The Duke leaving talking about the cloister to the others starts to go off looking for an armor. It was not fair that Alyn got a new robot toy and he would get nothing. As he muses over just how unlucky he was he takes some snacks out of his overstuffed cooler.

"The path froom here tooo the place called The Clooister is... difficult. I dooo noot mean that it is dangeroouus, thoouugh it is certainly that. I mean that there is a long strip of suurface land between here and there that is... disrupted. Warped. Unbalanced. Wrong. Damaged. Yes, damaged by ancient wars and ancient weapoons and ancient poowers. We cannoot ask Lun the Glistening tooo simply transpoort yoouu there. But there is a soluuuution, thoouugh it is sloower than traveling ooover undamaged oooverland terrain might be. Oone may travel uunder the damaged area-- it is moostly oon the suurface of the planet. We can start yoouu oon yoouur way there..."

"Duke! Attend!" Ajakstu calls out. Turning back to the owl, "My ferocious comrade over there possesses a walking vehicle that he is quite fond of, and he would not wish to abandon it. So it is imperative that it be able to take us on the path you mention."

Alyn nodded.

"I think we can find Duke a power armor and myself a repair kit back upstairs somewhere, or something. Or go raid some illicit hidden secret laboratory or something. Finding the Cloisture is the most important thing." Alyn said.

"And we also got companions upstairs we need to drop off at a town too, since one needs to get a parasite removed. And I won't abandon my Alynwalker now that I finally got my damned hardware!" Alyn said.

"How about this, Mister Owl. How about you instead tell us more about the warping, spatial damage you're talking about. Maybe I can use my powers to help us through (but that's super risky), or better yet...we can make it an add-on to the Doom...err, Alynwalker once we get it back up and running. I agree with Ajak though - going underground is silly." he said.

"Can we not get some sort of special forcefield or some such on the Alynwalker to let us resist the damaged space instead?"

N'tk is concerned. "We can get yoouu a neww vehicle for mooving undergroouund... But I dooo noot think that the oone yoouu describe woouuld be able to mooove throouugh the tunnels necessary tooo traverse..."



N'tk thinks, then hoots to his fellow owls. A few other owls fly down to him, and hoot back and forth with him in rapid conversation. Then N'tl turns back to Alyn. "...Dooo yoouu mean the toown of Gnost? Some oof us have visited that place. It might be the best place tooo find the kind of... machine... tooo alloow a vehicle tooo possibly pass throouugh the damaged field..."

Pesky nodded, echoing that the Cloister was the priority, but was a little lost beyond that.

He listened, not fully understanding the discussion between moving overland or underground, what they would be traveling through, and which vehicle would be needed by whom.
And there was another person with a parasite on the surface?  The name Gnost didn't ring any bells either.

It sunk in a bit that he had no idea who these people were, yet he was ready and willing to travel with them.
As long as they ended up at the Cloister.

Alyn nodded.

"Yeah, that's it...gnost. That's where we're heading after I get my Alynwalker up and running. We'll figure out more about the space stablization issue when we get there, after getting our friend's parasite removed." he replied.

"Plus I don't want that jerk seeker getting my Doom...err, Alynwalker. So hard pass on the tunnel thing. We'll feel things out in Gnost since we gotta go there anyway. So could you maybe instead change your boon into guiding us toward an armory here, be it upstairs or nearby, where I can fix my forcefield suit and Dukie can maybe get some armor or a weapon, and Ajak something shiny, and Pesky a gun scope or something?" he asked.

"And could you by chance do that hoot-heal thing you did to Duke to Pesky, because I think the bandits roughed him up a bit before too."

While Alyn and Pesky delay deeds of derring-do with what would probably turn out to be ill conceived travel plans, Ajakstu made himself useful by picking his way amongst the dead and possibly still dying.

Humming an atonal and possibly irritating tune, he wondered what might find itself in his pockets when he returned to driving The Duke's walker.

The Duke who did not attend to Ajakstu kept looking for his armor in the underground area. The Duke did not feel like attending to a show right now he had been badly hurt and wanted something that would make it hard for the bad things to hurt him.

Pesky was grateful to Alyn for requesting the healing for him.  With the slide, the feathers, and the battle, he'd almost forgotten he was injured.  But now he remembered.  As the adrenaline ran its course, his whole body began to ache.

He clutched his shoulder, and winced at the pain in his side.  He once again nodded his thanks to Alyn, then looked to the owl, hopeful.

"Yes yes. These are goood ideas. Yoouu shoouuld gooo tooo Gnost next. But first, the hallways upstairs, yes. Many uuuseful things tooo be foouund. We cannoot ask Lun the Glistening foor tooo many favoors at once, but we can help with these things. Here--" N'tk and the other owls hoot a lot... and a glowing little thing appears in front of Alyn. He takes it and looks at it-- it looks and feels like a little plastic owl, colored day-glow lime green (glow-in-the-dark), like N'tk's people, about an inch and a half high.

And then it flaps its wings repeatedly, and flies over to the stairs leading up to the tunnel that the group came in by. "This guuide will lead yoouu tooo where yoouu need tooo goo. Weapons, toools."

"Hey, um, so, before we go, is it possible to gaze upon Lun the Glistening?" Ajakstu asked.

When the Duke hears the little glowing thing leads them to equipment and ARMOR! the Duke gets ready to follow.

All the owls stop hooting and making noise. "Lun the Glistening is noot doown here with uus," says N'tk, very solemnly. "Lun the Glistening has ears everywhere, oor almoost everywhere. Buut we cannoot... shoow yoouu Lun the Glistening, here. We can oonly shoow the evidence of the generoosity of Lun the Glistening. Soomeday, yoouu may well learn moore oof Lun the Glistening... but noot at this time. Foolloow yoouur guide, now, and may Lun the Glistening watch oover yoouu..."

Alyn nods as he holds then releases the glow-in-the-dark owl guide.

"This will work! and I bet there's a med kit for Pesky too." he replied.

"I also was curious about Lun. Seems like it's more of a friend than anything, but my main concern was to make sure you owls got freed. I was kinda surprised you were in what is basically willing-slavery. Almost like you did it for fun. But I'm the last person to be judging for that sort of thing, heh. And I got to feed my moths too. But you guys are all okay now in the end, so all is well that ends well." Alyn said.

Alyn turned to the swarm of moths that were fluttering around, and his eyes flickered a bit.

Go ahead and keep eating your fill, but we're moving upward toward the surface again so you're gonna want to move out soon too. The owls are probably only going to restrain themselves while I'm in the general area, so once I leave you'll be playing with fire staying too much longer so I wouldn't risk it.

He turned to the owls.

"Well then I have one final question before we go. If you guys are the only main intelligence down here besides us, and I sensed communication with something big and strong out East...can you tell me what it was you guys were speaking with? And is it something I should consider an enemy, a friend, or neutral? I'm sure you can tell by now I kind of like making connections with all sorts of different monsters and mutants and stuff, but I do like to know about the hostile ones who aren't so friendly."

"We are a peaceful people. We need little, thanks tooo the generoosity of Lun the Glistening. When we encoouunter thoose with desires and longings different from oouur oown, we try to flap carefully, sooo that all may be satisfied and get what they want froom interaction."




We feel certain we can find our own way out, say the moths. Although it sounds like the easiest path will likely be to just follow you to the surface again. But yes, we will definitely leave this area as soon as you do.



"We speak with Lun the Glistening. Please wait." The owls near N'tk have a little owl conference again. This one gets more excited, and they call twice as many owls over to hoot... energetically. "Yoouu have raised an impoortant issuue. We feel that the commuunication yoouu noted was between beings tooo the east and these green folk. The green folk were guided here... poossibly withoouut even realizing they were being manipuulated. I was noot personally aware oof thoose tooo the east tooo whooom yoouu refer, but one oof my brethren spotted them a day oor twoo agoo. They are powerful and mysterioouus. They dooo noot serve Lun the Glistening. I doo noot knoow if their desires mean harm or noot... but I woouuld noot guess them tooo be friendly. They are very strange."

The glow-in-the-dark plastic owl leads the adventurers (and the mind-moths) back upstairs, and down many halls... to a room.

It seems to be a sort of repair shop-- especially for weapons and armament.

(Each of you roll Insightful.

If your roll is 6 or lower: you don't find anything bad, but you don't find anything useful.

If your roll is 7 to 9: you can find: 1 Class 1 Stuff Point:
--one Class 1 Melee Weapon, Heavy Weapon, Explosive, Attire, or an Engineering Kit OR
--a Class 1 UPGRADE for an item of that nature you already own.

If your roll is 10 to 12: you can find: 2 Class 1 Stuff Points (stackable if you want):
--one Class 2 Melee Weapon, Heavy Weapon, Explosive, or Attire, OR
--one Class 1 Melee Weapon, Heavy Weapon, Explosive, or Attire AND one Engineering Kit... OR
--a Class 2 UPGRADE for an item you already own, OR
--TWO Class 1 upgrades for items you already own.

If your roll is higher than 12:
--3 Class 1 Stuff Points.

Finding another Medkit like the one The Duke used a few minutes ago will require a roll of 10 or higher.

Clear what you find (if anything) with me first (perhaps in the OOC thread?) )

(Yes, The Duke finds 1 xp. But at least nothing else bad happens.)


There is no food in this new area.

The Duke sits down and sobs quietly to Foers (his teddy bear, for those of you who just got here).

Pesky rummaged through some of the filthy boxes in the corner closest to him, hoping to find something useful.  A scope would be fine, but he could really use some medical supplies.  He grew more tense as box after box revealed nothing he could use.

No scope, no armor, no meds.  Nothing.  Frustrated and in pain, he turned to see if the others had found anything.

OOC: 15:43, Today: Pesky rolled 5 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 2,2.  Find something useful.

Ajakstu finds a large box of clothing. He rummages after he sets Rake free to do whatever Rake does. With great glee he pulls out what might have once been called a banana hammock. Stretching it, he shoots it at Alyn. "More your style, but perhaps oversized!"

He throws several loud shirts in tent-like sizes towards The Duke with a shrug that somehow conveys generosity.

"Ohhh, well this looks to be the proper size!" he remarks with surprise.

20:57, Today: Ajakstu Gul rolled 9 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 2,6.  Insightful. Bulletproof outfit for this humble, giving, honest, modest, and supportive one.

One of the dead Raiders has a little gold (and slightly bejeweled) statuette of a strange creature, about about three and a half inches high.

21:28, Today: Alyn Reed rolled 12 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,5.  Insightful.

While the others bumbled around, Alyn silently snickered to himself at the clumsiness of his allies. It would seem he had to show them an example of dignity and grace once again.

His eyes flickered a moment, as he silently sent a telepathic command to his pet mind moths to conduct a hivemind-based thorough search of the repair shop. His power momentarily overwhelmed the moths in its sudden, firm, ice-like efficiency as Alyn psychically rippled through their hivemind like a piece of silk floating along a breeze. It was elusive, yet appealing, and the moths were helpless to only follow what - for a moment - to them was something like a much-bigger Mind Moth. An Alyn-Moth, figuratively speaking.

The other party members suddenly noticed the moth swarm began to spiral around the room, then break down into multiple organized mini-swarms that each spread out in multiple directions. The mothers flew and wriggled everywhere, searching every nook and cranny in the place. After several minutes of this strange behavior, the small mini-swarms suddenly coalesced back into a single larger swarm that itself began to orbit a bit unnaturally around Alyn.

The young man, in turn, silently nodded at the swarm and had a pleased look on his face, before turning to the party.

"Well...I found some really useful things. They just were tucked away and packaged really securely and sort of hard to find under the more general junk in here. Let's see..." Alyn said aloud.

OOC: See OOC for picks.

The Duke looks up at the brightly colored hawaii shirt that Ajakstu tosses him and tries it on making him look like a brightly colored sad giant as he forgot he came looking for armor and began looking for food that was not stored in the armory.

Taking the med kit from Alyn, Pesky once again nods a silent thank you.

He opens the kit, removing the supplies that seem most likely to help at the moment.  He cleans and wraps his shoulder as best he can, using only one hand and his teeth.  He's done this alone enough times that he has no trouble getting the bandage tight.

He allows himself to relax a tiny bit, just for a moment.
Whew.  Not great, but definitely better.

Alyn nods in satisfaction after he gives Pesky a repair kit, and uses his engineering kit to repair his armor and Duke's gloves. Now nobody can say Alyn didn't look after the party too. Even if they were secretly really his henchmen. He chuckled inwardly at himself at the thought. This was a good, if dangerously eccentric, group.

"Alright folks. We're rested a bit, geared up, and also re-stocked with food and candies and stuff that the Duke will help us manage as always. It's time to go back west a bit and return to the nearby Doomwalker so I can do my thing there. Once I get the hardware loaded and initiated, the plan from there is to continue proceeding to the town of Gnost." he said, reigning the figurative cats that were his party members back in some and giving them direction and focus.

"Once we get to Gnost, we have two goals team: get our furry kitten-friend to a surgeon there who has the expertise to remove his parasite, and also look for more clues about the Cloisture. Do your final preparations everyone, use the bathroom, whatever...because we leave in 10 minutes." he added.