3-11: Swallow the Hook

Having fled to the edge of the Cannibal Plains to escape the acid rain, the gang makes camp, giving their wounded a chance to rest. It's a poor sort of camp with no shelter to keep one from being soaked to the bone but at least the rain here doesn't burn. From their little ad-hoc spot—one might say their port in a storm—they can gaze out upon the Floodlands to the south or up high ridges to their west, north, and east. The ridge to the east bears a promising sight, a tall circular building like the ancient lab the gang raided in Obedience. The arch bridge leading up to it is kinda cool-looking too. Jam and Horse decide to go scout it out while the others sleep off their injuries.

Before Jam and Horse even cross the bridge to the building, the game helpfully informs us that the gang has “Discovered Suspicious Lab”. Well, any engineer would agree it's suspicious just looking at the thing. It's leaning over the edge of the plateau—one of these days the whole thing's gonna topple right over into the Floodlands! Damn thing's an accident waiting to happen.

That's probably not what the game means by “suspicious” though. Plenty of buildings are crooked in Kenshi, even some in major settlements, and no one calls them suspicious. No, whatever's off about this place is probably inside. It warrants an investigation. Jam and Horse cross the bridge, careful not to misstep—half the original timbers of the bridge's surface are gone, the gaps somewhat covered with haphazardly laid scrap metal sheets. By the time they reach the lab's front door, the engineering remains the only suspicious thing they've spotted. Figuring in the worst case scenario they can probably outrun whatever's inside, they get low and creep on in to take a peek.

The ground floor is empty but for a trail of first aid kits, food, and tech bits: Painfully blatant adventurer bait leading up the ramp. Joke's on whoever laid this trap, though—Jam and Horse don't actually have to go upstairs to see what's up there. I just have to click the little arrow above where it says Floor 0 on the HUD.

At this point it's not really surprising that there's a bunch of cannibals camped up there. I mean, it's the Cannibal Plains. Thankfully, they don't hear Jam and Horse on the floor below. The two of them wouldn't win a fight against all these cannibals. The gang as a unit, though? They could win for sure. They're both stronger and more numerous since the last time they scrapped with cannibals.

By nightfall, everyone is rested up and has gathered just outside the lab. They're just about ready to charge in and start fighting when Shryke notices a lone traveller crossing the bridge toward them. She thinks they might be a cannibal hunter at first—they're wearing the same kind of chainmail hood the cannibal hunters wear and they've got a crossbow—but the rest of their gear doesn't look the part. They also seem to be dragging their left foot and their left arm is hanging limp. Shryke heads back out onto the ramshackle bridge to warn them away, careful not to put her foot in a hole in the dark.

The traveller turns out to be a tech hunter, a human woman named Erlile. There's no way to talk to her—no way of warning her away from the cannibal lab or even asking what she's up to. This is one of the few times looking at a character's listed Goal comes in handy: Hers is “Wandering trader”.

A character's Goal is something that's always visible in the character status part of the UI and just describes whatever they're doing at the moment. It's usually self-evident so I don't even think about it most of the time, but in this case, it answers the question of what the heck this tech hunter is doing here. She's an NPC that walks from settlement to settlement and spends money at shops, including shops in a player settlement near where they range.

As with any other character, wandering traders have to actually traverse the map to get where they're going, vulnerable to weather and hostile faction attacks on the way. Erlile here is pretty busted up, suggesting she recently had a runin with some cannibals somewhere around here. Her stats are higher than the gang's but not nearly as high as those of the skeleton they helped last page so I'd be a little surprised if she fought off an entire band on her own. She may have had some friends with her who didn't make it. Tech hunters in these parts do tend to travel in groups of three to five.

While Erlile is significantly wounded, she's not actively bleeding out—her wounds are all bandaged up. She must have a medkit on her. Her arm could use some splinting, though; Shryke fixes that up for her so she can actually use both arms if she ends up in another fight. Thankfully she actually stops walking while Shryke tends to her. Sometimes NPCs will just keep trundling on while you try to tend to them, repeatedly interrupting your attempts and making you repeatedly run ahead of them to bandage them bit by bit and making you question whether it's really worth it to try and help.

Unable to convince her to turn away, Shryke follows Erlile until the latter walks right into the Suspicious Lab, coming to a stop in the middle of the ground floor. Here, her Goal changes from “Wandering trader” to “Shopping”. With nowhere to shop, though, she just stands there. The gang waits for a bit to see if she'll realize there's no shopping to be done here and leave but no such luck. She keeps standing there. At least she isn't following the trail up the ramp to where the cannibals await.

When enough time passes that the gang is sure Erlile isn't going anywhere, they decide to start the fight with the cannibals. They don't want to endanger her but it is what it is. They're confident about their chances so at the very least, they're pretty sure they're not going to get her killed.

Silvershade runs up the ramp, makes some noise, and brings the entire cannibal encampment back down with them. The gang starts tearing into the cannibals and it's clear how far they've come—not a single member is knocked unconscious. I was expecting a couple of the newer members to go down but no, not even Beep. Erlile doesn't even get involved; she just keeps standing in her spot. The cannibals don't even try to go after her.

While most of the gang is silently pleased at how well the fight went for them, Beep is on another level.

Reaping the spoils of victory, the gang commandeers the cannibals' bedrolls on the second storey, giving the wounded a chance to rest. Shryke and Outlaw Hana find a couple crates to sit on, keeping a relaxed watch over the sleepers. Jam, Riddly, Burn, and Horse head up to the top floor to see if there's any good loot. There were a couple Ancient Science Books in the trail the cannibals had left out to lure adventurers—hopefully a sign of more to come.

The cannibals have filled the lab's top floor with their usual cages, piling the usual crates and safes in a corner out of the way. The gang gets to work rifling through them. There are a few more Ancient Science Books up here but not a lot of the tech and medical supplies usually found in these labs. Whether the cannibals used that stuff or threw it out, they've replaced it with a trove of gear. Presumably from their victims, there's a wardrobe's worth of clothing spanning the full range of quality, from a couple shirts that are basically falling apart to a Masterwork-grade armoured rag skirt.

Masterwork is the highest quality grade for armour and crossbows so that alone makes this an exceptional find. Armoured rag skirts are also pretty unique as far as leg armour goes. They boast melee damage resistance numbers that rival heavy armour without imparting heavy armour's huge pile of skill penalties, they impart a bonus to martial arts for some reason, and they're lighter than even some medium armour pants. The drawback is that they have no harpoon resistance whatsoever and they only have 60% leg coverage. This means that whenever you take a hit in the leg, there's only a 60% chance those fantastic resistances come into play. A true gambler's armour. I'll have to think a bit before deciding who to put it on.

While Burn sorts through the clothes and starts stuffing everything of even decent quality in their backpack, Horse opens up another crate to find a Specialist-grade left scout leg! He replaces his Standard-grade scout leg on the spot, immediately enjoying the Specialist-grade's improved running speed, ameliorated Stealth and Swimming penalties, and considerably tougher construction.

Soon after the looting crew finishes making the cannibals' ill-gotten gains their own, the wounded downstairs finish resting. With everything all packed up and everyone feeling good, it's about time for the gang to get going. The only question that remains is where exactly they should go.