard time deciding whether the "Mailman" seed factory is likely to be a relic of the Time War, or some piece of flotsam that dates from before then in the relative Dalek timeline.  She's very much afraid it could be the former, however.  Even though the technology is not highly sophisticated, it's also true that the capabilities of both the Daleks and her own people fluctuated back and forth as one side or the other gained the upper hand, and became able to undermine the timestream of the opposing party.

It's highly suspicious to her, for example, that this seed factory would have been sent out and co-opted the pre-existing facility in the pre-War heyday of the Daleks.  Back then, she would have expected to find a team of engineers on hand to supervise operations.  This smells like a device fired off in a desperate bid to collect resources and build up the empire when almost every living Dalek was embroiled in the struggle.

Stanley quietly looks at and treats the long scratches on Trav's arms. "Nasty looking scratches, but nothing serious."



Stanley has to think about that. "You don't have to talk about them if you don't want to. I think I know enough, at least I know your side of the story, but there is one thing I was wondering about. You say that they're all gone, but how does that work when there is time travel involved? Couldn't we just travel back to before they were...er...neutralised. Not that I want to meet them, obviously, I was just wondering."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 22:14, Tue 14 Oct 2014.

"Well... I betrayed my people, essentially." Her eyes grow far away. "You know the guy who Smoke and I occasionally talk about? Who Sereth talks about like this almost demi-god? The Doctor? Well, he wasn't a demi-god, but he was amazing." She pauses. "He... he refused to participate in the war. Me? Well, you know that story. The Daleks got me, and did to me what they did to Kuvas, but proactively. They not only did... physical things to me, but they made me watch as they changed civilizations, warped and destroyed histories... undid a lot of my good work. They took special care to never coerce me, but they did everything to break my spirit. You see, the Doctor and I were engaged in a war of ideals with them as much as we were engaged a war a physical conflict."

As she holds the arm that Stanley has bandaged up, she leans back in her chair. "And they did it. They -did it-. I regenerated into The Marshall. I became, essentially, a Gallifreyan Dalek. Oh, I hated the Daleks. Of course I did. But Daleks, when no one else opposes them, always fall to fratricide. I did such *horrible things*, Stan, in the name of discipline and order, on the justification that the universe could not be trusted to govern itself. It took 100 years and three Time Lords, lead by the Doctor, to corner me and drag me back to Gallifrey. I cooled my heels for another 100 years in the Citadel. You see, my people would never stoop to something as barbaric as execution. No, Time Lords were imprisoned me and made me think hard about my crimes. And think I did - but mostly, I loathed myself."

She turns in her chair. "Then the war came. They released me. Romana herself came to my cell. She told me how bad it had become, and they had no idea how to fight against a species that knew and lived for nothing but warfare. I told them that having a girl sing at the Daleks wouldn't work like it did against the Zentraedi. Romana offered me my freedom, in exchange for the chance to kill as many Daleks as I could. I thought that my people had finally saw reason, but I was actually looking for a chance to commit suicide by Dalek."

"Of course, they had already resurrected Rassilon, and I saw them bring back the Master, the most evil Time Lord ever to live. I really didn't protest - things were that bad. I sent out the general recall signal to every single one of us who was wandering. There were quite a few who chose to have nothing to do with the War - Exeter, Parcella, Drax, Corsi, The Rani, and of course, The Doctor. Not to say that they weren't doing their thing."

"So. Early in my career I discovered this thing called the Time Lock. It's this equation - it was devised by Omega - one of our greatest. It was originally a safety measure. You see, we had this source of power called the Eye of Harmony. It used to power Sweet Boy, here. It was an artificially created black hole that was so tremendously powerful that it essentially conferred near absolute control over time and space. It powered our entire civilization, and it reached from the beginning to the end of time. When Rassilon - the founder of our society - and Omega created the Eye, the Time Lock was meant to be a safety back up that would kick in and protect the universe from the Eye if it went amuck and anything went wrong. Well, things didn't. So, it gets put away and forgotten. I come across it, but like a good girl I leave it alone in the vaults. During my Marshall days I entertain ideas about using it to blackmail the high council into a war with the Daleks, but when the Time War comes along, well, no need for that."

"I find the Doctor after a disaster on a place called Raxos. The Dalek Emperor had just seized something called the Cruciform. It would enable the Emperor to break past the Transduction Barrier which protected Gallifrey. In response, Rassilon was planning on destroying the material universe, although we weren't sure how. Things were rapidly reaching endgame. We had two cards left up our sleeves - the Time Lock, and a weapon called The Moment. I had been placed in charge of something called the Vault of Omega  - it was every doomsday weapon the Time Lords had ever devised. Except, however, I had been ordered to use all of them, except for the Moment. The Moment, you see, was a weapon capable of destroying selectively entire civilizations across an entire galaxy up and down the entire timeline from the beginning to the end of time, removing the offending civilizations entirely. It even had a failsafe - it had a conscience. It would only allow itself to be used by someone who it felt was a good person, using it for a good cause. So, that ruled me right out."

"So, I see no options. As Rassilon carries out his unanimous vote to destroy the cosmos, and as the Daleks break through, I pass to the Doctor The Moment, and my Exigents cover for my as I make my way down to the Eye of Harmony, and I engage it to work the final calculations to activate the Time Lock. I and Romana had our last conversation then. She and Boobie kept calling me The Traveller, even though I clearly was not, then. I even had a plan to get some of the Gallifreyan civilians out with some Arks. I have no idea if it even worked. I've seen no sign of them, so, probably not."

"The Doctor tells me that he'd like his hat back, and to indulge him, just this once. To honor a dead man's last wish, I make my way back to Sweet Boy. Still had my key. Once I get inside, the door sequence locks and the time rotor starts. That old bastard explains that he's sending me off to a paralell universe that I had visited earlier in my career, back when I was good - one with magic and wizards and mutants and giant robots - no, not the one with the transforming jet planes - and I'm crying like a girl and banging my fists on the control console and demanding that I die with him. As Sweet Boy goes hurtling into the CVE, I see the Lock activate and something happens - fire and power and time screaming - the Moment, obviously. The last I see of him is him regenerating. Northern england accent, big ears."

Tears stream down her face. "I wind up in R space. I end up regenerating as a baby, and an old magician friend of mine puts me up with a human family. I grow up as Louise. I have adventures, meet a great guy, fight the Coalition, have kids, have an amazing life. Later on, these time demons need me to be a Time Lord, so I get targeted, and a big dog demon tears out old Louise's throat. Another pal of mine had my fob watch nearby - so, I regenerate, and remember everything. I'm the Traveller again. 150 more years, with another crew, versus time demons, but a much different Trav. The one in front of you."

"We eventually defeat the Shedraya - the time demons. I spend a few years with my husband and kids, but I have to eventually leave. They grow old, I regenerate, you know? I suppose this is justice. I loaded up the Doctor like a bullet into a gun and put him to the head of my own people. Sure, my people were nuts and mad and had to be put down to save everyone. Sure, the Doctor knew exactly what he was doing. But my hands, Stan. They're dripping with blood. I love the universe and it's so beautiful but there's a part of me that I hate so much and I am so lonely and it hurts so fucking much and all 5 of me are in so much pain that some days the stars simply aren't enough."

A pause. "And I can't stop yet. I owe too much. There are too many future generations at stake. I need to do everything I can to make time safe. I know I can't do it alone. But I can't not try."

She lowers her face into her hands, and weeps.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:41, Mon 23 Feb 2015.

OOC: This feels like an epiphany in the making.  So I'll give Stanley a chance to make it big.

Stanley can make a Presence + Convince + Empathy roll.  The Story Point reset I mentioned earlier hasn't happened yet, so you can include one, and although Sereth and Smoke Alarm haven't participated in this scene a lot they can give Stanley +2 support bonuses.  (If either of those feel that being present in the scene would be an intrusion, you can add your two cents as a sort of cutaway insert from a previous moment in the story somewhere.)

Do well and you can expect good things.

Sereth had been quiet, but when Traveller reveals her story, such as it were, then he spoke. He stood up to his full height, his eyes bearing down on her, and -this- was who He was. This was not the soldier, feared by all. Not event the diplomat, who's battles on the field of diplomacy were just as legendary. No, this was Sereth, Noble of Draconia, beloved by oh so many, who's wisdom was known amongst his house.


"If I may have a word, Traveller. It is not -what- we do, that makes us who we are, whether hero or villain or in-between. It is how we react to those events. My people, whilst scarcely Daleks, are also not known for their peace-loving ways. Amongst others, I have striven to change this." A deep sigh. "However, it has not always been so. There was a time, before I turned my mind to peace, that I was as fierce a soldier as any. I slew many for the Glory of Draconia."

He shook his head.

"I will not go into my reasons for changing, but suffice to say, I did. I am not as fierce a diplomat as I ever was a soldier. I still have to use my fighting skills on occasion, and whilst so far with you, it has only needed to be with robots - there may come a time when it is not. And I will do what I have to do. As did you. That you regret it - good. But do not let that sorrow swallow you, do not let it detract from the fact that are GOOD. Sorry that it had to happen - yes. But sometimes things, need to be done, and it is not that we do them - it's what we do after we do regrettable things that form who we are."

Stanley does the only thing he feels he can do right now and just listens to Trav's story, even if he doesn't recognise all of the names. The story answers his question about the Daleks, but it isn't the simple answer he was expecting. After Sereth has finished talking, Stanley thinks about his words for a bit, before speaking to Trav.

"I know that we've had an argument about this just before we landed on Farhaven, about what you did and whether or not you are a good person. Hearing what you've been through and what you've done, I don't believe that I am qualified to judge your past actions, at least not in the same way that Sereth and Smoke are. That doesn't help you, I know. I think that what Sereth said about not allowing your negative emotions to consume you is what you need to do, but I also realise that that is easier said than done. But don't forget that we are also here to help you and I am sure that together we can find a way for you to accept your past."

He pauses.

"There's one thing I want to say: I don't know about The Marshall, the past or future Travellers, but there is no doubt in my mind that The Traveller I've been travelling with, the Traveller sitting here, right now, is a good person. You are a good person and like Amanda said you try to be better. Everywhere you go you save people and make their lives better and inspire others to do the same. That is a good person as far as I'm concerned."

OOC:
The roll:
03:57, Today: Stanley Newton rolled 23 using 4d6+11 with rolls of 5,1,5,1. Presence (3) + Convince(2)+Support(4)+Empathic (2)+SP(2d6).

Ticktocks tracked back...






OOC: Helping Traveller: Presence + Convince 9
11:04, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 9 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 6,1. presence(2) + convince(0)
This message was last edited by the player at 02:04, Fri 17 Oct 2014.

Ticktocks tracked back...

Smoke Alarm got into a big sulk while Traveller worked the talkiphone box, thinking she ought to say more but couldn't think what. Did she really have to say something? She'd said she'd done bad things too, but mayhaps Traveller had missed that. She was sad about something, and Smoke wanted to help. But she didn't have the knowhow. How could she help others when she couldn't help herself? 'Well, if you can lock up a War, you can lock up the bad things with it too, right? Put them in a cupboard in a room in a basement, and turn your back and be forgetting about it.' And yet she remembered being taken to the cleaners, and the Echidna Man, and the old Rezzie with the knife. She shook her head and they were gone, back behind closed doors. 'Kangs are brave and bold, we always outlook forward, never track back. Got to keep on running. Wars make us do bad things, so we stop making Wars and play games instead.'
This message was last edited by the player at 02:33, Sun 19 Oct 2014.

Trav replies to Smoke Alarm as the Time Rotor moves up and down. "I can't forget, babe. You see, if someone forgets, then those bad things can get out. I have to remember. Like that bad thing with Mister Kuvas. That's not so bad. It's like cleaning up. Also, sometimes a closet gets really full. You need to deal with the trash - maybe use what's left to make something new. You can't run away forever. Facing what makes you unbold, that's what the Doctor did, but yes, he always ran and he always played games instead of wars, made people friends instead of enemies. Look at what makes you unbold straight in the eye, that makes you brave and bold, yeah? So, how am I doing, Smoke? Am I a little like him?"

"Sereth, thank you for your kind words. It wasn't simply being a military leader - for a considerable period of time, I was the kind of monster I had struggled against. I was mad, so mad, until I finally collapsed from sadness at the very end. The Doctor and my Exigents saved me."

"In my dreams, I still hear the singing of the Gelth, some times."

"Oh sweety. Well, it is a little hard for me to let myself be taken care of. I mean, I was a mom, it was usually the other way around."



Trav just holds Stan's hands at the table, and smiles.

Smoke Alarm pondered Traveller's words, "If someone forgets, then those bad things can get out." She lost-and-found herself remembering the Handle-Bar Men, who forgot what was done to them and wanted to do the same to others, to make them cleaners like them. And the Rezzies, who ate youngsters and forgot they were youngsters too once. Mayhaps they should have recycled. But what did Kangs have to remember? Smoke Alarm couldn't think of anything.

'Mayhaps.' she answered at last, not entirely sure if Traveller was a little like the Doctor. She hadn't knowed him that long. 'But mayhaps it is better to be yourself.'