[Fear test -30, target number 04 (34-30); rolled a 95, re-rolled with Fate point and got a 95 for 9 DoF . On Shock table, rolled 78 + 90 for DoF = 168. "The character's mind snaps. He becomes catatonic for 1d5 hours and may not be roused." Rolled a 5 -- looks like Dammek will be out for five hours... Dammek also gains 4 Insanity points.]

As soon as Dammek touches the water, he throws his head backward and lets out an earsplitting scream of terror. His eyes roll back in his head as his body goes limp, limbs dangling at his sides. He hangs from his waist-mounted grapnel line with his feet touching the liquid, totally inert except for his frantic, shallow breathing.

[Does Dammek's laspistol slide out of his hand, or does he manage hold onto his weapon?]

[Fear Test +0, target number 29; rolled a 100; re-roll with faith 25]

Seito leans over, pushing her optical mechadendrite over the lip of the hole to illuminate as much as it can.

[Fear test -30, target number 04 (34-30); rolled a 95, re-rolled with Fate point and got a 95 for 9 DoF . On Shock table, rolled 78 + 90 for DoF = 168. "The character's mind snaps. He becomes catatonic for 1d5 hours and may not be roused." Rolled a 5 -- looks like Dammek will be out for five hours... Dammek also gains 4 Insanity points.] As soon as Dammek touches the water, he throws his head backward and lets out an earsplitting scream of terror. His eyes roll back in his head as his body goes limp, limbs dangling at his sides. He hangs from his waist-mounted grapnel line with his feet touching the liquid, totally inert except for his frantic, shallow breathing. [Does Dammek's laspistol slide out of his hand, or does he manage hold onto his weapon?]

Dammek seems to colapse. His face frozen in terror, his breath beginning to become hyperventilating.

After a handful of seconds, Erwin, who is trembling inside himself, hears that his breathing stops.

Cade had been ready to follow Erwin down, up until he heard Dammek release a horrifying scream, and grimaces. Oh man. What was in that water? Some manner of hallucinogenic? Some people would give Cade a look of abject horror at the seeming lack of concern he was giving the shrieking, hysterical Dammek, but Cade's time in the Guard had trained him to know that if he did not consider the immediate warnings of one man's folly, the whole group could go the same way. Plus, they now had a medic. Hopefully she could inspect the shrieking man. And then, Dammek abruptly stopped, and collapsed. He stared down with his night vision equipment at the sight.

He attached his grapnel to the line just as Erwin had and began lowering himself down, but but did not lower himself so low that he touched the liquid itself. He glanced around to see if there was any sort of platform that he could land on to avoid touching the liquid.

Cade had been ready to follow Erwin down, up until he heard Dammek release a horrifying scream, and grimaces. Oh man. What was in that water? Some manner of hallucinogenic? Some people would give Cade a look of abject horror at the seeming lack of concern he was giving the shrieking, hysterical Dammek, but Cade's time in the Guard had trained him to know that if he did not consider the immediate warnings of one man's folly, the whole group could go the same way. Plus, they now had a medic. Hopefully she could inspect the shrieking man. And then, Dammek abruptly stopped, and collapsed. He stared down with his night vision equipment at the sight. He attached his grapnel to the line just as Erwin had and began lowering himself down, but but did not lower himself so low that he touched the liquid itself. He glanced around to see if there was any sort of platform that he could land on to avoid touching the liquid.

The room itself shows no possibility to land. It seems to have the only purpose to store the liquid. There is something like a pump at one side of the room though.

As you get closer to the liquid, the scent in the air is enough to cause Fear (-0).

Erwin looks at the now still Dammek, gently swinging on his line, but then tries once more to pierce the darkness, looking for an exit out of this room and scanning the liquid for another hatch, under the surface.

[Awareness untrained; target 33-20=13; rolled a 44; 3 DoF]

"Missus Seito, Dral! Try to pull Dammek up. He's not well." 'whatever he is' Erwin thinks.

[With Seito (Str 32) helping me I get a +15 bonus to my strength roll. Str 30 + 15 = target 45; rolled 49 = 1 DoF. I will spend a fate point to get +10 so that is 1 DoS]

I grab Dammek's grapnel line and with Seito's help haul him back up. Once we get him out of the hole I put Dammek on his back and step out of Seito's way to allow her some room to tend to his condition.

Staring in shock at Dammek's deathly pale skin I call down "What in the Emperors name happened too him! Are you guys sure you should be looking around down there?!"

"No one else go down there!" Seito looks at Dammek's limp form and immediately begins emergency life saving procedures on him.

"Whatever that filth is, it needs to be destroyed! Dammek, stay with me, son," she begins forcing open his eyes to check his pupils and ripping open his shirt to get her instruments into his veins if need be.

[Medicae check: <75; rolled 48, 3 DoS]

Dammek seems to have been poisened by a substance that is unknown to you.

This substance seems to create a sudden rush of great fear and desperation. So great that it could scare to death.

With your medicine background, you are sure that this works on contact, and even to a lesser degree via air, but it would be a lot more potent if injected.

Dammek is in a bad shape and just your quickly applied medicae saves him.

If you are able to pass on a medicae -20 test, you could even neutralize the toxin within 10 minutes and Dammek would wake up again.

[Fear Test: need 29, rolled a 14]

Cade feels something tugging at the back of his mind, and distinctly feels the urge to retch and contort away from the vile liquid in horror. Horror? Why horror? He heard Dral and Seito calling them back up and he acquiested immediately, using his grapnel and line to climb his way back up. He clearly recognized that he didn't want to deal with that. But there was a detail tugging at his mind. He tried to find Erwin's face as he climbed his way out of the pit.

"Erwin was it?" He asked. "Did you feel something while you were down there? An urge to panic?" He asked him, as he came up, and clambered out.

"It is a poison or something similar. All it takes is contact. If it was injected it could be even worse. We are dealing with very bad stuff here, boys and girls. DO NOT TOUCH IT."

Seito works quickly, her med-mechadendrite working as an autonomous unit, while her hands pull tools and medicines from the kit at her waist. "Come on Dammek, damnit, you little bastard stay with me, buddy!"

She fiddles with some vials, finding exactly what she was looking for and loading it into the mechadendrite. With a thought, the mechanical arm jabs a syringe into the little man's neck, injecting a potent mixture of counteractants into his system with frightening speed.

"There we go! All better!" She laughs as her quick efforts save her new companion.

[Medicause test (-20) <55; rolled 20!]

With one last glance Erwin scans the room, but the light from Seito's mechadendrites creates only a mirror on the surface. With a grunt Erwin pulls himself up. Seeing the situation on top, he moves to the stairwell, lasgun at the ready for any more problems.

"So mr. Brain, any way to destroy that frakking filth?" he asks Dral, while lighting up another lho-stick.

"It is a poison or something similar. All it takes is contact. If it was injected it could be even worse. We are dealing with very bad stuff here, boys and girls. DO NOT TOUCH IT." Seito works quickly, her med-mechadendrite working as an autonomous unit, while her hands pull tools and medicines from the kit at her waist. "Come on Dammek, damnit, you little bastard stay with me, buddy!" She fiddles with some vials, finding exactly what she was looking for and loading it into the mechadendrite. With a thought, the mechanical arm jabs a syringe into the little man's neck, injecting a potent mixture of counteractants into his system with frightening speed. "There we go! All better!" She laughs as her quick efforts save her new companion. [Medicause test (-20) <55; rolled 20!]

Dammek awakes again - his body still shaking (this will give you -10 on all test during the next 5h).

You habe no idea what he went through, but in his eyes you can see that he met the most terrible horrors his mind can imagine.

(Dammek suffers 2d10 Insanity points. If he manages a Willpower test, he only suffers 1d10 instead).

As Dral is thinking, Erwin makes eye contact with Cade. He is a bit reluctant to look him in the eyes so after a fraction of time, he directs his attention to the stairwell once more. "I don't know sarge. I'm not in the habit of freaking out, but that room gave me the creeps. It felt like... It felt like a winternight when you're alone in the mountains and you hear the screaming of a shadowreaver... You just know something is up and you feel a dozen gazes on your back... but when you turn around, there is nothing to be found..."

Erwin looks back at Cade, this time not evading his stern gaze: "I'm sure that a hunter as yourself knows the feeling."

I consider Erwin's question for a moment, thinking that I don't know the first thing about chemicals and any properties that cause panic and fear... "I really don't have a clue, I am no chemist." turning to Seito and un-clipping my auspex from my belt "Seito perhaps this may be of use to you in scanning the liquid. To be honest I am not sure why I picked it up as most of the time I can't make head nor tail of the readout."

"So, Erwin, Cade did you see any other exits in the room below or is it a dead end? There are life forms here or at least were a few minutes a go, so if they ain't down that hole we should search the rest of this place before thinking of a way to deal the liquid."

"No exits for as far as I could see. It seemed to be a re-zer-voir . Perhaps there is a hatch under the surface, but I sure couldn't find it. Did you see anything Cade?"

"Does anyone have any incendiaries? Prometheum? We should burn it all."

Seito has that no-nonsense look about her. She takes the auspex and fiddles with it while she speaks, trying to make heads and tails of the readouts on the device.

[what checks can I make to use it in conjunction with Dammek or the liquid?]

"Does anyone have any incendiaries? Prometheum? We should burn it all."

Seito has that no-nonsense look about her. She takes the auspex and fiddles with it while she speaks, trying to make heads and tails of the readouts on the device.

[what checks can I make to use it in conjunction with Dammek or the liquid?]

"Burning it may be a good idea but what about the fumes that would give out? If there is any ventilation down there to this area of the hive a lot of people may suffer."

"I would not bet on that. We were not affected until we opened that **** door. My guess would be a hermetic seal. But, I suppose we should be cautious now more than ever."

[Tech Use 45 +/-; rolled 49, 1DoF; Scholastic Lore Chemystry to try and figure out what we are dealing with and how to best destroy it <45; rolled 82. Well at least we know all my luck is gone].

Cade shook his head in answer to Erwin. "I did not. But if you suffered a similar symptom... and judging by Dammek here. I think it may be safe to say we may have found the means used to kill the young noble." He stated to Dral. At the question of promethium, Cade shook his head. "I have a photon flash and a fragmentation grenade. Nothing more than that, unless you think a las shot would be sufficient."

"I didn't bring my handflamer" Erwin grins. "Could we lock the hatch again and destroy it later?" Looking down the stairwell, he continues: "Or perhaps we find the means to destroy that filth down there. Who's up for some spe-lun-king ?"

"Yes we should check down stairs, but what about the 1st floor?" Turning to Seito "did your scan on the Auspex pick up any life signs below; perhaps point that thing upwards and scan again?"

[just for Seito's benefit; a scan with an Auspex will pick up life signs which you do not need a tech use roll for, the tech use roll is to determine unusual readings like scanning the liquid]

[Failed the WP check and gained 6 Insanity (10 total). Trauma roll result: Dammek is compelled to repeatedly perform an action such as praying or cleaning a weapon for the next 16 hours. He suffers -10 to all Int, Per and Fel rolls due to distraction for this period.]

Dammek screams again as soon as Seito's treatment restores him to consciousness. He raises his hands in front of his face and curls up as if he was about to be struck down by an enemy. After a few moments, he slowly relaxes and lowers his arms, looking around at his fellow acolytes in confusion. He shivers and sits up, giving Seito a brief nod of thanks.

Wordlessly, Dammek holsters his laspistol and stows his grapnel before pulling out his stub automatic. He turns it over in his hands while his finger carefully traces all the contours of the pistol.

Seito watches Dammek with a little more than concern on her face. "Son, are you good to go?" She heard the expression used over and over during her tours of medicae duty with various Guard units. They all made sure they were "good-to-go" prior to battles that most never came back from. She needed to know that Dammek was ready to watch their backs if he had to.

She nods to Draal and slowly, meticulously, waves the auspex around the various levels of the structure, looking for any signs of life.

[For everyone, I will be heading to S. Korea this weekend and my posting may be limited. Apologies]