>>42894004
Welcome back folks to DASQuest. Sorry I wasn't able to run yesterday, was mourning the death of my laptop.

Gonna run a short session today.

>>42894004
Glad to see you back. Lets do this thang.

>>42894032
Sweetness!

>>42894091
>>42894257
Welcome welcome

>>42894004
Your four living minions wait in their resting area with their cursed shards preventing them from speaking. Three humans and a kesh look around nervously, the stench of the Cauldron making them fidgety but they dared not go against your will.

Your three Talons await your orders, one staying by your side as your head to the heavy rolling shutter that seals off the mines from the mountain side. Stepping out into the night air you look up at unfamiliar stars, looking and searching for any whisper that may reveal the fate of the Wormstar to you.

The Talon hisses as it sways it's blind gaze across the valley, thermally tracking a small group of those strange six-legged creatures that roamed the mountain range. It's head jerks up and stares as you both watch what you assumed at first to be a meteor grow brighter then slow its descent. You track it's path and watch as it heads for the colony. Backtracking you gaze up and watch as stars pass away momentarily, betraying the shadow of a larger ship waiting in orbit.

Clacking your jaw you ponder if this may be your escape. You recall Jor saying the next expected ship to collect food, stone and ore from the colony was still several weeks away.

Curious.

How do you wish to proceed?
>Interrogate enslaved more thoroughly
>Remake captives as Talons
>Hunt local fauna (Have three agile Talons, 1 slug-pistol)
>Investigate the new arrivals

>>42894513
>Investigate the new arrivals

>>42894513
>>Investigate the new arrivals

>>42894513
>>Hunt local fauna (Have three agile Talons, 1 slug-pistol)
That would turn the local fauna into Talons right?

>>42894571
Yup. Protein based biomass can be used to create your soldiers with the Cauldron. Right now you only remember how to make the simple Talons. With more advanced Cauldrons and regaining your knowledge(or even developing new methods) you can discover different soldier templates and eventually even weapons.

Your current cauldron set up you can make Talons and simple chitin armor and melee weapons similar to what you wear now. You can add a mix of gravel and raw ore to the Cauldron to increase their armor if you wish. Would need to experiment to be able to create ranged weapons with current Cauldron

>>42894546
>>42894528
Investigate the Arrivals

Who do you sent?
>Enslaved Minions in shuttle (Fast but noticeable)
>Talons to sneak
>Yourself
>Enslaved Minion on hover skiff (Slower than a shuttle but stealthier)

>>42894710
>Talons to sneak

>>42894710
>Enslaved Minion on hover skiff (Slower than a shuttle but stealthier)
Time is on our side.

>>42894710
>Enslaved Minion on hover skiff (Slower than a shuttle but stealthier)

>>42894710
>>Talons to sneak

>>42894767
>>42894729
Minion on a skiff
>>42894806
>>42894726
Talons

Got a tie, break it or I will with a roll
Or combine them by sending a Talon with the Skiff

>>42894934
Talons

>>42894934
>Talons

>>42894934
Mix. Humans to negotiate. Talons to back it up if violence is needed. They can hide till then.

>>42895162
This

>>42895162
>>42894934
BTW welcome back jyoti.

>>42894934
I am so dumb, almost had the full post done.

Roll me 2d100
Minion on a skiff with Talons stealthily following

Rolled 97, 55 = 152 (2d100)

>>42895305

Rolled 86, 64 = 150 (2d100)

>>42895305

Rolled 64, 72 = 136 (2d100)

>>42895305
Blades will swing
Teath will bite
Bones will grow in the pail moon light

Rolled 9, 2 = 11 (2d100)

>>42895305

>>42895467
Oh Jesus. Now I remember why I try not to roll in your threads....

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>>42895305
You reach out with your will and a few moments later one of the enslaved humans steps up behind you. Whirling on him suddenly he jumps and would've fled if you hadn't kept him still, not to mention the Talon swaying by your side.

You wish to know about these new visitors and their ship. Leaning down your empty sockets level with the wide terrified gaze of "Buddy", as his namepatch read, the same man who managed to shoot you in his attempted escape, "You are going to help me, Buddy. Your colony has visitors and I want to know who they are. Go take a look for me," you say, brushing imaginary dust from his shoulder, "Don't worry, you will not go alone. You'll have an escort," you say as you nod to a pair of Talons.

Your Talons hunch down waiting for Buddy in a hoverskiff to take to the air before launching into a loping run on all fours trailing the skiff that soars several yards above them. The two reconstructed undead bound from rocky outcropping to outcropping, scrambling down cliffs and startling several small flocks of the cliffjumping creatures into short stampedes.

Pleased by their speed and nimbleness you recall how devastating and effective swarms of the Talons were in zero-gravity bounding from wall to wall.

The trio of your minions arrive with surprising speed to the colony. You can feel the fear in Buddy as he pushes the skiff past it's recommended speeds. The Talons slow their dashing as they have to avoid a passing sentry drone, their electrical senses spotting the invisible scanning sensor as it drifts past. You have to guess the colonists had little to worry about from threats arriving on the ground but are impressed with the anti-air capabilities of the colony, the skiff passing by one of three platforms holding an anti-orbital array.

Already Buddy could see the commotion at the docking area where spotlights burned and illuminating a corvette. You could feel the fear spike within him.

So that's how an Osjiic Empire ship looked.

>Cont

Rolled 45, 79 = 124 (2d100)

>>42895467
You fucker

>>42895467
>>42895490
Yeah good thing for you guys that I do best of the first three

>>42895581
I do want to see what a crit fail looks like

Rolled 48 (1d100)

>>42895542
DID SOMEBODY ORDER A CRITFAIL?

>>42895775
That's reg fail.

Rolled 74 (1d100)

>>42895775
THIS IS HOW YOU GET A CRITFAIL.

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>>42895542
Your Talons patrol the perimeter of the colony until they manage to dive through a gap in the drones patrol routes, darting from shadow to shadow among the plasteel and metal buildings.

Buddy drifts through buildings, fighting your control and commands that he near the Osjiic dropship. Something about these creatures instilled him with a deep fear but he obeys you drifting closer.

The docks were busy, the majority of the colony grouping up to investigate their new arrivals. Buddy wasn't the only one arriving by skiff, landing next to a group of others and disembarking to mingle with the crowd. A familiar face spots him and makes their way to his side, the same man from the docks earlier that day.

"Couldn't stay away either huh? Wonder what these damn void tyrants want," the man mumbles to Buddy who only nods.

The ship had clearly seen combat, it's hull scored and pitted. Patches were repairs had been done quite apparent. It held an array of missile pods and several turrets that looked like plasma lances.

Buddy recognized the Colony "Mayor" talking with what you could only assume was an Osjiic. Nearly eight feet tall and armored from head to toe you could not make out much beyond that they were humanoid and big. Several march behind the two speaking guiding large hover crates onto their ship and unloading several others.

"At least they seem to be trading this time instead of stealing," the man says though Buddy isn't too sure with the body language of the Mayor who could only be pleading. They watch as your Talons creep along rooftops, watching silently.

Several minutes pass as the crowd watches and murmurs. Finally the mayor bows to the Osjiic and scurries towards the crowd, the aliens starting to unload their crates and setting up what looks like the start of a collapsible tent.

>Cont

Rolled 79 (1d100)

>>42895818
You suck

Rolled 54 (1d100)

>>42895874
You are worse

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>>42895866
The crowd grumbles as the Mayor steps up to them and lifts up his hands to silence those gathers, mostly humans and vorh with the occasional kesh.

"Please be understanding, the Osjiic patrol is only setting up a temporary camp as they hunt down pirates in this system," this gets a disapproving murmur rippling through the crowd. Pirates were some of their best bar patrons and bought food from them, "We're far from the nearest Confederation base so there's not much we can do, we knew this was a chance when we decided to come to border space for our colony. They say they'll only be here less than a solar year," This news got even more complaints from the crowd but they die out as several in crowd point out a group of Osjiic soldiers watching them.

Buddy did not like the looks of the large but primitive slug-rifles they carried, weapons that a normal human would never be able to heft or aim properly let alone fire. Your Talons watch the ship and new arrivals. Their ship seemed simple enough but you detect something familiar from within the ship.

A taste of the Void. You and your talons all look up to the shadow in the sky and there you can sense another flicker of the dark energy your ally Ghul the Voidknight used to power his fleets and undead.

The last you heard of him he was launching a crusade against the Osjiic, a race that reports showed as being primitive and only just learning the secrets of blackpowder weapons.

This news either boded ill or well for your long lost ally, you were unsure just yet.

There is a pair of sonic booms echoing across the valley as two more dropships enter the atmosphere. There is a flash in the sky and you sense the power of the Void sharply for a moment as the ship disappears from orbit.

Two more ships land just outside of town and you send one of your Talons to watch from the shadows as they set up their own base on the fringes.

>>42896041
>The Osjiic Empire-State has landed a small garrison on the planet to hunt for pirates
>The Colonists are less than pleased
>Worrisome is the fact you can sense the familiar power of the Void powering their ships

What do you do now?

>>42896078
>Cabal
Those fuckers killed Not!Crota.
Start picking off Osjic a few at a time with our talons and bring back their corpses for cauldron fuel.

>>42896078
Increase our forces and further investigate the Osjic

>>42896078
Pick off wildlife and homeless population, building up slowly, then see if we can dominate one of the Osjiic (when they are alone.) We need more information.

>>42896078
Steal one of their ships and investigate.

Rolled 93, 1 = 94 (2d100)

>>42896120
This

>>42896204
>rolled a 1 a mother fucking 1
Oh deer

Rolled 11, 41 = 52 (2d100)

>>42896204
Finally!

>>42896078
Looks like choices range from

A. Pick off Osjiic soldiers one by one

B. Increase number of troops (Wildlife suggested)

C. Highjack a ship

Please vote

>>42896204
Good thing I haven't called for rolls yet huh?

>>42896306
b

>>42896306
b

>>42896078
Link to first thread?

Rolled 73 (1d100)

>>42896306
B

>>42896306
b

>>42896306
>B. Increase number of troops
Roll me 1d100
Who/what do you throw into the Cauldrons and how do you acquire them?

>>42896335
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/42838716/

Rolled 97 (1d100)

>>42896446

Rolled 96 (1d100)

>>42896446
Wildlife

Rolled 83 (1d100)

>>42896446
Wildlife

>>42896446
We should start mixing ore/stone into the cauldron to make our minions tougher

Rolled 19 (1d100)

>>42896446
Do crits break the rule of 3?

Rolled 47 (1d100)

>>42896508
This also

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>>42896446
>those rolls
>Writing

>>42896508
You can if people support it

Add gravel and ore to the Cauldron mix?
Units are slightly slower and heavier but with denser armor and harder fangs/talons
>Y/N?

>>42896530
Nope. Only the first 3

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>>42896446
We should try to find something like this among the native Fauna

>>42896562
>Y but mix the units 2 light to 1 heavy

>>42896562
>Y

>>42896562

Y

>>42896562
No, add aluminum

>>42896562
Could we add bones from dug up graves? That should add protection but still have speed

>>42896562
Yes for half.

Rolled 32 (1d100)

>>42896614
That is a very good idea, bone is 10x stronger than steel and lighter.
Rolling for it

>>42896562
>Yea
We're dealing with a durable race, our minions should be durable.

>>42896562
Your curiosity piqued you knew you needed more than just three humans, a kesh and three Talons if you were to take one of those Osjiic ships for yourself. Buddy and your two Talons slip away from the Colony, the human returning to the mine but your Talons you have head out among the mountain ridges.

Your third Talon joins them, assured of your safety. At this range the cursed minions would be unable to resist your commands but to be safe you have them turn in for the night, the shard knocking them out quickly.

Standing at the edge of platform in the shadow of the silent shuttle you watch as your Talons hunt.

They prowl along the cliffs and leap from above to tackle unsuspecting and often sleeping creatures. Claws and fangs drip with blood as they make trips occasionally back to the Mine to toss their catches onto a growing pile by the Cauldron. You inspect one of these creatures as the Talons return to the hunt.

They appeared to be a repto-mammalian, scaled with patches of thick insulating fur they were surprisingly fatty but underneath their muscles were densely coiled and powerful to propel their bodies along the rocks and cliffs, feet ending in three toes with thick leather pads. Two limbs used as crude graspers, their teeth blunt and heavy for chewing the hardy grasses.

One of your Talons flickers with a brief flash of pain but it's quickly followed by excitement by the other Talons. They'd stumbled upon on of what seemed to be a natural predator of the area, the creature getting the drop on the Talon but underestimating your minions deadliness and speed.

Once they drag the creature home they return to the hunt, the injured Talon ignoring the hole punctured into their back armor.

>Cont

>>42896950
Can bone be used to upgrade the talons?
What can be used as upgrades?

>>42897072
What if we mixed a void drive or something void, and add it to the cauldron

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>>42896950
Similar to the herbivores it was six limbed, two of them graspers and the others powerful bounding legs. Sharp fangs and keen eyes but what impressed you was the strange harpoon-like organ below its chin. A barbed bone connected to the end of a strong rope of muscle and sinew that your Talon found the creature could fire with great force.

These creatures may be of more use than just biomass.

You send your Talons hunting for more of these predators and with the help of a slaughtered cliff-jumper your Talons bring home two more of the predators as the sun starts to peek over the horizon.

Your living minions awake to the shocking sight of piles of slaughtered wildlife, the Talons perched almost proudly around the dead.

You greet your minions and ask Jor if he would be so kind as to have some drones grind up a mix of gravel and the ore. The human gulps and nods, the humans moving to set the drones to work.

The Talons toss in most of the cliff-jumpers and soon more of the chitin armored soldiers crawl from the black liquid, hissing as they cluster around you.

A drone hovers past and carefully dumps the mix of gravel and raw ore into the vat that churns and bubbles. Your Talons toss the rest of the cliff-jumpers along with the harpoon beasts. With their addition you levitate yourself to the edge of the Cauldron and focus, dipping your hands into the boiling vat.

It takes some time but several hours later and the newest of your creations pull themselves from the vat. Similar to the Talons they were humanoid and lean but their chitin armor was darker and heavier, their heads protected by a thick ridge of stone and bone. What pleased you the most was the addition to their right arms. The forearm thickened with a hollow tube containing a replica of the harpoon beasts weapon. Not as powerful as the bone rifles your armies used to field but this would give them a much needed ranged attack.

>>42897201
>Gained new unit template: Stingers
>New total of Talons: 18
>Gained Stingers:10

Stingers are an armored and mid-ranged upgrade to the Talons. While slower and heavier they have a thicker armor that allows them to take more blows or even survive attacks that would shatter a Talon. Stingers use their increased weight and extended reach from their weapons to hamper and slow down enemies for the lighter and faster Talons to swarm.

By adapting local wildlife design you have created a new weapon that you can add to future creations, the Sting Whip. Stored in a hollow bone tube a sting whip has a barbed metal tip attached to a coiled rope of dense muscle and sinew. Able to expel the dart at high speeds it is capable of piercing weaker armor types and embedding itself in skin and armor to entangle the victim.

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>>42897384
>Stored in a hollow bone tube a sting whip has a barbed metal tip attached to a coiled rope of dense muscle and sinew. Able to expel the dart at high speeds it is capable of piercing weaker armor types and embedding itself in skin and armor to entangle the victim.

>>42895403
Forgot to say earlier
Am I correct for singing this to the tune of that's amore?

>>42897384
Your new force stands waiting for your commands. You look over your new creations and would smile if you had flesh. These will do nicely as a start.

Now, what should you do next? The original miners are expected back eventually but they are currently your original Talons. The other three still living miners aren't expected back for several more weeks.

Your fledgling army is much larger in a shorter amount of time than you would've expected but you are hardly complaining. These Osjiic were likely to be fierce neighbors.

What do you do next?

>>42897072
>>42897191
>>42896614
You can harvest bones and other body parts to add to a cauldron yes. Even petrified and fossilized bone will work since the Cauldron can work with minerals as well. Your creations already have dense bone for their fangs and claws, dense enough to tear steel and weaker plasteels

>>42897072
>>42897191
Whoops forgot these answers

Upgrades to your minions will be revealed as you discover them in the story.

As for combining Void powers with your Cauldrons you believe you once discussed such a thing with Ghul but whatever you two decided it never lead to anything of note by the time you were imprisoned.

You can't recall if Ghul found it agreeable or sacrilegious.

>>42897524
What do we need to make those bone rifles? Hmmm?

>>42897524
>would smile if you had flesh
But we're always smiling.
>Start nomadic hunting parties
We split our forces into about three groups, the humans are used as bait, the stingers shoot the baddies, and the talons rip and tear huge guts. Then we bring 'em back to the cauldron. The best plans are the simplest ones.

>>42896678
Lolwut

>>42897616
This

>>42897581
A more sophisticated Cauldron setup. You believe you could create one if you scrap and salvage the shuttle and use the drones to mine and carve more carefully designed stones. It would take longer to create and you would need more chemicals from the colony or steal them yourself.

The one you have now is fairly crude and simple. As it stand you have reached the limit of what it can make with it.

>Talons
>Stingers
>Sting Whips
You can also make simple melee weapons or even shields if you so wish. Possibly even for yourself.

Shields for ourselves and a few for the stingers

>>42897788
Yeah make some shields for the Stingers. should we make a weapon and shield for ourselves?

What weapon? Mace, spear, axe? In the first thread he did say Jaduk can do melee fighting

>>42897695
Can we make bio bombs?

Action, attack, it's time to use the living we have to spread word of pirates in the caves, then we set a trap for the guys sent to fight us, we kill all but 1 who we dominate. We throw the killer in to the cauldron armor and all.

>>42897822
>Can we make bio bombs?
Explosives are beyond your capability right now and you never did use the Cauldrons to make them.

Not say it's impossible in the future, just impossible right now.

>>42897822
interrogate the humans and see if there are other caves in the mountains to stage this. Don't want them finding our base.

>>42897822
I like this idea. Spread word of a small pirate gang in the caves.

Also make us a layered shield our hand>bone/metal/bone/metal

>>42897900
This

Looks like
Create Shields for yourself and the Stinger troops

Send humans with stories of pirates in the mountains to lure a patrol

Roll me 2d100

Rolled 38, 37 = 75 (2d100)

>>42898078

Rolled 2, 32 = 34 (2d100)

>>42898078
Clickity clack get into my sack

Rolled 35, 25 = 60 (2d100)

>>42898078
Last time was a crit fail so should do good this time.

>>42898134
>>42898124
>>42898092
GG

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>>42898078
>Writing

>>42898234
You knew you needed to capture an Osjiic or two in order to interrogate them. There were quite a few things you needed to know. But first, you realize those rifles the large humanoids toted would prove to be a problem for your troops, not to mention yourself should you end up having to fight them yourself.

Using drones you have them bring loads of ore and stone to the cauldron, a pair of Talons creeping in the sunlight to collect several cliffjumpers for their bones to create shields for yourself and the Stingers.

They manage to bring back several by ambushing a small flock that was still waking up in the early morning light. Ore and stone are mixed but you feel the Cauldrons power waning.

You are able to pull out a shield for yourself and four shields for your Stingers before you feel the power of the Cauldron fizzle and snuff out. You'd frown if you could.

The Cauldron would need to be refilled with a slurry of chemicals and a sacrifice of bone and flesh to reignite before you are able to produce more of your troops.

Speaking with Jor you ask if his former superiors would send another shipment of chemicals and he says probably not. They had also gotten a call from the colony about the whereabouts of the missing miners.

This would be troublesome.

>Cauldron's power has temporarily died, needs a refresher of chemicals and a living sacrifice(animals work)
>Colony asking about the original 3 miners
>Gained 5 Shields, 1 for yourself and 4 for the Stingers

>Cont

>>42898514
You were about to call Buddy forth to send him to the colony once more to gather another batch and to lure the Osjiic when a Talon on watch hiding further up the mountain reports a hovercraft moving up the mountain path towards the mine. Even from this distance you can feel a small source of Void energy.

Looking through the vision of the Talon you see the thermal shapes of bulky armored Osjiic soldiers crowded onto a transport, a total of six. Your Talon scans them, searching for the source of Void energy and to your alarm you sense that one of the soldiers riding on the transport was the source.

There was no doubt, they were heading for your location. It seemed you hadn't the need for a lure, they were delivering themselves right to your doorstep.

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>>42898632
And with that I have to call it for the night.
I hope folks enjoyed and I apologize for the delays and missing yesterday.

Thread is archived and if you could vote for it: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?searchall=death+among+the+stars

I'll stay for a bit if folks have questions.

>>42898673
Thanks for running man. Good night.

>>42898673
fucking awesome thread OP, can't wait to see you again!

>>42898673
Fuck yeah jyoti. Awesome as always when do you plan the next thread?

>>42898717
Probably Thursday. Gonna stick to my old Ghoul Civ schedule of Thursdays and Saturdays, maybe Tuesdays on the odd chance I don't have to work my second job them

Make sure to follow my twitter to keep an eye for announcements: https://twitter.com/CeroTheNull

>>42898794
Aww shit I missed the thread...