CHAPTER THREE ♔ in an isolated system the entropy can only increase

[goodbyecaroline]

♬ the device has been modified - victims of science

WHO || Gold, Faye, Emma, Mars, Astrid, GLaDOS
WHAT ||  The Knights become unwitting test subjects for a psychotic AI  
WHERE || Luckman Industries computer-aided enrichment center, Germany
WHEN || May 31st/June 1st [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

Why Wynn ever thinks there will be such a thing as a 'simple recon mission' we just don't know.  

Several Knights were dispatched to a small isolated town in Germany where magic was rumored to not function, only to discover that the situation was a bit more complicated.  Yes, magic didn't function when attempted - sometimes.  But other times it had bizarre and dangerous side effects, including driving townspeople insane.  

Research led the team to a company called Luckman Industries who had bought digging rights to make a large quarry beneath the town, but further investigation revealed that they had actually constructed a massive underground laboratory instead.  Some sort of strange device stood at the center of it, magical in nature, but when they attempted to leave, they found the doors locked, and were forced into trying magic despite the potential side effects.

The spell seems to have attracted the attention of something within the building itself - a disembodied voice that's offered them a (mostly) pleasant greeting - to the Luckman Industries computer-aided enrichment center.

There will be cake.

Comments

[pathology]

Bullshit. [she doesn't look that sure tho ...]

[undealt]

It's lovely for morale, isn't it?

[Anyway. Gold has one more magic missile left, so... there it goes.]

[goodbyecaroline]

[ yeah no. instead heavy rain starts to fall all around them again. heavy rain that... knocks the emma statue over. reflex saves, bitches... ]

[pathology]

[REF SAVE 23 MOTHERFUCKA. actual day saver astrid madchen. she keeps the statue previously known as emma from toppling over; now emma swan can't say she never did anything nice for her. astrid is now accepting gift cards to louis vuitton.]

[reallywicked]

[Faye's reflex save was only an 11 this time. Clearly we now know that she loves Gold more than Emma... Sorry, Emma.]

I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this... [She will try to cast magic missile again, but I'm pretty sure this is her last use for the day... We're all fucked, basically.]

[goodbyecaroline]

[ yeah esp b/c her spell fizzles out and grass starts to grow beneath their feet again, but this time it starts sprouting up between cracks that are slowly opening up in the floor because of that shifting earlier... and holy crap, THE ROOM IS FALLING APART. THAT IS PROBABLY BAD. the entire floor starts to tilt backwards, and they can make reflex checks to grab onto the edge of the floor or be... thrown back against the wall they came in through, which is rapidly becoming the floor. shit. ]

[pathology]

[SHRIEK as she makes a 13 ref save and ... possibly barely grabs the edge???? she does not however ... grab emma. um....]

[undealt]

[Gold rolled a 4

So.

That happened.]

[reallywicked]

[Faye got an 18 reflex. Not sure if that means she was fast enough to also grab Gold...who is presumably lighter than a giant statue of Emma and would therefore be easier to hold onto...

If not, sorry bros. Panic starts to creep in but Faye has nerves of fucking steel with her nat 20 will save not to freak the fuck out.]

What do you want us to do?! [She snarls out in the general direction of GLaDOS.]

[pathology]

[she is barely keeping it together with her 11 will save, but manages to spit out] I think the target just responds to pressure! You still have your gun, right? If — if we can climb up, and you can aim it ...

[goodbyecaroline]

[ ♬ heads will roll yeah yeah yeahs

astrid grips onto the upper edge of the pit as it tilts backwards. gold, however, goes falling backward, but faye is fast enough to grab him... if she's strong enough to hold him. she gets the edge of the pit with her other hand, but need a str check of 14+ to keep gold from slamming back down into the wall and taking 19 falling damage.

emma-statue, however, goes flying back down and smacks into the wall with a loud CRACK.

the head of the statue crashes to the ground, separate from the rest of it, emma's frozen expression unchanged. ]

It seems in poor taste to make a comment about keeping your head. And yet.

[reallywicked]

[Faye is all about saving Gold today. She barely makes that str check with a 15 and grips his hand like the bitch owes her money. Her attention, however, is snapped to the far wall when Emma's head snaps off.]

No! You fucking computer bitch, I'll kill you.

[Faye has a lot of feelings. She turns her head towards Astrid because she's hanging on to the floor with one hand and to Gold with the other.]

My gun. It's back here. [She gestures with her head to try to get Astrid to grab it from the waistband of her jeans, tucked against her back. Praise jesus she grabbed that when shit went crazy back at the beginning (and praise ruthi for remembering that /unsure)] Can you get it?

[pathology]

[astrid has a lot of feelings about this shit too ... mostly because one of the reasons she was brought on this mission (she assumes) was to be a medic and even if she had her med kit, no amount of medic-ing was going to put humpty dumpty emma together again.

when she realizes her request of faye is impossible bc she's holding gold's busted ass, she attempts to focus on that instead of anything else. (and look astrid has a near-eidetic memory, she's good for that shit.)] Yeah. Yeah, I can do it. [she reaches and grabs faye's gun without any particular finesse (dex 11) and pulls herself up onto the ledge with free arm and not-free elbow (str 18 minus one action point lol) so she can aim faye's gun at the target and fire. (ranged atk 17, 7 dmg if it hits/if the target takes dmg?)]

[undealt]

[Gold swings his cane out while holding onto Faye's hand and tries to use it to catch the ledge and... nope. Can't do it. (dex 2)

So he's just gonna hang here and hope that fucking worked.]

[goodbyecaroline]

[ the bullet hits! and the entire crooked platform rumbles and shifts another five feet, making the gap only 30 feet now. ]

If I had known you were so eager to introduce ammunition into the testing environment, I would have been happy to oblige your enthusiasm earlier.

Of course, it's never too late. Your dedication to improving the testing process will be noted on your file. Maybe if you can make it through the next hundred tests or so without getting your head knocked off, you can even get a special commendation from Mr. Luckman himself. Really.

[ a wall panel next to the target on the other side opens up and a white tripod robot is pushed out, teetering for a moment before coming to balance on its legs. the central part of its chassis holds a red eye, out of which extends a red laser, visible over their heads. luckily they're not in targeting view of it yet because of the tilt of their side of the platform. so instead, an eerie almost child-like voice says: ]

Hello? Is anyone there?

[pathology]

Oh, fuck. [ASTRID HAS NO IDEA WHAT THE FUCK THAT IS but she doesn't like it, so ... she's going to attempt to shoot at the turret before aiming at the target again. (ranged atk 18; 9 dmg if it hits)]

[undealt]

[Gold swings his cane again and gets a fifteen this time. DOES IT CATCH THE EDGE OF THE PLATFORM. We just don't know, but whether or not it's a victory is cut short by... all that.]

What has that damned machine brought out now?

[goodbyecaroline]

[ astrid's bullet hits! it teeters a bit, but doesn't fall down. the bullet dents its hull a bit, though. meanwhile, gold's cane catches the platform yaaaay ]

Our sentry turrets are equipped with an impressive amount of ammunition, and fine tuned to boast deadly accuracy, guided by their targeting lasers.

Perhaps a demonstration would prove more enlightening. Go ahead. Stick your head out.

[pathology]

[ugh go away glados.] One of you magic at it! I don't want to shoot the target again until the turret is dead. Well, the robot version of dead. Immobilized.

[undealt]

It's a bit difficult when I can't see it without getting shot at, Ms. Mädchen‬. [And also Gold is expending some of his energy in trying to hold onto his cane. He manages to hang on, once he lets Faye's hand go, but he can't pull himself up any further. So there he is. Dangling from a platform by his cane.]

[pathology]

Ugh, fuck! [fine she'll shoot at the damn thing again. BECAUSE SHE JUST HAS UNLIMITED FUCKING BULLETS RIGHT. (ranged atk 24; 7 dmg)]

[goodbyecaroline]

[ again, she hits, but it doesn't fall over, and it still looks like the light is on and functional??? ]

[reallywicked]

Save the bullet. I've got it. [Maybe. We'll see. Faye will pull herself up with a str check of 19 (damn gurl) and hook her arm over the platform while she does her damnedest to cast flaming sphere over on top of that damn turret >| IF she successfully casts without getting shot in the face and IF it doesn't go wonky with wild magic and IF the damn thing doesn't make the 16 reflex save... it will do max damage of 12. Or it will do nothing because of one of those previous things. But damn. I rolled two sixes in a row. That's pretty cool. This has been a tag.]

[undealt]

[Meanwhile, Gold pulls himself up to the edge of platform, which, unfortunately, has to involve him poking his head out for a hot second, while he collects himself (strength 21).]

[goodbyecaroline]

[ it's ok gold, because the sphere rolls into the turret and... sets it aflame.

so this is what they hear as it slowly reduced to a pile of ash. ]