Soothing Stacks

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Encounter Conditions

None

Initial Text

You wander through the stacks and there's… silence, as though there weren't another person in the entire world. You could see the experience as being claustrophobic, but it's rather soothing… especially considering how many of those people want to kill you.

Summary of Choices

1. Look for trouble - fight 2 Midgard Heavy Guards (Unarmed)
2. Explore quietly - fight 1 Midgard Heavy Guard (Unarmed) or with some condition unlock encounters
3. Do some reading - gain 3 XP in Perception
4. Take a rest - gain ?-34-? HP

Choice Text and Results

Look for trouble

You manage to find a guard wandering alone through the stacks.

(Fight Midgard Heavy Guard (Unarmed))

Or, at higher alert:

You find a guard wandering through the stacks, but find out too late that he's brought company.

(Fight 2 Midgard Heavy Guard (Unarmed))

Explore quietly

You carefully move through the stacks, but a guard somehow catches sight of you.

(Fight a Midgard Heavy Guard (unarmed))

With some condition?

Near the center of the vault, you find a cluster of guards. They're ducking into and out of a space walled in by bookshelves that they seem to have converted to a break room… or clubhouse, if you were being less forgiving.

It seems like every guard for the whole place is here right now, probably explaining the pause in patrols, but you might be able to sneak back later.

Or, with some condition?

Along one of the vault walls, you find rows of refrigerators. There are too many guards around to play with them now, but they wouldn't have devoted this much space to them unless they were storing a lot of something.

Or, with some condition?

Along one of the vault walls, you find a depressed niche covered with glass. There appears to be a skull inside of it, but you can't get closer without running headfirst into a guard patrol headed the opposite direction.

Or?:

Among the stacks, you find a power cable snaking along the floor. Following it, you find a sleeping computer.

Two heavily-armored guards are trying in vain in get Net access through it, but they probably can't stand there forever.

Or, with some condition?

You sneak your way through the vault, unseen and unheard. You don't find anything new, but it feels great to move through a heavily patrolled area like a shadow.

You've earned 4 XP in Will

Do some reading

You peer through the books and stacks of paper. They look as though they've been forgotten by time, many of them visibly yellowing and showing versions of the Midgard logo you don't even recognize.

You're sure there's some interesting information in there, but you'd need years to read it all and decades of training to understand it all.

You've earned 3 XP in Perception

Take a rest

You take the opportunity to find a nice spot under a bookshelf and rest. Between the silence and the smell of old paper, it's surprisingly restful.

You regain 34 hit points!