Dear goodness, Dr Simpson’s tricorder is getting hot. He looks with concern at the creatures and waves at them, pointing to the tricorder and looking for permission to approach them to get close enough to scan.
“Let me scan them - this may confirm our suspicions of some kind of biological agent.”
I suggest that Dr Simpson try to gain permission to approach the creatures and scan them is a Presence 10 plus Command 3 with a focus of negotiations.
It’s hard to know for sure, but they seem to be pretty well-fitted to the individuals wearing them (no super baggy or obviously too small), just in horrible repair. And dirty.
I’m okay with this. They’re already cautiously curious about you, and a tricorder doesn’t require super-close distance.
I’m going to say it’s a Difficulty 2 task to approach within scanning range, or you can choose to make it Difficulty 3 now in order to get even closer. If you choose to get closer (and succeed, natch), your scans will lower in difficulty by 1. Make your life harder now to make it easier in the future.
Your call, obviously.
The group still has One Momentum if you’d like to buy an additional die for this test, and of course somebody else can assist you by distracting the creatures, or by triangulating the scanning beam, or whatever.
Tray Cee tries to recall how long ago the distress call was received.
Can Rad use Daring and Command to mimic some of the posturing and draw attention to assist Dr Simpson’s approach? Also trying to insure any hostility is directed at Rad if things go sideways.
@WolfeRJ asked for a die roll:
Daring 11 + Command 3 is 14 for a possibly unwise but certainly Starfleet insta-gramable pantomime assist:
d20: 4
About 2-3 days ago. The ion storm in the region started about a week ago, and the distress call wasn’t received by Relay 457 until well after that.
@WolfeRJ Nice roll! Dr. Simpson has 1 success to add to whatever he decides to do.
Dr Simpson calmly but loudly states “Dinna fash yer boots. I just want tae check you out, see if I can help.”
With Rad’s help he pantomimes what he will do with the tricorder, then turns to the group. “Now then, let me dae this to you.”
@DJCT asked for a die roll:
2d20: 18 + 15 = 33
Well that didn’t go well….
“Jings!”
Dr. Simpson scans the Away team, but as he turns the tricorder towards the Neanderthal-like creatures, they recoil, snarling and howling. As you take a step forward they scatter, grunting and fleeing before you can take another step. Perhaps the distraction caused by Torlent caused them to be surprised by your approach?
Still, you manage to get some useful information. The creatures have the same genetic makeup of Humans, but something has caused their genes to revert to their evolutionary ancestors.
In your mind, there is little doubt that these are indeed part of the science team, although what has caused their regression is unknown. You quickly eliminate Barclay Protomorphosis Syndrome as a potential cause, since your scans confirm an absence of synthetic T-cells, but other than that, you have no idea what has caused it.
Still, with the creatures gone and scattered, the way towards the outpost is cleared. It’s a hike of at least 3km as the crow flies, which should take about an hour. It’s obvious that the march is no simple stroll, the terrain between you and your goal rough and rocky, with strange and abundant flora blocking the path.
(Let me know if you’d like to do anything before we start the death ma… cough… walk. Hike. Casual meander towards the science outpost)
Keli’i: “First rule of rescue missions is don’t become someone else’s rescue mission. Yes, clearly we need to get to the base, for multiple reasons. But let’s do a whole lot of environmental monitoring, because something had an effect on these people, and we don’t want the same thing to happen to us.”
Dr Simpson looks sheepishly at his tricorder and mutters to himself. Inside, his feelings darken. He turns to face everyone.
“Well that is a turn up! Let’s get cracking, aye? These people need saving!”
Zin: "I think we have to consider that whatever happened to the science team could very well be happening to us. Who knows how long that might take?
We have 13 devolved scientists to track down, who knows what evolutionary callbacks are potentially ready to kill us, a crashed shuttle, and an ion storm wreaking havoc on our systems and potential transport out of here.
I think we may want to try to find a way to ‘tag’ any of the team we run into along the way. For their sakes and our safety.
Keli’i, any ideas about how we might do that?"
Hmm, some sort of stick-on transponder? (Reason + Science?)
Can we review the telemetry in the shuttle and use the sensors to produce a map of the route needed?
Works for me. Not a difficult task, I’d say Difficulty 2.
The “trick” will be to come up with a method of applying these devices so they stick. Hypo? Thrown adhesives? Implanted through modulated phaser beam? I’ll leave it up to you.
Yup! I would say that navigating the route is trivial: you’re all Starfleet’s best and brightest, and I don’t expect you’ll get lost.
“Maybe we could feed ‘em to ‘em? Or maybe I’m just thinking to how hungry I’ll be after this hike.”
The Engineering plan: use the same adhesives we use for the com badges and stick them to the uniforms. This will probably need someone to throw them.
Can we not just stun them?