You stand outside the veterinary office, already halfway changed into your hazmat suit. You've removed your thermal goggles but you know that there is at least one humanoid on the first floor (likely infected) and three on the upper floor, along with another possibly infected humanoid and Jeremy.

As you stand there, you have an idea that may or may not be brilliant as the sun reflects off your sniper rifle.

>use sniper rifle and thermal goggles to snipe everything inside the building and recover Jeremy
>go in and retrieve him yourself, fighting off the mantises with your pistols
>grab some bait, try and see if you can get the mantises to tranq themselves and retrieve Jeremy

>>43319521
>go in and retrieve him yourself, fighting off the mantises with your pistols
>grab some bait, try and see if you can get the mantises to tranq themselves and retrieve Jeremy
nice to see you again Simmons

>>43319521
>>use sniper rifle and thermal goggles to snipe everything inside the building and recover Jeremy
This is logical.

Everything but Jeremy is doomed and must burn.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>43319596
>>43319619

It's nice to run again. Wish I could have done so yesterday tbh.

>>43319521
I thought there were three mantises on the second floor, plus two humanoids, plus probably-Jeremy.

>>43319702
You're entirely correct, the one humanoid went upstairs.

If that changes anyones mind, you have a little chance to change or submit a new vote.

>>43319697
Well hopefully the Scyth is Lopez by coincidence.

>>43319742
>>43319733
>>43319702
>>43319697
>>43319619
>>43319596

You pack on both pistols and swap out your bag of taser grids for a bag of bait that should theoretically be able to take down all three mantises on the second floor of the building. You’ll still have to deal with the humanoid that went upstairs unless it too decides to eat the bait.. But that seems unlikely.

You re-enter via the rear of the building, knowing that way to be clear. There’s a loud banging coming from upstairs.

>create a loud noise yourself
>Head upstairs, guns at the ready
>toss the entire bait bag up the stairs
>set the bait on this floor, make a noise to attract the mantises, back out
>write-in

We could, I guess, snipe only one of the mantises.

The one that isn't on the east end guarding Jeremy.

But any reduction in mantises means giving more power to the Scyth in the coming standoff.

>>43319831
>>set the bait on this floor, make a noise to attract the mantises
>Head upstairs, guns at the ready

unless i am getting the wrong impression of the layout of this place.

>>43319831
>Head upstairs, guns at the ready
Dammit shouldn't have lost tasers for bait.

They're in full guard dog mode.

>>43319831
>

>>43319898
Those are mutually exclusive options, you retarded gooboy.

That's like saying "make a loud noise to attract the enemy to come down the stairs to eat the bait you left behind you as you get closer to them"

>>43319957
gotcha, i thought there were people upstairs and on the floor we were on. in that case make this >>43319898 change to
>Head upstairs, guns at the ready

>>43319831
>>Head upstairs, guns at the ready

>>43320000
"people" do not generally eat bait found on the floor. what the fuck.

>>43320019
i thought there were people upstairs, and mantises by us, so we would bait the mantises and shoot the humanoids.

>>43319856
>>43319898
>>43319920
>>43319926
>>43319957
>>43320000
>>43320013

You move upstairs, with a silenced gun in each white gloved hand. You're able to avoid making a sound on the stairs but as you near the top, you're able to detect the slight tapping of a mantis moving down the hallway that leads to these stairs.

He (or she... or it? You waste precious seconds wondering how mantises are sexed) cannot see you yet because the area at the top of the stairs turns into the hall rather than leading into it directly. Still, once it reaches the end it will be right on top of you.

You don't have much time to make a decision.

>turn the corner, try and blow it away in one volley
>toss some bait down the hall, retreat down the stairs a little with your guns drawn
>openly offer it the bait
>retreat back to the first floor
>shoot and, if successful, pop your smoke grenade
>write-in

>>43320123
>>toss some bait down the hall, retreat down the stairs a little with your guns drawn
I guess if they were eating Zheng they'll eat this.

Does gunfighting in here get Paternal bonus?

>>43320123
>openly offer it the bait
we are the mantis whisperer

>>43320170
>Does gunfighting in here get Paternal bonus?

Yes, as would all other rolls involving retrieving Jeremy.

>>43320171
They are instantly hostile and fanatical defenders of Jeremy. Did you see how the last mantises reacted to you.

>>43320123
>>toss some bait down the hall, retreat down the stairs a little with your guns drawn

>>43320170
>>43320322
>>43320255
>>43320171

You put aside one of your guns for just a second and toss and handful of bait out into open view of the approaching mantis. The tapping sound quickly becomes a rapid scuttling as the mantis hurries to inspect the bait. You watch, a bead carefully drawn on its head as it gets close but does not eat... not yet anyway.

>shoot
>wait, give it a chance to decide

>>43320388
>>shoot
It's gonna turn its head.

>>43320388
>>shoot
SHOOT HERRRR

>>43320388
>shoot

>>43320457
>>43320547
>>43320601

You unleash a hail of bullets that deform and then annihillate the mantis' head, turning the intricate compound eyes and head into a nub of green mush.

As you step up the stairs, there is a noise like a balloon having the air leaked out of it by an 8 year old and everything is suddenly a haze of blue particulates.

It eventually clears but the walls are now covered with a fine dusting of spores.

>move down the corridor towards where you saw the other two mantises and Jeremy
>investigate other rooms on this floor, try and find the humanoids
>write-in

>>43320665
>>investigate other rooms on this floor, try and find the humanoids
Man the mantises are just full up aren't they.

...but this didn't happen with the three downstairs. Not even the two mantises that were originally upstairs.

...we might have to euthanize the humans around, there's no good exit without getting infected by ambient spores.

>>43320665
>investigate other rooms on this floor, try and find the humanoids

>>43320710
>>43320818

>Investigate the other rooms on this floor

You move through the hallway as silently as possible. Most of the rooms are unlocked and open or slightly ajar, allowing you to see inside without much muss. They appear to mostly be offices for the doctors who worked here; judging from the number of offices, most of them weren't here today..

There are two rooms that are closed, in addition to the room at the end of the hallway where you believe Jeremy is.

You try to assess the threat levels of each room before you try and disturb the doors.

>roll awareness 3d6+3

Rolled 3, 5, 3 + 3 = 14 (3d6 + 3)

>>43320833
Just relax and imagine the enemy as entirely inanimate mail packages.

Rolled 5, 4, 4 + 3 = 16 (3d6 + 3)

>>43320833
help me satan!

Rolled 3, 1, 3 + 3 = 10 (3d6 + 3)

>>43320833
With xray vision?

Actually, ultrasound visor might not be so bad to look into for exotherms...

>>43320861
>>43320881
>>43320941
>14,16,10

You do your best to stay perfectly quiet and listen... and you do hear something in the room on your left. Footsteps, a gentle pacing. It could be another infectee. Or maybe a nervous survivor.

>open the left door
>open the right
>write-in

>>43321012
Well, if we open the left door, the probably-armed guy in the right door will come up behind Vince when he hears.

Was this likely the door the mantises were trying to break down?

>write-in
Knock on the right door. He made the big noise earlier, he knows we're here by now.

>>43321012
>the right
Gotta leave no witnesses. Or bribe him.

>>43321125
Neither door shows signs of obvious damage.

>>43321125
>>43321199
>right v. left

Gonna leave it open for a few more minutes. If the tie doesn't break, I'll call it for the night. I'm stupid tired and the first game of the WS will be on shortly.

>>43321273
But both things said right.

>>43321012
>open the right

>>43321199
Well we do have Zheng's $200.

>>43321288

This is what I get for drinking and reading. I'll write it up.

>>43321346

You're also fairly flush in your own right, right now.

>>43321125
>>43321199
>>43321273
>>43321288
>>43321346
>>43321505

You open the door on your right and dicover a room strewn with debris.A badly mauled closet sits off to the side and the ground is streaked with both mantis and human blood. A badly mutilated mantis corpse is propped against the wall and the window is wide open.

It looks like someone made an escape from here.

>open the other door
>open the door to Jeremy's room
>write in

>>43321559
Frick. The coppers might be waiting for us when we leave.

>>43321559
>open the other door
Doc?

>>43321559
>>open the other door

>>43321659
No, that had to have been the survivor who was upstairs hiding in the closet.

Now the trouble is he might be infected and not know it yet, out there.

So nervous guy is the cop? He is not qualified for this biohazard. We can clean up the mess if he looks the other way about the building blowing up.

>>43321659

Scarcely realizing the ramifications of what you've just seen, you open the opposite door. You action catches the sole inhabitant unawares and he turns backwards awkwardly from where he's crouched on the floor over a female Scyth officer's corpse with a bloody scapel. You riddle him with bullets before he can get on his feet properly.

>examine scyth officer's corpse
>head into the last room

If the doctor just escaped we might need his expertise.

>>43321749
>examine scyth officer's corpse

>>43321749
>>examine scyth officer's corpse

We still have one last zombie to shoot downstairs also at the end of all this.

>>43321784
>>43321820
>>43321750

It looks like the officer was smart enough to put on her personal gasmask before coming in here, which must have protected her initially from infection.

It's difficult to tell the cause of death with such a badly mutilated body. Her body armor has been removed and tossed on the floor nearby and the entire chest cavity has been opened up, seemingly with brute force.

>try and examine more
>head to the last room

>>43321749
>>examine scyth officer's corpse

>>43321907
>head to the last room
I guess the doc didn't have cell phone implants if he couldn't call Crusty from the closet.

>>43321907
>>head to the last room

>>43321907
>>try and examine more

>>43321957
>>43321995
>>43322020

You sidle up beside the door to the last room. You know two mantises are inside and that both are on high alert. If it was just one, you could probably shoot it down but two... you're running some risks.

You suppose you could just head back outside and grab the sniper rifle but you'd have to be careful to avoid injuring Jeremy.

>bust in, start shooting
>try and lure the mantises out into the hall by making noise and using your bait
>go out and use the sniper rifle
>write in

>>43322043
>>try and lure the mantises out into the hall by making noise and using your bait

We have smoke grenades, but mightn't those be bad for Jeremy?

>>43322043
>>try and lure the mantises out into the hall by making noise and using your bait
Hey Simmons prolly going to pass out soon but thanks for running.

>>43322128
>>43322140

Me too, Sleeps. With luck it'll be in front of the TV with a beer mug in hand.

Writing.

>>43322159
>>43322140
>>43322128

You lay down your bait in the hallway and snatch a picture of puppies running through a field from the wall.

Retreating into one of the offices, you hurl the framed picture down the hallway. Your natural arm carries it all the way to the end, where it smashes with force against the wall near the stairway.

This is apparently enough to attract Jeremy's two "guard dogs", who ram their way through the door and into the hallway. You hear them outside investigating. Finally, you hear the bait crunching and then a mantis body dropping to the ground.

You're about to leave cover from behind a doctor's desk when you hear scuttling again and a mantis bursts through the doorway to your hiding place.

>Roll to slay it! 3d6+3, Nerves to boost to kill it before it reaches you!

Rolled 3, 5, 6 + 3 = 17 (3d6 + 3)

>>43322262

Rolled 3, 3, 6 + 3 = 15 (3d6 + 3)

>>43322262
It begins!

Rolled 6, 1, 5 + 3 = 15 (3d6 + 3)

>>43322262
Let's hope we don't needa vet.

>>43322262
>Your natural arm
Is that a thing?

>>43322328
>>43322301
>>43322300

You've killed enough mantises by now that you're starting to get a good idea of how to hurt them. This particular specimen barely makes it past the doorway before you've put three bullets into its thorax and followed up with another two to the head while it struggled to keep moving forward.

The creatures abdomen explodes into another cloud of blue spores.

Out in the hallway, you find the other mantis sound asleep. Looks like only one of them took the bait while the other watched.. You'd forgotten how intelligent these creatures were.

The room the mantises emerged from is strewn with assorted body parts, mostly limbs and a few heads. Seems the mantises preferred sweet organ meat.

In the center of all the mess is Jeremy, laying comatose in his hospital bed and utterly unaware of the carnage that undoubtedly took place all around him. You detach him from various beeping machines, hoping none of them are too vital to his health.

Tired as you are, he is light in your arms.

>END THREAD

Sorry for the relative lightness of the thread tonight guys, I'll do better when we run tomorrow at 5pm est. Check the Twitter then for details; I should be more composed than today.

>>43322423

You have a throwing bonus and played baseball as a kid, like a good American. Sometimes I use the traits to make certain actions more effective or not require rolls.

>>43322457
Now we just gotta.

Uh.

Hunt down that escapee vet and either help him out or kill him so we can lie to Crusty about what went wrong.

Either way the building needs to be cleansed for evidence and biohazard reasons.

Also have to decontaminate Vince's hazmat suit somehow before he takes it off.

>>43322457
Side quest time?

>>43321749
So that Scyth must have died a longgg time ago.

And this guy just wandered upstairs to have fun scalpel-ing the cold corpse.

>>43319831
Then who was banging?

And when did it stop?

>>43322457
Should probably find Jeremy's filter mask before you go.

...oh fuck,what if the doctor was wearing it, and that's how he stayed sane and escaped.

oh I love me some arson. I wonder where the closest gas station is.

>>43322567
i thought i remember Simmons saying, if you guy are successful rescuing jeremy next thread, there'll be a sidequest you could go on, but I can't find where he said that.

Maybe I imagined it. I assumed it was a mantis quest.

Fuck.

We still have 8 termite queens in a cage in the van.

We can't let Jeremy infect something else. Somehow we gotta isolate things. Or just not turn in the queens to GEC for once. Take them home instead, or to Crusty.

Fucking Royals.

Oh hey, the thread is still here.

>>43324201
>>43322567

Sorry I didn't get to the sidequest today but it will trigger, no worries.

>>43323652

Putting on a mask that your patient was breathing his contaminants into would be a bad idea without a way to do a surefire sterilization.

>>43326577
I'm gaslighting myself, where did you first mention the side quest. I can't find it in the archives.

Which also still don't have this thread in them. You're the only one who can provide a proper thread summary you lazy sportsball watcher.

>>43326850

I decided you guys would have a sidequest around when you rolled those three seventeens. I had it written up before then but I was waiting for the right opportunity to engage it. You'll still have to seize the moment to make it happen but that's all.

I can't find it in the archive either but you must have heard it from me. Maybe it was on the Twitter.

Also the archive is up, I just didn't link like I usually do.

>>43326961
>deleting the tweet before this one
https://twitter.com/QMSimmons/status/657983112689905664
>deleting tweets
You're gonna drive people crazy like that.

>Tomorrow on Exterminator Quest: Rescuing Jeremy + a potential side quest if you succeed.

>>43326961
It wasn't up before though.