Manhattan Knights Act 3 Final
Welcome to the continuing story of Three Storm Knights in the game of Torg Eternity, the backgrounds of the heroes can be found HERE, and the very first post in the Series and be found HERE. More information about the game can be found HERE.
Act 3 Scene 4
To recap the end of the last post…
The heroes had met some alien scientists who altered their bodies through genetics and cybernetic augmentation turning themselves into “Servitors” who were more robot than flesh. One of these Servitors, Dr. Lom tried to offer them hospitality in his lab in the sub-basement, but the characters paranoia about laboratories and aliens caused them to panic.
Instead they offered to face down a massive robot guardian and give the servitors access to their main lab again. The fight against the giant robot was anti-climatic and quick, and the heroes rushed into the main lab where Kimiko used her psychic powers to clear the neural-based circuitry of a nasty virus.
The servitors are now taking command of the entire city shutting down the sentries and redistributing power throughout the city. They are planning on accessing the cloning vats to return their bodies to a more humanoid state and maybe recreate their civilization.
Exploration and the Run Around:
The heroes spread out and explore the labs as all six of the servitors make there way back into their homes/ old labs. Sasha talks with a new-comer, Dr. Sven is the nearest translation of his name, who checks out the Sat-Phone that the Delphi Council gave her. The phone is near useless in the living land as apparently even radio signals are degraded by the low tech Axiom of the Cosm.
Dr. Sven builds in a micro-burst feature and Sasha is able to call back to Brooklyn and talk with Doc Garret. They trade information about what has ben happening to each of them. The team has only been upcountry for 5 days at this point but Garret was getting worried. He reports that they managed to round up about 50 survivors and that with the influx of people they have managed to clean up the old police station and fortify the surrounding houses as well. Weirdly the power of the Hardpoint, the relic that makes the HQ stay as Core Earth and not change to the Living Land strengthened as well, and phantom power still has electricity running.
He then warns Sasha that Long Island has been engulfed in massive change storms and that regular thunderstorms are being pushed ahead of them so to prepare for a lot of wet.
Sasha stops herself from hanging up as she remembers the badges on the torn sleeve and after asking Garret about them, he tells her it sounds like she has an old school force recon marine who made the jump to MARSOC. Meaning she was probably looking for a Marine who was pushing 50 based on the badges.
Kimiko:
Kimiko is raiding the archives in the computer system and starts to download the information that the Dome has collected on the Living Land, both from its original world and what it recorded after being absorbed as a “Wonder.” She quickly realizes that the few gigs of open space on her phone is not going to be enough.
After the download completes, she hunts down Dr. Lom and talks to him about the Jiangshi virus that is ravaging South East Asia. While he is fascinated by the virus and its effects his specialty is biotech weapons and what he likes to call, the Bio-Boosted Armor! [Yeah, I had to put the Guyver into a game, why not.] Dr. Lom gifts his one working control module to Kimiko for all that she has done for them. [This would be the beginning of a long line of rejected items that Kimiko’s player would amass and then throw aside… sad ☹]
Seeing Kimiko is still upset, Lom takes her to met Satai, a Doctor of gene-therapy, while he isn’t viral scientist, he does mess with genetic codes and cloning and might be able to offer insight into the virus.
Carlisle:
Carlisle is even more out of place in these labs than the girls. While in his pre-invasion life he was a biologist who held several doctorates, his “awakening” into a storm knight turned him into a Victorian from Orrosh, [Which has a tech and science level kind of equivalent to early 19th century earth] meaning half of his knowledge is scientific and the rest is alchemy and witchcraft.
He wanders around the labs, and old man in massive armored coat. And comes to a slightly open door with the #2 stenciled beside it. Was this not the forbidden lab mentioned by Klein? Carlisle pushes the door open and steps into the room. Besides the lab equipment he doesn’t understand there are four objects that stand out in the room.
Large vat/jars with metal caps at either end, three of them are socketed in holders on a central table, the fourth cannister is on a counter wired into a makeshift power source. IN the glass portion of the jars a “blob” floats.
The jar by itself is labeled Black #337.
#2 is a yellow blob, URIEL
#3 Red and Black, CYRUS, red light on, locked.
#4 Green and Blue, SIREN ♀
Interruption:
Dr Klein appears at Carlisle’s shoulder. “You don’t want to touch these. Intelligent vile little bastards.” Another servitor stands at the door, wringing his hands.
Dr Sven really wants to get back to his charges. Carlisle allows Dr. Klein to lead him out of the room, Klein asks if there is anything more fitting that Carlisle would be interested in. As they pass Dr. Sven, Klein pauses a moment, “Do not touch those specimens.”
Crestfallen, Sven follows after the two as they continue down the hall.
Unwatched Sasha arrives at the lab and enters.
What’s in the Jar?
She looks at the goo in the jar for a few moments and then notices that that the creatures are telepathically talking to each other. Except for the LOCKED one, Cyrus. Sasha switches off the psychic dampener and touches the jar with her mind. Instantly the connection is made, the creature’s thoughts are oily and nasty and slid into her mind with a painful spike. But quickly it calms down and tries to be gentle with her.
Cyrus: Don’t be scared little dove… do you want… do you need to kill, to drink your enemies’ blood? Want to murder the world with me child?
Sasha: Why you and not (thumb toward the yellow goo)?
C: He is weak, he is not me… if you want to be weak then you bind with him.
Siren: Why would you want a man to rule you. Take me girl, we could do great things together.
Sasha seems to be thinking it over and then reaches for the top of Cyrus’ jar: “If I let you out of here will you kill my enemies?”
Siren: Don’t open it! If you break that seal, he will be on you in a minute. Consent be damned.
Sasha stops again. The conversation between the entities drags out as all of them start fighting to be heard, so skip a bit. In the end Sasha makes a deal with Cyrus that she is going to remove him from the lab and set him free at a later date.
Found out:
Kimiko and Carlisle catch Sasha with the cannister and ask her what she is thinking. She calmly informs them that Cyrus is a homicidal maniac and as such is a perfect weapon. She plans to use him as a sort of guided missile against the edeinos. She will have him run amok among the lizards and let him get “fat and happy” on the blood of the invaders.
Carlisle has many issues with this, first off what is to say that the goo can’t replicate itself or give birth? Thus, spawning more monsters. Two, what if it tries to come back and bound with one of them? Or worse what if it heads out and infects a human population like say back at HQ and gets out into Core Earth? That’s not even mentioning all of the moral issues with the idea.
Things get very heated [in and OUT of game]. Carlisle storms off and the arguing and fuss brings the servitors into the area. They calmly suggest that perhaps everyone should rest for the night.
Resting
The party gets led to a suite of rooms and Carlisle and Sasha talk out her mad plan again. This time calmly and without the fighting. Carlisle makes her promise to ask some questions about the reproduction of the creatures and at least consider every variable before she unleashes the little nightmare onto the world.
Sasha makes some concessions and they all agree to sleep one it.
Thus ends the Third Act of the Manhattan Knights.
