S07E05: The Power Armor Takes Some Liberties

## Previously on MCVFD

Went to monitoring station alpha to re-establish contact.  Slaad were watching a slaad fight a chaos beast.  A slaad turned into a chaos beast.  We kicked their asses and entered the station.

## Session

It’s obvious this station has been the site of a battle.  Doors on all three walls - barracks, cafeteria, and mission control.  Noises from the left and right, chaotic noises.  Um is critically perceptive and he doesn’t think it was an attack-- front doors work, windows intact, etc.  Is the fighting coming from inside the house?

Sorith cracks the cafe door open, chaos beasts.

Opens the barracks door -- creeeeeeeeeak.  More chaos beasts! All three turn to look at us.  Um readies his crossbow.  Sorith steps into the room and punches a chaos beast.  Um gets his shot lined up and bloodies one.  Kanye swings his glaive and then goes to grapple the chaos beast.  It licks Kanye and he feels queasy, then turns into a pile of sludge inside the suit.

Nissa is dumped out of the backpack and retreats to the doorway, slowing the chaos beasts and Kanye, just in case.

The suit recognizes that Kanye is incapacitated and begins drinking his blood while acting like Kanye so the group doesn’t notice.  It tries to attack and misses.  Kanye rages against this injustice and pulls himself back together.  Even at his restored wisdom level, he’s still unable to shake off Nissa’s slow spell.

Sorith punches some more.  The chaos beasts claw at Sorith and Kanye, and Kanye turns back into anger jelly in his suit. Seeing all the hits he’s taken, Nissa runs in and healy boops ™ him on the head.  Um shoots into the action.  The Power Armor sips some more blood and uses the suit laser to shoot at the chaos beasts. Sorith resists the beasts’ attacks, and they miss Kanye.  Nissa sings some Taylor Swift lyrics at a beast, but it’s a secret swiftie so it only takes half damage.  Um uses Nissa’s pep talk inspiration to focus and hit a chaos beast, doing a ton of damage!

The Power Armor pulls out the berserker claws and swings.  Kanye turns back into himself and shakes off his slowness. Sorith swings at the chaos beasts again, gaining momentum as he goes.  The chaos beasts fight back, turning Kanye into jelly *again*.  Nissa makes fun of the one attacking Kanye as Um shoots at it. Kanye is so tired from being jelly he can’t even act.  The suit once again takes a sip of Kanye blood and runs towards the next chaos beast with what Sorith and Um notice is an uncharacteristic amount of litheness and grace.  Sorith just keeps on punching! Nissa insults the remaining beast, reminding it we killed its friends, and it’s appropriately chagrined.  Um looses a bolt into the final beast and kills it.

In the goop left by one of the chaos beasts, we find a copper key.

Averlyth chucks a celestial angel into the cafe, killing the chaos beasts in there.  We walk into the cafeteria.  Kanye finds a deck of cards spread out on the table from an abandoned game, and 15 gold.  Nissa recognizes the symbol of the Nesting Book of Zitheron on the cards.  Um finds three healing potions.

We open the door to mission control.  A large room with desks.  Walls with narrow viewing slits with telescopes.  Near the center of the room are five large crystal pedestals.  They’re glowing with dim red light, excpt Omega, which is green.  A humanoid figure made of stone looking at a burned Gith corpse.

Nissa steps forward and talks to it.  It doesn’t seem concerned with the chaos.  It turns to water, then stone again.  Nissa asks what it does in the tower.  It hasn’t decided yet, it was talking to its colleague when he caught on fire.  Nissa believes she is talking to a Petitioner, native to Limbo and constantly shifting between air/fire/water/stone.  Knowledgeable, powerful, curious, dangerous.  When bored, do what’s entertaining.  They are known for trading entertaining stories for info or favors, unless it sucks.  Nissa checks Moody’s reaction-- surprised to see one in the base.  Nissa asks what happened with the beasts -- the Gith locked himself in when a resident became infected with chaos phage.  Nissa decides to talk to the corpse herself.