Gettin' Moist, Part 3

The party leaves the Archive, eager to install the moisture crystal they've found and complete Ricardo's task.  As they backtrack across the desert, Vagabot remembers a small wooden hut nestled at the base of the mountain range.  Vagabot diverts off the path in an attempt to regain her memories, and the party follows her.  They approach the hut.  In front of their eyes, Vargas teleports onto the scene.  He gruffly greets the party with a simple "Hey assholes."  He tells Vagabot that she's going to want to look under the table in the hut, and calmly takes a seat on a stone wall.

The party cautiously approaches the hut, but their attention is turned when a familiar, annoying voice yells "HEY BUG!" from behind.  Grinner, the loudmouthed thug that the party had left dead in the streets of Dusttown, approaches the group from behind.  "Didn't we kill you already?" shouts Defendomax.  Grinner opens his shirt and reveals a turtle-like shell on his torso.  The shell is a noticeable improvement, considering that Professor Cuddlepunch clawed Grinner's soft underbelly open the last time they met.  Grinner displays his hideous smile as he tells the party that he's come to kill them all, and he's brought help to do it.  Four heavily armed thugs and one immense, four-armed brute arrive to back up Grinner.  Duke, ready to defeat Grinner for a third time, says "Bring it."  Vargas sighs heavily, cracks his knuckles, and says "I'll take the big one."

The party engages Grinner's crew with Vargas as their wingman.  Nyridius starts the battle on a good note by cracking Grinner open with a handy plasma rifle.  Grinner and his thugs attack forcefully, roughing up Duke and Defendomax.  The party looks to Vargas for assistance, but he's got his hands full with the heavy lumbering brute.

Vargas fires upon the brute repeatedly, but the lumbering simpleton grabs him and tries to crush him in a bear-hug.  Meanwhile, Nyridius turns the tide by immolating one thug and finishing off Grinner with a bizarre platypus-like forearm stinger mutation.  Grinner, filled with the stinger's poison, dies.  Duke smiles and moves to assist Vargas with the brute, who is quickly defeated.  Seeing that the brute is no longer a threat, Vargas leaves the party mid-battle.  The rest of the thugs are eliminated by Cuddlepunch and Vagabot.

Without any further distractions, the group enters the hut.  They find a simple space with a cot, a table, and some cans of food.  Vagabot follows Vargas' instructions and looks under the table, finding a video recorder. She presses play, which begins a video diary that Vagabot recorded before she lost her memory.  In the video, Vagabot says "I'm breaking into the Archive tomorrow.  I know why he wants me to do it, but that's not my main goal.  I'm going to steal the phase shifter, and use it to get rid of this damn crab-claw!  Then, finally, I will be perfect."  They search the hut further, and find the phase shifter.  Clearly displayed on the unit reads a warning label: "Warning!  Use of phase shifter will turn user into a nano-bot!"

Feeling that Vagabot used to be a much different person, the party resumes their trek to the tower, with the goal of completing their mission.