The Stalkers RPG - Main Action and Team Status Thread [SEASON 3] *SWEET VICTORY!*

[Neo Emolga]

I'll continue my breaking-and-entering spree by searching (26) Vlock's House

You head to Vlock the Pangoro's house in the rather creepy southeastern side of town. Like the other buildings in this area, Vlock's house has creepy vibes and you have a feeling he must have bought it for dirt cheap. You can see he's done some renovation work to it, but there's still a lot that needs to be done.

You check the inside first and while there are signs that Vlock has gotten started on fixing the place up, there's still so much work that needs to be done and it seems like he just hasn't had nearly enough time to do it judging by how long the tools and supplies have been sitting in the dust idly. You guess he's only taken care of perhaps one-fifth of the work that needs to be done.

The wood-panel floor is still broken and splintered, the sheetrock walls look like Swiss cheese, and the stairwell doesn't actually have stairs anymore. There's a frayed, old rope that has to be climbed to get up to the second floor. There's also water damage in the ceiling all over the place and in some places, it's as dark as gravy. Sadly, even after struggling to get up to the second floor via the dirty old rope, you find most of the rooms up there don't even have much of a floor anymore but instead just a tarp covering that couldn't hold up anyone's weight. You find Vlock's bedroom, which looks like it was meant to be a home office, but right now it's the only room Vlock can use to sleep in. Even so, the walls are in bits and pieces, the ceiling is peeling down and away, and there's dirty water drops dripping everywhere.

Even after searching the rest of the interior, you can really feel like Vlock wasted his money no matter how cheap it was. You feel as though it would have just been easier for Vlock to tear it all down and just start new.

You decide to search the outside, and as you suspected, the grounds definitely aren't lovely either. You do find something unusual about the grass. There's a patch of what looks like black, blighted ground here, and it strikes you as very strange. When you take a closer look, you see a nail in the center of the patch of deadened soil. It almost reminds you of the Damnation Nail, but you're not quite sure.

You try to take it as you sense there's a pattern connected to the Stalkers here...

#Woeful Presence# Trap 40% Evasion Test: 72 out of 100: Evasion Successful!

Before you touch it, however, you confirm that yes, it seems to be connected to the [Damnation Nail] you found earlier for sure. And you suddenly realize touching it would attack your mind again. An almost unnatural, feeling of melancholy sorrow seems to be coming from it, but you know it needs to be taken.

You decide to grab one of the neglected old rags in Vlock's house and you use that to grab the nail instead. You can still feel a slight feeling of dread coming from it even through the fabric, but it's not nearly as severe as what you would have felt if you had touched it with your bare, white paw.

Item [Lamentation Nail] #Woeful Presence# (1 Sanity Damage) has been added to the Team Inventory.

You decide to head back to base with the nail. As you look behind you, you just can't understand why Vlock would want to live in such a creepy, derelict old house like that, no matter how cheap it was.

Hope the Alolan Vulpix (S: Ice)

Health: 4/4
Sanity: 3/4
Perk: First Aid | Learned Abilities: Rescue/Escape
Failed Assassinations: 0/2

[Neo Emolga]

Search (14) Shalcomb Factory

You decide to search out the exterior of the Shalcomb Factory, which actually seems to be one of the nicer-looking factories. It also seems like one of the cleanest. The building itself is more modern than some of the older buildings and factories around Southwarren, and you have the feeling it may be because there used to be an older building or factory here that was taken down for this newer one.

You find most of the factory grounds seem to be in pretty good shape. There isn't too much wear and tear on the building, the grounds are pretty much free of litter, and it doesn't seem like the situation with the Stalkers has had too much negative effect on the building itself.

From what you can see, it doesn't seem like business has taken too much of a hit either. Shalcomb seems to still be producing solar panels at a relatively normal rate.

You continue your way around the perimeter and around the south side, you find what looks like a red petal. It almost seems like it's from a flower, but you're a bit surprised considering flowers definitely don't grow naturally in Southwarren. You suspect it might be from a Pokémon, and on that note, maybe from a Stalker? Only one way to be certain. You decide to take it with you and test it just in case.

Pokémon Sample [Red Petal] has been added to the Team Inventory.

You finish off your search around the company parking lot, but you don't really find too much else around here that seems suspicious. You decide to head back and get ready for the next task.

Sam the Deerling (S: Normal/Grass)

Health: 4/4
Sanity: 4/4
Perk: First Aid | Learned Abilities: Investigate
Failed Assassinations: 0/2

[Neo Emolga]

Holding the random Circuitry bit in his hands, Tool looks over at the other Depot. Seems like the place it would belong...

Search Machine Depot #2 (Held Item: Control Panel Circuitry - if it happens to belong there, I slot it in automatically if you would allow such a logical action? Pleasssse?)

(Not quite how it works, but I'll take it as a regular Search as you don't find a use for that here)

You search around Machine Depot #2, where Dali the Umbreon works on software, programming, and calibrating firmware. While Zell has mostly gizmos and gadgets all over the place, Dali has mostly laptop computers, hard drives, zip drives, and all kinds of books and guides on coding and software. You imagine she must know at least a dozen programming languages and be pretty good at all of them.

The wedge-shaped building itself isn't anything too out of the ordinary. It's in relatively good shape and while it's new or fancy by any standards, Dali at least doesn't let it fall into disrepair, though the interior could be a little cleaner. Dali doesn't live here, but she owns the store itself and it seems like a lot of these factories have her working at their information technology helpdesk. You imagine with so many factories and mass-production facilities around, business must be pretty darn good for her.

Considering Dali's trade, it seems unusual when you find what looks like an engine to a vehicle or machine in the back of her store. She has either neglected it or she doesn't even know about it. When you take a closer look, you identify it as a 9DX Engine by the label on the side. However, you can see it's hooked up to an ignition starter. All it needs there is the key.

Meanwhile, from what you can also see, there is some damage to the engine itself. It seems like several components have become misaligned. Someone who knows a thing or two about repair might be able to put them back in the right places, but at least you think it's not necessary to get replacement parts with this. You also wonder if this was intentional, which leads you to believe maybe there's something more to this than what meets the eye.

Objective {9DX Engine: <Repair>, 9DX Ignition Key} has been noted in the Team Records.

After searching through the rest of the depot, you don't really find anything else that stands out. You decide to head back and let the others know what you found today.

Rusty O'Toole the Lucario (M: Fighting/Steel)

Health: 5/5
Sanity: 4/4
Perk: Security | Learned Abilities: Rescue/Escape
Failed Assassinations: 0/2

[Neo Emolga]

I'll disarm the Item [Nidoqueen's head]

You head to where the team keeps everything they've found during their time at Southwarren.

First and foremost, you find the [Nidoqueen Head]. You take special care to make sure you don't look directly into its eyes, as it has been noted that's how these heads do their dirty work.

You realize it's a matter of disabling the effect of the eyes without breaking the mechanism that these heads were made for, and you realize it's really only the area where the neck is that you find groves and protrusions that likely work as a kind of key. As long as that functionality remains, you'll make sure the next Emissary to use it won't have problems trying to lock it into place without looking right into its creepy and deranged visage.

You realize that even covering the eyes with duct tape won't be enough. The eyes, as you can sense for a moment, were made to stare into souls, and just covering them up won't be enough. You take a chisel pick and you dig out the head's eyes and then working carefully, you use a towel to cover the removed eyes and then dispose of them without letting them try to gaze into your own soul.

With that done, you've disarmed the grizzly effect of the Nidoqueen head. While it looks a bit unsettling with no eyes now, it's a head of a lot better than it having eyes that pierce into your soul and mess with your mind.

The #Disturbing Presence# (1 Sanity Damage) trap on the [Nidoqueen Head] has been removed.

You put it back into the pile and you can tell there's still quite a few more trapped items to go through. Especially that really unsettling mirror that someone slapped a "HANDLE WITH CARE" Post-It note on.

Arrow the Jolteon (M: Electric)

Health: 5/5
Sanity: 4/4
Perk: Security | Learned Abilities: Rescue/Escape
Failed Assassinations: 0/2

[Bulbasaur]

Search (14a) Sublevels B3-B1.

[Neo Emolga]

Let's lockpick that door at 28a!

You head back to the Sandwoods Apartments. It's pretty busy here during the day, but you're not worried someone might notice what you're doing.

You head to Apartment #8. From what you can see, the Emissaries never managed to find the key that goes to this, but you decide to expedite the search and use your lockpicking ability instead. You whip out your tension wrench and get to work disengaging the tumbler mechanism.

The lock itself really doesn't give you too much trouble. You only need to switch picks twice and you're able to get all of the rods held upward before the lock is disengaged.

{Locked Apartment #8 Door: 8 Emblem / <Lockpick>}

Inside, the apartment is rather unsettling. There isn't any furniture, but there's scribble and scrawl all over the walls, ceiling, and floor. You can sometimes make out numbers, however. You then notice that a lot of these numbers actually form words when they're flipped upside down.

You recognize 553590, and you see it quite often. But there are a few others that appear. 7108 appears, and as you look at it from the opposite angle, it spells "boil." And then there's 378806 as "gobble." And then a few times, you see 8075 as "slob."

You search throughout the rooms and it only gets worse. What starts as deranged and macabre black scribble with a marker turns into bloodsplatter with more upside down words as numbers as you walk throughout the other rooms. What really stands out is how on the back wall of the kitchen, you see the entire wall is splattered with black paint, as if someone violently threw a huge black paint can at the wall. You're able to make out three numbers in blood:

805

Sob. Only when you take a closer look, the "0" actually seems to an actual physical object and not just blood like the 8 and the 5. It's a bloodstained ring you can remove from the wall. You take it off, and you realize it bears a striking resemblance to two other bloodstained items that were found earlier...

Item [Bloodstained Ring] was added to the Team Inventory.

You decide to head out and get out of there. This place has creeped you out enough for today.

Marta the Buizel (M: Water)

Health: 5/5
Sanity: 4/4
Perk: Lockpick | Learned Abilities: Investigate
Failed Assassinations: 0/2

[Neo Emolga]

Search (14a) Sublevels B3-B1.

You search in the lower basement levels of the Shalcomb Factory. You see that most of this area is used for supply and raw material storage, but they also use these floors for utilities and other similar functions. On the first sublevel, they store partially-processed orders until the manifest is complete and only then is the whole order shipped out. And the levels below, you find the backup generators, heating controls, regulators, and many other utility mechanisms. All the while, pipes, tube, and wires weave and turn throughout the network of hallways down here in this cold underground.

The hallways down here are pretty dark and there isn't much lighting save for the occasional overhead fluorescent light. Everything down here also seems to be concrete stone walls, and you feel the temperature drop significantly.

In one area, you notice there's a neglected security door made of metal that has been scratched and rusted a bit. You notice it looks like someone tampered with it recently as well.

Someone repurposed the security door button controls and it looks like they overlaid them with a creepy-looking logic puzzle. It seems like the only way to hit the right button grid configuration without knowing it yourself is to figure out how this puzzle plays out:



It definitely seems very much like the work of the Stalkers...

=Technical Override Logic Puzzle= has been noted in the Team Records.

Unfortunately, until you figure it out, it doesn't seem like you're going to get any further beyond this door.

Eric the Bulbasaur (S: Grass/Poison)

Health: 3/4
Sanity: 4/4
Perk: Repair | Learned Abilities: Escort/Protect
Failed Assassinations: 0/2

[Neo Emolga]

Night has fallen in Southwarren
Submit your Day 5: Night Cycle Actions now!



Time Remaining:

@EmeraldSky @Noblejanobii @Bulbasaur @Scytherwolf @LKWayvern @Caite-chan @Pokemon Trainer Sarah @sammy0295 @Shruikan @Morzone @ARandomTool @The Nonexistent Tazz @Ladybugclue @Arrow-Jolteon @KingWinna

[Bulbasaur]

Gonna chill with my dudette Tashy.

[Tashy the Furret]

Gonna chill with my dudette Tashy.

Oh, you rock, dude! Thanks again, we're gonna have a great time! You like pizza? Because I know the goods at cooking an awesome pizza!

On that note, I'm going to check out this [Industrial Blowtorch] and give it some Utopian tender loving care. And when I'm done with that, I'll see if this [Blue Scale] turns up anything. You never know!