Part 21: Fun with Annelids

Wow. Sorry for the long delay, people. I've been living in interesting times, but I will not let this LP die!

21: Fun with Annelids



When we left off, our party had just finished striking a deal with robo-pirate Lobo: if we help free his crew from the clutches of depraved boss-pirate Connor, he'll fly us anywhere on Septerra, no questions asked.

To do this, however, we need to sneak someone into Connor's fortress. We can do this by exploiting Connor's weakness for tattooed women: disguise Maya as a tattooed slave girl, sneak her and her equipment onto the next shipment of tribute to Connor (filed under "booty" and "plunder" respectively), and commence the ass-kicking.

Which means, first of all, we need tattoos.



Specifically, we need tattooes made from the blood of this thing, the Swamp Helgak. Apparently blowing it up and having a bucket handy isn't good enough; we need to make it docile, then extract the blood from it using leeches.



This means we need to drug it, and conveniently, just a few screens south of it is this plant.





Note that the helgak just sit there waiting for her to finish talking before they attack. They feed on fear.

In any case, now we have the drugs, but we still need the leeches. They're just around the corner in the East Marsh.



They aren't keen on being touched, but that's why we bought the meat earlier...



Well, now I've got some leeches.




Don't forget to feed the bird on the way out of East Marsh! Only three left!

There's one last problem to solve, though. We have the drugs, but how do we get the helgak to eat it? Those of you who remember last update may recall an NPC mentioning that swamp helgak crave the taste of mountain helgak eggs, so we're off to the mountains!



This snowy path can be reached from the mountain pirate base - go up the ramp near the west exit, and bear south.



It's infested with the Common or Asshole Helgak. Like Africanized Honeybees, the Asshole Helgak cannot be visually distinguished from the Domesticated Helgak; instead, you can tell it's an Asshole by the way it spams Berserk on your party. This screenshot was taken before any of the party members even had a chance to act.



The rest of the fight consists of me playing System Shock in another window while I wait for the RNG to settle the matter.



In the end, Araym is gunned down by Maya, who is in turn felled by Selina, bringing it to a one on one duel between Selina and the last helgak, which she wins...barely.



Halfway up the mountain is our goal.

It looks like it's protecting its nest...




It protects its nest by setting you on fire for a respectable amount of damage. Flame Barrier will all but negate that, but as it happens it's hardly necessary, given how little health the helgak has.





Summon Sedna cripples it, and Maya finishes it off in a hail of bullets.



Maya takes one egg, and considerately leaves the others behind as snacks for the predators that roam these hills.




Following the path all the way to the end leaves us in this hallway. Unfortunately, we can't get into the main room, but the barrel contains a Quick Light - an accessory that boosts Speed.



We've done everything we need to do here, but while we're here we might as well check out the north exit from the pirate base, too.



It's a fuel pump, but it's shut down.

Again, not much we can do here but loot the barrel for Knuckles (a Power-boosting accessory) and leave.



How to bleed a helgak



Step one, drill a hole in the mountain helgak egg and drain it.



Step two, stuff it with narcotics.



Step three, place it on the ground and stand back.




Well, that worked like a charm. It's asleep.
We use these creatures to bio-engineer our ships.



Step four, affix leeches.




Final step, remove leeches. Congratulations, you now have high-quality Swamp Helgak blood!



Now that we've upgraded our Leeches into Leeches (Bloated), it's time to turn those into tattooes!



You can have the blood, if you use some of it to give me a full body tattoo, like the slave girls have...
Doing some night work?
Mind your own business.
Well, just come on back, and we'll be done in no time.



The tattoos will go away in a few weeks.



I've got a disguise, Slave Girl tattooes.
You gonna use them to get inside Connor's base?
I'll get your crew back, and then we can get off this shell. Deal?
Hot damn.
Okay, here's a key to the ship port in Scumm town. It'll get you onto the right ship. Take this flare gun. When you get inside the base find a back door for us to get in, fire it into the air, and I'll fly to you. Got it?
Yeah.
We'll stash your weapons and equipment in some shipping crates, so make sure you find them as soon as you get inside. Now, choose who else, besides me, that you want me to bring along...

The vote was overwhelmingly for Team Robo-Carnage, so we're bringing everyone's favorite mobile siege weapon, Runner.



...good luck!
Thanks.




The key unlocks the loading docks, as promised, and the guard is already cool with us because we showed him the shipping manifest earlier.




Once on board, Maya steps behind some crates to hide her equipment and change into her disguise.



The shipping transport already holds an identical - right down to the dialogue portrait - girl.




The real slave girl flees.

I'll signal you when I've found a way in. I wonder how long this is going to take?


Turns out I had enough material for two short updates or one long one, and rather than leave the thread in limbo for even longer while I do the video editing for the second half, I decided to split it. (Also, considering how long this update took to appear, Maya's line was the perfect ending for it.) Next time: we beat down Connor and get our very own robot pirate army.