Tozol Quest
| Tozol Quest by TestPattern |
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- "This just proves you're really, really strong." "I don't... I don't feel very strong right now."
Tozol Quest is a quest by TestPattern taking place in a mysterious and seemingly abandoned science lab, featuring many mutated and bio-engineered creatures.
Tozol was TestPattern's attempt at a fast-moving quest. Although chapters 1 through 8 updated quickly, it has slowed greatly since then.
 This article contains spoilers! You were warned.
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Quest Summary
The quest stars a "Tozol" nicknamed "Penji" by suggesters but is code named and referred to as "Tethys" throughout the actual facility. Trapped in the base, known as "Quadrant Five" Penji has been doing her best to survive and discover exactly what she, and this place are. She is only one of the creatures that were apparently being monitored here, there were others known as 'Ophion', 'Nyx', and 'Phanes'.
Characters
Protagonists
Penji (Tethys)
The main character, possessing a wide variety of skills and extra pieces. Apparently has regenerative capabilities and an incredible amount of self-awareness, even able to detect objects in her body and control her healing. She suffers from complete amnesia but knows the names of objects and can use most tools. She is apparently considered exceedingly dangerous, as she started the quest plugged into a kill switch and under heavy sedation.
Mitzi Tibur (Nyx)
She identifies as human but seems to be another experiment as she has claws and barbed teeth. She is the sister of Ophion (real name Marcus) and initially was very violent against Penji. She is spliced with Valcien organs and is developing advanced shapeshifting and biological networking capabilities.
Allies
Marcus Tibur(Ophion)
"I used to be human. I'm a specimen now, like you."
Mitzi's brother. He appears to be the impetus behind this whole escape, in a very round-about way. He is also Valcien-spliced and may have much more control over his Valcien abilities than Mitzi does.
? (Hyperion)
*dead-eyed stare*
A captured and deeply crippled Tozol, built directly in to a high security restraint apparatus. Nothing is left of him but part of his torso, most of his head, and part of one arm; the rest is gone, and prevented from regenerating by extensive metallic restraints capping his anatomy.
Enemies
"You keep trying to get out, we'll keep putting munitions into you until you stop."
Harold Quillig, "the Magician"
"You're almost like a person. How disappointing."
He appears to be one of the foremost administrators and scientists of the project; arrogant, manipulative, and apparently enjoys flashy ties. He's securely hidden in a safe-room, watching us with contempt.
Operator
The voice on the other end of the line.
Radko
Radko is one of the Fifth Quadrant security people. He has a rocket launcher. The first time he was encountered, he launched a Displacer missile at us. The second time, he launched an incendiary missile. He won't get a third. (edit: he did) He taught us the value of remembering names, which is why this list is expanding.
Asher
Heavy machinegunner. Wounded during the invasion of the Fifth Quadrant security offices and armory.
Chapter Summary
Chapter 1: O Sleeper, Awake
In this chapter, Penji wakes up in a metal tube filled with an unknown liquid covered in what seemed to be iv's and an oxygen mask. Here suggesters learned a little about Penji, and gave her that nickname. Once she broke out of said metal tube, Penji proceeded to rip open a cabinet, where she obtained and used a bandage on the wounds acquired when she ripped out the iv's, which her skin had healed around.
Chapter 2: The Devil in Iron
Penji acquired a lab coat and a tazer from the newly opened cabinet, and starts to explore. After spotting a computer, she proceeded to mess with the buttons, however they proved to be unresponsive. She then noticed a keyhole, and used the key she found in the pocket of the lab coat on it, which caused a new panel to appear. Because the buttons were not labeled other than in numerical order, she decided to jam buttons until something happened. When pressing 4 resulted in one of the iv's that used to be in her to pump a liquid, she decided to check if the other metal tube was empty, which in retrospect, would have been a good idea to do before pressing all those buttons. Luckily, the tube turned out to be empty. Using the key card she found in the pocket of the lab coat, she opened a door to find a computer. She decided to check for information on the name "Qillig", which she found on the keycard,and looked for information on a "Tozol". Qilliq turned out to be a scientist interested in the Tozol, and the Tozol turned out to be her. Using the information on the computer, she also determined the combination of the safe, which had a gun, a key card, and an interesting scrap of paper.
Chapter 3: From What Hell Have You Crawled?
Penji finally leaves the room she had been imprisoned in. She finds a fusebox and manages to cut power, but restores it after she realizes she can't see in the dark. In a nearby room, she finds a human skeleton, presumably eaten away with acid. Further exploration yields a door control console, with which Penji unlocks an autopsy room. Penji finds a disturbing image of her own autopsy in there. Penji sits down in shock and doesn't want to think about it.
Chapter 4: Hall of The Dead
Penji leaves the autospy room as it is too much to deal with right now. She decides to open "Live Storage" instead. She heads first to "Lab Control" which is just a mess of blood and destruction. Cell 1 is empty. Cell 2 has a strange sleeping figure. Approaching carefully, Penji nudges the figure with her toe only to be bitten by the crazed monster! With a combination of a kick to the face and a tazer to the tits, Penji fights her assailant off.
The human-looking creature tells Penji she tastes like a poison called "Suppress". Having found "Counter-Suppress" elsewhere, Penji tosses the girl a syringe of it. She injects herself, and informs Penji that she's a human named Mitzi. Penji says that she's not human based on anatomy, but Mitzi doesn't respond. Penji goes outside and injects the counter-suppress, which triggers a lot of pain as well as countering some of the suppress in her system, allowing her to become aware of her microbiology. Penji decides to start repairing her damaged heart. Momentarily, a robot comes out of a nearby doorway.
Chapter 5: Old Machines
Penji goes into combat mode as the robot advances and then fires on her. She tries to dodge past the machine, but it grabs her ankle and begins slinging her around. She fires at the head, damaging a camera, and tears her foot free of the robotic arm. Shouted demands to turn off the robot meet no response. She pushes a tracking gun barrel away, but is met with a robot claw around her neck. Shooting the arm mechanism stops this problem, and she flips the robot on its side with raw power. She tears out the innards of the machine from the underside, ending the threat.
Chapter 6: Monsters
We return to Mitzi's cell and release her. She's hostile, but possibly just scared since Penji just flipped a tank. She says her brother Marcus is in Cell 3. She also says that she was the codename Nyx, and her brother was codename Ophion. Cell 3 has two corpses, neither identifiable as Marcus. One of them has no skin left. Mitzi is a bit sad as Marcus has either been killed or left her alone. Penji and Mitzi share an awkward hug.
Penji explores a "Specimen Testing" room, with more blood all over the wall, in front of a large mounted gun. Mitzi reappears, with some ragged clothing and some mutated bits. She's curt, mentioning that she and her brother were brought 'here' for genetic screen, injected with things, and now she can change her body. She doesn't remember much past the injection.
After some brief exploration, Penji loses it from the stupid voices in her head. She leaves Mitzi in the control room and heads elsewhere to calm down. She finds another gun and two injectors of counter-suppress, one of which Penji immediately uses. She also finds a backpack with Mitzi's math homework and silly journal in. Returning to Mitzi, the two make awkward conversation for a moment. Penji hands over the remaining counter and most of her tools while Mitzi works on opening the door out of this area. Penji rests in a chair and falls asleep.
Chapter 7: A Coin from Acheron
Penji finds a video recording of a mutated and mutilated Mitzi, who runs off in distress. There is lots of faffing with the Decon corridor until a lightly roasted Penji crowbars the door open. The other side contains a pristine break room with a toilet stall full of blood and a corpse. Penji arms up with a rifle, but it's missing its firing pin; plays tech support, but the computers have been bodged with the firing pins; and has an emergency-line phone conversation with a very calm voice which proceeds to tell her people are incoming within six hours to contain or kill the escapees. On the upside, at least her heart is fixed now. After a short discussion of what Penji is an her memories, she swears to Mitzi that she'll get them out of the facility or die trying.
Chapter 8: Totentanz
Two hours later, and Penji's body is well on its way to being whole with regards to countering the suppress inside her. She can now blind-sense to some extent, with the help of her wiry sense-tails. After spitting out the nanomachines in her blood while giving basic rifle training to Mitzi, they fire up the rigged method of opening the door out of this section.
Seeing a robot and hearing voices talking about letting the robot shoot freely, Penji leaps into action by shooting the robot to hell and charging down the hallway. She flips the robot while the humans freak the hell out. A brief but explosive firefight confirms Penji to be extremely dangerous. The remaining living human is quickly interrogated but doesn't reveal much. Penji speaks to the voice on the phone again. He's a little put out that we didn't tell him who we were before. He curtly informs Penji that she can't escape.
In the meantime, Mitzi has been interrogating the guard by methods of jamming her tentacle fingers into his brain. Penji lets slip that Mitzi was spliced with Valcien DNA, which plainly upsets the girl. Penji basically tells her to get over it and starts fitting armor. Mitzi learned a bit about the soldier through her tentacle-mind-meld, but nothing useful. Mitzi also gives some details about various aliens, but she's never heard of Tozols.
After an awkward kiss that neither of them really seemed to approve of, Penji and Mitzi head out into the facility.
Chapter 9: Interdiction
Mitzi hacks her way past a door, which immediately opens to an explosion, damaging one of Penji's tails. Shortly after, another trap fires, damaging another. Mitzi discovers a handprint lock on a door, but doesn't have time to hack it, as Penji hears troops approaching. The humans open fire immediately, and are much more prepared than the previous team. An extended firefight worries the humans enough that they load and fire a "displacer" which sounds like a final option. The weapon is too fast for Penji to shoot down, due to her suppress-flooded system, and impacts.
The structure in a sphere around Penji is completely gone. Penji, however, is not. For some reason, her equipment is also not affected, except for half of her LMG being gone. It seems that she projects and anti-displacer effect. The humans seem to think she is gone, however. Mitzi is very worried when she hears about the displacer. Penji grabs the evidence that she wasn't killed, and takes Mitzi with her as they duck into a nearby corridor. The killteam moves in, secure in the idea that Penji was successfully displaced.
Chapter 10: Blood of the Gods
Penji and Mitzi head down the corridor until faced with a few doors. Penji's acrobatics taking down a camera worry Mitzi, but the two have a slightly reassuring conversation and hug. After a moment, they continue to an area labeled "Records", where they manage to hack/access a computer and get a decent info dump on Tozols. They discover that three living Tozols were captured, one of those is dead, and the other is catatonic from decades of experimentation. Penji is horrified.
As she recovers, Mitzi manages to find some old Tozol field rations, which Penji consumes. Penji and Mitzi have a little chat about Tozol biology while Penji removes bullets from her flesh. Heading to Live Storage, they find a number of large, dangerous creatures, but don't bother them. Penji gets another dose of counter-suppress and injects it. They proceed to Stasis, and find dozens of stasis tanks, and one large one with a Valcien inside.
Removing the suppress feed and injecting some counter into it yields a conscious Valcien. Through hesitant tentacle-melding, Mitzi and the Valcien manage some form of communication. The Valcien is horrified at its situation, confused, scared, and depressed. It also despises Tozols. Shortly, however, it falls unconscious again from the suppress still in its system.
Penji comforts the shaken Mitzi, then heads off looking at the stasis chambers. She finds a human in one of them, labeled 'hostile contents', and naturally decides to tear the case open and inject it with anti-toxins to try to wake it. It promptly wakes and violently attacks her! It is fast, nearly invulnerable, and nearly as strong as Penji. A tense, brutal, and long fight later, Penji and Mitzi are injured, Penji losing an eye, and the assailant is dead. They set to escape again, with redoubled resolve.
Chapter 11: The Magician
Deep in the Biology sector of the facility, Penji and Mitzi confront Quillig, who is sequestered in a hardened office and talking to them via monitors. Quillig, who thinks Penji is a shapeshifted Marcus, taunts Penji and Mitzi for a while until Mitzi loses her shit and breaks the monitors. Penji and Mitzi spend a short time trying to break into the office until shit gets bad and the "jabberwocks"(silent, extremely dangerous beasts) are released. Penji gets battered by some jabberwocks but manages to escape with Mitzi as Mitzi loses confidence in Penji's decision making ability. Penji and Mitzi hide in a meat freezer until the bombs Marcus planted detonate, at which time Penji goes off to try to find some kind of weapon or tool to assist their escape. Mitzi gives Penji 30 minutes. Penji crawls through the air ducts until she reaches an artifact storage area, where she finds a tozol dropship. She recovers a tozol weapon(a "mercy-giver"), and proceeds to the adjacent room, where she acquires a helmet, two tozol anti-tank grenades, and the extremely valuable "Weasel Bar", a tool that can shift to various shapes depending on the job at hand. Penji receives a recorded message sent by Marcus, and finally has some clear direction on where to go.
Chapter 12: Determination
Penji returns to Mitzi, and makes up. They go over Marcus' message and also agree to work together again. Penji's data from the space ship appears to be a field manual 'for babies'. They go over it slightly, but don't have time to read it in full.
