Space Station Zero Mission Four: The Darkened Hallway

"The Darkened Hallway" is a bit of a boring name for a level. Why not Hallway of Horror? Corridor of Consternation? Passage of Pain? Wait, that last one makes it sound like the crew went out for a vindaloo last night.

The crew stands at one end of a long, dark hallway, lit only by some dim red bulbs. There's nothing in it, no machines, no pallets, no enemies. At the far end they can see a door with a control panel next to it. Behind them is another control panel, but it's broken, with wires hanging out of it and sparks occasionally dropping from its damaged insides.

"It's a trap," says Packman.

"No shit, really?" replies DeeDee.

"Guys, knock it off," says Betty. She peers down the hallway, trying to spot anything that might be a danger. "Misloi, can you run a scan just to check?"

Misloi is silent for a few seconds.

"Fjrhkgf dmwfoaz nothing is registering," she says. "I cannot detect any lifeforms, whether biological or artificial."

"That makes a refreshing change," says Axon.

"OK. Now we've sorted that out, who wants to go first?" asks Globrik.

Vashtal gestures with his arm. "After you, little one..."

Thanks to his big mouth, Globbers gets to move up the hallway first. He moves four inches when suddenly a glowing red grid of lasers appears from one side of the corridor and begins to move to the other side!

"I bloody knew it!" shouts Packman.

Globrik's shoulders slump as the lasers move closer.

"Ah shit," he mutters.

Because Globrick moved, he has to take a Reaction Save 4. Globber's reaction stat is five, meaning he gets to roll five dice and needs four successes. He fails and takes two wounds. 

Not only that, the lasers shear through parts of the structure holding up the ceiling. Plastic and metal begin to fall around our heroes and each one must roll a single D12. A result of 9+ means they have to take a Movement Challenge 3 to dodge the beams and tiles falling down on them. Incredibly, not one of them rolls over a 9. They're all safe! For now.

As if a moving grid of lasers and a rain of metal wasn't enough, among the debris cascading from the ceiling are four large robots. They hit the floor with a resounding thud and immediately face the Muppets. Each one looks like it's seen better days; their once-blue paint is now mostly rust and grime. But there's nothing rusty about the large and frankly scary energy weapons they're carrying.

"I cannot detect any life forms," DeeDee says sarcastically while looking at Misloi.

The robots can only move 1" and have a combat stat of two. But because they're carrying energy weapons, they get +2 to their shooting. The first robot takes aim at Globrick and fires! It scores two hits and Globbers manages to roll four saves. The robots retain initiative and the second one fires at the diminutive engineer, getting one hit! Happily the little banana escapes the attack unscathed.

The action passes back to the Muppets. Globrick upgrades Vashtal's weapon, giving him nine dice, and he fires at one of the archaic robots. Five hits! The robot can only roll two dice to save and fails miserably, exploding in a shower of parts that join the other debris on the floor.

Another robot aims at Packman and misses completely! The fourth robot fires at Misloi, hitting her twice, but she rolls well and survives the onslaught of plasma.

DeeDee raises her pistol and fires at the nearest robot, scoring three hits and, thanks to it rolling a double-one, the robot collapses, its head blown clean off! 

With two robots left, one aims at Packman and hits him three times! Packman saves all three, and the final robot also fires at Packers because they apparently don't like yellow helmets. It manages one hit, but Packman easily saves and is fine.

It's Axon's turn to take aim. Misloi upgrades his weapon and nine fiery balls of plasma shoot down the corridor. Five of them find their target and the robot is toast!

The remaining robot fires at Globrick, scoring two hits. Globbers manages to cling to life with two successes from six dice. 

And now it's Betty's turn. She carefully takes aim, fires, and scores four hits. The robot completely fails its save and falls backwards into the rubble on the floor. All the robots are out!

"NOBODY MOVE!" commands Betty. "Just stay still. Globbers, are you OK?"

"Oh yeah, no problem at all," says Globrick. "I'm only bleeding from four orifices, the other eleven are fine, thanks for asking."

"So if I'm seeing this right," says Packman, "if we move those lasers will come back. Can we turn them off?"

"There's a control panel behind us," says Vashtal. "Is it for the lasers or the door?"

"I didn't need to use a panel when we came in here," says Packman.

"Kldntubn dgrtby logic would suggest that the panel is to be used to shut off the defensive grid," says Misloi.

"I cannot detect any-" DeeDee mutters before Betty cuts her off.

"Misloi! Packman! Get over to the panel and see if you can fix it," she says. 

"Ummm... and the lasers?" asks Packman.

"We'll just have to risk it."

Packman gets ready to run to the control panel.

"We?" he says under his breath.

Yes, the only two crew members left to activate are the two furthest from the panel. It doesn't matter though, as a move by any Muppet will set off the laser grid. Packman moves 5" and once again the red beams of death appear!

Packman makes his Reaction Save but only manages one even number, so he's down to two wounds! The other team members make their D12 rolls, with Globrik going first. He rolls a 10, and has to make a Movement Save 3, meaning he needs at least three successes from four dice. He only gets one and Globbo is down! And it gets worse for our heroes: Axon takes two wounds, Betty takes three, Vashtal two, Misloi two, and DeeDee one. Holy crap! 

It's Misloi's turn to move to the panel. She makes it but the grid sweeps across the hallway. Misloi fails her save and she's down! Rolling a D12 for each team member results in Betty being smacked in the head and collapsing, Packman dropping to one wound, DeeDee to two, and Axon and Vashtal emerging unharmed. This is not looking good for the Muppets!

Right now I daren't move anyone else, so I end Turn 2 by having DeeDee, Axon and Vashtal fire their weapons at nothing in particular. Welcome to Turn 3!

Packman is close enough to try shutting off the defensive lasers. I'd like to apologise for not making an actual bit of scenery for the panel, I just didn't get around to it, so I'm using a D6 to represent the six steps needed to switch off the grid. Packers rolls and gets two successes!

With Misloi down, the nearest crew member is DeeDee. She moves to the panel and the lasers again tear through the hallway. DeeDee fails her Reaction Save and drops to one wound but by some miracle Packman, Vashtal and Axon all pass their D12 rolls! 

DeeDee (whose red dice should be on 1 but I can't count) attempts to shut down the lasers. As an Ace Pilot she has a Reaction stat of 6 and gets three successes! Only one step in the procedure to go! 

Vashtal moves up to the panel. It's getting a bit crowded in Carnage Corner so he squeezes between DeeDee and an unconscious Misloi. Once again the lasers sweep the hallway and Vashtal takes a wound, dropping to one. Axon, DeeDee and Packman make their D12 rolls, and DeeDee succeeds whereas Packman and Axon fail and drop to one wound each. 

Vashtal has a Reaction stat of 3, and he needs one — ONE — even number from three dice to basically save the remaining crew members. His first roll is an 11, because of course it is, but his second is an 8! The laser grid powers down and the Muppets are safe!

Holy crap, that was close. But now I need to roll 2D12 to discover the fates of Globrik, Misloi and Betty. Globbs rolls 18; he's OK but will sit out the next mission as he needs to properly recover. Betty gets 14 and is back in action with no ill effects! Misloi, on the other hand, rolls 5 and despite recovering, all her stats are permanently reduced by one.

This game was over in a flash; I think it took about 25 minutes to play through, the shortest mission so far. I have to admit I thought the robots would put up more of a fight but then again I'm not complaining as they went out without doing too much damage to the Muppets. The lasers and the falling ceiling, on the other hand, were absolute buggers.

The main problem I had with this mission (although "problem" may be too strong a word) is the whole metagaming thing. In other words, I as the player know about the laser trap, the broken control panel and the robots, but the Muppets don't. So I have to work out a way of playing it where I'm not effectively cheating by using this knowledge to my advantage.

For example, I could just get around the laser trap by not having the team move. This is obviously bloody ridiculous as it would bring the entire game to an end, with all seven Muppets slowly starving to death. I decided to be realistic and have Globby move up the corridor because although they suspect something is going to happen (they've all seen enough horror movies to know that a seemingly empty corridor is going to have something lying in wait), they have no idea what it is or what might trigger it. The team standing still after the laser trap goes off for the first time is also the most realistic thing to do.

As for the broken control panel, having them think it's for the door they just passed through and then deducing that it must be for something else, and deducing from that that it controls the lasers, seemed the logical way to go. They might be Muppets but they're still space pirates and aren't totally dumb.

Vashtal looks around at his downed comrades, the rubble littering the floor and the remains of the robots.

"And this was just a corridor..." he says.

"Vash, Axon, give me a hand," says Packman, who's carrying Globrik down the corridor towards the exit. "We need to get out of here before something else happens."

Vashtal picks up Misloi, and Axon lifts Betty. With DeeDee keeping an eye out for any danger, the team makes its way down the hall, stepping over debris and bits of trashed robots.

Finally they make it to the door and go through. They're in a large, brightly lit room containing unidentifiable machinery and some shipping crates. Placing the wounded crew on the floor, the four conscious pirates take a breather.

Then the door slams shut behind them...

Next up: Pod 6!