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Author Topic: The Singing Constellation: A Sci-Fi, High Fantasy Space Odyssey (6/∞)  (Read 13969 times)

Magmacube_tr

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Lemmy thinks.

He wonders about what has happened with his experiments on the shard so far. First thing was that mana could be moved by any will. And the second thing was that if he absorbed it, he died.

He briefly throught about that weird thing that emerged from the box when it was charged with mana. He didn't really thought much of it. But the statue laughed nontheless.

But if he could move this energy from object to object with his will once, he could probably move it twice. This could allow him to attack with magic in a return-to-sender fashion, even though he can't cast a spell on his own.

He grabbed two boxes this time, putting the shard in one. Then he put the other behind him and provoked the transfer.

Code: [Select]
Lemmy tries to manipulate mana(10<): 19
The mana flowed into the box, then into him as he commanded it. Just as he felt hot, he willed it out of himself and poured the mana into the second box behind himself.

He still felt hot afterwards, however. He realised that the first box, which still had the obelisk shard in it, was getting constantly charged, and in turn, charging him and the second box in an infinite surge of mana. The mana was in this closed system was only increasing. Both the boxes and him would burn in ashes at this rate.

So he did the only thing he could do. He stepped out of the circuit, and let the mana dissipate of him.

The box previously behind him followed the same pattern and quietly radiated the mana away. The first box though, it had transformed again.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

It went up in flames, same as before.

Lemmy however, barely noticed the weird lava square thing's plight. His theory had worked. He could not hold it inside himself, but he could move it around as he wished.

But what about the dissipation? He didn't explode this time. He had seen Ornos turn into a firecracker when he had absorbed mana. The beetle was dissipating it. And he did so just now. Maybe there were certain thresholds for various effects, like that transformation and you know, exploding?

What if he could force it to dissipate into thin air? He grabbed the shard from the pile of ashes and started absorbing.

Code: [Select]
Lemmy tries to dissipate mana(10<): 15
He willed the mana out of himself. All at once, all the mana he absorbed rushed out of him, and into the surviving box from the previous experiment. The box slowly dissipated the stray energy like it did before, but seemed visibly charred afterwards. It appared to Lemmy that mana at sufficently large amounts naturally gravitated into an object to bind itself to. It couldn't dissipate all at once, only expelled as a volatile cloud of stray energy. He briefly wanted to learn more, but his body protested. That expulsion took every single speck of effort he had from him, so he decided to rest some.



If Burt could get his hands on whoever built this fucking shithole of a starship, he was going to make them regret ever being born.

This ship, by every sense of the word, was shot to shit! No supplies, no bedquarters, no nothing! Nothing!

But complaining didn't found him loot, so he got back to searching. Maybe there was something on the control room.

Code: [Select]
Burt raids the control room: 12
To his absolute surprise, there sure was something here, behind one of the large monitors. He had missed it while searching before. A small backpack with ten flares and a flare gun in it, along with a small, red rubber bracelet. He decided to take the whole bag along with him, there was no use carrying all those by hand, after all.



Velklin commanded the ship to scan the planet and produce them a map. The ship only understood a mixture of both , though. That was as good as any. Something like a biome/terrain type map, Velklin assumed.

"Topographical Scan: Initiated...
...
Done!
"

Topographic/Surface Map of Heyam-72 e




According to the scans, the planet was much more varied and dynamic than Veklin had first assumed. A cryogenic ocean of slimy, hydrocarbon sludge covered most of the southern hemisphere, signified in the murky, pale jade color. The three light blue layers signified slowly ascending layers of gradually, and sometimes, not so gradually more rocky and higher up flats and hills. The dark blue was a large, very high plateau, with a mountain range on top that was painted with an even darker blue.

The place looked strangely alive for such an outwardly dead world. The scans had even picked up some exotic biosignatures from the thin atmosphere the planet had.

Velklin saw and noted the anomalous small light gray dot. It was at the north, on the highest peak.

Oh! Roof meant North! That dot must be the fortress then!

Ok, first, spacesuits!

Himself? Check.

Lemmy? He was about to put on one. So, check.

Burt? Nope. He wasn't coming as far as he knew.

Isabam Butsha? Check.

Eleazar? Meh, he didn't cared.

Mr. Lin?... Uh... Where was Mr. Lin?

He searched for the chi master, but it was as if he had disappeared. He became sad and sulked, before messing with his magic to distract himself.

While he was fiddling around with [Luminous Dart], he realised that he didn't exactly needed some of his spells anymore. He decided to get rid of some of the more redundant and useless ones. [Blazing Sun] was one he had used for a very long time. But what he currently had was essentially a better version of it. So he got rid of it. [Scorching Fire] was the second one to go. It was practically useless, and slowly burning someone alive didn't sit well with Velklin. So it had to go.

This cleanup distracted him from the fact that Su Lin had simply upped and disappeared.

Ornos was still here at least, spending familial time with Geshemblos. The skink had the beetle in his mouth, shaking the poor bug left and right. Well, at least one of them was having fun.

They needed to be supervised more often, Velklin thought, and went to separate the two gods from eachother.

He didn't notice Isabam beaming down on her own.



The metal amazonian had always been a loner. She made her own decisions. She suffered if they were bad decisions, and reaped the rewards if they were good, and she did these by herself.

So she simply took initiative. The others could follow her if they wanted to.

First thing that greeted her was the faint sound of wind. She couldn't see here well and she didn't brought a flashlight, but there was... light, anyways?

Trees. There were trees. No, there were short, pillar shaped, tree-like lifeforms, which looked more like tube coral than any tree. She had landed right into an alien forest of these things, which came in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some of the trees had small, faint, bioluminescent buds on them that gave the environment a low glow. It was barely visible, which is why they couldn't see it from orbit. It was just enough light to see around, though.

She climbed a tree to take a look around, which was easy as the gravity was rather low here. She saw through the light buds that the forest stretched until it hit a perfectly, almost eerily still coastline of sorts, about fifty meters away. She saw a couple of figures move in the shadows, but she didn't approach any.

She didn't remember exactly where she landed, but it was somewhere along the southwestern coast of the hydrocarbon ocean. She didn't worried about it, the ship was right above her. She could beam up at any time.

But she had to admit, this view was spectacular. She hadn't seen anything quite like this before.

She barely noticed Lemmy beaming down to the ground next to  her tree.



Lemmy was taken aback by the presence of life. The records did not showed any presence of a biosphere anywhere on this system. Let alone one as exotic as this. Silicon-based with liquid nitrogen as solvent. Such worlds were dime a dozen.

He thought that maybe the scans previously made were superficial. This place did looked dead from a distance. The voyagers that discovered this place may have been unwilling to waste time wandering around on an ice ball.

He checked the ground. Yep, water ice sand. At these tempatures, ice was just another rock. The pebbles were also water ice. The ground was ice.

He knew that now.


Current Characters


Spoiler: Lemmy | (30/30 HP) (click to show/hide)









Spoiler: Burt | (40/40 HP) (click to show/hide)









Entity of the box was just a meaningless gag too, in case it wasn't too obvious. It is a reference to that scene in Adventure Time where Kid Peppermint summoned an eldritch horror with black magic.
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King Zultan

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"HOLY SHIT GUYS I FOUND A GUN!"
Load my flare gun and examine the red rubber bracelet, then beam down to the planet.


(You forgot to add the backpack, flare gun, ten flares, and the bracelet, to my inventory.)
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The Lawyer opens a briefcase. It's full of lemons, the justice fruit only lawyers may touch.
Make sure not to step on any errant blood stains before we find our LIFE EXTINGUSHER.
but anyway, if you'll excuse me, I need to commit sebbaku.
Quote from: Leodanny
Can I have the sword when you’re done?

Strif3

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Velklin
:■■ ▪▪▪▪▪ ▪▪▪▪▪
:■■■■ ▪▪▪▪▪ ▪▪▪▪▪


After separating the two diminutive "gods" and placing Geshemblos back on his forearm, where the skink belongs, Velklin ponders "Okay, really now... Where did Mr. Lin go? Do you know where he went, Ornos?" turning his attention to the small beetle wriggling on the ground, followed by looking over at the teleporter, continuing his musings "Did he go down to the planet already? No he couldn't have, he doesn't have a space suit! Did he go to get one himself? I would have seen him..."

A shudder running through him, his lower lip trembling, and tears threating to form in the corners of his eyes, Velklin calls out "Mr. Su Lin!", in a fairly dramatic fashion, as he does, assuming his particular wide-legged stance with his tail tucked and close. "Su Lin!" he calls out again, and receiving no instantaneous response, prepares to rush off in search of Su Lin.

But, Velklin figuring that since he's going to be running around, he might as well grab the spare space suit along the way anyway. And considering the worst scenario for a moment, in which Su Lin is simply gone—poof—vanished into the æther, Velklin realizes he'll have to adopt Ornos himself and take care of him.


Action Recap
Action 1: Search for Su Lin.
Action 2: Pick up a space suit for Su Lin from a locker.
Action 3: Adopt Ornos, if Su Lin doesn't turn up.
Combat Strategy: N/A

Squad:
  • None


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Funk

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Head to the cost line.
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Agree, plus that's about the LAST thing *I* want to see from this kind of game - author spending valuable development time on useless graphics.

Unofficial slogan of Bay 12 Games.  

Death to the false emperor a warhammer40k SG

Devastator

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(Dang, those are some rolls)

Load up on some ice stones for use with the mana source.  Exploding an ice rock might come in handy.

Try to hide myself mentally again.

Sneak towards the ice fortress
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Strif3

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(it looks like we've gotten all we're gonna get, sadly. You gonna update?)
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Magmacube_tr

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(it looks like we've gotten all we're gonna get, sadly. You gonna update?)

This volcano is still rumblin'!
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Magmacube_tr

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Burt is still ecstatic from finding something useful. He loads the flare gun with a single flare, which is all it can have in store at once, before putting on the backpack.

He remembers the bracelet, just after. He takes it out to wear it. He doesn't feels anything different when he puts it on. So he takes it off. He tries pulling at the trinket; it looks like quite the flimsy thing. But no matter how much Burt pulls, the bracelet does not budge. It is almost supernaturally tough. He gives up and puts it back to the bag.

He descends down to the planet shortly after. He realises that he can barely see a thing. And, hey look, wonky alien trees. How original.



"Mr. Lin? Mr. Liiiiiiiiiin? Where are you?"

Velklin searches the whole ship for the magical burly man, only to turn up empty handed. He is saddened, and is further distraught when he realises that no one is around to wear the space suit he had in his hands.

Ornos was still around, though. His thought shifted to the small beetle currently laying on Geshemblos' head. The beetle was subduing the skink, not allowing him to move.

"Come here, little buddy- You two, please play nice with eachother... Here, come."

He grabbed the beetle and put it on his hand. Ornos suddenly stopped moving. He was refusing to bond. Velklin tried to coax him, but the small god didn't reconsider the offer. Velklin was already occupied with another god already. But he still followed Velklin around wherever he went. Maybe he trusted the demigod child, or some other reason entirely.

It was very quiet now that everyone else was down there. Maybe he should go as well? But what is the point of that if fortress was still up at that mountain range and they were definitely hovering on someplace at the planetary equator?

It would surely take ages to get to the fortress by walking.

Wouldn't it?



Lemmy was not sure what he was disagreeing to, but nope! It wouldn't! He was sure of that.

His train of thought was interrupted, when a creature silently appeared from the jungle. It was a monopedal sphere with many hairs all around its torso, slowly approaching to the human boy. Suddenly, the hairs shifted. All of them became as still as spikes and the ones closest to Lemmy moved to point to him. The creature picked up speed, which was still slow by carbon standards. Lemmy easily dodged the creatures "charge", and had an idea.

Code: [Select]
Lemmy tries to hide his mind: [i]Autofail[/i]
Lemmy realised that when your enemy is entirely natural, metaphysical abilities such as his don't count for anything much. The creature couldn't detect his mind in the first place. It probably detected heat or sound. It moved in for another attack, a pounce this time, which was equally as slow as the charge from before.

'Alright, time to kill it' Lemmy thought. He grabbed an ice pebble, charged it with mana, and threw it to the creature. It exploded on contact, liquid nitrogen and bits of alien guts flew everywhere.

Lemmy stood there for a second, before laughing at the scene. That was awsome! This trick was supreme! Or it was just because how fragile this whole biosphere was. The trees around were either smashed and toppled by the blast, while he himself barely felt it. Expecting such a result from an ordinary enemy may spell the doom of him. He picked a few more pebbles just incase.

Wasn't important: was still cool as fuck. He decided to make his way to the fortress... Only to realise that he had no idea where he actually was on the planet. He was stuck. And kinda far from the drop-off place now. And covered in liquid nitrogen and alien guts.

He didn't immidiately panic as he could still somewhat spot where he came from. It would be easy to return back to the ship if he used the treetops.

Which he was thankful for. That thing was probably not a predator. It had no claws, only spines that were probably for self defense. Which meant it's predator was still unknown to him.

Who knew what else could be lurking here in this forest?



Isabam decided that she wanted to see the coastline in more detail.

She was right at the edge of the sea. An inky black, nearly unnaturally still sea of hydrocarbon sludge, mixed with liquid nitrogen. She squinted at the horizon to see the vague haze of the atmosphere.

The robot lady then did the unthinkable. She went for a swim... sorta. Turns out this sea was so shallow that even as she went about a hundred meters into it, the sludge was still below her knees.

Then she heard a crack. Then another. She realised that the lethal cold was damaging her suit. It was made for living in a heatless vacuum, and not to get submerged in cryogenic substances. She ran back as fast as she could back to the coastline to see that the outer protective layer on her suits lower legs was now cracked at several places.

She was a machine, but she wasn't fit to survive the extreme conditions of this planet.

She needed this suit, being technorganic be damned.


Current Characters


Spoiler: Lemmy | (30/30 HP) (click to show/hide)






Spoiler: Burt | (40/40 HP) (click to show/hide)





« Last Edit: May 07, 2023, 05:42:23 pm by Magmacube_tr »
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King Zultan

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"Damn it's dark, wish we were given flashlights or something."
See if my spacesuit has a flashlight built into it, and maybe check to see what other kinds of features it might have, then start heading towards where that fort thing is.
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The Lawyer opens a briefcase. It's full of lemons, the justice fruit only lawyers may touch.
Make sure not to step on any errant blood stains before we find our LIFE EXTINGUSHER.
but anyway, if you'll excuse me, I need to commit sebbaku.
Quote from: Leodanny
Can I have the sword when you’re done?

Strif3

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Velklin
:■■ ▪▪▪▪▪ ▪▪▪▪▪
:■■■■ ▪▪▪▪▪ ▪▪▪▪▪


Refusing to believe Su Lin simply disappeared into the nothingness, Velklin decides to write Su Lin's name on the spare space suit and leave it neatly folded up where he'd find it. In the midst all the anxious back and forth running, Velklin hadn't paid much attention to the others beaming down to the planet. His subconscious did register it though. But by now they could have all spread out in different directions. Wandering aimlessly and alone—like little forest critters—lost in the dark. He resolved to ask the ship for help with locating the others on the planet's surface. "Hey... Ship AI. The suits have trackers on them, right? Please, ping their locations and mark them on the map." Velklin said, while looking for a suitable place to leave the suit.

Afterward, he would return to his original plan of action; Charging up a cast of [Fullest Moon]—to use as a makeshift, but effective light source—then beaming down to the surface. "I'll be their guiding light in the darkness..." he giggles, "Metaphorically and literally."


Action Recap
Action 1: Write Su Lin's name on the spare space suit and leave it somewhere.
Action 2: Ask ship for updated map with all the team members' locations.
Action 3: Charge up [Fullest Moon] to use as a light source and beam down.
Combat Strategy: Avoid combat. Do not discharge [Fullest Moon].

Squad:
  • None


I have something cool planned for the [Fullest Moon] charge next turn.
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Devastator

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"Well, I don't see anything specific around here, time to beam up.  This forest is fairly fascinating, but if it's cryogenic..

hmm..  there's probably some more tricks.."

Check my spacesuit.  Is there a vacuum or some kind of thin atmosphere?  I could probably use another suit to make a heat ray if the surface isn't vacuum.

Beam up.  See if there are any spare spacesuits, (Not the one Velklin's experimenting with.) and if anyone's got any ideas where the fortress is.

If I do find a suit, flatten a few cardboard boxes to fill the inside a bit.
« Last Edit: May 08, 2023, 01:31:34 pm by Devastator »
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Strif3

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Please do not further agitate Velklin by taking the space suit intended for Su Lin... it's a... recommendation...

I'm gonna cancel my third action pre-emptively, just in case- on the basis that Velklin will most likely have not beamed down before Lemmy beams up. Just in case Lemmy is gonna do what i fear he's going to. Use the freed third action for whatever; talking to Lemmy, or something.
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Devastator

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Ahh, I don't mean that one.
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Strif3

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That's all i wanted to hear.
If only because then i have no need to cancel said action after all. So i'm taking the cancelation back, thus all actions as written in my original turn post are in full effect.
I know it's a bit confusing—this back and forth—but to alleviate some of that, i'm leaving all of the posts unedited, Magmacube.
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Devastator

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(As for getting through, I do have a few ideas.  We could try to make a boat out of melting ice on the ship, carrying it down inside a space suit, and using it to wet cardboard boxes so they freeze into a boat-shape.  I'm not sure of the density of liquid nitrogen, but it might be possible.  There's some other possibilities I can think of if that fails.)
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