"We have no surveillance of the areas below. We only surveil this facility and its above-ground environs... and that footage is not saved indefinitely due to digital storage issues."

Alyn nodded.

"Well...then thank you for taking us this far, anyway. And you got my hardware done properly. So I'll not force you outside of the facility since you've done a job job. Just make sure to fix those vending machines and stuff properly so they don't attack guests anymore. You're lucky we were more hungry than angry. Especially the Duke." Alyn said with a nod.

He turned to the others.

"Well this just got even more interesting. Could be anything down there. Small, cute mole-people or something for all I know. Probably more bandits since I haven't seen any come past us this way yet mind you there may be another way out since this is a cavern we're going into. And that strong intelligence is down here somewhere too. For all I know, the intelligence is also related to or is the thing enslaved by the bandits. We'll just have to find out." he said.

Thankfully, the group had enough light to get by it seemed although some of their gear might have light, or he could try using photo-kinesis and to make light if he had to. Although that was undesirable given his powers were "wobbly" still.

"Let's go, folks." he said as he headed into the cavern.

The Duke groans as he makes his way into the tunnel and starts wobbling down the tunnel rubbing his belly with every other step. The Duke was a happy Duke.

"I am on fire, " Ajakstu said as he took a mighty swig of mead from his cup. "Let's get this over with."

09:53, Today: Ajakstu Gul rolled 13 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,6.  Weirdness magnet.

The adventurers travel on down the tunnel, toward the light.

"Who--?"

Everyone stops, halfway between the light of the hallway and the light at the far end of the tunnel.

Alyn lights up his datapad, and uses its light to--

There's an owl there.

In a smaller, side-tunnel, too small for a human to fit in easily, is an owl.

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/natur...2902-gallery-092.jpg

The owl is about two feet tall.

It (again) speaks (elaborating): "...Who do you serve?"

OOC: LOL You're right...definitely weirder than usual. :P

"I serve my heart and my whims, in the order. Right now, I'm on a mission from my heart despite the fact my whims think I should just leave." Alyn said aloud, with a shrug.

He pointed at the Duke. "And he just serves his endless pit of a stomach." he added with a grin.

Ajakstu sidles slightly behind the Duke while stage whispering, "Probably meant for one of you mission-oriented Cloister serving pawns to answer,"

"Serve order. Serve mission. Serve heart. Serve foood."



"Serve mission? What mission? Whoose mission?"

With a mighty eye roll Ajakstu adjusts his awesome chapeau. Then he ensures Rake is well braced.

"Allow me to soliloquize. I was imprisoned and imperiled by bellicose cat people in their underground lair. Misunderstanding? Bah! It is the nature of felines to prey and play, and play with their prey."

He paused to make a self congratulatory smile at his wordplay.

"To the story! I was liberated by this stalwart, this mountain of musculature, this powerful prognosticator, and his most excellent female companion. They told me of their quest from the Ziggurat to find a place called the Cloister."

Ajakstu assumed his most humble yet not quite comprehending face.

"As a successful independent contractor, I could foresee a mutually beneficial arrangement for us going forward. We quickly restored water and peace to the warring factions underground and set out. The Lady left us, and we managed that loss with the adequate reinforcement of Pretty Boy, Gas Bag, Traitor Cat, and now, Pesty. Oh, and most importantly, Rake, who I am most certain has eerie powers."

Ajakstu paused for a giant swig of mead.

"Anyway, in an effort to prevent an egomaniacal robot from taking over an even larger robot, we came here past giant crabs and swarms of moths, past man-ants and pussilianimous raiders, seeking hardware and mead."

Another swig.

"Detecting a most malevolent presence below, it was deemed the heroic duty of myself and The Duke, and these red shirt wannabees, to go lay a smackdown before we loot whilst we enjoy their lamenting."

Ajakstu bowed.

"Cloister..." repeats the owl.



"Peace. Water. Warring factions. Powers," muses the owl.



"Hardware. Drink."



"Heroic. Duuty. Looot. Lamenting." The owl considers all this.

"...Many things. Whoose is most important?" It cocks its head at a 90-degree angle. "Order? Mission? Heart? Foood? Cloister? Peace? Drink? Power? Lamenting?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:54, Sat 01 July 2023.

The Duke looks at the owl and its word waterfal and grumbles something when the Hat joins the play of words. Many words that say so little the Duke grows bored and after a massive belch he starts to wobble on towards the light. The Owl was something Ajakstu could deal with.

"Ah, I have forgotten the pleasantries," Ajakstu said as he doffed his ever so sweet hat. "Ajakstu Gul is my name, and whose acquaintanceship do we have the pleasure of making?"

Alyn raised an eyebrow. He wasn't about to tell the owl that the rest of the group were really his unwitting minions whose sole purpose was to ensure Alyn had a good time. So he'd wave it off.

"I'll let Ajak answer your question." Alyn responded dismissively, perhaps subconsciously sensing that this was Ajak's spotlight due to Ajak causing weirdness. And sometimes, he had to let the others have their spotlight.

"But what is a talking owl of all things doing down here, under an old half-functional military complex in a cave path leading into a cavern?" he asked.

"Whoo is N'tk," says the owl. Apparently its name is pronounced "N'tk."



"Asking questions. Seeing whoo. Listening. Whoose is most important?"

And with each word the Duke wobbles away seemingly content to rub his exposed belly and see what the light at the end was.

N'tk glances The Duke's way without comment, waiting to see if Ajakstu or Pesky will answer...

Ajakstu steps forward with a charming smile.

“Well met, N’tk. I apologise for any lack of graces displayed by my companions. If you choose to join us, I am sure you will quickly achieve a higher position than several of them,” Ajakstu said with a side eye to one or two of the others.

“Our premise is that we are a random group of what some might call misfits. Clearly, we have decided to help those in need by working as guns for hire. Now that I have set the stage, let’s take a look at the actors.”

Ajakstu will lazily point at the others in turn.

"The Leader-Clearly myself. While I have no vision for where we are headed, I make the tough decisions and celebrate the group’s success by taking my share of any loot and keeping The Duke well fed. I am calm under pressure and instill confidence in those around me. Not to mention oodles of savoir-faire"

"The Glue-Alyn. What always amazed me about his character was how egotistical he is. We could be in a jungle and need a basic amenities. Within 10 minutes, Pretty Boy would find and secure said gear by dominating some local innocents. He is the team member who is occasionally able to find creative ways to address our challenges. If you don’t have enough patience or the right drone like attitude to make a decision, you need someone like him who will find a way to get it done. He may try to get in your head, deal with him appropriately."

"The Muscle-The Duke. Some might say he has a bad attitude. He is the muscle, the strong athlete. He is good at a lot of things. Whether it be killing, maiming, dismembering, eating, farting, drooling, or destroying we can always count on The Duke. Sometimes your best hire is the person with the raw horsepower to get the job done especially if they have the requisite experience. The Duke is that guy. Having muscle on your team also ensures everybody pulls their own weight."

"The Specialist– Ummmmm, Pesky. The specialist of the group. He is good at one thing– staying out of our way. Depending on the scope of the project, every team needs someone who can excel in a specific area or who possess a certain skill set—diving on a grenade, testing food for poison, licking toads, that sort of thing."

Ajakstu bowed. All had been made clear.

"Help thoose in need. Woork as guns for hire." N'tk sort of bobs his (sounds more male than female, anyway. It's hard to be sure) head a few times. "Mission. Heart. Peace. ...Clooister?" N'tk scratches at the ground a little. "Whoo is important is not questioon. Whoo yoou are important tooo might be questioon. The Ancient Weariness: heart, peace. Varg the Undying: missioon. Lun, The Glistening: Clooister."

N'tk hoots softly. "I serve Lun, The Glistening. I approoove of yoouur woork. What doo yoou need?"

Alyn considered. Maybe they had just acquired an unlikely ally.

"Well...supposedly there's a bunch of slaves or beings being enslaved by bandits down here somewhere. If you happen to know anything about that, or could lead us to where they are being imprisoned, that would be helpful." Alyn said.

Pesky stares in amusement as the little owl spoke.
Until Ajakstu starts talking.  Jesus.  He likes the sound of his own voice, doesn't he?

Pesky bristles, then gets fairly pissed as Ajakstu starts describing his "role in the party."  What a prick.  Pesky'll show him a specialist alright.  Right in the mouth.

"We are not enslaved by them. We have just alloowed them to think that that is the case. It seems tooo make them happy... tooo a point. We want tooo make them moore happy, but it is difficult foor uus. They want vioolence and strife. They want conquest and lamentatioons. We cannoot give them thoose things in a way that woould satisfy them. Perhaps yooou can free them froom their dissatisfactioon. Come, this way."

N'tk hurries after The Duke, catching up to him just as The Duke reaches the end of the tunnel.

The end of the tunnel is at the top of a huge set of stairs leading down... down the side of a huge cavern.

Dozens of holes fill the ceiling and walls of this cavern, and the owls flying around show that the holes are the entrances to their homes.

Far below-- perhaps 150 yards down-- is the floor of the cavern. There, dozens of Raiders mill about, talking amongst themselves... maybe arguing.

"The green oones are an uunhappy people," says N'tk. "They woouuld be happier if they could engage in vioolence. Perhaps we coouuld help yoouu give them vioolence? We are noot vioolent. We coouuld moove yoouu doown there tooo where they are, if yoouu want. Oor we couuld moove yoouu somewhere else, nearby them, where yoouu couuld prepare foor vioolence, if it wouuld take yoouu time tooo get ready, tooo prepare...?"

Alyn noticed Pesky's reaction right away as Ajak spoke, and he even "felt" some of the irritation coming across the passive psychic link he had with him. Alyn grinned in amusement.

Don't let it get to you. He's actually fairly helpful and fairly submissive to Duke and I normally, but something about this owl seems special to him. So I figure...let him have his moment to parrot a bit for the owl. No pun intended. Alyn thought mentally to Pesky as the psion's reassuring voice came into the gunner's mind suddenly (but gently).

If you really wanna know the party's roles, I'm more or less the leader and the glue, although this isn't the type of group where it's regimented and we act like that. It's more...people unofficially fill group roles as needed, without us actually voting on it or there being much organization behind it. This group is far too chaotic for such things, but we have a great dynamic that works. My leadership is mainly subtly pointing out carrots with a bit of Catholic guilt as needed to get them to generally do what needs doing, but all of us have a shared goal of searching for the Cloisture and we sort of have a secondary goal of "following our hearts and whims" as needed. But there is a bit of a method to our madness, though. Alyn added, followed by a mental grin.

Yeah...Duke is our muscle and food-manager, Ajak is actually something like our fixer and when we need help scoping out a scene, finding loot, or thinking outside the box he's actually real good at it. And you're not a "stay out of the way specialist." Don't worry...I actually acknowledge your real talent and value. The real role I have in mind for you while you travel with us is to be something of a scout combined with a skirmisher. I can sense minds and such, and do other weird crap, but it really would be a huge help to me to have someone who is physically actually good at scouting and stuff. Just again don't mind Ajak...he comes through when we need him.

The Duke looks at the little owl as it asks if they can help them give violence. The Duke steps forward but then his voice chimes in.

"They got many stabby things. You got a suit of armor that fits me? I heard T-60 is a type that really does the trick for the military at the Ziggurat. Even cooler if it lets me jump down from up here on top of them. You got one of those for me?"

The Duke expresses a subconsious desire not to get hurt.

Well thats a fail and 1 xp and the GM will do his best to make some part of the weird mad babbling come true, as soon as narratively possible, but it won't be nice, and will probably be twisted and freaky

09:49, Today: The Duke rolled 6 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 3,2.  So its written.

Ajakstu peered down at the raiders.

"Drop the flash bangs down to disorient them, put the thicket at a choke point to keep them off of us, and kill them at a distance while the owls shit on them."

He shrugged.

"Totally open to Plan B when it is proposed."

"To be honest, N'kt, The Duke's armor idea is borderline brilliant. Although I am more of a force field man myself. Interdimensional phasing is also agreeable if you the means."

N'tk hoots softly (hard for anyone more than 10 feet away to notice-- there's a lot of very soft hooting going on).

"Jumping doown froom here oon them is noot hard. Foorce field armoor is harder. We will try tooo help."

The Duke feels a push-- Like the ground lifts him up and throws him out into the middle of the cavern airspace.

That's exactly what his allies see-- the rock beneath The Duke just thrusts diagonally like a piston, tossing The Duke into the air.

But not for long.

The Duke gets a closer look at the Raiders below-- and then it becomes a MUCH closer look, very fas--

               --WHHAMMMMMM...

The Duke is hurt.

But not as much as he should be. Apparently the little owl-- maybe working in concert with his people? --worked to protect The Duke from the fall.

...Partially.

(12:55, Today: The GM rolled 2 using 1d2 with rolls of 2.

The Duke loses 2 new health levels...)

The effect on the Raiders, who had no protection, is terrific, though. Some are killed instantly by The Duke's massive... mass. Those who just got an arm or a leg or a foot in the head are just badly injured. All the raiders gathered who were gathered near the center of the cavern are dismayed and caught very off-guard... for this moment, anyway...

(The Duke had a partially-effective forcefield, but it has now failed and is no longer operational.)

"That was effective," observes N'tk. "And brave. Yoouu shoouuld help, tooo..." He closes his eyes...

The ground beneath the feet of The Duke's companions slides and buckles, and suddenly the rest of you are on a one-way toboggan of stone rushing down the side of the cavern wall, bypassing all the stairs, about to crash--

--FLUMMMPHH. The stone floor beneath your toboggan, and the toboggan itself, turn into about a billion little soft feathers, breaking your fall painlessly and perfectly. Feathers fly everywhere, making it hard to see... but at least all The Duke's allies are down on his level to help support him now? When the feathers stop flying?

(Note: Alyn mentally notes that what N'tk and/or his people are doing doesn't seem to be psychokinesis or any other psychic power exactly as far as he can tell. Maybe it's Lun, The Glistening? Or something?)