Spin-Off! Episode 3: Pure Cheese

The third Spin-Off! episode follows Charles, Chamillionar, Kheo and Xiphosur on their quest to take down a group of evil scientists hiding out on Rock-IV.

## Summary

### Starting up the Servant

The episode kicks off with Chamillionar attempting to repair a recovered robotic gargoyle servant in his guild house workshop. He and Xiphosur found the defunct droid that had apparently been placed on a roof among the regular gargoyles but then fell down again for unclear reasons. They managed to reboot the robotic gargoyle named Kheo, though the servant's voice modulator was still slightly bugged which caused some kind of stutter.

Meanwhile Charles, also present in the guild house, was reading a magazine whilst lying on the landing gear of the Lich, Foidra's old starfighter that had been hung on the ceiling of the guilds main hall. Charles was rudely interrupted as T-B0N3 started annoying him with requests to contact his old undercity flatmates, a collective consisting of even more annoying robotic skeletons. Charles gave in and attempted to contact the skeletons by plugging in his own rotary phone and dialing a random number. This resulted in Charles, being the technopeasant that he is, to call a wrong number which put him through to his associate and partner in "semi-legal activities" Dundula, apparently in some kind of trouble and talking in a hushed voice. She asked Charles to remove the Ghost in the Shell (their casino ship) from the docks asap and hung up the phone before giving any more explanation. After some more shenanigans involving T-B0N3's horrible memory and the guild's sewer entrance, Charles gathered the party to first check out what was happening at the docks and secondly to take on a mission on Rock-IV in order to stop a group of evil Produ'cer scientists rumored to be experimenting on humans.

### The Ghost and the Greasers

At the docks the party found a group of Greaser pirates armed with laser switchblades standing on the pier, in a shouting match with Bergeldink, Charles' first mate, who was standing on the main deck of the casino vessel. The party de-escalated the situation by convincing Princess Whiskers and his greaser goons to come aboard the ship and promising to give them the money Dundula owed them once they reach their stash hidden in another system. Charles then asked his party to wait in his cabin while the greasers remained on deck, planning to trick the greasers by temporarily disabling the protective oxygen bubble around the ship. Xiphosur however, not trusting the situation, chose to also remain on the main deck (as luckily he could also survive without oxygen for a brief period).

Charles communicated his plan to Bergeldink and ordered him to set course for Rock-IV, grabbing a bubble helmet just in case something went wrong before returning to his cabin. In the meantime Chamillionar and Kheo went to check out the casino below deck. As the Ghost in the Shell jumped out of hyperspace and entered Rock-IV's De-Brie field, Charles attempted to disable the air bubble but instead accidentally turned of the entire protective field around the ship, causing the entire vessel to lose oxygen and the outside of the ship to be bombarded by molten cheese asteroids. As the crew below deck started panicking, realizing all the escape vessels had been removed in order to save maintenance costs, Chamillionar with the help of Kheo rigged up a temporary air bubble using a roulette bowl.

Princess Whiskers and four of his other greaser companions survived by activating their emergency bubble helmets and charged Xiphosur whilst being bombarded by hot cheese rain and giant pieces of de-brie. Charles met Bergeldink in one of the ship's corridors bellow deck, the Bergler explaining the situation to the captain whilst holding the ship's now cheese covered broken off steering wheel. The captain then rushed above deck heroically, rapier in hand, stuck his blade in the place where the ship's wheel broke off and used it to steer the Ghost in the Shell out of Rock-IV's ring of de-brie. Meanwhile in the engine room Chamillionar and Kheo fixed the ship's clogged up oxygen filtration system. The last few greasers were defeated as the party reunited above deck to confront them, the last one hit by a stray block of cheese while attempting to jump the plank after his partner's demise. The ship's crew returned to business immediately, cleaning up the cheese-covered deck, as the captain ordered Bergeldink to put them down on the surface of Rock-IV.

### Welcome to Na-Cho

The Ghost in the Shell anchored near a cliff just outside Na-Cho spaceport in order to avoid any docking fees, and the party made their way to the city center, passing by slave operated cheese mines and the various cheese salons. Eventually they entered a Produ'cer-run cantina named Ye Olde Tavern (part of a larger galaxy wide chain of themed bars) and asked for directions. The party, suspicious of the Produ'cer barkeep, refused to cooperate with the pre-existing script which resulted in at least one dead Ak'tor, a severely wounded barkeep and a storm of panick among the regular Mau'ser patrons and the Cheople slaves. They did extract the location of the Enhan'cer laboratory from the bartender by threatening to release a horrible movie under his name.

However, once the party set foot outside they were met by a cheese police barricade manned by some twenty security robots and a Mau'ser police officer sitting in a litter carried by four Cheople servants. Charles attempted to cleverly talk his way out of the situation but failed, the day eventually saved by stealth operations of Kheo and Chamillionar: Kheo distracting the police by attempting to take the officer hostage while Chamillionar cut the cable from the Mau'sers joystick controlling the security bots.

### The Enhan'cers

The party quickly made their way towards one of the planets cheese caverns in search for the Enhan'cer research facility, scaling the tunnels steep downward entrance and avoiding the drops of hot cheese constantly dripping from the ceiling. Eventually they arrived at the research facility, a beacon of white light at the edge of an underground cliff. Here they met scared Produ'cer scientists Stephen, Greg, Dave and Linda. Loads of shenanigans ensued involving lights turning on and off, strangely non-hostile yet uncooperative scientists, a human child trapped in a research tank and a set of monopoly but eventually they found out the scientists were attempting (and failing) to clone the human. Before they could just take the child and leave however, they were interrupted by a giant Skyggna crawling up from the ravine on the other side of the laboratory.

The Enhan'cers hid under their beds in the next room and Chamillionar fled the scene as the giant telepathic arachnoid battled the rest of the party. However, Chamillionar would turn around soon as he realized he forgot to take the set of monopoly with him. A long and epic fight ensued as the ceiling and walls of the lab were torn open and Charles managed to pull the human back to safety as the lab started to lose its balance at the edge of the cliff and several support pillars underneath broke off. Charles eventually drove back the Skyggna with his extending rapier, causing the lab to lose balance and the Skyggna to fall in the ravine. The scientists and most of the party managed to hold on and climb out in time with the exception of Kheo who went crashing down into the depths alongside the arachnoid, his wings failing to boot up in time. The robotic gargoyle managed to survive the drop, using the body of the Skyggna to break most of his fall, though he was heavily damaged as a result. Kheo was then saved just in time by the Ghost in the Shell's anchor before the body of the Skyggna sank completely into the hot cheese at the bottom of the cliff.