Adventure Overview
Players: Morton, Faust and Jazz.
Enemies: Diablo, his undead minions and several fictional enemies.
Started: With a Deep Space tradition and work reports.
Ended: As Morton fled from Muradin's anger.
This adventure began with the upholding of an established Deep Space tradition. As a multiple of four, it was totally expected that Adventure 32 would begin with a chart. And so it did. It was interesting to note that this was the first chart filled in by Faust, who had somehow managed to miss almost every previous chart adventure. Though this part of the adventure seemed to fit with customs, the fact that the players received their reports directly afterwards was a surprise to some.
In the 31 adventures preceeding this one, the heroes of Deep Space have faced many perils. And in overcoming them, they have also fought many foes. As video games would indicate, some of these foes were big and powerful enough to be considered bosses. Now, it's time for you to rate the combat skills of some of the most dangerous enemies you have battled in this campaign. Note, of course, that contrary to the title of this chart, not all the characters listed below are actually 'bad'. This chart includes many powerful opponents who you have actually fought in physical combat, regardless of their alignment, and who haven't appeared on many other charts. Mark them in order of descending power, with 1 being the most powerful and 12 being the least. Being the closest will net you almost as much experience as beating one of these foes in battle, which works out to about 1000XP.
Topping this chart would require digging back through many adventure memories, or simply using random guesswork. Which is what Faust had to go with, having not actually experienced the fight with many of these villains. But he had fought Dracula many times, and decided to add him to the chart. The obvious difficulty of rating this ever more potent villain was solved by giving him a ranking of negative infinity, since he had extreme upward potential. Needless to say, this had no effect on the actual scoring of the chart. As such, it ended up as a two man race between Jazz and Morton. In marking his chart, the former had to note his disappointment that Mr. Rhyze was not featured prominently on the chart, apparently ignoring the fact that it included only NPCs. To rectify this, Jazz added Mr. Rhyze to the chart and assigned him a ranking of zero, above any other picks. This might have proved to be his downfall (though it actually wasn't), as Morton ended up taking the chart for a second time in a row.
Work Log: Work seems much more pleasant without having to worry about the evil of Shaimus. And Jordi LaForge seems to be the perfect chief engineer, as you noted on your own ranking sheet. Fortunately, the rest of the panel must have agreed with your assessment. He really does seem like a professional, except when he loses his visor and thus his sight, which seems to happen fairly often. As a man with only half the normal eyepower, you can somewhat understand what he's going through. And you have to admit that having one of those visors would be cool, if at times inconvenient.
Space Fleet Status:
-1 Falcon Fighter known as the Roose, considered not worth stealing.
-1 Falcon-X known as the Vesper, now protected by The Club.
-1 Thunderer belonging to Fayde, the only Electran remaining on the station.
-An APC known as The Buick, in perfect condition.
-Custom Falcon belonging to Johnny, protected by the Johnny Security Sytem.
-A flashy Heatwave called the Disco Inferno that was recently added to the fleet docked in the military bay. Johnny seems impressed by its style.
Military Supplies:
-11 'slightly-used' Falcon missiles purchased from Crazy Sam.
-8 Heatwave missiles purchased from the GAP.
-3 Space-suits complete with oxygen tanks providing fourty minutes of breathable air, one of which is highly asymmetrical, courtesy of Taylor.
-2 Crates of dud Falcon-X missiles. You really need to get a refund from the Transporter, through any means necessary.
Docked Flights:
-The Airmail is still docked in space bay two. The Postman seems grateful to have finally recovered his mailbag from Faust, and for once not overly disgruntled. But you're sure that his upbeat attitude won't last long.
-A very large ship called the Second Edition recently arrived at the station. This transport is too big to actually land in the bay, so it's connected to the station by some sort of boarding tunnel. This is apparently a fairly common practice for larger ships, though you've not seen it used since Flanedra's cruiser visited the station.
Personal Notes:
-Jordi LaForge also seems to know a lot about ships, which isn't overly surprising considering he has spent most of his career at Starfleet servicing them. He was most impressed with your Falcon-X (when he could see it), and immediately perceived that it must be a fast ship. He even offered advice on how to improve its speed, noting that a ship like that was probably always running low on power. He suggested some sort of crystal would clearly double its power supply, thus greatly increasing the Vesper's speed.
-You've heard rumours floating around the crew about some sort of Sun Stone. No one seems to know exactly what it is, but it sounds like the sort of crystal that Jordi was telling you about.
Mini-Objective:
-Find this Sun Stone so that you can use it as a power source for your ship.
Work Log: Fortunately, it seems that your work in the boiler room can resume without any possible interruptions from any sort of nosy janitors. In that sense, the hiring of Elizabeth Bathory turned out to be a brillant idea. Unfortunately, her presence also seemed to herald the return of Dracula, who remains at large. And with the way his power is growing, he might soon actually be a threat.
Body Count: (These corpses are stored throughout the station. The morgue has expanded to include Sick Bay, a pair of spare rooms and even the boiler room, which is coincidently enough also a great place to perform dark experiments.)
-Many Red-Shirts who were killed in their explorations of the engineering tunnels, despite the fact that there weren't actually any fugitives hiding therein.
-The corpse of Bahljas has become one of your few bodies that actually has a name. Fayde was generous enough to donate him to your morgue, noting that he had to be preserved until a proper funeral could be arranged.
-You've also obtained both the head and the body of Virgil. Both should make great centerpieces for the morgue, especially if you can find a way to make the head talk. Without using Revive!, of course. Because that wouldn't end well.
-You were also given the corpse of Oscar the Grouch, who was apparently killed by some sort of bite to the neck, allegedly initiated by Dracula. Of course, you're still dubious that Dracula would be accurate enough to deal such a wound.
Necromancy Report:
-The most recent issue of Necromancy Monthly, the only official Necromancer's magazine (quite understandably), focuses on the growing numbers of vampire hunters roaming the galaxy. It's not surprising that the increase in the number of people claiming to be vampires should increase the number of vampire hunters. These brave (and often crazy) folk range from the extreme amateurs to experienced experts. They've been developing many unique, and often garlic-intensive ways of dealing with vampires, both real and fake. The most famous of these vampire hunters goes only by the name of D, though it's unknown if he supports the aforementioned garlic methods.
Personal Notes:
-Contending with Dracula's ever-growing power may soon become difficult. In an effort to defeat him once and for all, you've decided to search out some of the most effective techniques advocated by the vampire hunters. Though you're still not convinced that Dracula is actually undead, he certainly claims that he is. Thus, these techniques should at least discombobulate him.
-Samo Hung is still on the station, and pestering to be hired as the new janitor now that Bathory has been arrested. This would be unfortunate, but you're confident that Samo's own incompetence should keep him out of that job.
Mini-Objective:
-Discover the best ways to combat Vampires, both real and fake.
Work log: You've got some serious work ahead of you to 'jazz up' this whole station. From what you can determine, no one really seems with the beat. Except perhaps that Johnny character, though he's got a whole different rhythm, and certainly one far worse than your own. Fortunatel, with DJ Jazz in da house (or on the station, as the case may be), you're confident the entire crew will be be in the groove in no time.
Jazz's Playlist: (Basically, a summary of the songs that you currently have on your WinAmp playlist. They quite accurately represent the current most popular and best trends to be found in the music industry).
-BABA is back on the charts! After a hiatus that lasted several years, this influential band is back in the business. Their latest album, BABA Gold, is selling like crazy. And you'd have to be crazy not to dig this group.
-On the topic of bad music, the prevalence of boy bands in the industry only seems to be increasing. Groups like N'Sync and the Backstreet Boys have been ruling the charts, much to your dismay. You've made several angry calls to all the important radio shows, but this has surprisingly had no effect on the popularity of these bands. You don't know how anyone can stand groups like the Backstreet Boys. Nothing good has ever come from the backstreets. As far as you're concerned, those boys should come back to the frontstreets and in so doing move away from any illegitimate activities they might be involved in.
Personal Notes:
-Your ship has finally arrived on this station! Aow! You can't wait to show it off to all the other stuffy pilots. While the Disco Inferno might not be packed with missiles, it has more than enough speed and style to make up for it. In fact, its moves are almost as good as your own.
-Though this station is still a long way from gender equality, the presence of Commander Zaya and Elizabeth Bathory almost make up for it. Sure, they've locked up the latter in the brig, and seem to claim that she's some sort of vampire. But it's probably just so that Blank can have her for himself. Something that you don't intend to allow. It shouldn't be at all hard for you put the moves on her, even if she's behind bars. Now it's a real shame that you weren't able to push through the hiring of Lucca as well�
-You didn't get much of a chance to show off your Kung-Fu moves, but that might actually be a good thing. From what you could tell, Morton's Kung-Fu was incredibly strong, possibly even matching up with your own, though surely lacking your unique and interminable style.
-No luck so far in obtaining a chair for your post. You don't consider it a big deal; it's hard to dance while sitting down anyway, though you could surely still manage it somehow.
Mini-Objective:
-Show off your ship to any and all pilots. And women too, of course.
After an unusual start, the adventure got back to a more traditional opening. This would have to be a trip to Bennigan's, the only Irish pub to be found on the station. As such, it was once again fairly crowded, forcing Jazz, Morton and Faust to sit at a table already mostly occupied by Jamal, and to a lesser extent Falco. Jazz and Jamal once again tried to do some sort of complex and 'hip' greeting, but it didn't turn out quite the way either hoped, and instead involved Jamal punching Jazz in the face Falco noted that this was the strangest sort of greeting gesture he'd ever seen. Jamal noted that it was more exercise than he'd had in months. Whatever the case, the four were soon seated, and ready to order from Lucky's extensive Irish menu. Regardless of their choices, they mostly ended up with potatos anyway, although Faust did influence Lucky's creation of a special dish, that once again involved only potatos. Now that the orders had been taken, Morton felt free to comment on Jazz's ship, which had apparently just arrived on the station. Jazz was quick to claim credit for the stylish ship, noting that he had sacrificed missile-carrying capacity in favor of increased speed and smoother handling. Falco could only groan, noting that Jazz seemed to be going the way of Johnny, with all style and zero substance. Jazz was quick to make a distinction, and noted that unlike Johnny's, his style was actually good.
By this time, Morton felt it was time for him to personally pick out his daily keg from the Kitchen. The Irish chefs offered no resistance, but this didn't mean that Morton's action went unopposed. As he was rolling the Lucky-sized barrel out the door, he suddenly found himself confronted by a man in a coffee brown suit. It was Senor Nabob, and he had a gun to Morton's head. Admittedly, it was only a D6-Minigun, but Nabob clearly felt it was enough to intimidate the pilot. The coffee baron's confidence could also have been due to the large squad of annonymous technicians flanking him. For the second time in as many adventures, Nabob accused Morton of working with the Postal Service, and of helping Il Postino recover his mail. Morton had to admit that this was the case, and declared that his allegiance was firmly behind The Postman. Further, the pilot threatened to turn Nabob in to the other coffee barons that had long wanted to get their hands on him. Nabob responded with threats of his own, including the possibility of rolling out the barrel (or keg) at Morton. Morton turned the tables on this by punching Nabob when he wasn't looking. Outraged the coffee baron demanded to know who had been responsible for this attack. Morton quickly accused one of Nabob's own followers, and the furious coffee baron swiftly spun and shot the technician, noting that he would make an example out of him. While Nabob was distracted, Morton quickly rolled his keg towards the exit of Bennigan's. As he did so, he encountered two newcomers just approaching the pub. The fact that the two arrived together led many to link them, but in fact it was just coincidence. But it was no coincidence that Jazz was greatly interested by the first of these newcomers, and Faust by the second.
Harle
Race: Fenixan
Occupation: French Jester
Harle had quite a distinctive appearance, including her red and yellow jester's outfit, the white paint on her face and a black mask she wore that could hardly be called a mask at all. Of course, as far as Jazz was concerned, Harle's most important physical characteristics were the fact that she was both young and female. Such things would even make up for the fact that the bells on her suit jingled in a fashion not at all similar to Jazz's favored musical styles. And for her horrible french accent, which simply including saying 'ze' and 'moi' as many times as possible. It wasn't initially known what Harle was doing on the station, though some immediately suspected she was up to no good. And that she would do cart-wheels and disappear at any moment. In all fairness, Harle did seem to show some gymnastic ability, and a talent for disappearing at will. Something that could deter, but not stop the man known as Jazz.
Gulstamp
Race: Tortalian
Occupation: Sorceror of Light and Vampire Hunter
Gulstamp's coincidental arrival on the station at the same time as Harle led many to believe that the two had come together, though this proved not to be the case. Mainly due to this alleged connection, and the dead raccoon hat that Gulstamp always wore on his head, several people also accused him of being a semi-human named Lynx. Gulstamp denied any such charges, though he did refuse to give his name until midway through the adventure. Aside from the rather odd raccoon hat that he always wore, Gulstamp looked like the traditional wizard that he was, with blue robes and a rather thin physique. However, he was quick to point out to anyone nearby that his 'magic' was enough to fight off the forces of evil. And along with the many tried and true methods for dealing with vampires, he considered himself more than a match for the Lord of the Undead. Thus, he had come to the station hunting Dracula, who was rumoured to have been spotted there. His other most noticeable feature was his ever-shifting accent, which would switch from thick scottish to complete nondescript at seemingly random intervals.
Morton spent a moment staring at the pair, after which Jazz lept forward to take over guidance of the newly arrived woman. This left Gulstamp in Morton's hands. Adjusting his raccoon hat, Gulstamp inquired if this was the local tavern, and implied that he had very important work to do there. Given Gulstamp's suddenly thick scottish accent, Morton could barely understand what he was saying. Still, he was able to gesture vaguely towards Bennigan's, and this seemed to satisfy Gulstamp. This left Morton free at last to roll his keg down to the military bay lounge. Meanwhile, Gulstamp had approached the diminutive proprietor of Bennigan's, and was seriously inquiring into the matter of obtaining garlic. Faust could only assume that this substance would be used to combat undead. Jazz assumed that it would give you bad breath, and no one disagreed with that. In fact, Gulstamp declared that this was the point of garlic. It would repel undead almost as well as Revive, but without the angry side effects that accompanied the phony fruit beverage. Lucky was unaware of any such ingredient, mainly because the word Irish had yet to be mentioned in Gulstamp's description of it. So instead he brought a large and rather green potato. Noting that everyone had to make sacrifices while facing the undead, Gulstamp ate this item, and noted that it would probably work almost as well. For his part, Faust decided to pursue the elusive garlic by searching the kitchen. Gulstamp followed his lead, and in moments the two were sorting through the packed fridge. Not surprisingly, all the items contained therein were shoved onto the bottom shelves, doubtless to provide better access for the more diminuitive members of the staff. Despite this mess, the two were able to locate some garlic. Faust took a moment to chew down a couple cloves before initiating a second search, this time for garlic powder. Gulstamp agreed that this would also make an effective weapon.
By this point, Morton had reached the military bay lounge with his keg of Guiness. Falco was already there, as was Johnny. At the moment, The Man seemed to have initiated his Johnny security system, and was standing in front of his ship with a stylin' martial arts pose. The reason for this became quite clear when Morton spotted a short figure examining his ship. Needless to say, the pilot was concerned for the safety of the Vesper, and rushed forward to protect it. In so doing, he found himself confronting yet another important character.
Muradin Bronzebeard
Race: Arsan
Occupation: Grumpy Dwarf
The name and occupation alone are almost enough to describe this character. But just to make you almost half as grumpy as Muradin, I'll describe him anyway. Though Dwarves don't officially exist as a race in Spherus, Muradin Bronzebeard still looked the part. He was short, muscular, and bearded. As his last name would suggest, Muradin's beard and hair were the color of bronze, while his large hammer was the color of admorite. Because that's what it was made from. Most likely due to his appearance, Murradin had learned to tolerate the nickname of 'Stubby' that was often attributed to him. Despite this, many characters still managed to offen him by continually referring to him as 'stumpy' instead. When not grumbling about something (often the general sissiness of elves) in his thick scottish accent, Muradin would sometimes admit that he was looking for an object called the Sunstone. Such crystals could be used as great power sources, and the dwarf was confident that he could build some amazing ships using the stone. His search led him to Epsilon. Such a long trip into Deep Space could only make the dwarf grumpier, which in turn would unlock his special power, Avatar. This allowed Muradin to grow into a giant dwarf, whose discontent increased in direct proportion to his size.
Morton wasted no time in demanding to know what Muradin was doing poking around his ship. The Dwarf's reply was extremely grumpy, and noted that he was looking for the Sunstone, though he had yet to find any sign of it. Morton was intrigued by the prospect of this stone, and suggested they should team up to find it. By this point, Muradin had already climbed into the cockpite of the Vesper, despite the CLUB that was propped inside the ship. Not wanting Stubby to ruin the interior of his ship, Morton tried to pull him out, to absolutely no avail. In fact, it only made Muradin grow bigger and grumpier. Morton's inability to eject the angry dwarf from his own ship seemed to be very amusing to Johnny, who noted once again that this sort of thing simply wouldn't happen with the Johnny security system. Jazz arrived in the lounge just in time to bring a snappy comeback against Johnny, noting that it was only his lack of personal charisma that kept people away from his ship, not his skill with kung-fu. Johnny would surely have refuted this claim, but his attention was clearly drawn by Harle, who had arrived with Jazz. In fact, the DJ had come down to the bay to show her his ship, the Disco Inferno. But in the process, he had ended up showing her Johnny. Brushing Jazz aside, Johnny swept up to Harle and told her she should start hanging out with the real iceman of the station. The brief argument that unfolded between Jazz and Johnny mostly centered around who was more popular on the station, especially in the eyes of Commander Zaya. Morton earned both their ires by declaring that Zaya would probably like to avoid setting her eyes on either one of them. Muradin just declared them both sissies.
Faced with such antagonism, and egged on by Harle, Jazz had no choice but to prove his manliness through one of the lowest forms of male rituals: a space race. Morton rejected the challenge, because Jazz was no challenge. Or, more accurately, Morton wanted to search for the Sunstone, and suggested that he would race the winner of a heat between Johnny and Jazz. As the reigning champion, Johnny declared that he should be the one to face the winner, and that he shouldn't even have to contend with a loser like Jazz. But when confronted with the prospect of being a chicken, Johnny agreed to race. With a delighted backflip, Harle disappeared from view, leaving the two men to suit up for their big race. Falco offered to officiate, while Morton and Muradin left the room to begin their search for the sunstone. After alot more shamless boasting, the two were finally ready to go. Upon Falco's signal, both ships roared out into deep space. The first part of the race was dead even, though Jazz's Heatwave eventually gained a small lead over Johnny's Custom. Still, it was anyone's race as the two reached the asteroid belt. Jazz went for some heavy evasive action, while Johnny went for his traditional bump, almost knocking Jazz's ship into one of the giant asteroids. Now Johnny had a slight lead, and he exploited it fully as he raced back towards the station. Knowing that he needed to make up some ground, and fully aware of Johnny's reluctance to break up his ship, Jazz used the incredible speed of this move to nudge past the Man during the final few seconds of the race. And unlike the previous race between Morton and Johnny, this one didn't end with both ships crashing into the hangar wall. In fact, Jazz managed to pull off a perfect landing, despite the incredible speed at which he entered the hangar. Johnny was quick to claim that he had allowed the newby to win, simply because he didn't want to crush Jazz's already fragile confidence. Jazz would have retorted, but he noticed that Harle had disappeared, and thus there was hardly any point.
During all this posing, Faust and Gulstamp had decided to make their way down to the boiler room. Gulstamp considered this a likely place to find the undead, and enlisted Faust's help in facing them. He was particularly impressed with the mortician's claims that he had faced Dracula several times, and was still alive to speak of it. Faust's repeated claims that Dracula was neither powerful nor really undead did not seem to have any effect on Gulstamp, who noted that the boiler room was cold as ice, the perfect place for the undead to stir. Faust agreed that it would, but noted that this was also a good place to look for items that might be used to combat the undead. Gulstamp agreed, and after several minutes of searching, the two had found a pair of mirrors. Undead, Gulstamp explained, were often so ugly that they could not stand their own reflections. He believed the same could be said of Morton Ragnarsson, who had just entered the room in search of the Sunstone. Gulstamp spun and fixed him with a mirror, declaring about the hideous nature of this intruder. His groans only increased when Muradin Bronzebeard made his stumpy entrance into the room. Though all four searched the room, none found anything remotely resembling a Sunstone. Not that anyone seemed to have any idea what it should like. In fact, Morton gave two contradictory descriptions, both of which he claimed to be definitive. Though Faust knew nothing about this Sunstone, he could only assume that the mention of sun in its name implied that it would be good against the undead.
Before the search for the Sunstone could continue, an announcement over the intercom courtesy of Mr. Rhzye's replacement informed Morton, Faust and Jazz that they should report to Commander Zaya's room for a briefing. Upon arriving there, the three found Zaya, Picard and Vance waiting for them. Once all were in the room, Zaya began the discussion noting that what they discussed would be mostly confidential, and that the information shouldn't be spread around. After the betrayel of Mr. Rhyze, she didn't intend to take any more chances of information leakage. After all, someone had been sending encoded messages down to the asteroid, and she didn't thnk Mr. Rhyze would have brought it up if it was his doing. Morton agreed, and he didn't think that Shaimus would have the computer skills to arrange any such encryption. This meant that there might be more traitors on the station, and they should clearly be kept from knowing about this next mission, which was directly related to the asteroid in question. Vance had been doing some research on that area, and noted that it was known to be a nesting grounds for many types of space monsters. Displacement of these hives could easily result in the kind of agitation that had recently been observed amongst the space monsters of Sector Y. Hence, the scientist thought that there must be some sort of human presence on that asteroid. However, he didn't think there wwre any vampires on the station, despite Faust's numerous claims. Clearly, a man of science couldn't waste time with such preposterous notions.
Please proceed to page two of this adventure to delve deeper into Diablo's Dark World.
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