06 Lying Under the Oasis
Yes/No (Even)
Is Beast Master Cuauhtemoc done with Koko?
3,2 No
Yes/No (Even)
Are they sending Koko on a mission?
5,6 Yes and...
Yes/No (Unlikely)
They are letting them pick?
2,4 No
Plot Hook
Objective: 2 Learn the truth
Adversaries: 6 A new or recurring villain
Rewards: 2 Money or valuables
Topic Focus
5S History (mystical)
Detail Focus
5D New (technical)
There is supposedly a power crystal growth under the water in the Oasis the arena is built around. The salvage captains are paying good Pixels to confirm this. Cuauhtemoc, after putting Koko through a few months of arena fights and training offers her this contract directly. Find the crystals and he will forgive her for taking the job against him and let her go. Though he makes it clear she is always welcome in the arena. Koko uses her personal funds to fabricate a regenerating bacterial re-breather spray. One uncomfortable spray of the gel will allow her to breathe underwater for about a day. It's a simple trick known even primitive Floran tribes, but the self regulating bacterial harvester makes it portable and always available instead of needing cultivated by hand by a shaman.
Dungeon Entrance
Dungeon Theme:
How it looks: 8S Complex (mystical)
How it is used: 7H Create (social)
Location: 6 Location for a specialized purpose
Encounter: 1 None
Objects: 2 Nothing, or mundane objects
Exits: 2 additional exits
Koko sinks down below the Oasis waters and as expected finds the fish farms and algae growths imported by the budding outpost here. the natural pool is also riddled with spring fed caverns, so at least the rumors were somewhat believable. After cataloging them 2 are found to be actually deep caves instead of just water coming up through bubbling sand and gravel.
Dungeon Crawler
Location: 3 Living area or meeting place
Encounter: 3 Hostile enemies
Objects: 5 Something valuable
Exits: 5 2 additional exits
Deeper into one of the caves it forks off but at the fork is an off world creature from Ventsea, why it was imported is unknown, but it doesn't look happy
Combat - A mutated Sea Spawn, a grotesque demi humanoid creature with giant eyes, tentacles, wicked teeth and poisonous quills. It immediately attacks but in the dim shadows it can't see Kokos shadow blades. It seems to have hoarded away some gear lost in the pond above, or maybe stolen at night. Doesn't matter now.
The cache looks to be mostly junk stashed away in a large planetary landing package built for a personal ship. Getting it back to the surface will be nearly impossible and it's damaged and stock construction so not really worth it anyway. There is also an oddity: a sleeper power suit. Heavy armor built for Internal comfort and superior short rests inside for hostile environments where the armor is required at all times for survival. Was the creature smart enough to use it to sleep? probably not...
Dungeon Crawler
Location: 1 Typical area
Encounter: 3 Hostile enemies
Objects: 2 Nothing, or mundane objects
Exits: 4 1 additional exit
Further down into darkness Koko is ambushed by Ventsea Folk, giant eyes like the Ventsea Spawn but with no mutation.
Koko is the superior fighter, even in the dark and underwater. She dispatches the ventseafolk sustaining only moderate injuries and turns to swim back to the surface to recover and continue to explore later
Dungeon Crawler
Location: 5 Area with a special feature
Encounter: 6 Unique NPC or adversary
Objects: 4 A useful tool, key, or device
Exits: 5 2 additional exits
The area deeper down forks again past a large glowing pink power crystal. The rumors were true. mission complete. There is also ventseafolk miner lasering away at the crystal. Off world slaves brought in for labor... Koko understands now exactly why Cuauhtemoc sent her. She isn't supposed to find anything. The offworld creatures are guards. She understands the assignment now...
Koko swims back to the dim shallows and rests, then goes back to the surface and repeats a few times over the next week. never really looking any further than she already did. She reports the caves had some minor junk and it's all cleaned out now, but never reveals the miner or the guard creatures. Cuauhtemoc never explains themselves but honors the arrangement, and arranges for her ship to be extracted from the sink dunes. Koko is not happy about failing the prior job, getting captured, getting used like a pawn. They are however back in the air now and if they ever dare use it, they have a fair bit of leverage over Cuauhtemoc now. With the spoils from Oasis she considers taking a break just to clear her head and hunt. She hasn't gotten a new trophy in far too long.