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Games session 3


"Yeuch! what is that smell?", muttered Zoe as she entered the dilapidated reception room.
The group had found the first camp site of the exploration party by following the lake shore. Nearby they had found the peices of a second exporer, what little had been missed by the local hull rat population. They did not know which direction South actually was but Sofe seemed to have a gut feeling so they went with that as a first try.
"Found the rest of the explorers", Gunther said solemly
Zoe looked around, the glow from Theygan's fusion lantern revealed a grissly scene as Theygan himself panned around taking in the scene.
"The last stand of the Jogby expedition", Sebastian commented
"Who's Jogby?", asked Gunther
"It's the name that was in that text message, figured the group need a name. What do you think Theygan?", answered Sebastian
"I think they were out numbered." answered Theygan
"No I mean .., oh never mind" Sebastian dropped the subject
"What is it Sofe, what do you see?" asked Zoe. Sofe had walked the rooms perimeter and was now making her way back. Examining the scene in more detail.
"There are a couple of other bodies that way, not armoured like these guys. Maybe they were porters, looks like they were trying to run but didn't make it.", Sofe pointed to the open doorway in the long wall opposite the corridor they had come through. "There's another three in that room", Sofe pointed to the open doorway at farthest wall of the room. "Another explorer, same gear, looks like he was protecting two other porters." She then shook her head and muttered under her breath while walking away.
"There is something weird about that girl" Gunther whispered to Sebastian
"Could be a split personality, I've heard of that when people suffer extreme duress. Could be the child persona is raised whenever she needs a defence against some traumatic memory. Have you noticed any signs that she might be suffering memory loss?" Sebastian happened at that moment to catch Theygan listening in, "I am only guessing of course." he added quickly then rushed over to examine one of the three large crates.
Gunther watched Sebastian slink away, he held a blank and confused look on his face until Zoe knelt at one of the ancient corpses beside him. He turned to her "You know There is something weird about that guy."
Zoe looked Gunther up and down. He was still wearing his large pink cowboy hat, white cropped t'shirt, white cropped trousers and sandals and although the dirt of the underground swamp had splashed him he was still splashed with bright pastel colours. Zoe rolled her eyes then blinked in disbelief at the irony.
Theygan took his lantern on a perimeter sweep, he went out of the long wall's door and a little while later emerged through the short wall's door, with Sofe who had explored a second exit into the building to find a sprung trap and a sixth unarmoured corpse. "There's more remains, just bones mostly, scattered all around in those other rooms." Theygan said as he returned

The group postulated several theories while they investigated. After a while and between Sofe's tracking skill and Gunther and Theygan's knowledge of "warfare: military tactics" the following activity was derived:

Starting position:
Jogby's group were resting in the entrance hall of this old building. It is an old guild-hall of some kind, from the posters a mining guild (or possibly a Zaibatsu). A pretty good defensive position, with two ways in and solid walls. The group had laid down a single trap in each of the entrance passages, Sofe had recieved a nasty bruise on her shin as she entered the first room through the less obvious door while the right foreleg of one of the 'porters' had been broken (his corpse was still lying next to the trap).

Jogby was presumably watching the attack on his fellow who was at the old campsite when he saw the swinging lantern. At first glance he seemed to think it was his missing friend, though it was clearly a different man. Sebastian noted that the text messages towards the end were in a panicked state and so could have been sent to both absent explorers. Especially as they do not name the recipient. If the hull rats had left an intact pager they may have been able to confirm that theory, but the hull rats had not left more than a few tiny shards of bone and some half chewed scraps of leather.

The swinging lantern that Jogby had seen was actually the upturned head of the second missing explorer, swinging from the hand of one of his attackers. His miner's lamp on his helmet still working.

The assault:
Jogby presumably closed his door and rushed back to alert his comrades. He then took up position at the corridor. The attack however bypassed his door and the attackers all forced their way through the other entrance. Why can only be guessed at, perhaps the attackers were following the trail of Jogby and his team. That would have meant that the group could have escaped. The positions that the group took up appear to indicate that they were rushed, so perhaps Jogby was on watch while his comrades were sleeping. That would account for the rapid deployment. The first of the attackers fell to the trap in the corridor. It was noted that the boxes contain unused traps, that indicated that the group were comfortable and did not feel threatened. The first attacker was presumably trampled as his fellows tried to charge through the narrow space passed him.

"So these lightly armoured guys were not porters at all, they must have been the attackers!" Sofe exclaimed, surprised at her own revelation, which further confused Gunther.

The second watchkeeper on post beside the other corridor was overwhelmed quickly, his would be the body under the stairs. His buddy took a few shots from the doorway, and took down a few injuring but not killing two. So three at that point would have been wounded, but not taking part in the battle.

The throng of attackers charged the first doorway that they found, the shotgun of the defender keeping them at bay. Jogby at this time was probably suggesting a retreat, but his fellows must have been in a panic and not listening. The guy on the door was a big fella, likely the leader of the situation. Either way, Jogby and he were firing at the door on the short wall. The fourth defender probably started this battle attacking the same doorway. And so this doorway was well defended. The logic here is that the doorway must have been defended because of what happened next.

While the attackers were trying to gain access to the trio of defenders, several of them ran upstairs and started to smash the floor in the far corner of the room beyond. They broke through eventually, but this seems to have been a pointless activity. While that was going on several others broke down the door into the main hall, which is accessed by the door on the long wall. This group circled the defenders, the fourth man then moved out of position and was caught in the doorway. It is probable that the attackers broke through the floor around the same time and a great number suddenly flooded over him. The fourth man must have actually been very tough, he battled dozens on his own. From the scale of the damage he used several grenades, probably all at once. Dozens of his attackers were injured, three of them were injured and unable to walk but not killed. From the looks of their bodies they fell through from the room above, probably while looking for a way down.

"This flood attack tactic they were using is very .. animalistic." commented Sebastian
"Yes, they did not know the position of the defenders and they certainly did not seem to know the layout" observed Theygan, "it seems they just swarmed the area with no concern for themselves or for their allies."

The final demise of the Jogby expedition:
The big guy fell at the doorway on the short wall, perhaps throwing his axe or maybe simply losing his grip on it and it was pulled away. The fourth man was covering the other doorway, he died a moment later, potentially still deafened by his own grenades. Jogby was then out of ammunition, he threw his handgun at an attacker from the doorway on the short wall and was taken from behind while trying to reload his shotgun from the ammo crate.

The aftermath:
The really strange thing of this scene happened next. The attackers ate every dead thing, and ignored their own injured. They then left, leaving one of their number with only a broken ankle from falling from the floor above. They did not eat their living, even if they were injured. but they did leave that poor fellow to die of starvation several weeks later. All of the bones were chewed, but not fully picked clean.

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Although a grizzly scene the bodies were a century or more in age, so the group decided to make up some of the Jogby expedition rations take a hours rest, use the lavatory which was on the right up the stairs, (the toilets did not flush and Jogby's expedition had left one stall uninhabitable but the others clean). Perhaps they were recyling their own urine for drinking water?

"These monsters hopefully passed by the area a century ago, hopefully they are not near by ..." gunther said, "What could have done this?"
"I've heard the old spacers talking about Husks. Slow moving but deliberate and foul. The dead risen after passing through the lost parts of deep space." Zoe claimed
"There is no truth to those old spacer tales" Theygan stated factually
"Well I don't know about any of that supernatural stuff, but on this planet we always worry about the enraged. They are like tribal gangs, some of the poorer cities are overrun by them. The muster have been fighting them for years, and I heard just the other day that the Inquisition arrived to help." Sebastian said
"The Inquisition? they will probably just burn some random bystander and claim it was a Husk." said Theygan with sudden bitterness
"You don't like them?" Sebastian asked confused
"You are kidding right, nobody likes the Inquisition", Zoe joked
"Guys, Have I missed something what are enraged?" asked Gunther
"Just gangs of thugs I think, the news is never really very clear. Mostly the reports come in from the abandoned cities and the poorer communities in the deeper tunnels. The news assures us that the muster have the situation under control. And they have a hotline, though its not to tackle the enraged as such. They are worried that the hype may cause needless panic so the hotline is for people to report those who cause hype." Sebastian explained, though he didn't seem to be convinced as he realised he may have to keep quiet about the century old demise of Jogby.
"if they have the situation under control, why did they call the Inquisition?" Zoe asked
"Dunno, maybe that was just to cover up the Inquisition's imminent attack on a bunch of students?" Sebastian suggested
"My Dad killed my mum, and then tried to kill me." Sofe said, out of the blue
Everyone sat stunned for a while taking it in, Sofe was suddenly like a little girl again, Zoe put her arms over her shoulder to comfort her. Sebastian apologised, then asked cautiously, knowing that the question was difficult but also that the answer was necessary "was he an angry man?"
Sofe sobbed, "No, he was always gentle, nice. Then one day his eyes changed and he got really angry. It was really scary so I hid, that was how I got away. I .. I think"
"Oh .. Kay" Sebastian said cautiously, "Look guys, maybe this place is not so safe, shal wee cut lunch short, grab what we can carry and get moving?"
everyone agreed

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The group moved on and found themselves at a junction. A signpost told them that the first cavern had actually once been a vertical train, or elevator. There was a road through the town to a swimming pool and the way they took seemed to be a ground car park. The town inside the natural void space had a few unexpected elements like that, perhaps like modern liberty citizens they lived their entire lives under ground.

On the way a strange man was noticed, he was on his own and appeared to be investigating a pile of debris in a sunken courtyard. Sofe reacted swiftly. She took the combat axe that she had picked up, ran, and leapt over the rail. She landed a few feet from the strange man, hefted the axe as she ran and plunged it into the man's head. Rather than being surprised the group who ran out from cover to follow her saw the guy counter charge, he was unusually aggressive, although potentially defensive. The victim screamed as he charged, the scream was a blood curling, unholy scream. As he fell dead at Sofe's feet, the reply was heard. And it was not far away. Sofe ran, she cleared the 3m wall with a scramble, helped by Gunther. The group rushed on. Theygan looked back, half a dozen footfalls could be heard but not seen. He waited a second longer, then saw them. They were enraged alright, he covered his lantern under his new thick armoured coat (borrowed from an explorer) and rushed after his companions.

Gunther leaned against the door after he shut it tight. Zoe fiddled with the lock.
"That should hold them" Zoe announced a moment later

They stepped cautiously and quietly into the next area. It was the bottom of a ground car park. Empty and echoey. Sofe dropped her axe and started to sob again. Gunther comforted her while signalling to the others that he really had no idea what was going on. "We don't have long" he said to her, "Can this wait?"
With that Sofe resumed her tough exterior and rushed of into the darkness, they watched her quickly climb vertically and silently up the carpark. Running and jumping, clambering over the lip and then back. She presumably repeated this all the way to the top, before returning with news.

"There are about eight of them, seem to be looking through the trash on the sixth level. There's a large open door there too. Could be a way out." Sofe reported professionally
"I guess a car park means a road, maybe a tunnel road?" guessed Sebastian

"Right guys how are we going to get passed eight of these guys?" Sebastian asked
"Wait a second" Gunther said, "We don't know what those enraged are from those floating ghosts in the 'news'. And we don't know if these guys are those gangs of thugs."
"He has a point, I'd be pretty pissed if Sofe just smashed my mates skull in with an Axe" joked Zoe
Sofe was taken aback, "I did what?" she asked looking worried

"We are not exactly a combat team" Theygan reminded the group
"We kind of look the part though" Zoe said holding her shotgun up to demonstrate
"We might be able to run passed them with a few well placed leg shots, if we work as a team. Maybe" Guther said, dropping his head in submission as he finished to show it was only a suggestion, after all he was not a soldier

They all turned back to the door, they could hear the distant noise of a gang of angry thugs running towards the door.
"I guess going back is not an option then" Gunther said with a shrug


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