((Lenglon is not comfortable issuing commands to Randolf to take a large risk like this without his consent.))
Are there any volunteers for the *bait* role? I'm fairly certain that I'm not a member of the target demographic.
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: 3
Strength: D4
Speed: D6
Endurance: D10
Knowledge: D8
Will: D10
Senses: D6
(Locked up) Inventory: Backpack, padded cloak (D4 protection, Light armor), Lantern, doctor's bag, waterskin (air), hammer, 2 silver, air bladder, white robes, aqua vitae.
(current) Inventory: a red gambleson, gray pants, metal bracers, shin guards and a sallet helm (d6 armor). Other than that there is a kite shield (d6), a long sword (d6) and a catch pole, along with 3 small bombs and a pair of manacles.
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.
*yawn* Wow, that was some nap. Where were we?
Has any time passed? If not:
There was uh, whatshisname. That noble guy that I almost saved. Has he showed up anywhere? Them ghouls were prob'ly trying to replace him with a painting-man, maybe there's some way we could check if other nobles have been replaced like that before? People who we didn't know were missing but are.
Otherwise, you can probably tell from my vacant stare that I'm not much for this whole murder mystery detective thing.
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.
Mana: 56
Method: Flesh-Inscribed Channel
Materials: Lightweight, Explosion
Strength: d10+1
Speed: d6+1
Endurance: d6+2
Knowledge: d8+1
Will: d8+1
Senses: d6+1
Ongoing effects: Okay?
Inventory:
10 Gold
Medium Armor (d6)
Kite Shield (d6)
Long Sword (d6)
Catch Pole
3 Small Bombs
Manacles
Wooden Arm-Guards (d4 armor)
Hemp sack
Paints and brushes
Kukri (d6 weapon)
Square-tip machete
Needlessly ornate painting guardian sword
Jewelry box
Zavi, you're a new member of the mage breakers. You're young and presumably healthy. How would you like to be bait?
(the nobleman did show up by the way. They found him in some property related to one of the ghouls you killed).
If I can use the ladder as a bridge across the chasm, do that. It's half the reason I bought it. Then, once across, make a base camp, explore the immediate area, play with the kitty, and sleep.
The Ascetic Ghost Shepherd
A thin, wiry guy. Hazel eyes. Black hair. Long fingers.
current status: fine
Stats
6 str
6 spd
10 End
8 Know
10 Will
4 sense
Mana: 34
Materials: Porcelain, Black Flux, Force, Toxin
Inventory:
Inhabited by a Spirit - a little shepherdess girl. Likes dolls. Adventurous. (Current request: nothing. She tired)
Scarab ghost - Request: a religious relic that has been buried with the dead for some time)
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
1 kitten
shiny orb from the ruins on the lake (light blue glow. 3 mana invested.)
haunted obsidian and wood knife (with cold, light metal box)
29 gold
Using the rope you carefully lower the ladder and form a bridge across the ravine. You very carefully climb across and then check out the immediate area. The room your bridge reaches is basically just a corner of a room with nothing in it but a door along the longest remaining wall. That door leads to a hall, then another room but that room is partially collapsed. It seems like this structure is cut off from the other structures visible in the wall of the ravine. You'll have to climb out across the rock face to get to those.
You set up camp in this isolated section and let the cat out. It explores the little combination of rooms and, after giving some good examination to the ravine, seems to decide not to jump into it. You pull the ladder back across to secure this section and then sleep in the hall between the rooms.
Head back up then and look for something that floats and is preferably nearly the size of a buoy. If asked, reply that I found the obstruction and that I need something to pull it away from the boat.
Assuming I found a suitable object, attach my other rope to it and to the hand of the automaton, then use the mechanism to move it out of the way of the boat.
Also ask the merchants how similar the current route is compared to the ones they usually take.
Name: Robert Grant
Appearance: A stocky, tall man with black hair.
Magic path: Hunter Sculptor
Strength: d10+1
Speed: d6
Endurance: d8
Knowledge: d8
Will: d8
Senses: d4
Ongoing effects: Cut palm (treated), deep gash in the side (treated)
Mana: 3
Materials:
Shrink
Inventory:
War axe d8
Doctor's Bag
Leather armor d6
Bandages
Backpack
Lantern
223 gold
76 silver
Shield
Sword d6
Crossbow d6
20 crossbow bolts
Helmet d4
Leather gloves
Crowbar
Rope
Iron thread
8 lead weights (in storage)
Rifle d8 4/5
28 rifle rounds
2 single shot pistols d6
8 pistol rounds
Harness
200 feet of rope
3 wyrm scales
Using waterproof fabric, rope, and tar you manage to create a sort of tarp balloon. You use the remaining rope to attach it to the hand. That done you reach into the mechanism of the hand and fiddle until you manage to get the first joint of the finger to bend. Its not much, but its enough to free the ship.
Once you're back up and somewhat cleaned off you ask the merchants about their route. They say that this is roughly the same route but not exactly; they're having the captain seer further north than usual to avoid possible pirates.
The ship makes it to the far shore without any more trouble.
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: 0
Strength: d4
Speed: d8
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d10
Will: d8
Senses: d8
Ongoing effects: None
Items needed for current Sculpture
1. A smooth river rock: Acquired
2. A block of Ice: Not Acquired
3. About a half liter of mercury: Not Acquired May be found at Bromcresol
4. Silver Wire: Acquired
Spirit: None
Spirit Task: None
Inventory: Doctor's bag, Thick fur shirt D4, Thick fur leggings d4, ghost charm, Smooth river rock, 100 ft of string, a pry-bar, a spool of silver wire, 50 gold
Materials: lightsilver
Continue getting people out of the cave, whether injured or dazed, while being careful not to injure anyone any further while helping them out of the cave
You finish retrieving the last of the allied forces that are alive or will live. Anyone left in there is now either a hostage, a corpse, or someone rapidly becoming a corpse.
...Before we abandon the last of the corpses, look around for someone who's very dead, but whose skull is... retrievable, without too much cutting needed immediately. An unlucky clean decapitation without too much of the torso. If a convenient severed head is found, jam it into a bag where people won't be able to see it. If a decent ranged or melee weapon happens to be laying around, grab that too, but that's not at all a priority--just pick one up if noticed.
Otherwise, continue treating wounded people.
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 taken care of, and his bones slightly visible under his unmarred skin. He's scrawny, clearly having never done manual labor in his life, and somewhat short--though it's hard to tell whether that's due to age or genetics. His eyes are wide and constantly look around in absentminded wonderment; he's clearly out of his element in this, and gives off a tourist-y impression. 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.
Magic Path: Alchemist Sculptor
Mana: 6
Magic Words: "Animate"
Stats:
Strength: d4
Speed: d6
Endurance: d4
Knowledge: d12
Will: d6 (Buffed to d8)
Senses: d12
Ongoing Effects: None...?
Current Sculpture Materials:
1. Human skull
2. 10 lbs of pure iron
3. a piece of complex machinery; clockwork or similar.
4. a bottle of water collected directly from the a cloud.
5. The blood of someone who has fought off a possession with their own will
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)
Ornamental spring pistol (d6 ranged) [6/6] (30 spare shots)
Alchemist gear
24 gold, 8 silver (Saeko owes him 400 gold)
Paints, a dish, sands, glitter, water, general scrying supplies.
Pencil + Paper.
Expensive medical supplies.
Sketches of:
Gyrotourbillon's workings
Benedict the Griffon
Ekrov runs back out onto the killing field and looks around. He runs over to a body and kneels down with his back to everyone. The body is that of a man, though there's nothing left of it except the torso and head; it was cut off at about nipple height. However, importantly, there is a sword next to it. Ekrov knows enough anatomy to lay the sword between the vertebrae and, using the sword like a paper cutter, sever the head just below the chin. He quickly stuffs the head into his bag and grabs the sword, wiping the blood off storing it in his belt. He runs back to the cave and starts providing aid to those still needing attention.
Defaults for Darwin and Eclaire:
Give the rope orders to gather up people from inside the building and carry them out here. Catch them as they come down in the low gravity. Get ready to retreat up to the surface, via teleport-book. Make sure to not be standing next to the bomb.
(Talked this over with Dev on IRC. changing things)
Using the rope and a gratuitous amount of running, Darwin and Eclair (but mostly Eclair) manage to gather up at least 60 people from the area around them. They run the still dazed people, along with their own mercs, back to the cave Entrance that everyone else is currently using.
"Well.. Get on with it, then.. I want to get as many of these people out as possible before you do it."
Let the magebreakers get started on whatever they need to collapse the cavern. Get as many rescued people out as possible. Keep count of everyone so we can make sure everyone who leaves makes it up. Give the amulets to the guys at the cavern exit, so they can use them on two people who need them.
Japanese girl with a long black braid and a white and red fitted robe with long gloves. Eyes currently shimmering with energy. Clothing is slightly dull in colour and made of metallic thread. Pointy, somewhat elfish ears. Burnt off eyebrows from spell failure. Missing fingernails on right hand.
Invoking Empath
Str d6
Speed d8
Endurance d10+1
Knowledge d6+1
Will d10+1
Senses d10, temporary. d8 base
Materials: d12 Ape, d12 Grow, d12 Strengthen, d12 Expand, d8 View, d10 Steel, and d10 Speed.
Location: Lunare
Status: Fine. Burn scars on arms. Missing fingernails on right hand. Slightly enhanced hearing.
Temporary Effects: Buff pill. (Will, Awakeness) (Super-eyes, d10 senses, 1hr)
Items:
Carried:
10 mana
33 gold
d8+1 armour: The outfit, naturally, and a shield. Weighs as if it were d6
Shield.
Backpack
Waterskin
Compass
Goggles
Surgical tools
100 feet of rope
Magic Spyglass
Two amulets with week-long d6 endurance-boosting effects. Intended to help heal maltreatment, exhaustion, and restore some health to abused, dying people, to make them more likely to survive.
Jade tablets with d8 View, d10 Steel, and d10 Speed.
Left Behind:
Black metal scrap
Steel scraps
Cable-wrapped metal box of happiness.
Box of painting-golem
Familiar. "Benedict" Cougar/red-tailed hawk, adequate flyer, elephant-sized with 60+ foot wingspan.
Natural weapons d6, d8 with swooooop.
Buffed with buff pill, d8 Strengthen Ape mind bouncer.
Steel Helmet. 1d4 armour?
Str D12
Spd D8
End D12
Kno D4
Will D8
Sen D6
[Fanciful]
Notes: Improving physical stats with strengthen, d4->d6 is d6, d6->d8 is d12, d8->d10 is d20 or more.
Mental stats are possible, but harder or more complicated.
You start giving orders to evacuate the injured and take some people back into the cave with you, grabbing any hostages you can see and sending them back towards the cave. You think you get 20 or so of the hostages back to the cave but its slower going without just mass capturing them like Darwin.
The mage breakers seem to be helping with the evacuation. Everyone who can move is already a fair deal away while others are helping the injured. Its going to be a bit before the injured are a safe distance up into the mine. Somewhere in the tower you can hear something thrashing around and the entire structure is shaking, throwing off bits of material and dust.