Starfinder: The Jade Regent Pt. 01

As they looked around, Wather bustled to the kitchen, his long, limber arms pulling down supplies and starting up the burner.

Nora's head slowly canted to one side as she watched Wather work. Her brow furrowed. "The option is there should you change your mind. For a medkit. I won't press. I go by Nora additionally."

Hana poked Ami in the ribs, "Be nice!" She hissed as they headed in, moving around the room and righting the seat, looking at the damage, then looking to Rakain expectantly. Rakain looked back at her - his brow furrowing with confusion, then went back to examining the wall.

"So- it looks as if you have been in a bit of a scuffle?" Sam asked, not exactly with any real sense of decorum.

Rakain touched the edges of the holes in the wall. "'A bit' seems like an understatement," he muttered.

"There were, uh...goblins," Wather said, nodding as he walked back into the room. He held out the bowls to them - the food looking somewhat...unappetizing. Thick bowls made of some kind of salvaged metal, filled with goop and thick lumps of barely cooked vegetable matter. As if he was trying to disguise his total ineptitude, Wather had placed a thin dusting of spices and herbs on the top of the mounds.

Hana leaned over and muttered to Rakain in Veskish, "You don't know Mending?"

"I don't," Rakain answered in Veskish. "Just some detection spells and some basic offense stuff. I'm not that good yet."

Nora shifted, having spent a few moments watching their host. She reached out with an arm and let her little drone skitter off and settle onto the tabletop while she moved over to Hana. Hana, meanwhile, had picked up one of the bowls. She looked at the bowl, then shrugged. She used her fingers to scoop out a bit of the food and trying it curiously. Looks didn't always impact flavor after all. She paused in mid-bite, working hard to keep her expression off her face and her gag from being audible. Subtly she wiggled her fingers as wove a thin patina of magic. The energy flowed around the bowl, starting to heat and mash the chunks of uncooked veggies. It didn't seem to be doing much, but at least it was an improvement.

Sam gave a nod and took one of the offered bowls, holding it before her as she took her time removing her helmet. "Makes sense. About the goblins, I mean," she said, seeming to be unaware of the awkwardness growing between the guests and their hoast - Walther was watching them all intently, silently. "We are currently looking for them. How many went through here and do you know anything about them?"

Rakain simply upended the bowl into his mouth, keeping his face neutral as the...whatever it was slid down his throat, his throat bobbing as he swallowed. If he didn't like it, he didn't show it. Meanwhile, Nora - ignoring the food in favor of looking right back at Walther, frowned. She leaned over to Hana - but a sudden silence in the conversation, a lull in the bustling and clattering of bowls, made her whisper audible to the whole room.

"He's sort of...rippling," Nora said.

Walher froze, his face a picture of pure terror.

Then he sprang at Nora with a snarl, his body melting and rippling. Skin folded backwards, and clothing shimmered away as arms became lashing tentacles, a yawning mouth opening wide as gleaming fangs burst from it. The shapeshifter smashed into the table, sending bowls of unappetizing food scattering, and lashed a tentacle around Nora's throat, the mechanic grabbing it with a squeak of shock as the rest of the party sprang backwards in shock.

Nora, though, wasn't entirely helpless. Her drone hopped from her shoulder and bit down on the tentacle. Hard. The tentacle released her throat and her response was automatic. She rolled backwards, snapping her pistol back up. Her drone hopped off the tentacle, landing beside her. He turned, mouth open as well. Both fired at nearly the same time. Thee shapeshifting creature surged backwards with the pair of pistol shots - one skimming through its shoulder, the other thudding into its chest.

Black blood flecked the food, making it slightly less appetizing. But only slightly.

Ami, who had drawn her pistol as well, put what everyone was thinking into words: "Is everything i this fucking swamp a monster!?"

Sam tossed her bowl of garbage food at the- thing. It batted the bowl away with one tentacle, but Sam was already charging forward. Her armor whirred as she and followed her toss up with a quick left hook. The monster surged backwards and Sam's fist plunged into the wall with a squealing crack of metal meeting metal. Rakain, meanwhile, had trained his laser pistol on the beast. As it writhed away from Sam, coming back to its full height, he pulled the trigger. The laser blast seared a burning, smoking wound in the monsters chest.

It screeched - but more in fury than in pain.

Hana, reacting with amazing calm, put her hands up to the side of her head as she took half a step back. Red light flared along the lines of circuitry on her body. Then her eyes flashed blue and a nearly invisible wave of psionic energy pulsed from her forehead. It slammed into the shapeshifter. It writhed, squirmed, screeched. Blood poured from what it used as eyes for the moment. But as the pain faded, it reached out to grab the wall and used its momentum to lunge at the woman who had hurt it so badly. Plates and crockery went spilling to the side as the creature sprang towards Hana.

Hana, cool as a cucumber, slammed her shoulder into the creature's side, sending it spinning off and smashing to the floor. Nora took a step back and to the side as she kept her pistol held and trained on the creature. Her little drone barked out another bullet - this time, the bullet pinged off the wall. But Nora's revolver kept level and she put another round into the monster.

"Hey! Pay attention to me Mr Bitey!" Sam snarled as she stepped forward and grabbed onto the back of the shapeshifter. She slammed a sucker punch into the monster's head, the armored knuckles of her fist leaving a divot almost an inch deep in what passed for the creature's skull. It groaned loudly, then shoved Sam backwards. Thinking his luck would hold, Rakain fired at the dent in the creature's head. Somehow, it's concussion addled brain managed to sent the required signals to it's limbs for it to dodge.

Hana pulled out another one of her glass stones, the small blue stone firing at the creature's head, but it managed to dodge the little blue bolt as she cursed. It seemed being so wounded had given it extra incentive to not get hit.

The monster gurgled and roared. "Allllll diiiiiiie!" it screeched. "My home! MINE!" It writhed, coiled around, then sprang forward, slamming at Sam's chest plate. It bashed into her armor, sending her staggering backwards slightly. But Sam shook herself and shoved back- her armor absorbing most of the impact, leaving her only lightly bruised. The two fighters were locked together, though, tentacles lashing around Sam's shoulders and wrists. Nora leveled her revolver - but held up her hand to stop her little ferret drone before it fired. There was too great a risk of hitting Sam.

"You know," Sam said around gritted teeth. "It's more effective if you try hitting around the armor." Sam smirked before she yanked her arms free of the tentacles wrappinga round her. She clasped her fists together over her head and brought them down together on the monster's head. The impact pulped the shapeshifter's head with a wet splortch. The corpse thudded to the ground and, for a moment, every member of the group stood, panting. Ami kept her pistol leveled at the creature. She stepped forward and kicked it.

"H...Hello?"

Ami squeaked - but the voice hadn't come from the shapeshifter. Instead, it came from upstairs. It sounded both deathly afraid - and slightly hopeful all at once. Ami gulped, looking at her friends. "Think it's another shifter?"

Rakain kept his pistol drawn, his eyes flicking up at the ceiling. "Let's hope not," he rumbled.

Hana smirked at Ami, holding out her hand. The blue stone she had fired at the shapeshifter floated into her palm and she put it back into her pouch. "That way madness lies, dear. Start thinking anyone can be a shapeshifter and you think everyone is." She shook her head and started for the stairs at the back of the room.

"Doubt that..." Nora said with a sigh, reaching once more to reload her own pistol and feed her little drone. The drone chomped up each bullet happily.

"I also doubt it. If it was then it should have struck from behind in an ambush." Sam said rather confidently. She shook her hand, trying to get some brain matter off it. "If it is another shape shifter, it is too stupid or weak to be a threat."

The group started up the stairs - each of them, by unified and silent consensus pushing Ami to the back, making her squeak with frustration. She glared at them as they came up to the corner at the top of the stairs. The second story of the house held a few other rooms - a makeshift computer den, a bedroom...and a panic room. The metal door had been pushed open from the inside and the very Kasathas they had been talking to before leaned on the door frame. His body was covered with bandages and he looked almost white with blood loss.

"Is...is it dead?" he asked, his voice filled with relief.

Hana nodded, "Yeah, the shapeshifter below attacked us." She bit her lip, moving forward to heal him unhesitatingly, hoping he wasn't another shapeshifter. Despite her words, the worry remained in the back of her head. Nora did the same, stepping forward while reaching for her medical kit.

"Don't crowd him, ladies," Rakain said, keeping an eye on the floor downstairs for any more threats.

Walher - the real Walther - groaned as he was healed, his head hanging forward. "Thank the gods..." he said, pushing himself slowly to his feet, bags under his eyes making it seem like he hadn't slept in a while. As Nora knelt down and started to tug his shirt up to check for any extra wounds...she found that the Kasthus was lean and ripped, his muscular form clearly honed by years of combat. Nora blushed slightly, then started to run a diagnostics tool over her. She figured that was why the shapeshifter had been so cagy about technological healing - this diagnoster would have noticed that he was a shifter.

Sam just kept quiet, her attention mostly on the Kasathas. Her eyes did alight appreciatively on his muscular tummy, though.

"It's kinda hard to heal him without getting close, Rakain." Hana snickered slightly, letting Nora deal with him now that she had provided the magical healing. "So...what happened? And, uh, not that we're not happy, but do you know why it didn't kill you?"

At the bottom of the stair, Ami crossed her arms over her chest and stepped back to stand beside Rakain. She crossed her arms under her breasts, muttering softly to him - the conversation inaudible to the others. Still, she looked miffed that she had been pushed back behind the others.

"Blood drained mostly," Nora commented, glancing over her shoulder with a little wince. "Sorry to butt in Hana."

Hana snickered, "I don't think he'll mind as much healing as he can get. Just figured I'd start with the magic, since...magic is cool.." She said, blushing slightly. AS she blushed, Nora started pulling out supplies from her medkit.

Walther chuckled, softly, his face covering twitching slightly with his breath. "My name is Walter. Which, ah, you may already have guessed. Right?" He chuckled softly. "And the monster came here in the guise of a traveler. When my back was turned..." he shook his head. "He sprang on me. Drained me with those damned fangs. I fought him off, wounded him, then fled up the stairs and locked myself in the safety room. The thing remained down there..." He rubbed his side, sighing. "I think he was afraid I'd kill him if he got close. I was afraid he'd kill me if he found my safe room while I was asleep."

"He was using you like a supply to maintain your form," Nora said, wincing a little as she dug through her medkit. She slipped out a few tablets and held them out, "These with water will get your body reproducing all that lost blood. That plus some 'cool magic healing' and you'll be right as rain."

Hana giggled slightly, "So.. um.. are you going to be okay out here?" She said, biting her lip slightly.

Walther nodded, slowly. "Yes..." he said, starting towards the stairs, wincing slightly. As he walked, Ami stepped away from Rakain, watching Walther walk by. "I lived here for years without trouble. And I'll be sure to check for any more shapeshifters any time someone comes calling." He chuckled. "But I owe you a reward." He turned back to look at them as they filled the downstairs. "I have some equipment you might find useful, if you're..." he paused. "What are you doing in this swamp?"

"We're on an adventure," Rakain said. "To where and to what end..." He shrugged. "Well, we haven't gotten that far yet."

"Youthful adventure," Nora said with a little quirk of her lips after packing her medkit up. Hana snickered and added her own to the conversation.

"Most specifically, we heard there were goblin thugs in the area and we've come to hunt them for the reward."

Sam nodded at Hana's comment.

Ami snickered. "What Hana said," she said.

Walther nodded. "I know these goblins - apparently, they've been throwing around a lot of explosives. I've always made sure to keep clear of their den." He chuckled quietly. "But I do know where it is located."

"That would be quite useful!" Hana said cheerfully, then looked to Ami, "How were we going to prove how many goblins we've defeated anyway?"

Ami opened her mouth, then closed it, looking a bit queasy. "Uh...I...don't...know..." She lied. Badly.

"By the head?" Sam suggested. Ami looked even more green at that idea.

"..will a recording suffice?" Hana asked hopefully. She held up her hand, wiggling her ring finger to bring everyone's attention to her ring recorder.

"I've got a knife..." Rakain offered, his hand dipping to the weapon on his belt.

Ami's face twisted further. "Eeugh, yes, I hope a recording will suffice!" She said, then punched Rakain in the shoulder. He laughed, as perturbed by the shoulder punch as a tree by a fly landing on it.

Walther chuckled softly. "Well, if you need a place to rest, to refresh yourself, this home is yours. But, first, your reward." He turned and headed into the back. When he returned, he was holding a jumble of parts, setting them down with a chuckle. He also held out a small stick of plastic. A cred stick!

Nora quickly and gleefully found herself going over the parts, eyes roaming and her hand reaching out to point and count. She ignored the stick, which Hana picked up and ooohed. She waved it in the air, then started distributing it to the other's personal cred sticks.

"Anything good?" Rakain asked, leaning his big frame over Nora's shoulder, pocketing his cred stick with a twirl of his fingers.

"Juuuuuuuuuump Jets." Nora said, leaning back into Rakain for a moment. She blinked over her shoulder before gesturing, "Set them up and get a good jump and you'll rocket a solid thirty or so feet in the air. Foosh."

Sam, meanwhile, had stepped over to Walther. She showed him her mini-computer on her wrist, her voice soft as she spoke. "Well, you said you know where they are? I have been mapping out out trek in here. Oh, and right- I'm Sam." She nodded to him.

Walther took her hand with his lower right, nodding, then pointing with his upper left at the map on the mini-comp. "There," he said. The goblin camp was about two miles off, but it might take an extra three or so to follow the winding paths.

Hana blushed. "Oh right! Hana Song!" She said, raising her hand to him and waving. "That's my name.

Ami, though, was entirely distracted by the box of parts. "Oh cool..." she said, picking up one of the jets. She looked over at Hana. "We could put them on Hana, and she'll be even faster!" She stuck her tongue out at Hana playfully.

"I would say I'm not some toy for you to play with, but I don't mind being your playtoy in the slightest." Hana winked playfully at Ami.

Ami blushed and stammered. "H-Hana!" She squeaked.

"Hana just likes being a playtoy," Rakain said, grinding himself against Nora for a moment. Nora's drone bumped his head against Rakain's chest.

"Well, just make sure to plug her in when you are done with her." Sam teased

Ami blushed harder. "Gods, why did I get a bunch of hormonally hopped up teenagers as my friends!?" she asked.

"Aren't you also a teenager, miss...?" Walther asked, looking at her.

"Amieko," Ami said, nodding. "Ami Woodwillow."

Her last name was the same as her adoptive mother's - no one was quite sure what her actual last name was, as her parents had died in the trip between their old home and Akiton. Bentha had named her Amieko because it seemed to be a Tian name. And since The Gap had erased history and memories alike centuries ago, no one was around to argue what was and was not Tian, beyond some scraps of text and pictures found in ruins. Tian seemed to mean 'human with epicanthic folds' as far as anyone in the modern era could tell.

Ami didn't seem to mind her name, though.

"Still," Walther said. "Are you going to set out for the goblins now or should I cook you some food?" He sniffed. "Assuming that monster didn't ruin all my stores."

Nora flushed a little at the grinding between her and Rakain and leaned back to stare hard at some of the jump jets, "There was stew but we might want to, uh, check it for people-meat."

Rakain made a face, remembering the sensation of the gruel sliding down his throat. "Eugh. Why did we watch that stupid slasher movie, again?"

"Well, we did just...Gods damn it, Nora.." Hana sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Now I'm tempted to flush out my system just in case..."

Walther chuckled. "Yes, of course." He stepped away as Ami stuck her tongue out at Nora. A few moments later, Walthe called out: "There were no untoward meats within the stew."

"Just making sure!" Nora did her best to stress after finding a bit of jump jet engine very, very distracting to stare at. But that was Nora for you.

Hana snickered, "I'm thinking Nora's in love there." She jerked her thumb at the jump jets. "Well, I'm good if we're ready to head out." She smiled at her friends. Sam chuckled softly at the exchange.

"Well," the amazonian warrior said, having finally finished wiping blood off her armor. "I actually didn't get any of the stew first time around. So, I vote we stay."

"Seconded," Ami said. "And since I am team leader..." She stuck her tongue out at Hana, who laughed.

The meal, once it was cooked by an actual cook...was delicious. Walther might have lived alone, but he did know how to cook his own food. Once the group had eaten and felt considerably better about themselves, they set out once more. The sun was starting to dip on the horizon as they continued to creep around the swamp, following the map that the "swamp warden" had given them. Nora had spent the whole meal getting to feel up Rakain - while also, simultaneously, attaching the jump jets to his armor. Rakain had pointed out his suit had the room for it, and he might need to get away from bad guys in a hurry, being a 'squishy wizard.' The others had agreed.

Now, though, they came to an open area in the swamp - a large crashed ship that looked like a flat dinner plate made up the home of the goblin tribe. A dozen or so rickety metal and bone buildings were clustered around a central clearing. Utter silence hung in the air above the goblin village...and as they looked at it from a distance...they could see corpses.