>>5619547After a bit of tinkering, you finally manage to get one of the antiquated workstations to function, and begin plugging away at this pinnacle of Soviet computer science.
The goddamned Russian keyboard doesn’t do you any favors, but you soldier through it, eventually navigating through a few directories and discovering an encrypted set of files. Unfortunately, none of your cracking software is compatible with whatever bootleg OS this is running, which forces you to get creative and handle this old-school; by hand.
Archaic as it may be, the Ivans slapped some heavy-duty security on it, which only further enhances their value in your eyes. Nobody goes to that much trouble unless you’re protecting something that’s worth the extra mile.
Of course, right when you finally begin to start chipping your way through its protections, your meddling triggers some kind of alert that locks down your access to the terminal entirely.
You swear quietly to yourself and take a moment’s break to ease your rapidly mounting frustrations before you put your first through the damned screen.
While you do so, a chill runs up the back of your neck as your instincts begin to scream that you’re in danger; it doesn’t take long to identify the most likely source.
Standing at the entrance to the cavernous laboratory is a hulking mass of misshapen flesh and sinew, contorted into a set of dirty rags that may have once resembled a neatly pressed lab-coat. In some places, its skin is genuinely bulging at the seams like an overstuffed teddy bear. The face is somehow even worse, sporting a pair of soulless black eyes, and the kind of twisted visage that’d give a less hardened man nightmares.
There’s a beat of tense silence before it screams in the voices of a dozen men and charges towards you with reckless abandon, aiming to either skewer or trample you. Perhaps both. Its movements are quick and powerful, but uncoordinated. Almost like it’s unable to adjust fully to the veritable truckload of muscle mass that it’s hauling around.
You easily slide out of the way like a matador avoiding an angry bull. The only downside is that the creature crashes through the terminal you were working on, shattering it into little more than another broken relic of the Soviet empire.
While it’s open for an attack, your best move is to…
> Nail it with a flurry of Hex Bolts. It’ll be an excellent way to soften it up for the inevitable beatdown.> Use Kinetic Frenzy to get in close for a bit of CQC action. It can’t hurt you if it can’t hit you.> Summon the Blade of Flame and set it ablaze with several bursts of fire magic. You’ll risk torching the remnants of the outpost, but survival trumps all.> Bring out the Claw and lock up with it. Technique beats blind muscle, every day of the week.> Other? 