Are you sure? The job is not done yet. While the healer woman didn't do anything suspicious, I feel she was hiding something. Give me more time and I could figure out the truth behind her intentions. But if you want to pay me for an incomplete job, then so br it. It was one of the most boring wizard hunting jobs I jave ever had in my life. There was no wizard and there was no fight.
I really don't know what did he expect me to do in a single night. Tell him to give me more time to complete my job and be able to go under the lake. If they refuse, just go with them and get my payment. It's pretty much free money and mana for not doing anything. Make sure to express what I thought about the job.
I explicitly said I wanted to fight wizards and I neither got a fight or saw a wizard. The woman was just a simple healer and just wanted to go under the lake for some strange reason. Complete waste of time, really.
Name: Randolf Osborn
Appearance: Ugly as hell. Smells like rotten fish. Very brutish.
Magic path: Channeler Ascetic
Mana: 0
Strength: D6
Speed: D6
Endurance: D12
Knowledge: D4
Will: D12
Senses: D4
Ongoing effects:
Inventory:
Sealer Suit D4
Shield
Wooden Club D6
Backpack
Lantern
100 feet of rope
29 gold coins
4 silver coins
"No no, You misunderstand. Your job proper begins now! You must stay with the healer as we bring her under the lake to prevent her from...misbehaving. That is the fight, that is the job."
"Coming."
Collect my things, thank the room owner, and follow the messenger, so long as they avoid any dark alleys anyway.
You pack up your things and walk to the door only to find the way out blocked by one of those large, vaguely fishy fellows from earlier.
"Apologies little sister," he says, smiling as always, "Just working something out with an escort. Be ready in a moment."
Accept his offer of new customers, that sounds great and it's someone I could greatly help. Also, ask the bodyguards what they would like in terms of salary. Lastly, hug the disoriented friend when he starts coming around.
Saeko Hirahara
Japanese girl with a long black braid and a white and red dress with long gloves and stockings.
Invoking Empath
Str d4
Speed d8
Endurance d10
Knowledge d4
Will d10
Senses d8
Items:
9 Mana
103 coins (gold)
Backpack
100ft Rope
Waterskin
Compass
Hat
Sun Goggles
Light Armor: The outfit, naturally.
Materials: d12 Ape, d10 Sound.
Location: Crocus
You tell the man that his plan to bring in new customers would be fine and the two of you sit around and wait for his friend to come out of his stupor. He does, sometime around sunrise and you give him a hug as soon as he knows whats going on, getting 6 mana.
You ask the bodyguards what they want in terms of a standard salary and they say they want room and board plus 3 silver a day if they're settling in a place, or 1 gold a day on the road.
The man and his friend leave, with assurances they will bring that man and his child here soon.
Stay overnight in Plumbago, have hiijinks if any applicable, restock, move towards Perlatum, try and get a boat there. I don't really want to buy lead.
Name: Moghorn the Journeyman
Appearance: Fiftyish and very weathered. Moghorn spent his youth, adolescense, and adulthood travelling according to the voices in his head and the strange compulsions he felt. Then he stumbled across a magical spirit and gained magical powers.
Magic path: Servant Sculptor
Mana: 5
Strength: d6
Speed: d12
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d6
Will: d6
Senses: d8
Ongoing effects: Has a spirit in him
Needs:Some Black Flux (Fuel in Fearce, also naturally sourced), a lot Human blood, Alchemist's tools (just buy), A gallon of mercury (free near Pillars of Lead), Contained lightning (Fearce Battery), a fist sized crystal (Try science crystal before magic)
Inventory:
Lodestone
11 gold coins
Camping Gear
Five days of supplies
Mundane: Backpack, 100 feet of rope, Lantern
Great: Marsh Hog Leather Armour (d6 protection), Marsh Hog Bone crossbow (d6 ranged damage)
Grand: Spirit (Wants stone guide from the towers around Kaolin)
Cheap Alchemist's Tools, ample Black Flux urn, fist-sized raw crystal, fist-sized lightning battery.
Sculpture:
Flamethrower RodSculpture:
Bloodmagic GemMaterials: "Grand Lode Stone" or rare earth magnet in our terms
WaxCopperDirtFire
Snake
Black FluxBloodLightning
Crystal
Sharp
You stay the night at the inn but are woken sometime around dawn by the sound of shouting from out in the street. You go to the window to look out and see men with bandana's covering their face ransacking the bar and the mining office. Men from the town are shooting from the windows of buildings nearby and the masked men are firing back. As you watch a bullet punches through the thin wood wall about 6 inches to your left.
Did I get any Thaum from my work since my garbage disposal process was to alchemize the garbage?
Let's get 2 sheep for food and sacrificial purposes and see if I can find a butcher to drain them of blood for me and cut up the meat into suitable portions for my travels. If that would raise too much suspicion, slaughter them myself Also see about finding a place to prepare/preserve the meat for me so it'll last on my travels. And a place to make me some warm clothing out of the wool for my travels.
Name: Aurum
Appearance:
I am the alchemist.Magic path: Alchemist Sculptor
Mana: 3
Strength: d4
Speed: d8
Endurance: d10
Knowledge: d8
Will: d10
Senses: d4
Ongoing effects: None
Inventory: Magical Material (Grand Item)
Alchemist's Gear (Great Item) (Set up at home)
A drop of Thaum
Box of Glass Vials (Mundane Item)
Bug-goldman hourglass sculpture
25 Thaum
36 Gold
Backpack (Mundane Item)
4 Thaum.
You get two sheep and pay a butcher to slaughter them and preserve the meat for you. It takes about a week for him to smoke and salt the meat sufficiently to preserve it, so you spend the time making thread from the wool and knitting it into a nice warm shirt, pants, and full cloak. The butcher returns the meat and the jars of blood to you at the end of the week.
"Hmm. Stand back, I think this oil might be for illumination."
Try igniting the oil trough.
Name: Behiar the Scribe
Appearance: Green coveralls, blond hair in a bun, dark eyes and pale complexion. Adventure often leads to death and glory! Better than sitting around doing nothing, ehe.
Strength: d6
Speed: d6
Endurance: d4
Knowledge: d8
Will: d6
Senses: d6
Ongoing effects: Excited!
Inventory:
100 Coins
250 GP worth of Gems
Sturdy backpack
Oil lamp
Book & pen
Rock hammer (d6)
You tear a bit of paper from your book and light it from the lamp before throwing it into the trough. As soon as the fire touches the oil, the entire trough ignites into a bright yellow flame. The flame spreads down the length of the entire trough almost instantly, igniting a line of flame down the entire length of the walkway.
"Ecalir is always ready for such a dangerous and cunning plan!"
Go with Darwin's plan: "If Ecalir (or someone else) agrees to the plan, help by tying a rope to the pillar with one end and tying the other end around Ecalir to act as a safety. Then assist him on his way down if I can (eg by lowering a lantern on a different rope so he'll be less encumbered?)"
Name: Écalir Speedwagon
Appearance: barbarian, think Arnie from Conan the Barbarian
Magic path: Hunting flesh-scroll
Mana: 10
Strength: d10
Speed: d10
Endurance: d8
Knowledge: d4
Will: d6
Senses: d6
Ongoing effects:None
Inventory:
Backpack
100 feet of rope
Bandages
Tattoo Kit
Medium armour: d6 (damaged)
Quality weapon (Spear): d8
250g worth of gems
Tattoos:
Arm: "wood"
((Thanks for still giving us an update PW.))
((By the way, unrelated to anything, but I just realized something somewhat funny:
we have been on this cave adventure for about 200 days.
DIG, in its entirety, ran for about 160 days.))
"There are living things down there in the water. Olmen I think, about two dozen. They have structures as well, though it doesn't seem to be a village. I think we should try to make contact with them, though we'll probably want to let one of them come up to us to do the talking. Unless any of you happen to be able to breath underwater?
We could tie a rope to one of the pillars and have someone lower himself slowly to try and establish contact. Ecalir, you are the most dexterous among us, would you be up to it? Or we could lower me with you helping me to keep the rope stable."
If Ecalir (or someone else) agrees to the plan, help by tying a rope to the pillar with one end and tying the other end around Ecalir to act as a safety. Then assist him on his way down if I can (eg by lowering a lantern on a different rope so he'll be less encumbered?)
If not, think of a way we could attract the attention of the Olmen in a non-threatening way. Perhaps wave our lights around or throw some small stones into the water? Then do that.
If Rufus knows anything relevant here, like proper ways to greet them or whatever, be sure to ask.
Oh, and consider if that oil up that walkway is in any way valuable. Could it at least perhaps top off our lanterns?
((For reference, this is what we know about Olmen:
"Olmen," He says, inspecting the hand, "Blind cave salamander men. They use some sort of hardening rock paste to make those. Guides, I think. They might have a village around here, somewhere. It will be near water. They're clever little critters but not hostile, usually. Oh but cannibalism is a mark of respect for them so if they talk about how they're going to eat you, take it as a compliment not a threat."
Everyone relaxes and you ask Rufus about the Cave Salamanders, the Olmen.
He says that they speak several languages, depending on the one you meet. "They're old, you see. Not as a people, I mean, but as individuals. There's not much food down here you see so they take turns being awake. Like taking turns on watch but for years or decades at a time before they switch out. I don't know how big their actual population is but most of them speak dead languages, along with current ones, and I've heard tell they seem to have first hand knowledge of things hundreds of years in the past, maybe more.
They're a shrewd bunch; amiable and reasonably kind but survivalists at heart. You can trade with them; they like food and certain services that require sight, but they have no use for gold or treasure unless its practical. Biggest use I've ever found for them is that they'll freely trade in things like oil or abyssal whale oil. They have no use for it."
Name: Darwin Zeppeli
Appearance: An old medicine man.
Magic path: alchemist gut-reader
Strength: d4
Speed: d6
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d10
Will: d8
Senses: d10
Mana: 8
Ongoing effects: None
Magical materials- Vacuum!
- Reanimate
- Sharpen
- Viscera
- Diamond
InventoryWeapons
Armor
- Medium armor: d6
- Sealer Suit: d4 (vs magic)
Alchemist swag
- Alchemist’s Gear
- small amount of thaum
- 250 gold worth of precious gems
General adventurer crap
- Zomboraptor head
- Lantern
- several hundred feet of rope
- climbing crampons
- a grappling hook
- iron stakes
- net made of rope
Rufus tells you that more than likely the olmen down there are scavenging, they're not the owners of that place. Olmen aren't known for building things like this and would definitely have no use of a lighting trough like that. He tells you that they'll likely ghost you if they can, and so long as you don't do anything threatening they'll leave you be.
You get Eclair tied to the rope and the rope tied to a pillar. Its not the best set up, spike breaking drops and all, but better than plummeting hundreds of feet. You tie a lantern to the rope just above him and then help him abseil down the cliff face. Its difficult going, the wall is slick with water and his feet slip several times. Eventually though, he reaches the bottom and finds that the area right at the bottom around the cliff is a large pool of water, of indeterminate depth or size. He lowers himself in to try it but its deeper than his feet can reach. He can see the ruins down here much better, albeit still not perfectly clear. They look like stacked cubes, with walkways between them and staircases moving in sharp geometric paths up the piled mountain of cubes. He can still only make this all out via the glint of water on stone in the lantern light, the actual material and look of the city is too distant to make out.