Still no Radio huh? Well, ok.
Travel downriver towards Mesothorium, intending to cross from there to Fearce. Take a humble berth on a transport boat. Once in Mesothorium, buy supplies sufficient to cross open country to Fearce, and a bit more besides. If anyone asks, I'm going to Terebinth. And if I see any fist sized crystals (quartz or rock salt or something) buy them.
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
25 gold coins, 5 silver
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)
Sculpture:
Flamethrower RodMaterials: "Grand Lode Stone" or rare earth magnet in our terms
Wax
Copper
Dirt
Fire
Snake
You pay 2 silver to ride a supply boat down to Mesothorium, searching for crystals as you do. The best you get, however, is a chunk of salt the size of your thumb that could only loosely be described as a crystal. Oh well. Once in Mesothorium you trade all your remaining silver and 1 gold for several days of food and drink, as well as the required gear for camping such as a bed roll. According to some maps you browse in a tool shop, it will take roughly 3 days to reach Fearce, so you buy 5 days worth of supplies.
Yell at people and organize a bucket brigade
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:
Extra Material
//
7 Mana
113 coins (gold)
//
Backpack
100ft Rope
Waterskin
Compass
Hat
Sun Goggles
Light Armor: The outfit, naturally.
Words: Sound d10, Ape d12
Location: Ens Veneris
You yell at the rest of the caravan, shouting at them until they groggily get up and help you. You're down the stairs and into the main room of the inn when you hear a terrible sound. Its as though a hurricane wind is being pushed through the eye of a needle; a whistling roar that rises violently in pitch until it is cut off by an explosion. You see, silhouetted against the fireball, the back wall of the inn explode inward towards you. Its only an instant, burned into your eyes, and then you're in the water, blasted out into the river. You find yourself down 15 feet in the water watching distorted flames play across the surface as a back lit arm, severed just above the shoulder, drifts down towards you trailing red haze.
"Thank you for all that you've told me, but I'm afraid I must go for now to arrange lodging for myself during the wait."Go leave, and begin wandering around town for a bit, checking in case they decide to trail me. I don't need to shake them if they are, I just want to know if they're there. I want to chat with Adam unobserved for a bit when I get the chance.
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
Mana: 5
Strength: D4
Speed: D6
Endurance: D10
Knowledge: D8
Will: D10
Senses: D6
Inventory: Backpack, padded cloak (D4 protection, Light armor), Lantern, doctor's bag, 4 silver.
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."
Location: Phaganeda, a town on top of lake Limus
Cabal: None at this time.
The priests, if thats what they'd call themselves, don't follow you. However, as you walk through town you get the feeling that every one is watching you. Not angrily but not with the sort of innocent curiosity that you would expect. Its almost as they they are expectant of something. You feel like an actress who forgot her lines, like there's something you need to say to them. But you also have the distinct feeling that anything you say to them will make its way back to the priests.
You slip into an alley when you get a moment of peace and start talking to Adam. he immediately whispers "THEY SAY HE LIES BUT IT IS THEY WHO LIE!"
Name: Behiar
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.
Magic path: Scribing?
Mana: Nope
Strength: d6
Speed: d6
Endurance: d4
Knowledge: d8
Will: d6
Senses: d4
Ongoing effects: None so far as I'm aware.
Inventory:
100 Coins
Sturdy backpack
Oil lamp (unlike the lantern on the doc, this does run out.)
Book & pen
What's that?! It's a character sheet! Half the stats! Half the items! None of the magic! Stuck in a dangerous cave with two fellas who DO have all that stuff! Ladies and Gents, it's a CHALLENGE RUN!
CHALLENGE MODE START.
Because these turns don't come very often, I'm gonna go ahead and ask a bunch of stuff. Feel free to refrain from answering all this at once, but I do want the answers to them all.
Firstly, describe the current situation I'm in.
Secondly, briefly describe how I ended up here.
Thirdly, give me a summery of who I am and my life.
Fourthly, describe the part of the world I'm in/where I come from.
Fifthly, tell me the naming conventions of this place so I can have an accurate last name. :V
You are currently in a cave with three other people, two of whom are Pan and Radio. They came and hired you and the fourth guy to help them search for some tablets or something. You got here by walking followed by a climb down into a flooded cave area. You followed an underground river, squeezed down a small hole, and climbed down a break down slope. Recently you climbed across the chasm that is just ahead but quickly climbed back because a giant invisible shrimp threatened to murder you and your friends.
You are a scribe who does cave exploration in her free time. You like adventure, find danger thrilling, and the current combination of both is causing your blooming attraction to Pan to accelerate into adrenaline fueled lust. Its probably a bad decision, but you don't really care.
Currently you're living in a town that makes most of its money by fishing relics out of the eternal whirlpools that flow around it. Oh and there's caves all over the place round here. You're part of the caving guild thats in town, though they're pretty underfunded.
"Of Glucinum" will probably do. Or "the Scribe"
((sorry about that))
In whispers, ask the guy just how bad of an idea dropping into that river is. After he's answered that, ask him if he thinks our chances of surviving ambushing that shrimp are any better than our chances surviving the river. I'd think not, but I'm not the expert here.
Also ask the girl what her gut feeling is about all this.
Name: Écalir Speedwagon
Appearance: barbarian, think Arnie from Conan the Barbarian
Magic path: Hunting flesh-scroll
Mana: 0
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
Quality weapon (Spear): d8
Tattoos:
Arm: "wood"
"I wouldn't recommend dropping" he says, "But climbing down is a fair idea. Just be aware that the chasm might end or change its nature abruptly."
"Oh." he says glancing into the darkness back towards the shrimp, " And keep in mind that that thing came up from there so there might be other nasty creatures waiting. If you see something strange, leave it be."
The girl has a look of utter and complete confusion on her face, as though she was suddenly dropped into this place with no memory of literally anything that came before it.
((Apologies, procrastination. Working on it now.))
Firstly, that group of people who hung around afterward--were they all natives, or were there Alkis mixed in?
Regardless of the answer, ask the man to show me around Zaffre, see the sights of this city. If he does so, engage him in friendly conversation while being shown around, talking about his life, not that I actually care about it. Just want to build some rapport.
Even if he doesn't guide me, I'm going to do some looking myself. My primary interest is in the local government, and whatever law enforcement exists--though that should be disguised from my guide. Is Zaffre directly ruled by Alkis, and protected by Mage Breakers? Or are the officials actually locals? Some combination?
Name:Zruril Zaszurs
Appearance: Zruril is a tall, middle-age man, with thinning gray hair and a calm, warm smile that never seems to leave his face. He wears heavy robes that look much like what a priest might wear, and a perceptive individual might notice the glint of a small handgun carefully hidden in their folds. He has the appearance of one from Litharge, which to most rural people makes him difficult to distinguish from a native of Alkahest.
Magic path: Empath Invoker
Mana: 0
Strength: 1d4
Speed: 1d8
Endurance: 1d4
Knowledge: 1d12
Will: 1d12+1
Senses: 1d4
Ongoing effects: None!
Inventory:
Heavy robes (d4 light armor)
Pocket springpistol (d6 ranged)
Magical gold coin (Powerful bound fire spell; unknown effect)
Jade bead necklace, inscribed with mystical mumbo-jumbo
321 gold coins
9 silver coins
Words:
Shrink (d6)
Light (d8)
Gas (d8)
Chemical (d10)
All natives as far as you could see.
The sights are hopelessly provincial and nothing you've not seen in your own travels around the town of course. However, your would be body guard seems to warm up to you a good deal with very little effort on your part. Given the opportunity to show off his town, he does so with gusto and mixes in personal stories about some places. You keep them in mind, for future manipulation.
The current government is a rag tag thing, mostly just a group of local "wise men" -really nothing more than respected old men with the most social standing- who are bossed around by the local Alki "lord", or rather his men. Really the place seems almost leaderless, with the wise men just settling disputes and wielding the power of local tradition. If there's a police force or any sort of law enforcement, its not immediately obvious. The men from the local lord are the closest thing but they really don't care as long as things don't influence their lord's ability to make money off the town. The locals seem to govern themselves via sort of impromptu mobs that dispense "justice" as they see fit. Of course, if things were to get unstable here, it might attract more meaningful attention. The mage breakers, however, could probably be avoided so long as no one used magic.