Monday, July 19, 2021

Slipstream: Poppin' Bubbles

Tonight was Slipstream! Here's last time! Here we go!

The characters, having been taken into a small building with Brrip'k'chok, the Nivekian priest who identified them as "saviors." He explains that he really did have a vision, it just didn't involve them. His vision involved the Sky Devil (whom the characters quickly identify as Queen Anathraxa) and her imps. Said imps (Primals) have come to Nivek, killed the guardians of the Oracle in the jungle, and have taken over. He doesn't know what they intend to do. He asks them to investigate, and says that he will provide an experienced guide, a warrior named Kk'kree'chak ("call me 'Kree'"). He also gives Iris a laser sword - a powerful weapon that Queen Anathraxa has outlawed. 

Kree escorts them into the jungle, and guides them through the trees. It takes days, but they finally approach the Oracle. Before they get there, though, Kree steps in a bit of slime and looks horrified. He points up, and the characters see huge nests. "Krell Wasps," he says, as they swarm in to attack. 

Zeenia turns invisible, Iris lays about with her new laser sword cutting wasps in half, and Oola uses her new tech to put a bunch to sleep (whereupon Zeenia cuts them in half). It doesn't take long to drive them off, and the characters move along. 

They finally arrive at their destination - the Oracle, a huge concrete statue of a lion with a human head and wings (it's a fuckin' sphinx, OK?). There are Primals crawling on it, placing packages around strategic points. There might have been a chance for surprise, but suddenly Iris goes glassy-eyed and runs out in front of the statue. The others shake off their surprise and follow, and the Primal captain yells at his troops to keep at their work and let the sentries handle this rabble!

The sentries, metallic spheres of doom, fly in towards the characters. One launches a grenade but misses. The Primal captain shoots Zeenia and stuns her, and Oola activates her tech and puts one of the Primals to sleep. Zeenia shakes off the laser blast and stabs at a sentry, damaging it, and Kree blows it up with a laser.

Meanwhile, Iris sees a vision: three feathers, one black, one gray, one white. A gloved hand grabs the white feather and the black feather grows larger, while the gray feather sheds a tear. Her vision clears and she realizes where she is and what's happening, and she leaps to battle! She scales the Oracle and faces off against the Primal captain. The captain is horrified to see her carrying a laser sword, and roars in challenge!

The Primals finish placing their mysterious packs and leap to battle! One hurls a spear at Oola, while two more slide down the statue and land in front of the now-invisible Zeenia. Oola, her tech now drained of power, tries to stay out of the line of fire. Zeenia lashes out with tentacles, but all she manages to do is distract the Primals a bit. The remaining sentry fires at Kree repeatedly, but I couldn't fucking roll better than a 2 it can't seem to hit him. 

Up on the statue's head, the captain slashes at Iris and she drops her sword. He picks it up, and one of the Primals tells him that the explosives are placed! He tells them head for the ship, and he stays behind to continue his battle with Iris. The Primals bug out, and Kree spots one in a makeshift palisade - obviously where the detonator apparatus is housed. 

Zeena strikes the sentry with her sword, but in doing so reveals her position. It turns on her and blasts her with a laser, shattering her bubble helmet. She starts exuding water and collapsing, unable to breathe, as Kree fires a shot that destroys the sentry and then another that fells the Primal about to activate the explosion. 

The captain and Iris continue their deadly dance, and finally the captain flees to his ship. Iris fires a shot at his hand, hoping to make him drop the sword, but fails, and she is far too honorable to shoot him in the back. She collapses, wounded and dejected, and confused about the vision. 

Oola finds Zeenia dying, and quickly alters her own spacesuit and helmet to let Zeenia breathe. Oola patches up the others and disarms the bombs, and Kree sends a message to his species for help. 

As the characters wait, they discuss the vision and their next move. The feathers seem to indicate the Bird-Men, and they know that Prince Craw is in league with Queen Anathraxa and Prince Boolar has been kidnapped. Who is the gray feather, then? It might be King Throx, but they aren't sure. Also, they were hoping for a vision related to the Death Dust. When they get back to the Nivekian city, Brrip'k'chok tells Iris that visions from the Oracle tend to show you what you need to know, not necessarily what you want to know. They take this to mean that the Avian prince should be their next endeavor, and they head out into the Slipstream, first to go back to Gemopia to pick up Zeenia's "danger bling," and then up to Avia to investigate the kidnapped prince.

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