Alyn nodded, and explained that it may work or it may not but he was willing to give it a try for the sake of trying to help the others.

Hopefully his telepathy could fill in the gaps in the plant consciousness.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:11, Mon 21 June 2021.

Ajasktu files "stone building" and "ruins of a large robot" away as opportunities to be explored.

The Duke less interested in the directions goes over inspecting the food stores.

15:48, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 5,3.  weird.

Alyn staggers back under the... weight? mass? breadth? flood? None of these terms seem right. The tree's memories and mind overwhelm him.

(Alyn takes 1 stress.)


The link is then broken, or breaks of its own accord.

Alyn shakes his head to clear it. His connection with juniper was a bit harder than he was expecting. Although this was certainly a good practice for him. He did however get what he needed.

Alyn thanked juniper Jr. And let everyone know that he now knew the location of the mountains and that they could head out now as he would point the way.

While securing a handfull of rations and chewing loudly and open mouthed he gives Alyn a thumbs up.

"Good lead the way while i secure these supplies."

The vehicles load up again, and the expeditionary force: Ajakstu Gul (and Rake the beetle), Alyn Reed, The Duke, and now Sabi-- head northeast, occasionally undergoing very slight course changes based on promptings from Alyn based on the mental impressions he got from the strange mind of Old Juniper. These usually just involve turning slightly left or right here and there by a few degrees at a time. The general course always remains northeast.

After a couple of hours' travel, though, the party comes upon the back of a long line of walkers, headed in roughly the same direction they're headed.

Rake seems mildly interested, somehow...

(Will the party stop and investigate this procession...?)

"Why, look!" Ajakstu exclaims. "Surely, worth a pause to see what the circumstance here is, yes?"

Although it doesn't seem like a question as he stops his vehicle.

"I also am extremely curious about all this." Alyn said as he also stopped his psi-walker with a quick mental command.

"Yes...I wonder..." he said as he gazed at the procession intently.

OOC: Alyn wants to try and glean the thoughts from the procession to get an idea of what's going on here.

He is going to try to establish a mental link. If, on an ooc narrative level, they don't resist then this simply happens and doesn't do anything yet other than allow the use of further telepathic powers. If, narratively, they resist then he will roll 2d6+2 charm.

If you allow the initial link to form with no resistance, then I'd like to ask if he can glean some very SURFACe level details passively from the link or do i need to make a separate insightful roll for a full on mind reading attempt?

The Duke nods but as last time he was seperated from the cooler with their supplies he now makes sure to use its sling to hang it from his shoulder much like one of those ancient clutch purses. He then gets out of the vehicle and starts suantering over towards the things barely waiting for the others that seem to be a lot more cautious.

Ajakstu waits in gleeful silence for The Duke's diplomacy to unfold.

10:25, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 5 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 2,1.  Charm.

(Alyn gets 1 xp.)

As Alyn gets close enough to walk up to the leader of the procession, he realizes that the leader-- and the rest of the walkers-- are all robots.

Two of which shove him backwards roughly. "Retreat, thou biological miscreant!" one of them says to Alyn. "One does not simply walk up to Vomol, The Seventh Seeker, unannounced! Hast thou no sense of propriety?!?"

(Alyn gets -1 on his next Charming roll...)

And that was when the Duke had to step in. Where he was merely curious only a moment before now they where potentially harming his ally/friend. His destructor gloves spark to live as his slow gait breaks into a dash. And if nobody was going to do anything about it the Duke was about to introduce a whole world of hurt on the robots shoving his companion there was no mistaking his intent.

Seeing The Duke spring into action, Ajakstu scans the control panel of his vehicle for any kind of weapons he can bring to bear.

Alyn considered for a moment how to react to the sudden and surprising pushback from the robots, and their general snark. Did he try to use telepathy to fry their circuits or mess with them? As weird as it was his mental powers worked on machines (more or less). Or maybe show them he could push back...with an aggressive and forceful telekinetic shove and put them in their place? Or see if he could cause a pyrokinetic reaction and see if he could turn one of them into an ashtray or something. No...he had to keep his cards closer to his chest this early on in things.

Or perhaps just sit back and let Duke Sic them. The Duke was perplexing to Alyn and he was still trying to figure out what to make of him, but he did seem group-oriented.

Sort of like a barely leashed wolf or something. Or maybe one that was totally leashless!

He shook his head for a moment. and decided against it and instead attempted to use not force or mental powers but pure charisma and his natural appeal and guile. Whatever happened to him in that rift when he came to the future or whatever, even his own mundane attributes were enhanced a bit as whatever powered him on an overt level also had subtle effects on his force of personality too.

Holding out an arm, Alyn shakes his head at the rushing Duke.

"My good Duke...please, wait for a moment. I think there is simply a big misunderstanding here and I'd like to try resolving it my way. If things break down and I fail, then we can do it your way. Agreed?" he said soothingly to the fat-yet-muscular man before turning to the robots.

"My um...my good robots! You must forgive me, but you are absolutely right! I really don't have any sense of propriety at all! You see...I'm an out-of-towner and unfamiliar with the ways of the people and robots here alike. However...we mean you no harm!" he said as he cranked on as much natural charm as he could, even accounting for the momentary blip in his innate charisma and force of personality due to his power failure previously.

22:36, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 11 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,4.  charm. This is a mundane charm attempt to try and schmooze and use a combination of charisma and manipulation to diffuse the situation and get the robots to view him as just being hapless and provincial and thus...worthy of being given a break and disregarding his faux pas.

This factors in the -1 penalty so this is actually simply a really fortunate high roll. I guess that makes up for the fail last time and balances out my dice karma lol.

"Since I'm just an ignorant but certainly well-meaning biological flash sack, would you genteel and sophisticated robots please be so kind as to educate myself and my companions as to what exactly is going on here with this procession, and tell me who the Seventh Seeker is? I'm a bit behind the curve, and you'd also help the Seventh Seeker have a more positive image by providing your kind and lucid guidance to a backwards biological such as myself."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:55, Tue 13 July 2021.

Alyn's second attempt seems to please the robots. "Vomol is the chosen one! Vomol has been gone for centuries in search of the secrets that would allow the return to greatness! Vomol has returned triumphant!"

Not... super specific. Maybe it's time to try to talk to Vomol himself? The other robots act like they'd allow it now that Alyn is using the proper humility expected...

The Duke stops dead in his tracks the atrocious violence staved off for just a little moment longer. He trembles and eyes the machienes with suspicion ready to smash them the moment they threathen to harm Alyn or any of his other friends.

Alyn sighs with relief when The Duke stopped his charge, and turned to the robots.

"We wayward biologicals are ourselves seeking to grow and learn. But we never would expect to have the good fortune of meeting one such as yourselves. And especially The Seventh Seeker Vomol of all things!" he replied, feigning excitement but doing a damned good job at it.

"Do you think the great Vomol would take a few moments of his time, and share some of his wisdom with us so that we too may come one step closer to enlightenment?"

"Vomol! Vomol! Biologicals in search of enlightenment! All things are possible here at the end of days! Vomol!"

The one they call Vomol turns. "What questions can Vomol answer for you, children? The launch is on schedule for docking in five units."

...That last sentence didn't seem like it fit, somehow. It was Vomol's voice, but he had a slightly odd accent when he said it, and he twitched a little while he said it. It's like he didn't even mean to say it.

Ajakstu looks to see what Rake is up to....

Rake seems fidgety, anxious. He crawls to the back side of Ajakstu's shoulder, as if wanting to hide. He is not actually completely out of sight of any of the robots, so it must just express a general unease, instead of actually worrying that any of the robots will see him.

Alyn raised a single curious brow at the dual-voiced response, but retained composure. He decided playing the "innocent mortals" card would do for now.

"Mister Seeker Volmol Sir..." Alyn replied.

"Could you tell us more about what you're seeking and why you're seeking it? Your followers seem excited about your current pursuits and we would like to hear your story, so that we can glean wisdom from your experiences."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:28, Tue 20 July 2021.

"I am seeker of the secrets of the ancients, cellular one... secrets that have been lost to the millennia. I have braved and endured many hardships to find the codes and passwords that will unlock access to wonders undream't of by those who walk this planet today-- monsters, chronal energy rips, lethal viruses... many left as guardians to keep out thieves and the unwary, some simply atrocities and abominations overlooked by the ravages of time. The cultists are cutting through the emergency doors, sir! With only one or perhaps two more stations to visit on my holy pilgrimage, I can work wonders... Affect the planet's climate for the better... Brighten the skies! Do you think that this endless gloom was all that we are meant to live by? The moon is not providing even half the illumination it's capable of! It's life, darling, but a new form of life, like none that Earth has ever seen before...!"

Again, Vomol twitches when he says each of his new odd non-sequiturs...

His followers just seem to take it all in stride: "Six have been defeated before him! Only Vomol, the Seventh Seeker, will lead us all to a glorious final age...!"