Also contributing to my speediness is the feeling I had that I was nearing Space Assassin's conclusion. Nothing gets me motivated more than ticking something off of a spreadsheet, let me tell you.
Anyway, for my second attempt at Space Assassin I rolled some pretty abysmal stats: Skill 7, Stamina 16, Luck 12, and Armour 9. To top it off, I only rolled a 2 for points with which to buy weapons, so I was restricted to an electric lash and a single grenade. I wasn't liking my odds.
ATTEMPT 2
Having infiltrated the airlock of the Vandervecken I was faced with a choice of ways forward: a heavy security door and two maintenance hatches. There was also a dead alien on the ground, and I looted a strange, incomplete electronic device from its corpse.
I couldn't get through the security door without a gravity bomb, so I opened the left hatch. After some difficulty it came loose, dragging a mass of high-voltage wires with it. I was able to retreat in time to avoid the wires (by making a Luck test that reduced my score to 11). There was no way forward through here, so I had to open the right hatch.
Some way along the access tunnel beyond, I came to a door through which I could here some muffled gurgling. I opened the door and found myself in a small lock-up with two cells, guarded by a humanoid robot with an assault blaster. The robot hadn't noticed me, but I decided to get its attention and try to engage it in conversation. Its only response was a hail of blaster fire, which I was forced to return.
The Guard Robot (Skill 7, Stamina 6) proved to be a good shot, and it was only my armour that saved me from injury (my Armour score was reduced to 6) before I was able to destroy it. With the robot destroyed, I eagerly looted its assault blaster.
The gurgling sounds were coming from one of the cells, so I investigated. Inside was a battered old man, covered in scars and bandages. He was pleased that I was releasing him, and recounted his capture and torture by Cyrus. He also mentioned the strange pilot robot of the Vandervecken, recommending that if it ever asked me questions about thoughts or feelings, I should always answer that I don't know. (The books says nothing about where this old guy goes. He might wander off, he might just sit in his cell, who knows. He could have warned me about the next encounter at least.)
I checked the other cell, which appeared to be empty, but when I entered a small furry creature dropped on me and bit into my Armour (dropping my Armour score to 5). Afterwards it scuttled back up to the roof. (The book doesn't specify, but I imagine that I sent a hail of blaster fire up there with it.)
Further along the tunnel, I came to a side-door that was warm to the touch. Entering, I found a room full of heat conduits, and a lounge where some rat-like alien scientists called Fossniks were reading. I blew them away, took a security key from their smoking corpses, and used the key to leave the room.
The door opened into a long, well-lit corridor. I found a side-door further along and opened it, entering a kitchen. The food in the "meal-o-matics" was unpalatable, but I found a couple of high-energy bars that would restore my strength. (Eating them would restore 5 Stamina).
The corridor ended at a circular room, where a squat robot with a pair of electric lashes was blocking the way forward, squawking that this was an inspection point. I tried to bluff my way past by claiming to be a security guard. The robot checked in with "central", and I soon got my reply: more blaster fire! One of the shots hit me (reducing my Armour score to 4) and I was forced to retaliate.
I was able to destroy the Guard Robot (Skill 7, Stamina 6) with my assault blaster, but not before its twin lashes completely obliterated my armour (leaving me with an Armour score of 0, and a Stamina of 6). I ate my high-energy bars (restoring my Stamina to 11). Inspecting the remains of the robot, I found a floor safe beneath it. The safe had three buttons, blue, green and red.
My insatiable curiosity led me to start pushing buttons (i.e. the book gave me no other option), and I went with the combination of red, then green, then blue. The safe opened, and inside I found a gravity bomb, that would have detonated had I pressed the wrong button. I took the bomb and left. (There were no clues to this puzzle, so I just went with the order of the colours on an RGB monitor. It worked!)
There were two exits from this room, one in front and one to the side. The side door opened into a large laboratory, but before I could enter a tiny silver sphere dropped down and opened fire on me. (At this point I was told to lose 1 point of Armour, but my Armour was currently at 0. I decided to implement a house rule here, and had the Laser Globe hit me for a full 1d6 damage. I rolled a 4, and reduced my Stamina to 7.)
With a single return shot, I blew the Laser Globe (Skill 9, Stamina 1) into oblivion. The lab was for biological research, and inside I found a can of nerve gas, a packet with three tablets, and a huge, dead crab. Not wanting to overburden myself (and restricted by the book to only taking two items) I took the nerve gas and the tablets. I tried one of the tablets, and found that it was similar to my Pep Pills (restoring my Stamina to 12). I still had two left.
Leaving the inspection point along a corridor, I came to yet another side-door. Opening it, I found a library full of books of all kinds. I found three books of interest: one on the nervous systems of molluscs, one on neurotoxins, and one on robotics. I read the book about molluscs and continued on.
Further along I came to another side-door with the following sign:
CEPHALO SQUIRRELS
HANDLE WITH CARE
The room did indeed contain black-furred squirrels, trapped in a glass cage and screaming wildly. An open crate was nearby. I had a look inside, and saw some orangey-purple fruit. The squirrels were now watching me silently, and this was unnerving enough that I left the room, not wanting to deal with the fruit or the squirrels.
Further on the corridor was blocked by a wall with two buttons. With nowhere else to go, I pressed the left button. A trapdoor opened beneath my feet, and I found myself falling towards a strange donut-shaped planet.
I landed softly on the planet, in the middle of an open plain. I kept heading north, until I was in a patch of low red shrubs, with burnt patches on the ground. I brushed against one of the shrubs and it exploded in a fireball, damaging my space suit. (I should have lost 1 point of Armour, but my score there was still 0. House-ruling it again, I rolled 1d6 and scored a 2, reducing my Stamina to 10. I downed a Pep Pill, restoring my Stamina to 15,)
Further north I came to a chasm, and was able to scramble down some stairs to the bottom (by rolling less than my Stamina on 3 dice). A walk along the chasm floor led me to a lake, which I entered. I found a sub, but a huge octopus found me, and I had to fight it hand-to-hand.
The Bivalve (Skill 9, Stamina 8) was a mollusc, and my new-found knowledge of mollusc nervous systems gave me the ability to deal more damage on a successful hit (dealing 3 points instead of 2). The Bivalve struck me twice (reducing my Stamina to 11), but with my knowledge of 27 different martial arts I was able to defeat this house-sized octopus with my bare hands.
In the sub I was able to rest (restoring my Stamina to 15) as it went on autopilot. Eventually it emerged in a pool, still inside the Vandervecken. I exited the room onto a walkway over a plain far below. Turning right at a junction, I came to a floating aluminium cube. Inside the cube I found a bank of cryogenic tubes, and I awakened a spider-like being that was frozen within. The spider thanked me for saving it from Cyrus' experiments, and gave me some Anti-Mollusc Formula Four.
Heading back along the walkway, I ignored a left path and came to another aluminium cube. Inside I found another one of Cyrus' victims, a man on an operating table with tentacles for arms. I told him that I was a member of the Vandervecken's crew, and he lapsed back into unconsciousness without a word.
Heading back to left path, I eventually came to a guard post full of security screens, and two guards. Not wanting to fight them, I instead filled the room with nerve gas and killed them both. With two exits from the room, I chose the security door.
It opened into a room with a pool, a walkway around the edge, and a bridge. I walked safely across using the bridge.
In the next room was a huge alien wielding a disintegrator. I answered his riddle correctly, and exited through the middle door behind him.
The next room was filled with floating black spheres, but I was able to pass through them simply by striding confidently down the centre of the room.
In the next room were eight simulated life forms on a row of pillars. The first pair asked me the following riddle: "The moon is red, the sky is pink. Which is faster, light or time?" I answered "time", and the simulacra let me past.
The second pair asked me the following: "Up is up and down is down. But do they really exist or are they ghosts?" I answered that they were not real (a total guess), and I was able to pass.
The next pair simply asked where I was going, and I replied that I was trying to find Cyrus. They let me pass.
The next pair flanked two doors. "The right door is the one you want," said the first. "Don't listen to him. He lies," said the second. "Only sometimes," replied the first. After some thought I went through the left door, and was engulfed in electric blue fire than almost killed me. (This fire deal three dice worth of damage, and left me with 6 Stamina. I took two tablets afterwards, and restored by Stamina to 16. I'm not sure why I got this puzzle wrong. So the first guy tells me to take the right door. The second guy tells me he lies. The first guy replies "only sometimes", but if that's a lie shouldn't it mean "always"? I guess there's no reason to believe either of them, to be honest. None of these simulacra puzzles make sense, they're just a series of 50/50 guesses.)
Taking the right door, I emerged into a long room guarded by two Sentinel robots that opened fire on me.
Rather than fight them head on, I decided to scramble up onto the ceiling girders and run over the top of them. They kept blasting at me, but under the cover of the girders (and with a successful Luck test that reduced my score to 10) I was able to make it to the end of the room. The robots were still firing, but I was able to drop down between them and dart through the door (with another Luck test that reduced my score to 9).
Soon I was in the ship's bridge. Standing before me, connected to the ship by a cord, was a magnificent humanoid robot. It was pleased to meet another person, and offered to chat with me.
I was happy to talk to the robot, who quickly got metaphysical, asking if either of us might be a figment of the other's imagination. I told him I had no idea. The robot persisted with this line of questioning, and I just as stubbornly kept on telling him that I had no idea. Eventually he decided that I was quite a boring person after all, and asked me to leave.
The bridge had three exits, one marked with a star, another marked with a crescent, and a third marked COMPUTER. I entered the computer room, and was surprised to find a room filled with white cabinets, disk drives and air conditioning, a very primitive system. Resisting the urge to wreak some havoc, I moved on.
The door opened into a spacious room furnished with rugs, chairs, and shelves of books. Sitting in one of the chairs was Cyrus!
He offered me a drink, but I ignored him and closed in. As I approached he wildly insisted that he was a compulsive gambler, and wanted a game of cards as a last request. I ignored this as well. Finally he grabbed a device from the table, telling me it would fire an armour-piercing dart that never missed. Again I ignored him, and he hurled the device at my head and ducked out through a secret passage.
I followed, sliding down a chute into a hangar. Cyrus was waiting, now in a mechanised suit called a Waldo, and wielding an industrial laser. I checked my pack for items to use against him, but I had nothing, so I had to engage him in battle.
Cyrus (Skill 9, Stamina 12) was a deadly opponent, and I was facing him with no armour at all. I was able to hit him once with my assault blaster, but in the end he was too much, and I died under fire from his industrial laser.
THE POST-GAME
Well, I was worried about those stats, and I should have been. I honestly didn't expect to get as far as I did, but the book is pretty generous with Stamina boosts. That low Armour score was the killer: once it gets low enough it's just a death spiral, until you have none left at all. At least now I know how to get to the end. I just need to roll decent enough stats, and I'll win for sure.
None of these simulacra puzzles make sense, they're just a series of 50/50 guesses.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure about that. The first one could be something to do with Relativity, but I don't know enough physics to be certain. Still, in zero gravity 'up' and 'down' are completely subjective, so there's definitely a valid reason for arguing that they're not real.