The Deeper You Dig... [Day 0]

[Kannon]

The corridor he chose opened into a compartmentalised storage area, unified by a crate conveyor alley, now defunct. It looked like it might lead by a curvaceous path to one of those other entrances from the lift area but at some point it was blocked by more welding, this time thicker than the one in the airlock. In the light of the glowglobe, another body could be found there, with something like an improvised laser, short of the cutteray's power. Its insufficient work was nevertheless a good indicator of the thickness of the metallic blockage. Here, the iridium seemed to be giving the alloys used to coat the space an even more apparent yellowish, opalescent sheen.

The stored items seemed mostly either taken away or vandalised for parts. It felt like a place for regular supplies, nothing of high value... outside. There was some scattered food packaging, licked to the sheen.

[Efren Lanville]

In the wild the desperate always sought refuge... So Efren had surmised that by following a trail of dried blood on the floor he would locate someone's final attempt to reach safety as things truly worsened.

Then he was met with the tragic sight in front of him of the man whose laser couldn't laser well enough...

----

Day 0 Tracking Dead Folks, Survival, Roots Statement: 2eP+1eA+1eC+1eD 1 failure, 2 advantage, 1 Despair


Pretty... solid result there.

[Ambrose Pantazis]

Despite the reassuring presence of Hawat, Ambrose could feel the pressure of the Harkonnen's twisted mentat bearing down on his decisions, making him second guess their every move. If this were a trap, then de Vries would lure them away from the Harkonnens' illicit black vault, but knowing Hawat would at least command if not personally intervene the trap would have to be set on the path to the vault; however, de Vries would know Hawat would realize this and would willingly approach the trap to get to their objective so the trapped path couldn't possibly lead to the vault.

Trying to match wits with the Harkonnen mentat when death is on the line. Inconceivable!

-----
Going against both staying calm and trusting his training.
Pregame, TDYD, Computation, statement contradiction: 4eA+2eC 2 successes, 1 Despair

DESPAIR. No ranks in Computation, so "Keep calm and trust your training. " is gone.

[Kannon]

Efren was too engulfed by the drama and the grotesque to ponder what his discovery indicated. In fact, he was convinced it was as much of a dead end for them as if it had been for the man with the laser that couldn't.

[Using Despair to get Efren convinced that this place is not a point of interest.]

---

Perhaps the only real trap was the one tightening the grip on Ambrose's mind. By second-guessing every move, coaxing his mind to acknowledge depravities as data points, his composed self was under assault. All this was striking too close to home as yet another reflection of the abyss he had kept building over but had failed to close. And now it glared back at him, the moment he peeked down.

And yet, the abyss was discrete. It had barely distinguishable shapes and forms, lines of divergence and difference. The darkest corners of his mind were also the most cynical and paranoid, and by this, they converged.

Yes, there must have been something of great value here. Was it still? How to find it? Where there is stillness of everything. No motion. No light. No heat. No memory. Where were the gates to the abyss?

[Ambrose begins the quest for a new statement! When it is achieved, he'll get +10 XP.]

[Ambrose Pantazis]

The more Ambrose exposed, the more he was exposed. It was as though Piter de Vries was there stripping away everything he was, all the training and preparation he'd received to serve House Atreides. In this moment there was only Ambrose with all his faults and weaknesses laid bare.

Despite that, the sense of futility, the urges, and the doubts, Ambrose had already known greater depths of despair. This was nothing. The implication or even certainty of failure no longer hounded him like it had in the past. He knew now where the bottom truly was and more importantly knew himself. The fall was much less intimidating when you've already climbed out once before.

A measure of relief came over Ambrose and he calmed his mind, "Excellent job sergeant. We'll use the cutteray and see what's behind it."

The only way to win the game was not to play it. Instead of trying to mindgame a mentat and out maneuver them, Ambrose's best option was to ignore their influence altogether.

[Efren Lanville]

Efren didn’t see much point in following down this dead end… but a request from a superior was to be listened to.

So he began working on this door with the cutteray…

[Kannon]

"Report." Hawat's request came through the comms after Efren had started on the arduous task of piercing the thick slab of reinforced metallurgy.

[Efren Lanville]

“We’ve located a door welded shut after following the trail of another victim. Currently working on slicing through the welding.” Efren replied as he took a short break from his task.

[Kannon]

"Coming." Thufir said.

As the cutteray progressed, it started getting more bluish, what indicated temperature drop. There might be vacuum on the other side.

[Efren Lanville]

Efren would stop at such a warning sign and wait for Thufir’s directions.

[Kiran Alsahar]

"If I might posit an alternative, I wonder if cruelty might be a side effect rather than the point," Kiran offered after listening to the others. "A reactor meltdown would irradiate everything down here. Maybe they just wanted everyone dead... to prevent an information leak, or something like that... while leaving the rest of everything intact."

[Kannon]

"Insufficient data yet." Hawat mused. He had arrived and was now looking at the blockade. "Do carry on. I don't see much value in preserving this tainted atmospheric bubble."

The air would keep vanishing through the breach, exposing them to the sharp, cutting winds just as they were cutting through the metal.

[Efren Lanville]

With the 'go-ahead' of his leaders Efren kept cutting away into the thick metal plating.

[Kannon]

It was tricky. The more Efren was depriving the metal slab of structural integrity the more likely it was the strength of the masses of air being vented would blow the thing away, alongside everyone who was not prepared. Hawat warned them to strap well to something without sharp corners anywhere near, but Efren had fewer options to secure himself...

[Hard Athletics or Coordination, 2 Challenge and a Setback because of uncertainty when the slab would give in.]

[Kiran Alsahar]

Kiran could see the precariousness of the situation. They secured themselves nearby, ready to help pull Efren clear if needed.

[Assisting for +1 Boost to Efren's roll; Despair will affect Kiran if it hits]

[Ambrose Pantazis]

This made more sense, a trap beyond simple deception. Someone of Piter de Vrie's caliber wouldn't rely on his enemies blundering about. He would create a scenario where they would knowingly and willingly walk right into it. Not just willingly, but eagerly. It was that or he thought Atreides cowards. Most Harkonnen would let indoctrination and vanity skew their worldview, but the mentat wouldn't let such trivialities pollute his computations.

Ambrose connected a magnetic anchor and secured himself in anticipation of decompression.

[Efren Lanville]

The suction hit hard as the pressure overwhelmed the remaining integrity of the door. Efren struggled to maintain his balance but…

—————

D0 Don’t get Sucked, Athletics, Boost from Kiran: 2eP+2eA+3eB+2eC+1eS 1 failure, 4 advantage, 1 Triumph


Player Pool: 6(?)
Triumph to… get sucked but not have it suck so bad?

[Kannon]

[Triumph to prevent the damage to the vacsuit.]

Efren slipped out of Kiran's hold and tumbled into the void just as the air cluster got sucked out alongside the metal, the cutteray, and him. He ended up being the only one to fall into the unknown darkness, losing a sense of direction to the point when he finally hit some wall, he wouldn't know whether it was a wall, floor, or ceiling. There was a thud, but not a tear. The others remain.

[Efren Lanville]

Efren grunted as he smacked the object which stopped his fall. After a moment he stood and dusted himself off... checked for tears in the suit and replied through the communicator.

"I'm alright. Found the bottom of... wherever I fell. Can someone send down a glow-orb?"

[Kannon]

Dusting off was not just figurative. There was something... particular drifting in the thin air the vault had just violently acquired, though he could not tell whether it was moon dust from before or something else without a light source.

"Someone get a glowglobe there." Hawat hastened others through the comms, though to Efren this message arrived heavily distorted, almost unintelligible. Was it the same with what Efren had said?