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[Devastator]

"Mmm, yeah, we won under Candentis, but we didn't have any good answers to the giant bug mage.  And we didn't get everyone out.  That was a close run battle.. it could have went either way.

Sure, I did get people under there, but I was asking them to fight.. and to die.  And some did.  If I'd been stronger, well, maybe I could have done it myself, and not needed dozens of people.  Maybe we wouldn't have had to collapse the cavern.  There was some interesting stuff under there, the farms, some magic items, whatever was inside the base.. I wish I'd gotten to explore it.  And the farms might have made things better for the city.  Things would have went better if I was more able to fight."

"I don't want to die.  Becoming a fighter though, isn't going to make me more likely to die.  It'll give me more options.  It'll make me... and us, safer.  Being able to fight doesn't mean you have to fight."

"Maybe it'd be different if you knew a fighter.  The fighter in our party, well, he didn't die.  He was the toughest of all of us, the safest.  And having him around made us all safer.  I'd like a fighter around, and well, why not me this time?  There were other parties around that had people change roles, and it didn't quite work that way for us, it's not unheard of."

"Well, if you feel it's the wrong choice.. maybe we can talk after I try it.  See if you like it, see how it works out.  If you're worried about me dying.. well, I can make this armour a lot better, too.  But in the end I don't see how being stronger and tougher is going to make it easier for me to die.  Quite the opposite seems to be true."

[syvarris]

Ekrov shakes his head quietly, still staring at his feet.

"That's... not it, but I don't know how to explain."

"...You're right, I guess.  About the changes themselves not bring dangerous.  You'll be safer if you're stronger, and tougher.  I just don't want you to do it because you want to throw yourself on a sword to save someone.  Maybe you could've saved everyone in Candentis alone, if you had been stronger, but then if you weren't strong enough then--"

Ekrov rubs his eyes with one hand, groaning quietly.  "Go ahead.  But don't think you're going to be the only fighter.  I'm not going to stop working on my armor, and these robots, and the weapons.  You don't need to fight alone."

[Devastator]

"That's good.  No, I won't send you away, and no, I won't refuse those robots.  They seem cool and useful."

"But yeah, I do think I'd like to be stronger.  I mean, I got Grow and Strengthen and Expand.. just from some random person who needed my help.  Maybe it was meant to be.  Maybe someone was telling me something."

[syvarris]

Ekrov nods, quietly thinking.  He sits there in silence for a minute, the conversation having awkwardly paused, before he quietly speaks up again.

"...You know, what is a god, anyway?  People worship Telcal as a god, but what has he done that's beyond the power of a mage at his apex?  We're 'just' mages, but a few days ago I created a living, thinking being, without even knowing what I was doing.  A little more work and she'd be just as human as you or I, maybe moreso, since we're mages.  I don't have the power to create a city of people like her, but we talked about creating a whole village, and that is within my power.  If not now, then soon.  What is there, really, that separates mages from gods, beyond scale?"

[Devastator]

"Mmm."

"You know, our party killed a god.  Or at least a big monster that called itself a god.  It was some kinda invader from somewhere else, I'm not quite sure exactly.  It didn't get along with the people near it, demanded it be worshipped, beat up some heroes and destroyed a few villages.  And picked some fights with some good monsters around, killed one or two of them when they tried to protect their people."

"So, no, I don't know what makes a god a god."

[syvarris]

Ekrov chuckles quietly.  "You know, that sounds crazy, and yet I believe you.  And you say you aren't special, haha..."

He yawns, stretching again, then finally stands back up.  He looks up at the monolithic ruins of Gravid, muttering quietly.  "Strange to think we have to leave tomorrow.  I feel like I've been here a lot longer than a month.  I've changed so much..."

He turns, gathering up his mess of papers and stuffing them into a bag, before pulling a heavy cloth over the robot.  Then he turns back to Saeko, smiling lightly.  "Thanks for coming to talk, it was... interesting, even though I feel less sure of things, now.  Well.  I'm sure it will work out.  And, as I've said before, I'll always be around to help you go back to normal, if you make any mistakes."

He pauses, clearly not wanting to leave, but having nothing else to say.  "...There's still a lot of work to do in the morning, and I'm already awake much too late.  Good night, Saeko."

[Devastator]

"Good night Ekrov."

"..And thanks for being here for me.  I'll ask you before making any changes."

[Naturegirl1999]

“Thank you. I’m Eve, I get mana by helping spirits. What would be a good indicator of which ones to help and which ones to leave alone?”

"We don't tend to deal with spirits much so can't give you that much advise on that front. I suggest you talk to the priests here to learn more, they are spirit experts. And maybe talk to a magebreaker sometime if you get the chance, they know how to deal with malicious spirits as well. But as a general tip, not smashing open mysterious urns you found in a sealed-off temple until you have an actual idea of what is in it, or at least making solid preparations to reseal it if it's nefarious before releasing it, would be a good start.

Oh, and while it possessed you that spirit killed some people. You might want to see if you can make amends for that. You may not be able to bring them back from the dead, but perhaps you can ensure no destitute widows or orphans are now left behind."

“Thank you. Do you have an idea how long I’ve been possessed for? I went here with an adventurer who mentioned a party coming in a couple days, but I don’t know how long I’ve been possessed. I’ll go to the priests soon. After getting information from them, I’m wondering if I could travel with you?”

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Eve
Appearance: 4 ft tall female human with long hear that constantly changes color. She always wears a long sleeve shirt and jeans. She has slightly tan skin and green eyes. most of her right arm is made of aluminum, from her hand to her forearm.
Magic path: Servant Sculptor
Mana: 1
Strength: d4
Speed: d8
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d10
Will: d8
Senses: d8

Ongoing effects: None

Items needed for current Sculpture

1. An arrow, caught mid flight.
2. A piece of Amber containing a living thing
3. A block of Lead
4. A compass
5. Solidified Smoke.

Spirit: A silver quiver with 2 arrows that looks like a rib cage
Spirit Task: Unknown
Inventory: Doctor's bag, Thick fur shirt d4, Thick fur leggings d4, ghost charm, 100 ft of string, a pry-bar, 9 gold’s worth of food and water, Idol of Flux, 15 gold, a silver quiver that looks like a rib cage, a bow, 2 silver arrows, a sweatshirt, a winter coat, a hat, a pair of gloves, winter boots, snow pants, 3 torches
Materials: Lightsilver, Silver, Stone, Water, Mercury, Erode, Channel

[syvarris]

Okay, last turn.  As a note, always hold an aristocrat and soldier key from now on.  The only real goal here is to get the thaumic plane thing out of the hangar, so that we have more lifting capacity.  I'm guessing we can't just open the hangar normally, so if Benedict fails to open it...

1.Know roll a solution.  Because that will be a better solution than whatever I can think of.

2.Failing that, destroy whatever locks the door in place, using small targeted banishes or Cloud transmutions (whichever is cheaper).  Hopefully, Benedict can then just force the door open.

3.Use Animate to make the door open itself.

4.If it would be reasonably possible, just open a big hole in the door large enough for the golem to escape from, by either banishing or cloud-transmuting a large segment of the hangar.

5.Contemplate just banishing the entire transport outside.  If it wouldn't be more than d12, somehow, just try it.

6. I've got nothing else.  If we can't get the transport out, then just settle with riding Benedict out.  I don't know if Benedict will even have spare weight, but if he does, the only heavy loot I want to grab consists of robots and golems.  Just tell me how many I can take.  If I *can* get the plane out, and is flyable and everything, see the below spoiler for loot priorities:

Spoiler: Loot (click to show/hide)

One fully assembled clockwork robot
The two golems from Gravid, a guide and maintenance
Whatever loot Saeko can't take due to Benedict being limited
The other three assembled clockwork robots
The other golem types from Gravid
A smaller complete fighter, if one can fit inside the transport--UNPOWERED.
The rest of the (incomplete) robots and golems, if this thing is actually massive.
Whatever loot we haven't grabbed?  I have no idea, loot has been Dev's thing...

7. As for the painting girl, we're leaving her in Gravid, saying that we'll come back to her within a month.  Possibly sooner.  In the meantime we want her to study the ruins more, try and learn more about them.  She can survive off the mana drain leeching the magicoal pile.  Zavi DOES NOT get to take her.

8. Use clockwork to change one of the assembled bots to have an AI that follows orders given to it in our language, but refuses to deal any notable damage to anything unless a specific order is used, and confirms the exact thing to be damaged in a very explicit manner.  It has no directive AI beyond following orders, and in the absence of them will just sit still and do nothing.  Leave this robot with Painting Saeko after powering it up and ensuring it isn't dangerous.  And, uh, remove or disable any weapons it has before powering it up the first time--I forget if they have built-in weapons, but no reason to turn on a potentially hostile killbot while its shotgun is loaded.

9. Leave with Saeko, obviously.  Flying the transport, if it's available.

Spoiler: creepy oracle kid (click to show/hide)

Name: Ekrov Trenian Vyachilad
Description: A noble's son, Ekrov is a boy on the cusp of adulthood, and barely looks it.  His hands are soft, his appearance somewhat unkempt, but his body has toughened from his time on the road.  He's no longer scrawny, though he's still somewhat short--though it's hard to tell whether that's due to age or genetics.  His eyes are calm and constantly look around in absentminded wonderment; he seems continually fascinated, but almost amused as well, as if there's a hidden joke in everything he sees.  He wears a clearly high-quality outfit, but to his credit it looks unusually practical for a noble, subdued brown in color and light aside from thin pieces of light leather in strategic locations, clearly intended more as protection than a fashion statement.  He carries a small backpack, and wears a light cloak that's had an absurd number of little pockets clumsily sewn into it.  He has a very large third eye in the center of his forehead.  It is rotated ninety degrees from his other eyes, and has a glittering gold iris set into an entirely black sclera.  It cannot turn to look at things without him moving his entire head, and is rock solid.  -  Additionally, he has visible veins of glowing magic patterned over his skin, slowly pulsing and flowing.  Mutation: He is quite flexible and springy, kinda like a Champion Yoga contortionist who might also be the illegitimate love child of a snake and a Slinky. In most contexts, this isn't apparent from looking at him, but if he wanted he could totally lick his own elbow...[/b]
Magic Path: Alchemist Sculptor
Mana: 94 (200 thaum carried)
Magic Words: "Animate", "Cloud", "Banish", "Iron", "Human", "Clockwork"

Stats:
Strength: d6-1
Speed: d6+2+1
Endurance: d10+4
Knowledge: d12+5
Will: d6+2
Senses: d12+3

Ongoing Effects:  Has animated a painting of Saeko into a fully existent, physical human.  Four? days of animation left.  d4 mana cost for every day after that.

Current Sculpture Materials:
1. Something of perfect roundness
2. Ash from the ruins of a city
3. Skin containing an old scar
4. A book
5. Honey
6. Something that came from beyond the skies

Inventory:
Backpack
Lightly armored traveling outfit (enchanted to d6, from d4)
--Wooden shield (+1 to armor rolls, most of the time)
Steel stilleto (d4 melee)
Merc Longsword (d6 Melee)
Ornamental spring pistol (d6 ranged) [6/6] (30 spare shots)
Alchemist gear
12 gold, 8 silver
Ash from the ruins of Gravid. (sculpture mat)
Text-metal linked to another piece of text-metal, carried by Saeko.
Gravid Aristocrat and Soldier keys.
35 (!) Clockwork mainsprings capable of powering full robots
Several small sculptures from Gravid. Idols, basically. Some ceramic jugs and gold jewelry as well.
Two golems from Gravid, one a guide, the other maintenance.  Description here.
Thaumic basin that creates water from mana.

A wearable robot exoskeleton, with all the mechanics moved to the exterior.
--Enchanted so that it can be worn, and the mechanical parts will follow the movements of the wearer.
--Plated with the silver anti-magic armor found in gravid, offering almost complete coverage.  Only joints are exposed.
Iron Teleport Rod, connected to another teleporter rod constructed deep inside the ruins of Gravid.  Anyone can use it to teleport between the two rods just by pumping mana into one.
FERROUS MEMENTO, THE MEMORY SKULL!
--Enchanted to only open when the correct passphrase is spoken to it.  Only Ekrov knows the passphrase.
--Enchanted so that Ekrov is always aware of its location and status.

: Link to description of thaumic transport planegolembugstatue thing.


Two broken clockwork robots, shoved in crates.  Details here,  here, and here.  And a question about rewriting their minds here.
Four fully assembled, but unpowered, combat robots.  A fifth has been mostly assembled but has some issue.  All are of the variety found in Gravid, and one assembled one has been left in Gravid.  _{Twelve incomplete bodies worth of parts left in Gravid, with maybe three more being buildable from scraps.}
A pair of strength-increasing clockwork gauntlets, which were clearly meant to be used by the robots, "seemingly for bending metal".
A strange blunt clockwork circular saw that is extremely effective at cutting through metal.
A  straight bladed clockwork sword, with a slot in the bottom for a power cell.  It is a lightning saber; when properly empowered, it will produce high heat and electrical discharge that will greatly enhance both its cutting power and the damage it causes.  It needs a power cell of the right size; which is basically a charged battery.
A large bag of bomblets, taken from an unexploded clockwork bomb.

Paints, a dish, sands, glitter, water, general scrying supplies.
Pencil + Paper.
Expensive medical supplies.

Sketches of:
Gyrotourbillon's workings
Benedict the Griffon
Detailed but incomplete schematics of clockwork robot people.
Clockwork machinegun schematics.
Simple clockwork tools schematics.
Schematic for a simple remotely-operated alchemist-gear manipulator thing.
Maps to the three caches of clockwork loot buried somewhere between Alkahest and Lake Candentis.
The design and construction for a full combat robot, of the kind found in Gravid.
The structure and enchantment framework of a flying thaumic warmachine, found within Gravid.  Incomplete, due to Ekrov's lack of understanding about how the machine knows what to do.
The structure and functioning of a thaumic rifle, found within Gravid.
Even more sketches on how complex thaumic devices work, in particular dealing with the spirits that animate them and give them some degree of life and sentience.
The full schematics of one of the "Clockwork dragons" that attacked the party at Gravid.
The design and function of thaumic keystones.
The design and function of Gravid's giant thaumic furnace.


TO-DO LIST:
MEMORY TINKER!!!

Clockwork stuff:
Fix a robot
Try to reverse engineer and understand those power pellet crucibles.
Fix the broken machine guns
Look into cloning machine gun ammo?  Probably not something we'll care about ever, but I wanna DAKKA...
Find out where all these clockwork things are coming from.  Apparently they might actually come from Candentis?

Make thaumic tools run on thaum, rather than mana or magicoal.

Cache A: The buried death pellet furnaces, both the unopened ones and the empty opened one.
Cache B: All the unexploded bombs from the wreck, including one that's been opened and had some of the bomblets taken out.
Cache C: The rest of the loot from the wreck, buried inside crates.  Contains:

"A large number of tools (These are what you could call mundane tools like wrenches, screw drivers, plyers, and the like. There are a lot of them in different sizes and shapes but none are hugely rare or valuable on their own. Though they are admittedly well made.)"
"A pnumatic self heating rivet gun and the air compressor for it"
"A sort of 'Jaws of Life' style combination spreader and cutter. Basically a massive pnumatic pair of plyers/snips."
"3 more working machine guns, and a half dozen that are broken in some way"  ((These deal "d12 [damage], if memory serves, though they often roll multiples."))
"About 10 or so big boxes of ammo (there are a lot of loose belts around so the amount isn't exact)"
"A welding system"

[Ozarck]

Sit down in the grass and pull out my shiny orb. attempt to use it to scry information on our superpredator friend. Hey, it's a magic crystal ball, right? That's how they work, right?

Spoiler: Current Felix Testimony (click to show/hide)

The Ascetic Ghost Shepherd

A thin, wiry guy. Hazel eyes. Black hair. Long fingers.

current status: fine
Stats
6 str 
6 spd 
10+1 End 
8 Know
10+1 Will 
4 sense

Mana: 68
Materials: Porcelain, Black Flux, Force, Toxin, Weapon, Break

Inventory:
Inhabited by a Spirit - a little shepherdess girl. Likes dolls. Adventurous.
Scarab ghost

Catamaran sailboat
Ghost Charm
Doctor's Kit

Lantern, 2x Rope, Backpack, 15 ft collapsible ladder
1 pet carrier
1 pet harness with leash
1 prybar

1 rolling horse toy
golden idol of some kind of crocodile god
1 kitten

shiny orb from the ruins on the lake (light blue glow. 3 mana invested. Additional mana (?) invested from magicoal)
haunted obsidian and wood knife (with cold, light metal box) Cursed, can't release until I kill a sapient. Can control spilled blood as if I had the Blood material
40 gold

[Naturegirl1999]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 Name: Eve
Appearance: 4 ft tall female human with long hear that constantly changes color. She always wears a long sleeve shirt and jeans. She has slightly tan skin and green eyes. most of her right arm is made of aluminum, from her hand to her forearm.
Magic path: Servant Sculptor
Mana: 1
Strength: d4
Speed: d8
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d10
Will: d8
Senses: d8

Ongoing effects: None

Items needed for current Sculpture

1. An arrow, caught mid flight.
2. A piece of Amber containing a living thing
3. A block of Lead
4. A compass
5. Solidified Smoke.

Spirit: A silver quiver with 2 arrows that looks like a rib cage
Spirit Task: Unknown
Inventory: Doctor's bag, Thick fur shirt d4, Thick fur leggings d4, ghost charm, 100 ft of string, a pry-bar, 9 gold’s worth of food and water, Idol of Flux, 15 gold, a silver quiver that looks like a rib cage, a bow, 2 silver arrows, a sweatshirt, a winter coat, a hat, a pair of gloves, winter boots, snow pants, 3 torches
Materials: Lightsilver, Silver, Stone, Water, Mercury, Erode, Channel

Go to the priests and ask them the following question about spirits
‘I am a Servant, I help spirits to gain mana. How will I know what spirits to help and what spirits to leave alone?”

[Egan_BW]

Claim some last loot from Gravid. Nothing of... historical importance, preferably nothing dangerous or that I would have difficulty selling. I just want to make some money from the time I spent here.

Spoiler: Zavi (click to show/hide)

Name: Zavirius En-Drani Haver, Painter
Appearance: A girl of unknown but apparently foreign descent. She claims to be the last surviving member of a long-dead ancient race, kept preserved in some kind of magical stasis, but this is likely untrue. Though her skin is a strange shade not normally seen on the continent, and her hair is bleached white with a slight green reflective tint. She is not very tall but stout like a dwarf and startlingly strong. She's wearing a red gambeson, gray pants, metal bracers, shin guards and a sallet helm. Her right bracer is cracked and splintered.
Mana: 34
Method: Flesh-Inscribed Channel
Materials: Lightweight, Explosion, Toxic, Lightning, Sunlight, Grand Lodestone, Slow, Human
Strength: d10+5
Speed: d8+4
Endurance: d8+5
Knowledge: d8+1
Will: d8+5
Senses: d6+3

Ongoing effects:
Permanently immune to nerve gas
D6 Force boosted energy attacks on left hand
D6 Force boosted energy attacks on right hand
Two additional arms (Growing, 4 days)
(Vultures, Crows, Condors, and other carrion birds are now constantly following you around, circling overhead. If you ever kill anyone or anything living they'll swoop down and start devouring the corpse immediately.)
(Your teeth are sharp, you grow an awful lot of body hair, and on nights with a full moon you have +3 to strength.)

Inventory:
160 Gold
14 Magicoal
Backpack
Tattoo kit
Paints and brushes
Medium Armor (d6)
Kite Shield (d6)
Long Sword (d6)
Catch Pole
3 Small Bombs
Manacles
1-mana/shot explosion powered rifle.
Cloak permanently enchanted to limit channeling to 10 mana/hour


Salt the Condor-Winged Baboon
Strength: d8
Speed: d8
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d4
Will: d4
Senses: d6

Small bag

[piecewise]

Well this is bad. whatever the crystals are supposed to protect against is probably beginning to overwhelm them. I need an information source!
Well what kind of stuff were the labs for at least? are there any operating records of the labs left behind? Did the labs have to negotiate with anyone in order to operate here? who did they have to report to? If I can't get firsthand information maybe I can get secondhand information or records or SOMETHING I can learn about the darn crystals? They're clearly reacting to SOMETHING but I have no clue what that is!
Stay alert to chances to learn from the local spirits.

Spoiler: Nina (click to show/hide)

Name: Nina Morellis
Appearance: A young, red-haired woman, green eyes, somewhat unkempt. She's had Adam for as long as she could remember, and has a bit of a reputation as a harmless nut. The town guard are okay with Nina though, occasionally getting her help keeping a mage secured by having her drain their mana so they can't cast. Since they don't have a proper magehunter available, having a local civilian channeler they can bring in as needed is a big help. And Nina tries to be on her best behavior with them to keep their relations good. Nina herself works as a healer, living out in the poor part of town, and has an erratic schedule based on the needs of those who want her help. so she has a lot of free time, but also gets woken up in the middle of the night a lot. add in Adam's occasional antics and she doesn't get to have a stable sleep schedule.

Magic Path: Channeler, Invoker.

Materials: Sound, Accelerate
Mana: 3

Strength: D4
Speed: D6
Endurance: D10
Knowledge: D8
Will: D10
Senses: D6

Inventory: 25 gold, a few sacks of food, 2 silver, aqua vitae, Backpack, padded cloak (D4 protection, Light armor), doctor's bag, walking stave, Lantern, Medicine backpack, The healer's handbook, Surgeon's Kit, Excorcist's kit, Doctor's Cloak.

Inhabited by a spirit which takes the form of a floating disembodied limb that constantly melts and reforms into other body parts. She calls it "Adam."

Cabal: None at this time.

The labs were used for all manner of things, mostly for golems and thaumic machinery though. You ask about operating records and are told that anything like that is still sealed in the buildings. The upper layers of the labs are open but lower layers were sealed off decades ago. That is apparently where most of the work was done and the original workers feared that the contents of the labs could be misused or cause harm over time. No one really knows much about the organizational structure of the labs, only that they apparently reported back to the capital.  You ask if this sort of thing has happened before and get an interesting response. Apparently, according to older residents, it has. It happens every 7-10 years apparently, though originally it was simply a kind of groaning from the crystals and has been getting more serious ever since.

This makes it seem like whatever the cause of this is, its not local...or at least not constant. Maybe a migration of some kind?

Wake up
“Where am I? What happened? Who are you?”

"Kaolin. You got possessed. We are the people who got you unpossessed. Try not to touch strange goop in the future if you can help it."

Alright. [8v5] This seems to be something of a weapons dump. There are other jars like this one buried under the encroaching dirt and grass.

Wait, weapons dump? I thought these were trapped guardian spirits or something. Were these spirits used as weapons in the past? How?

Check around to see if there were more bounties or similar placed for the blobdemon, if so claim them (don't go around shaking people down or anything, mind you).

Then go visit the temple to Alizarin and learn all I can about her, what she likes and dislikes, how to contact her, all that stuff. Also look up info about the sunbro staff, though don't mention to anyone we have it of course.

Oh, and related to that, do we have any idea why those people wanted the sunbro staff to remain separated so badly? Or at least an idea of who they were?

Spoiler: New and Improved Darwin Zeppeli (click to show/hide)

Name: Darwin Zeppeli
Appearance: An old medicine man.

Magic path: alchemist gut-reader
Strength: d4
Speed: d6->d8 + 1
Endurance: d6->d8 + 2
Knowledge: d10 + 1
Will: d8 + 2
Senses: d10 + 1

Mana: 26
2 bottles with 10 thaum each (20 total)
Ongoing effects: 'see through bing bong'

Magical materials

Vacuum!
Reanimate
Sharpen
Viscera
Diamond
Rope
Deathly Light (Radiation)

Inventory

1 sedated bugman

dissection knife: d4
Springy metal knive: d6
Springy metal sword: d6
Springy metal halberd: d8
Curved blade: d6
Icepick: d4
gun: d8 [50 rounds left]
10 smokebombs
thaumic bomb (currently empty)
6 x d8 rifle
6 x d8 sword

Ecalir's old armor: d8 (in use)
shield (+1 to protective rolls from armor)
Sealer Suit: d4 (vs magic)
Warm clothing

Alchemist’s Gear
232 gold 
7 silver
15 kg black biometal

A glass slab with a topographical map of the kingdom carved into it
a bottle of glowing blue sea water, inside protective box with lock
a glass orb with barely visible lotus inside of it, inside staff assembly.
magic coin
Small book
magic compass + map
Gimbal that points towards diamonds (range around 100 meter)
Sunbro scepter

book on normal plants and animals
book on magical plants and animals/creatures
handbook on making weapons&armor, including a list of known types
a detailed account of the Artifacter war
map of the old world
good quality book&pen
good history book
series of good maps of area around Alkahest and the volcano

Paradox snail (inside jar) and things to keep them happy and fed, linked to Ecalir
Extra pair of paradox snails
Doctor's bag
set of ingredients (plants, chemicals and the like) for making poisons or antidotes (21 uses left)
High quality backpack
donkey named Yvonne for carrying
Zomboraptor head
Lantern
several hundred feet of rope
climbing crampons
a grappling hook
iron stakes
net made of rope
several vials with imp fat
20 vials
2x Collapsible rod
10 oil flasks
300 feet of really big, thick, strong rope
100 feet of metal chain
box of metal spikes
pair of binoculars
4 boxes of rags
Medium armor: d6 (not in use)
2 sets of digging tools (for Darwin + Ecalir)
Extra digging tools (for hired workers)
tarps, paint, and other stuff we can use to camouflage things with
2 doses of fast-working anesthetic for knocking out humans
ghost charm
2 weeks of ration
a pair of prongs and a metal jar with a lid for capturing spirits

Weapons dump as in "Place where dangerous stuff we no longer need is dumped". These guardians are effectively weapons. They certainly can kill people.

[10v5] You find a few bounties. They aren't specifically for the blob, but judging by what they say, you think the blob was the actual cause. Missing people mostly.  You manage to get an extra 90 gold out of them.

The pertinent stuff you find is as follows:

1. Alizarin apparently looks like a big reptile, if her statues are anything to go by. What kind of reptile varies. The largest statue in her temple depicts her as an oddly sexual crocodile while others show her made of many snakes or as something resembling a reclining monitor lizard.

2. She is one of the daughters of Kal-Dune, long vanished God of Earth and Stone. Described as caring but aloof, and sometimes jealous. Ipecacuanha was apparently a temple city in the old days that was devoted to her. She was a bit more wild than your average forest goddess and rather preferred her domain to be a place where humans had to reshape their actions to survive instead of changing the world around them. Loved natives of her jungles and plains, be they animal or human, and was very suspicious of outsiders.She did enjoy freshly hunted meat, honey, and alcohol. 

3. Her staff was apparently something she granted to the head priest of Ipecacuanha, a fragment of what they refer to the "Dominion of Earth", apparently literal objects which held the powers of the absent Kal-Dune. Hers was called the "Dominion of Green" which held sway over all plants. It was stolen at some point in the past, apparently as part of some kind of attempted Coop. The Head Priest was killed, along with many others, and an attempt was made on Alizarin's life. It failed, but the staff and the Dominion were never recovered.

4. Apparently her existence is what maintains the plains as they are, full of all manner of beasts, including many that are supernatural. As a land its not terribly welcoming to humans and trying to farm or log it always results in death. Those who attempted the Coop were trying to take control of the area for their own desires.  As to what happened to the staff, thats unknown. Its possible they wanted to make another attempt now that Alizarin is far less of a presence than she once was.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 Name: Eve
Appearance: 4 ft tall female human with long hear that constantly changes color. She always wears a long sleeve shirt and jeans. She has slightly tan skin and green eyes. most of her right arm is made of aluminum, from her hand to her forearm.
Magic path: Servant Sculptor
Mana: 1
Strength: d4
Speed: d8
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d10
Will: d8
Senses: d8

Ongoing effects: None

Items needed for current Sculpture

1. An arrow, caught mid flight.
2. A piece of Amber containing a living thing
3. A block of Lead
4. A compass
5. Solidified Smoke.

Spirit: A silver quiver with 2 arrows that looks like a rib cage
Spirit Task: Unknown
Inventory: Doctor's bag, Thick fur shirt d4, Thick fur leggings d4, ghost charm, 100 ft of string, a pry-bar, 9 gold’s worth of food and water, Idol of Flux, 15 gold, a silver quiver that looks like a rib cage, a bow, 2 silver arrows, a sweatshirt, a winter coat, a hat, a pair of gloves, winter boots, snow pants, 3 torches
Materials: Lightsilver, Silver, Stone, Water, Mercury, Erode, Channel

Go to the priests and ask them the following question about spirits
‘I am a Servant, I help spirits to gain mana. How will I know what spirits to help and what spirits to leave alone?”

They say that spirits are effectively the offspring of gods, though distant in terms of lineage and power. Their nature varies as does the nature of a person. In general if you find a spirit that has been obviously intentionally imprisoned it is a good idea to leave it alone.

Sit down in the grass and pull out my shiny orb. attempt to use it to scry information on our superpredator friend. Hey, it's a magic crystal ball, right? That's how they work, right?

Spoiler: Current Felix Testimony (click to show/hide)

The Ascetic Ghost Shepherd

A thin, wiry guy. Hazel eyes. Black hair. Long fingers.

current status: fine
Stats
6 str 
6 spd 
10+1 End 
8 Know
10+1 Will 
4 sense

Mana: 68
Materials: Porcelain, Black Flux, Force, Toxin, Weapon, Break

Inventory:
Inhabited by a Spirit - a little shepherdess girl. Likes dolls. Adventurous.
Scarab ghost

Catamaran sailboat
Ghost Charm
Doctor's Kit

Lantern, 2x Rope, Backpack, 15 ft collapsible ladder
1 pet carrier
1 pet harness with leash
1 prybar

1 rolling horse toy
golden idol of some kind of crocodile god
1 kitten

shiny orb from the ruins on the lake (light blue glow. 3 mana invested. Additional mana (?) invested from magicoal)
haunted obsidian and wood knife (with cold, light metal box) Cursed, can't release until I kill a sapient. Can control spilled blood as if I had the Blood material
40 gold

[7v6] -6 mana

Hard to tell if the orb had anything to do with it or if you were just lucky, but your attempt to scry info out of thin air actually works to a degree. It is apparently somewhere in the larger building, contained in an item, and is using someone as a vessel right now. Not unlike your cursed knife but...quite a lot stronger.

Claim some last loot from Gravid. Nothing of... historical importance, preferably nothing dangerous or that I would have difficulty selling. I just want to make some money from the time I spent here.

Spoiler: Zavi (click to show/hide)

Name: Zavirius En-Drani Haver, Painter
Appearance: A girl of unknown but apparently foreign descent. She claims to be the last surviving member of a long-dead ancient race, kept preserved in some kind of magical stasis, but this is likely untrue. Though her skin is a strange shade not normally seen on the continent, and her hair is bleached white with a slight green reflective tint. She is not very tall but stout like a dwarf and startlingly strong. She's wearing a red gambeson, gray pants, metal bracers, shin guards and a sallet helm. Her right bracer is cracked and splintered.
Mana: 34
Method: Flesh-Inscribed Channel
Materials: Lightweight, Explosion, Toxic, Lightning, Sunlight, Grand Lodestone, Slow, Human
Strength: d10+5
Speed: d8+4
Endurance: d8+5
Knowledge: d8+1
Will: d8+5
Senses: d6+3

Ongoing effects:
Permanently immune to nerve gas
D6 Force boosted energy attacks on left hand
D6 Force boosted energy attacks on right hand
Two additional arms (Growing, 4 days)
(Vultures, Crows, Condors, and other carrion birds are now constantly following you around, circling overhead. If you ever kill anyone or anything living they'll swoop down and start devouring the corpse immediately.)
(Your teeth are sharp, you grow an awful lot of body hair, and on nights with a full moon you have +3 to strength.)

Inventory:
160 Gold
14 Magicoal
Backpack
Tattoo kit
Paints and brushes
Medium Armor (d6)
Kite Shield (d6)
Long Sword (d6)
Catch Pole
3 Small Bombs
Manacles
1-mana/shot explosion powered rifle.
Cloak permanently enchanted to limit channeling to 10 mana/hour


Salt the Condor-Winged Baboon
Strength: d8
Speed: d8
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d4
Will: d4
Senses: d6

Small bag

We'll say you gathered up 150 Gold worth of jewelry and other small, valuable objects.

Okay, last turn.  As a note, always hold an aristocrat and soldier key from now on.  The only real goal here is to get the thaumic plane thing out of the hangar, so that we have more lifting capacity.  I'm guessing we can't just open the hangar normally, so if Benedict fails to open it...

1.Know roll a solution.  Because that will be a better solution than whatever I can think of.

2.Failing that, destroy whatever locks the door in place, using small targeted banishes or Cloud transmutions (whichever is cheaper).  Hopefully, Benedict can then just force the door open.

3.Use Animate to make the door open itself.

4.If it would be reasonably possible, just open a big hole in the door large enough for the golem to escape from, by either banishing or cloud-transmuting a large segment of the hangar.

5.Contemplate just banishing the entire transport outside.  If it wouldn't be more than d12, somehow, just try it.

6. I've got nothing else.  If we can't get the transport out, then just settle with riding Benedict out.  I don't know if Benedict will even have spare weight, but if he does, the only heavy loot I want to grab consists of robots and golems.  Just tell me how many I can take.  If I *can* get the plane out, and is flyable and everything, see the below spoiler for loot priorities:

Spoiler: Loot (click to show/hide)

One fully assembled clockwork robot
The two golems from Gravid, a guide and maintenance
Whatever loot Saeko can't take due to Benedict being limited
The other three assembled clockwork robots
The other golem types from Gravid
A smaller complete fighter, if one can fit inside the transport--UNPOWERED.
The rest of the (incomplete) robots and golems, if this thing is actually massive.
Whatever loot we haven't grabbed?  I have no idea, loot has been Dev's thing...

7. As for the painting girl, we're leaving her in Gravid, saying that we'll come back to her within a month.  Possibly sooner.  In the meantime we want her to study the ruins more, try and learn more about them.  She can survive off the mana drain leeching the magicoal pile.  Zavi DOES NOT get to take her.

8. Use clockwork to change one of the assembled bots to have an AI that follows orders given to it in our language, but refuses to deal any notable damage to anything unless a specific order is used, and confirms the exact thing to be damaged in a very explicit manner.  It has no directive AI beyond following orders, and in the absence of them will just sit still and do nothing.  Leave this robot with Painting Saeko after powering it up and ensuring it isn't dangerous.  And, uh, remove or disable any weapons it has before powering it up the first time--I forget if they have built-in weapons, but no reason to turn on a potentially hostile killbot while its shotgun is loaded.

9. Leave with Saeko, obviously.  Flying the transport, if it's available.

Spoiler: creepy oracle kid (click to show/hide)

Name: Ekrov Trenian Vyachilad
Description: A noble's son, Ekrov is a boy on the cusp of adulthood, and barely looks it.  His hands are soft, his appearance somewhat unkempt, but his body has toughened from his time on the road.  He's no longer scrawny, though he's still somewhat short--though it's hard to tell whether that's due to age or genetics.  His eyes are calm and constantly look around in absentminded wonderment; he seems continually fascinated, but almost amused as well, as if there's a hidden joke in everything he sees.  He wears a clearly high-quality outfit, but to his credit it looks unusually practical for a noble, subdued brown in color and light aside from thin pieces of light leather in strategic locations, clearly intended more as protection than a fashion statement.  He carries a small backpack, and wears a light cloak that's had an absurd number of little pockets clumsily sewn into it.  He has a very large third eye in the center of his forehead.  It is rotated ninety degrees from his other eyes, and has a glittering gold iris set into an entirely black sclera.  It cannot turn to look at things without him moving his entire head, and is rock solid.  -  Additionally, he has visible veins of glowing magic patterned over his skin, slowly pulsing and flowing.  Mutation: He is quite flexible and springy, kinda like a Champion Yoga contortionist who might also be the illegitimate love child of a snake and a Slinky. In most contexts, this isn't apparent from looking at him, but if he wanted he could totally lick his own elbow...[/b]
Magic Path: Alchemist Sculptor
Mana: 94 (200 thaum carried)
Magic Words: "Animate", "Cloud", "Banish", "Iron", "Human", "Clockwork"

Stats:
Strength: d6-1
Speed: d6+2+1
Endurance: d10+4
Knowledge: d12+5
Will: d6+2
Senses: d12+3

Ongoing Effects:  Has animated a painting of Saeko into a fully existent, physical human.  Four? days of animation left.  d4 mana cost for every day after that.

Current Sculpture Materials:
1. Something of perfect roundness
2. Ash from the ruins of a city
3. Skin containing an old scar
4. A book
5. Honey
6. Something that came from beyond the skies

Inventory:
Backpack
Lightly armored traveling outfit (enchanted to d6, from d4)
--Wooden shield (+1 to armor rolls, most of the time)
Steel stilleto (d4 melee)
Merc Longsword (d6 Melee)
Ornamental spring pistol (d6 ranged) [6/6] (30 spare shots)
Alchemist gear
12 gold, 8 silver
Ash from the ruins of Gravid. (sculpture mat)
Text-metal linked to another piece of text-metal, carried by Saeko.
Gravid Aristocrat and Soldier keys.
35 (!) Clockwork mainsprings capable of powering full robots
Several small sculptures from Gravid. Idols, basically. Some ceramic jugs and gold jewelry as well.
Two golems from Gravid, one a guide, the other maintenance.  Description here.
Thaumic basin that creates water from mana.

A wearable robot exoskeleton, with all the mechanics moved to the exterior.
--Enchanted so that it can be worn, and the mechanical parts will follow the movements of the wearer.
--Plated with the silver anti-magic armor found in gravid, offering almost complete coverage.  Only joints are exposed.
Iron Teleport Rod, connected to another teleporter rod constructed deep inside the ruins of Gravid.  Anyone can use it to teleport between the two rods just by pumping mana into one.
FERROUS MEMENTO, THE MEMORY SKULL!
--Enchanted to only open when the correct passphrase is spoken to it.  Only Ekrov knows the passphrase.
--Enchanted so that Ekrov is always aware of its location and status.

: Link to description of thaumic transport planegolembugstatue thing.


Two broken clockwork robots, shoved in crates.  Details here,  here, and here.  And a question about rewriting their minds here.
Four fully assembled, but unpowered, combat robots.  A fifth has been mostly assembled but has some issue.  All are of the variety found in Gravid, and one assembled one has been left in Gravid.  _{Twelve incomplete bodies worth of parts left in Gravid, with maybe three more being buildable from scraps.}
A pair of strength-increasing clockwork gauntlets, which were clearly meant to be used by the robots, "seemingly for bending metal".
A strange blunt clockwork circular saw that is extremely effective at cutting through metal.
A  straight bladed clockwork sword, with a slot in the bottom for a power cell.  It is a lightning saber; when properly empowered, it will produce high heat and electrical discharge that will greatly enhance both its cutting power and the damage it causes.  It needs a power cell of the right size; which is basically a charged battery.
A large bag of bomblets, taken from an unexploded clockwork bomb.

Paints, a dish, sands, glitter, water, general scrying supplies.
Pencil + Paper.
Expensive medical supplies.

Sketches of:
Gyrotourbillon's workings
Benedict the Griffon
Detailed but incomplete schematics of clockwork robot people.
Clockwork machinegun schematics.
Simple clockwork tools schematics.
Schematic for a simple remotely-operated alchemist-gear manipulator thing.
Maps to the three caches of clockwork loot buried somewhere between Alkahest and Lake Candentis.
The design and construction for a full combat robot, of the kind found in Gravid.
The structure and enchantment framework of a flying thaumic warmachine, found within Gravid.  Incomplete, due to Ekrov's lack of understanding about how the machine knows what to do.
The structure and functioning of a thaumic rifle, found within Gravid.
Even more sketches on how complex thaumic devices work, in particular dealing with the spirits that animate them and give them some degree of life and sentience.
The full schematics of one of the "Clockwork dragons" that attacked the party at Gravid.
The design and function of thaumic keystones.
The design and function of Gravid's giant thaumic furnace.


TO-DO LIST:
MEMORY TINKER!!!

Clockwork stuff:
Fix a robot
Try to reverse engineer and understand those power pellet crucibles.
Fix the broken machine guns
Look into cloning machine gun ammo?  Probably not something we'll care about ever, but I wanna DAKKA...
Find out where all these clockwork things are coming from.  Apparently they might actually come from Candentis?

Make thaumic tools run on thaum, rather than mana or magicoal.

Cache A: The buried death pellet furnaces, both the unopened ones and the empty opened one.
Cache B: All the unexploded bombs from the wreck, including one that's been opened and had some of the bomblets taken out.
Cache C: The rest of the loot from the wreck, buried inside crates.  Contains:

"A large number of tools (These are what you could call mundane tools like wrenches, screw drivers, plyers, and the like. There are a lot of them in different sizes and shapes but none are hugely rare or valuable on their own. Though they are admittedly well made.)"
"A pnumatic self heating rivet gun and the air compressor for it"
"A sort of 'Jaws of Life' style combination spreader and cutter. Basically a massive pnumatic pair of plyers/snips."
"3 more working machine guns, and a half dozen that are broken in some way"  ((These deal "d12 [damage], if memory serves, though they often roll multiples."))
"About 10 or so big boxes of ammo (there are a lot of loose belts around so the amount isn't exact)"
"A welding system"

1. Using a chunk of magicoal for power and Benedict for muscle, you get the door to the hanger opened.  [-13 mana] Using banish you succeed on "Pushing" the plane out the doors and the spirit pilot lands it. You don't have to move it far for this to work, so its not terribly expensive. 
7. Okie Dokie, painting girl stays and learns.   
8. [1+5v1] Done. AI is a misnomer but this automata will do as you programmed it to.
9. Done. The transport is big so its gonna eat magicoal. For the trip back it will likely take a few pieces. Let me see if I can measure distances here... 260ish...lets call it 1 for every 50, or 5 for the flight.

Have Benedict pry open that hangar door.  If he can't manage it, try again after a temporary spell to help out.. a Strengthen Grow or just Strengthen to give him more size or muscle.

Ask Painting-Saeko if she'd like to feed the weakened spirits here with mana.  Leave behind one of the barrels of magicoal, and my ghost charm if she agrees to do so.  Give her a soldier's key.

Hide the advanced aristocrat and technician keys in some soldier-locked room.  I don't want to make it permanently impossible for them to be found by taking them away, and the important room to keep safe, the mana room, is secured through other methods.  Keep a second soldier key for myself, and stash at least one spare away somewhere outside where we can give written directions to.

Start loading him up with loot, along with the cargo moth if it should be successfully freed.  Here's the order with which to load him up:

15 of the 16 barrels of magicoal.  Leaving one behind for painting-saeko to feed to any dying spirits.
Minaturized core of the fighter-sparrow.
Hand retrieved gems and jewelry from two passes of the palace and the contents of the core room.
Gold serving dishes and other dining-room loot.
King's wardrobe from the core room.
Full body mirror
Gold wire and thaumic/non-thaumic manufacturing tools from the small laboratory in the core, as well as the gold-laying devices.
The two machine guns.
The special multi-bolt flower petal rifle.
Forty magic rifles, two giant rifles, and the exploding grenades.
All (16) of the force-field rods.
Twenty-four magic sabres
15 suits of the thin, lightweight magic armour
8 sets of silk clothing.
Unidentified manufacturing machinery from forge 8
The 10 pieces of minaturized furnature and art pieces from the Core room.  Do include, as the one not for sale, a statue of or a depiction of the Wind Goddess.

That should be about three or four tons, which is proabably about a fifth of Benedict's weight.

If you don't think it's too much, add on extra art pieces from the palace.

Then, lets go mount everyone up and head back towards the capital, expecting a three-day flight due to Benedict's heavy load, similar to the heavy load of food and water he carried on the way out.

Spoiler: Saeko Hirahara (click to show/hide)

Young Japanese woman with a long black braid and a white and red fitted robe with long gloves.  Clothing made of metallic thread.  Large elf ears.  Violet eyes that glow brightly.  Glowing like a chemical glowstick with a purplish-pinkish light.  Shark teeth and obligate carnivore.  Bleeds insects instead of blood.

Invoking Empath

Str  d4 +1
Speed  d8 +1
Endurance  d10+4
Knowledge  d8+2
Will  d10+3
Senses  d8 +2

Materials: d12 Ape, d12 Grow, d12 Strengthen, d12 Expand, d10 Permanent, d8 Bird, d6 Force, d4 Ice, d12 Contain
Location: Ruins of Gravid
Status: Fine.  Seriously enhanced hearing.  Magically lightened to about three-quarters weight.

Familiar.  "Benedict"  Cougar/red-tailed hawk, adequate flier, garage-sized with 120ish foot wingspan.
Natural weapons d10, d10+d6 with swooooop.  Eats 3 gold/day worth of food.  Properly harnessed and well kitted out for riding and baggage.

Str D20
Spd D6
End D12
Kno D4
Will D8
Sen D6

Expedition Status:
Saeko, Ekrov, Zavi.
3 guards, 2 in personal service.
3 assistants and workers.
Excavation tools and equipment.
3 days worth of supplies.
two working machine guns.
Key orbs: Soldier
Accessable locations: All of lower level of city ruins, save for king door.  Likely access to still-unexplored upper levels.

explored: Through soldier-locked door. leads to..
lower-level maintenance and utility areas.
Armoury
Crop rooms
Hangars
King door

Loot:
Palace gems and jewelry.
Gold cutlery and serving platters and dining room valuables.  Some porcelain plates.
8x suits of silk clothing.
8x suits of cotton clothing.
King's wardrobe
26x Thaumic sabres.
56x magic rifles
18x suits of magic armour
Broken magic armour bits.
Thaumic tools
Elements of Sparrow-fighter forge.  Maybe other construction tools.
3x Thaumic wire-laying tools
3x large gold wire spools
Crystal with d12 Cloth.
1x Miniature Fighter-Sparrow Core.
Advanced thaumic personal laboratory+workshop.
Decorated silver-backed iron mirror in gold frame with depictions of wind goddess.

3x deactivated golems
6x gold swirly orbs (explosives)
16x telescoping silver rods (portable force fields)
4x big mana rifles
1x rifle with flower petal rod

Art Pieces:
statue of harp-playing waifish girl.
very fine quality evocative bust.
10x miniature furniture pieces from core room.
Other art pieces from palace.  Normal size.

16 barrels of magicoal. 3d20+10 pieces each, each containing 3d20 mana.
first barrel has 13 chunks.

Items:
The Core to Gravid
Ghost Charm
Alchemist's Gear
Two machine guns! with lots of ammo.
25 mana
60 thaum
151 gold
d8+1 armour: The outfit, and a shield.  Weighs as if it were d4.
magic texting device.
parachute popsicle-stick.
Sealer-suit gloves
Shield.
Adamant Weave Backpack.  Contents are magically lightened via Lightweight spell.
Waterskin
Adamant Weave Cloth.  Sufficient for an outfit or two backpacks.
5kg steel rod
Compass
Goggles
Doctor's Bag
Gold-lined Sealer Suit Bag.
Surgical tools
Magic Spyglass
~200 gold value of gold and silver ingots and precious gems.

Jade tablets with d8 View, d10 Steel, and d10 Speed.
disassembled force-field rod with [Force D4] [Wall d12] and Permanent d10 (inserted into brain.)

Alchemy Supplies

Stashed:
Cable-wrapped steel lockbox with radioactive pellet inside.
Box of painting-golem

Businesses:
Large decrepit building in Galena.
Share in presumptive new Galena mine.

Notes: Improving physical stats with strengthen, d4->d6 is d6, d6->d8 is d12, d8->d10 is d20 or more.

1. Did it without a spell
2. She'll do her best
3. Alright (we'll assume Sy kept his as he wants)
4. Since the giant flier was successfully freed, you can get all that in. And the art pieces. And all the crew.
5.





Everyone piles into the flier, including Saeko and even Benedict; though he has to squeeze to fit. The majority of the flier is hollow, including most of the wings, while the entire head is the cockpit. Its divided into an upper and lower section, with the giant pair of compound eyes (along with an artfully incorperated transparent section between them) making up the windshield. The pilot chair is on the second level and centrally placed, while the rest of the cockpit holds various consoles and stations that appear to either not be functional or at least aren't working right now. Ekrov gives the machine the order to take off and points it in the direction of the capital. With these orders the flier raises itself up on 8 pairs of mechanical limbs and begins moving fowards. It runs in a sort of wave like motion, like a centipede, lifting the paired legs in tandem. It gives the run a forward and back rock, like a ship on the sea.  As it picks up speed the thaumic furnace, located at the bottom of the cockpit, begins to run even hotter. Nodes along the inside and outside of the machine glow faint purple and everyone inside feels lighter and lighter than before. With one last push the machine jumps into the air and suddenly rockets forward with a roar of air that scatters the sand beneath it and throws everyone back off their feet or presses them down in their seats.

The flier gains altitude with surprising speed, faster than Benedict could even unladen. The ground falls away and within seconds the windshield is nothing but a wall of clouds. The ascent becomes more shallow but doesn't stop and they breach the the clouds and continue up. The blue sky darkens above them, the horizon becoming a blurred line of earth and blue sky with star speckled darkness above. Finally the flier levels off and the acceleration halts. Here, in the hazy space between sky and stars, they find far more then they imagined. Hanging here, like motes of dust in a sunbeam,  is an entire country. A smear of floating islands many miles long, an archipeligo in the sky.  You can see buildings spread across these islands, smatterings of white and gray across black stone, and even buildings seemingly floating of their own accord, spiraling very slowly in place. There are ruins here as well, like those you saw below: Smashed chunks of architecture, remains of machines,  mummified bodies, and all manner of random objects afloat in nothing. But there is more as well. Destroyed mechanist warships, combat machines, clouds of oil and gears. And on those islands you can see movement; shining metal glinting as it churns and skitters miles away. Like a cancer some of those islands have great iron masses growing on them, machine hives buzzing with warships.

You see this all for maybe 3 or 4 minutes from a distance, before the flier dips and begins to descend. Within two hours of take off the flier is banking in a wide turn around Alkahest's Volcano, apparently looking for somewhere to land.

[Lenglon]

There is absolutely no way that the seals on the lower labs are perfect. given the amount of time that has passed I'd expect the homeless population to have ransacked them thoroughly unless they are actively guarded.
Inspect the seals on the lower labs. I REALLY have trouble buying that the seals have worked properly this entire time. maybe they've devloped holes, maybe they're bypassable, maybe they missed a spot, but there's no way they all still work. Also keep an eye out for the poor and desperate anywhere near the labs, having been one of them, I know what to look for, and I also know that they're generally more in touch with threats and resources than those with a more stable living situation.

Spoiler: Nina (click to show/hide)

Name: Nina Morellis
Appearance: A young, red-haired woman, green eyes, somewhat unkempt. She's had Adam for as long as she could remember, and has a bit of a reputation as a harmless nut. The town guard are okay with Nina though, occasionally getting her help keeping a mage secured by having her drain their mana so they can't cast. Since they don't have a proper magehunter available, having a local civilian channeler they can bring in as needed is a big help. And Nina tries to be on her best behavior with them to keep their relations good. Nina herself works as a healer, living out in the poor part of town, and has an erratic schedule based on the needs of those who want her help. so she has a lot of free time, but also gets woken up in the middle of the night a lot. add in Adam's occasional antics and she doesn't get to have a stable sleep schedule.

Magic Path: Channeler, Invoker.

Materials: Sound, Accelerate
Mana: 3

Strength: D4
Speed: D6
Endurance: D10
Knowledge: D8
Will: D10
Senses: D6

Inventory: 25 gold, a few sacks of food, 2 silver, aqua vitae, Backpack, padded cloak (D4 protection, Light armor), doctor's bag, walking stave, Lantern, Medicine backpack, The healer's handbook, Surgeon's Kit, Excorcist's kit, Doctor's Cloak.

Inhabited by a spirit which takes the form of a floating disembodied limb that constantly melts and reforms into other body parts. She calls it "Adam."

Cabal: None at this time.

[Devastator]

Woah

After we land I want to take Benedict, the core, and a barrel of magicoal up to visit the magebreaker who paid for the expedition.  The others can guard the loot until I can talk to the auctioneers and figure out where to keep the stuff.

Spoiler: Saeko Hirahara (click to show/hide)

Young Japanese woman with a long black braid and a white and red fitted robe with long gloves.  Clothing made of metallic thread.  Large elf ears.  Violet eyes that glow brightly.  Glowing like a chemical glowstick with a purplish-pinkish light.  Shark teeth and obligate carnivore.  Bleeds insects instead of blood.

Invoking Empath

Str  d4 +1
Speed  d8 +1
Endurance  d10+4
Knowledge  d8+2
Will  d10+3
Senses  d8 +2

Materials: d12 Ape, d12 Grow, d12 Strengthen, d12 Expand, d10 Permanent, d8 Bird, d6 Force, d4 Ice, d12 Contain
Location: Ruins of Gravid
Status: Fine.  Seriously enhanced hearing.  Magically lightened to about three-quarters weight.

Familiar.  "Benedict"  Cougar/red-tailed hawk, adequate flier, garage-sized with 120ish foot wingspan.
Natural weapons d10, d10+d6 with swooooop.  Eats 3 gold/day worth of food.  Properly harnessed and well kitted out for riding and baggage.

Str D20
Spd D6
End D12
Kno D4
Will D8
Sen D6

Expedition Complete.
7 guards and assistants.  2 permanent guards.

Loot:
Palace gems and jewelry.
Gold cutlery and serving platters and dining room valuables.  Some porcelain plates.
8x suits of silk clothing.
8x suits of cotton clothing.
King's wardrobe
24x Thaumic sabres.
40x magic rifles
18x suits of magic armour
Thaumic tools
Elements of Sparrow-fighter forge.  Maybe other construction tools.
3x Thaumic wire-laying tools
3x large gold wire spools
Crystal with d12 Cloth.
1x Miniature Fighter-Sparrow Core.
Advanced thaumic personal laboratory+workshop.
Decorated silver-backed iron mirror in gold frame with depictions of wind goddess.

6x gold swirly orbs (explosives)
16x telescoping silver rods (portable force fields)
2x big mana rifles
1x rifle with flower petal rod

Art Pieces:
statue of harp-playing waifish girl.
very fine quality evocative bust.
10x miniature furniture pieces from core room.
Other art pieces from palace.  Normal size.

15 barrels of magicoal. 3d20+10 pieces each, each containing 3d20 mana.
first barrel has 7 chunks.

Items:
The Core to Gravid
Alchemist's Gear
Two machine guns! with lots of ammo.
25 mana
60 thaum
151 gold
d8+1 armour: The outfit, and a shield.  Weighs as if it were d4.
magic texting device.
parachute popsicle-stick.
Sealer-suit gloves
Shield.
Adamant Weave Backpack.  Contents are magically lightened via Lightweight spell.
Waterskin
Adamant Weave Cloth.  Sufficient for an outfit or two backpacks.
5kg steel rod
Compass
Goggles
Doctor's Bag
Gold-lined Sealer Suit Bag.
Surgical tools
Magic Spyglass
~200 gold value of gold and silver ingots and precious gems.

Jade tablets with d8 View, d10 Steel, and d10 Speed.
disassembled force-field rod with [Force D4] Wall d12 and Permanent d10 (inserted into brain.)

Alchemy Supplies

Stashed:
Cable-wrapped steel lockbox with radioactive pellet inside.

Businesses:
Large decrepit building in Galena.
Share in presumptive new Galena mine.

Notes: Improving physical stats with strengthen, d4->d6 is d6, d6->d8 is d12, d8->d10 is d20 or more.