Adventure #34 - Trauma in the Medical Sector

General Summary

Adventure #34 - Trauma in the Medical Sector 4/18/25
  Players:
  • Karl: Erberk Torunn,
  • Seth: Gimp,
  • Kira: Tesh,
  • Jon: Kyrian Morello,

  •   Synopsis: With Priestess/Heretic/Martyr/Apprentice's return (who we will continue to refer to as Priestess for reading simplicity), Erberk and Trayarus discuss what to do about her missing hands. Trayarus offers a solution; since her wounds have not yet fully healed, it's possible for her stumps to be grafted onto Zerrynthian arm parts as prosthetics. However, the process is slow, complicated, and requires specialty tools to merge the nerves to the microscopic sensors on the mechanical arms. Trayarus is confident he can manage this; while working in the Myneheart Delve, he would often do such procedures for miners who have been hurt on the job to restore normalcy to their lives. Trayarus asserts that he needs two things; specialty surgical tools that should be found in the Medical Sector of Myneheart Delve, and a powerful and precise healer to complete the healing process nerve by nerve. Trayarus asks Erberk if the town has any expert healers, and Erberk hesitates to offer Ahlysaaria's services; his feelings about her regarding recent circumstances of his stepping down as a Judge makes him hold his tongue about her healing capabilities, and instead says he'll look into finding someone with capable healing abilities. With that, Erberk sets off to the Elderflower, where he seeks aid from among the townspeople to help him explore the Medical Sector, and Gimp and Tesh answer the call. He curtly fills them in on the details, and they agree to help the cause without hesitation. Erberk thanks them and tells them to meet together early the next morning, and they agree and get some rest for the adventure to come. When morning arrives, the party, including Trayarus and Numbers, don't waste any time; they quickly gear up and head out, and Erberk decides to drive them all to the mine in the Zerrynthian wagon that he has been forbidden to use (the last time he drove it, he crashed it and caused a huge incident (see Adventure #26).
      The journey through to the Myneheart Delve was a safe and uneventful one, and eventually they arrive at the mine entrance and park the wagon. They walk through the long tunnel to get to the main Control Hub, and find Lionel Brownfoot waiting for them at the Control helm and he welcomes them in. Having been filled in on the plan in advance, Lionel has the map of the mine complex prepared on a large screen and Trayarus goes over the plan once more; the party and Trayarus will ride a mine cart to the unexplored Medical Sector, gather the medical supplies Trayarus needs, and return. Lionel explains that the "camera systems" are currently down in that sector and won't have a visual on them yet, but that he does have an old map of where they need to go that he pulled from the archives for them to see in advance. Because of wagon capacity, it's decided that Numbers will stay behind with Lionel to assist at the helm. Understanding the plan's details, the party uses their respective GearSwytches to put on their Variac Packs, and then depart via a mine cart and travel towards the Medical Sector.
      After a smooth and uneventful journey, the party's cart approaches the giant dusty gates of the Medical Sector, and Numbers remotely opens them for the party to travel through. The cart travels through a long tunnel with flickering lights, and in time the cart comes to a stop at the end of the line, parking them in mysterious room with its walls lined with giant glowing tubes filled with water. Trayarus explains that the researchers in this sector were experimenting with the concept they called "Stasis", where miners who were critically hurt could be preserved in a sleep-like state as to have more time to transport patients to powerful healers, but the research was never finished. Intrigued but wanting to press on, the party approach the door on the opposite side of the room, but find that it won't open. They communicate with Lionel and Numbers at the Control Hub, and they explain that they're unable to unlock the door due to a hardware malfunction. Trayarus spawns tools out of his GearSwytch and begins to work on repairing the door, giving the party a chance to explore the room while they wait. They investigate each glass tube, finding a skeleton in one, a black murky substance in another, a cracked and broken one, and so on, but eventually they come across glass tube #13 with a perfectly persevered person inside. Curious, the party discuss the pros and cons of the idea of evacuating the tube somehow, and before anyone makes a decision, Numbers mistakes their discussion as a command, and after responding with "Compliance!", it remotely activates the evacuation procedure. Lights flicker and flash around glass tube #13 as the gelatinous like liquid within the tube begins to drain. The party stands back while the glass door slides upwards, and a gangly, naked human man stumbles out of the tube, greets the party, and immediately vomits on the ground as something quickly scurries out from behind him. After his purge, he apologizes and greets the party again, and the party begins to ask him a number of questions. He introduces himself as Kyrian Morello, a mortician who was being treated for a strange fungal growth within his ear that makes him hear things. He then introduces his "little friend" Herbert, a house centipede (about the size of a cat) that had stealthily crawled up Trayarus and onto his head. Trayarus screams and cowers in fear, and the Herbert scurries down and up onto Kryian's shoulder. The party asks Kyrian more details about himself, but his memory seems hazy and seems remember very little about himself. At this point, the party feels unsure about what to do with Kyrian; not only do they not know him very well, but he could be carrying a contagious disease and he isn't properly equipped for the adventure they're going on. It's at this moment that they all realize Kyrian has been naked this entire time, and quickly try to find something to clothe him with. At the Control Hub, Lionel and Numbers intervene by remotely locating Kyrian's storage locker of his personal items from before he was placed in Stasis, and cause it to light up and open, and Kyrian gathers his personal affects and gets dressed. As he finishes, Trayarus also finishes repairing the door that they need to pass through, and it creaks and groans as it opens. The party ultimately decides to take Kyrian along, and together make their way through the door.
      The now larger party pass through a long white walled tunnel with flickering lights over head, and the team at the Control Hub guide them in the direction of the portion of the Medical Sector where the surgical tools are located. When the party arrives, the location that they saw in the old archive is very different from what is in front of them; the original map showed a pristine medical facility entirely divided with clear glass walls, but instead they find that the entire location is overgrown with a dark green fungus of some kind growing on the floor, walls, and ceiling. Even the air within the sealed location seems to have a green haze, and the party ask the Control Hub team if they can learn about the air quality of the room. Checking some sensor readings, Numbers cheerfully announces that the air quality is poisonous with fungal spores, and should not be breathed. In response, the party adjusts the settings on their Variac Packs to activate their air filter respirators, and remember that Kyrian has no such luxury. Looking around, the party is able to locate a small medical respirator that should work well enough for this endeavor, and he puts it on. The party notice that there is an airlock vestibule between their hallway and the location they need to enter, but find the first sliding glass door is locked. As the party think of ways to safely enter, Kyrian sends Herbert into the walls, hoping he can slip through to the other side, and eventually he does so, and then hits a button that opens the first door. The party enters, closes the door behind them, and the airlock swirls the air about them. Then they hit another button to open the second door, and as the door opens, the sudden change in air pressure sucks the respirator mask off of Kyrian, and the party panics. They wait for a moment to see if anything happens to Kyrian, but as he breathes the air, it's evident that it's not doing anything negative to him. The party shrugs it off, and continue into the facility. They pass a service desk and find a hallway with multiple doors. Knowing exactly which room to go to, Trayarus and Erberk head down toward the end of the hallway, and take a right into a decrepit office that leads to the storage room they need to access. Finding the storage room door jammed, Trayarus again uses his tools to make a quick repair and opens it, revealing all the surgical tools he wanted and more. Without hesitation, Trayarus uses his GearSwytch to take an item, store it into the GearSwyth save slot, change the slot to an open one and causing the item in his hand to vanish, and then repeats that process in rapid succession, slowly clearing out the room. As he does this, Erberk turns around to stand guard with his weapons held at the ready.
      Meanwhile, at the same time Erberk and Trayarus do this, the rest of the party look into the closest room off the hallway on the right, and find a large room covered in green fungus with three medical beds, each with a strange purple fungal bulb upon them. Not wanting to mess with anything, they leave the room undisturbed, and Tesh continues down to the end of the hall and enters the room on the left. There, she finds another bed with another purple fungal bulb, but also a storage container sitting atop a table. She removes the lid and finds nothing of value, but hears a wet slorping sound coming from behind her. She turns and finds the purple fungal bulb begins open its giant mouth from the top of the bulb, with razor sharp teeth and multiple long tendrils slithering out of its body. As Tesh draws her great axe, the bulb emits an ear-splitting shriek that pulses through the air and shatters the glass walls all around her. Despite the sound and glass, Tesh stands stoic and completely unaffected as glass shards fly everywhere, and then slashes at the bulb with her great axe. However, the shriek from this bulb causes a chain reaction, and each consecutive fungal bulb responds in the same way, releasing a deafening shriek that shatters every glass wall within the facility. Both Erberk and Gimp are able to resist succumbing to the painful noise, but Kyrian vomits in response. Erberk turns towards the fungal bulb closest to him, and suddenly sees Azalea and Ahlysaaria standing on either side of the bulb, and in his mind he can hear them talking about how embarrassing Erberk is and that he is unfit to be a Judge, all while wearing expressions of disgust. Erberk's temper rises and he leaps over the broken glass wall support into the large room with the three beds, and angrily slashes his great axe through Ahlysaaria at the bulb. Gimp draws his spear and turns towards a different fungal bulb, and as he does he sees his sister withered and suffering from prolonged use of the drug Shiver, and in his mind he hears her begging for his help, causing Gimp to freeze in place. Tesh raises her great axe to attack, and suddenly sees her parents in ritual robes with food in their hands offering for her to join them and feast, which also causes her to freeze. After he finishes vomiting, Kyrian looks up at another bulb, and his eyes turn white and glaze over, and he stands entirely motionless. Trayarus finishes grabbing what he needs, turns to leave the storage room, and also sees the same fungal bulb that is beside Tesh, and he begins to tremble in fear. While the party responds to their visions, each of the purple fungal bulbs reach out their tendrils and attack their opponent, some landing hits on their opponents and wrapping around their slimly tendrils around their necks, and others being sidestepped, blocked, or deflected. The bulb near Kyrian drops from the bed to the ground and blorps it's way towards him, climbs up his back, and sticks it's tendrils into Kyrian's ears, all while his eyes remain white and glazed over. Erberk blinks, and instead seeing of Ahlysaaria and Azalea, he sees Dimple with arms crossed and hears in his mind Dimple being critical of Erberk's character, calling him dangerous, hot-headed, and a detriment to the party. This causes Erberk to shout in rage, calling Dimple a traitor and a betrayer, and slashes through the vision of him and cleaving the bulb. Gimp's vision continues, and his sister appears to draw closer to him begging him for his help, but this time he realizes that this vision isn't real and he stabs his spear through his sisters gut into the bulb behind her. Tesh also has the same realization, but the vision still distracts her as she attacks of the bulb in front of her. Trayarus then snaps out of it, transforms into his Morlock form, and barrels down the hall like a gorilla and begins to beat the fungal bulb into a pulp with his massive fists, which immediately ends the vision for both himself and Tesh. Kyrian remains motionless and his eyes glazed white, and the fungal bulb suddenly falls from the back of his head and hits the ground limply with a wet thud. Erberk rages on, and as he blinks, his vision changes to Azalea, who is weeping and begging Erberk to stop killing her. He, too, realizes that this is a vision from the fungal bulb, but by now his emotions completely consume him and he cries out to her as he slashes through the vision and killing the bulb behind her, abruptly ending the vision. Gimp succumbs to a dazed state from the tendrils of the fungal bulb before him, and Kyrian stands beside him motionless. Tesh and Trayarus make their way through the hall to join their companion. By now, Erberk is in a crazed state; as he turns to look at the bulb in front of Gimp, he sees a vision of the embodiment of his deity Torag, who calls him a disappointment of a paladin, and that Erberk's created works are poorly made and not even worthy to be in a trash heap. At this, Erberk screams that he will remake it all, and that everything he does is for Torag and his glory. Tesh then leaps over the broken glass wall and slays the bulb in front of Gimp, thus killing that last of the bulbs and ending the visions.
      The room falls silent, except for Erberk's angry heaving breaths. Trayarus approaches Erberk, changes back into his original form, places a hand on Erberk's shoulder, and reminds him that the visions weren't real. Erberk furiously describes the things he saw with, and Trayarus calmly but shakily confesses that he saw a vision of his deceased boss and friend Alforbac Myneheart VII, and heard him blame Trayarus for the lock down of the Myneheart Delve 8000 years ago. Trayarus admits that he knows the visions weren't real, but that it still shook him to his core. Trayarus then reminds Erberk of their purpose for even coming to the Medical Sector in the first place, to gather the medical tools to graft prosthetic Zerrynthian arms onto Priestess, and that sobers Erberk. With everyone in the party once again right in mind, they depart for the Control Hub, and upon arriving retrieve Numbers, and promptly return to the wagon. As Erberk drives, Gimp makes a comment that irks him, and Gimp gets ejected from the wagon. Trayarus offers to drive the wagon the rest of the way home, and Erberk agrees at the suggestion. Trayarus takes the helm, and effortlessly guides the machine back to Aberystwyth.
    Report Date
    18 Apr 2025

    Comments

    Please Login in order to comment!