The group took some time for prayers, offering heartfelt requests for help and guidance in the journey ahead. The Dancer was a particularly popular choice, even amongst those born under different icons.
It wasn't long before they encountered trouble, in the form of a drone with glowing red eyes and metal tentacles. Firing on it wasn't enough to disable it before it grabbed hold of Razaq, and worse, Tahir's shot went wide and hit a nearby pressurised steam pipe, which went off like a grenade. This did make the drone drop Razaq and fly off, although Sayah got scalded by steam. Once she'd patched herself and everyone else up a bit, they continued on into a larger corridor.
Khalil was getting that familiar headache again, accompanied by the pattern of five notes. And now there was a song too.
Tahir thought he heard a whispering behind him, and looking round he caught sight of the edge of a shadow melting into the wall. He knew what that was. Yal-Shir, the ensnarer. He advised not getting ensnared. The group formed a defensive circle around Awl as the creature appeared, scaring everyone except Razaq who'd already had his fill of horrific experiences for the day. Tahir's instructions on what to do next were not particularly coherent.
The fight was brief and distinctly one-sided, with those shots that did connect with the creature doing almost nothing as they bounced off its armour. Awl spotted a crawl space and dived into it, closely followed by Sayah who was also trying to take a communicator message from Akouba Kosha.
"Status update?"
"Pursued by a hideous monster!"
"Don't mess about."
"This is not a good time! Got to go, dealing with a ripped off arm."
As Tahir was having his left arm ripped off, the mad poet Bathos showed up again, and somehow lured the creature away. Everyone took the opportunity to get out of the way, following Awl down the crawlspace. Sayah treated Tahir's damaged arm, but it was obvious he was in no condition to continue. Sayah called Akouba back to request a medevac for him.
Finally they found themselves closing in on the Real Sanitorium. But first there was a corridor full of cameras to get past. Sayah djinned her way into them and had a look at the hangar on the other side, while setting a loop on the camera so that they wouldn't be detected.
Khalil found a small ventilation shaft that he was small enough to get into and went exploring. He found a makeshift temple, containing spiked ribbons and whips, an icon figure of the Judge in the form of the Martyr, and some distinctly Zelosian prayer rugs.
Over the cameras, Sayah could see stasis pods being loaded into drop ships of some kind and sent off into space. Was this what was happening to people at the Sanitorium? She sent a message to Akouba about it.
They needed a plan. The temple meant that at some point, most people would probably be praying. A good time for acting undetected.
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