Unexpected Encounters (Leviathan)

Hollow with fractal eyes. Picture by Voidsmoker.

"Unexpected Encounters" is the tenth and penultimate episode of the first season of Leviathan: Distant Stars.

## Summary

Theea unexpectedly joins Xe'anna, Hexie, Conrad and Kika (still in Conrad's backpack) after trying to sneak on them. She has returned after collecting information.

As there is no time to question her, they all resume their march towards the survivors. Hexie uses gestures from an elaborate military sign language to relay Xe'anna's meep-meeped orders to Conrad.

After hearing screams, they fall upon a group of five Hollow, a *gunslinger* boss, two infecting *tank*-like *brutes* and two *crawler* *minions* who have just disemboweled a victim.

Xe'anna tries (and ultimately succeeds) to gain some time by ripping a tube that spills gray water Hexie then turns to ice. The fight starts, and the captain's utmost priority is to prevent the unprotected lieutenant from being infected.

Between all the misses and the occasional successes that ensue, much is learned about the three Hollow kinds involved.

The crawlers and a brute find their way on around the ice, while the other brute goes Bambi-like. The boss can afford to stay away. Kika kills a crawler with an arrow that slices through its neck. Theea throws her rifle at the wobbly brute and kicks one leg from under it. Conrad keeps missing, despite putting his fire on burst mode.

After more misses from all, the brute closest to her rips a chunk off Xe'annas flesh, the scales come off, she is visibly, visibly bleeding. She roars again, maybe not quite ferociously this time. She gets some help from Hexie's *Psychic Succor*. She gets her revenge when she drops her sword and takes a successful swing at the brute with her own claw, whose *skin is that purplish iridescent color that matches the skin of the aliens that are attacking her.*

 Kika, following the captain's orders, shoots at and hits the remaining crawler, who now *is more of a limper.* Theea, who has snuck behind it, backstabs it with her knife and gets *spread with unknown goop from the tentacles she slices at the back of the crawler's neck.* Two minions down!

Conrad finally hits, and lodges *a hail of bullets* into the brute close to Xe’anna. The bad news is that the other brute turns its glinting eyes and its claws to Conrad. This is followed by several misses on both sides.

Kika and Hexie focus on Conrad’s brute, while Xe'anna keeps attacking the one on her, trying to dig into some of the existing wounds with her hands. She will watch Conrad's body and have a solemn memorial after his warrior's death.

This goes on a while, with misses and scratches, until Theea tries to find out with a profanity-laced general meep-meeped scream whether there can be some telepathic conversation with them. After using her expert ability to reroll her miss, she successfully affects the brutes she targets, and possibly the others as well, while her companions only hear muffled obscenities. In response, all but Conrad hear:

> *You're with the Leviathan.*
>
>

To which Theea replies, along with the obscenities:

> *Yeah, that's right. Got a problem with it?*
>
>

The combat goes, with its misses and occasional hits. The Hollow boss meep-meeps *We will find you and we will take you down* to Theea before hitting her for 7 damage. More misses. Theea meep-screams again:

> *I say really awful things about his heritage, his parents, his children that will never be and the fact that he exists in the first place. Do you have treasure anywhere?*
>
>

The conflicting messages they get cause hesitation to the two brutes.

Conrad finally needs the advice to go away before getting even a scratch that could be fatal: both he and Kika can fight from a distance. Unfortunately, he doesn’t run, the brutes reaches for him and manages to bury its claws into his shoulders. Blood drips from the brute's fingers, mixing with the iridescent fluid, and *for a moment there is a coolness and numbness that spreads over* Conrad’s *shoulder*. Hexie, understanding the threat, shouts No dying on my watch, and casts *Organic Purification* to help counter the infection. Despite his injury, Conrad is barely scratched compared to Kika, Theea and Xe'anna.

Kika is desperate, she’s convinced that they have just an hour to get Conrad to Aryutta and starts coming the seconds in her head. The fight goes on with renewed urgency, the boss, a.k.a. *Mister Angry Face Shooty Guy* truse and fails to coerce Theea into betraying her own. It only ends after three of the stranded survivors, an Iratos and two other individuals enter the fray and help finishing the remaining Hollow.

## Die rehabilitation

   Failure of dice to bring good results led to some caging, despite Claudia's misgivings, and discussion of die psychology and rehabilitation programs to avoid *the table to cage pipeline*. Excerpts:

* Caging the die
* Cage the die, cage the die
* A good die
* Caging policy

## Notes

1. ↑ Thus prompting Lauren both to wonder why Theea didn’t go into grenades instead and to start tracking how often the beleaguered weapons gets brutalized: at some point it will need repairs before it can fire again.
2. ↑ 14 damage. The consequence of a natural 20 on the brute's attack.
3. ↑ Succor, yes, not Sucker.
4. ↑ Another natural 20, for 15 damage. This die is giving a lesson to the ones that are caged.
5. ↑ all of which was preceded by a *super profesh* incident involving the cage's stand.
6. ↑ Clips by yours truly. I'm starting to get the hang of it.