Climb back up to the sword, once back up there lie down and repeatedly stab the Ray with the sword. Should it look like the Ray is going to attempt shaking me off while I'm still climbing, stop climbing and fire at a wing with my crossbow.
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
Iron thread
8 lead weights
Harness
200 feet of rope
3 wyrm scales
Rented beetle mount (50 gold deposit)
[6v2]
You turn around, getting on your belly, and crawl back up to the sword as the thing banks hard to the left. You pull the sword free and start stabbing repeatedly. However, the creature doesn't seem to be weakening. Its so massive that your sword blows are probably not reaching anything vital: Like trying to kill a man with a needle. You need a better target, a place where the blow will matter.
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: 9
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
“Glad I could help, even if it’s not direct combat, I still was able to help make a camp for the long trek back to town. I’m headed to Bromcresol for mercury, if anyone else is headed there, we could travel together
Head to Bromcresol
Bromcresol is a pretty good ways away, and through the wastelands where there are no rivers and little to no food. You could go there by the roads, though it would be a significantly longer trek, or try to go straight there through the wastelands. The straight path is faster but has a chance to get lost and a greater chance to encounter things. In either case it might be good to stock up a bit on supplies before you go, else you maybe die of dehydration on the way. You could get a couple days worth of food and water for 1 gold.
There's really only one obvious course of action here: go someplace private and stab myself with the curse knife. I am attempting to gain the material [curse]. Failing that, [sharp] or [stabby] will do.
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. 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 hte Blood material
40 gold (29 +15 - 4)
[1v7]
Your first attempt to stab yourself results in what amounts to a minor chickening out. You only jab yourself with the tip and barely do anything. You steel yourself and try again.
[6v6]
This time you get a good stab. Almost too good. You sink the knife straight into your leg, driving the point straight into the femur. For a moment it doesn't hurt so bad but the pain builds quickly and trying to remove it only hurts more. Blood pours in a slow stream down your leg; not fatal or anything but still surprisingly voluminous.
[Word gained: Weapon]
We will gratefully accept the black biometal as our reward. After thanking them, go over to Darwin and give the biometal to him for safekeeping. Then just stick by him and strike some poses, it's been a while.
Name: Écalir Speedwagon
Appearance: barbarian, think Arnie from Conan the Barbarian
Magic path: Hunting flesh-scroll
Strength: d10+2
Speed: d10+1
Endurance: d8+1
Knowledge: d4
Will: d6+1
Senses: d6+1
Mana: 25
Ongoing effects:None
Magical materialsleft Arm: wood
Right arm: Insect
Stomach: Strong acid
Chest: White Phosphorous
Left buttcheek: Electricity
Right buttcheek: Lightning
left leg: multiply
InventoryMare's Leg: Lever Action, d8, 5/5 magazine, 45 spare bullets.
Quality weapon (Spear): d8
Longsword with glowing runes
Springy metal warpick: d8
Springy metal knive: d6
Springy metal sword: d6
9 smokebombs
Thaumic flamethrower (5/50 thaum tank, d10 str requirement, armored fuel tank) + extra canisters with compressed gas
Poncho
Sombrero
Fitted armor: d8
Sealer Suit: d4 vs magic
Shield (+1 to protective rolls from armor)
Backpack
100 feet of rope
Bandages
Tattoo Kit
199g worth of gems
doctor's bag
Gladiator Badge
Jade tablets (48-number of words)
binoculars
9 gold in supplies. Please inform us when we're about at half of these, so we'll know when to get more?
Learn whatever I can about the bugman without dissecting it or damaging it.
Mercs still paid for?
Name: Darwin Zeppeli
Appearance: An old medicine man.
Magic path: alchemist gut-reader
Strength: d4
Speed: d6->d8
Endurance: d6->d8
Knowledge: d10
Will: d8
Senses: d10
Mana: 7
10 thaum in bottle
Ongoing effects: None
Magical materialsVacuum!
Reanimate
Sharpen
Viscera
Diamond
Rope
Inventory1 sedated bugman
6 mercenaries (currently at edge of cavern)
1 ranged and 1 melee merc, stay with Ecalir and watch his back
3 melee mercs and 1 ranged merc stay with Darwin, 2 of the melee mercs stick close to him at all times and act as bodyguards
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]
9 smokebombs
Thaumic bomb (currently empty)
Ecalir's old armor: d8 (in use)
shield (+1 to protective rolls from armor)
Sealer Suit: d4 (vs magic)
Alchemist’s Gear
39 gold
5 silver
Octopus core
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
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
Paradox snail (inside jar) and things to keep them happy and fed
Doctor's bag
set of ingredients (plants, chemicals and the like) for making poisons or antidotes (23 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)
Will do.
I forget how long you hired them for, but its been about a week since you first hired them.
[10]
You do a complete examination of the insectman while Eclair poses behind you. The following things become clear.
1. These things are not transformed humans, they are a unique species
2. They appear, judging by the available organs and what you can guess about their function, to have communicated pheromones but also sound: they have an oddly well developed ear for an insect.
3. Though you've only seen them in combat, they seem to be more general use than that. Unlike ants with their specialized drones and soldiers, these creatures had only one body plan which was used to do everything from fight to aid in agriculture.
4. They are apparently omnivorous but their diet in the cave was nearly entirely vegetarian.
5. Their carapace is softer than expected, more like dense rubber than bone, and apparently there is an exoskeleton as well, albeit a seemingly incomplete one.
6. Their vision is based on a compound eye but seems more acute than other insects.
7. They cannot fly outside of the low gravity of the cave, but they can use their wings for enhanced jumping and similar movement.
8. They appear to be sexless and sterile.
Fly Benedict (and one of Saeko's guards, whoever seems trustworthy) to the crashed clockwork ship wreckage that Saeko brought down before. Assuming nothing special happens en-route, circle the place and judge it from the air. Has it been discovered, or laid claim to by anyone? Perhaps even picked clean already, somehow? Or is the place basically untouched?
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: 21
Magic Words: "Animate"
Stats:
Strength: d4
Speed: d6
Endurance: d4
Knowledge: d12
Will: d6
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)
Merc Longsword (d6 Melee)
Ornamental spring pistol (d6 ranged) [6/6] (30 spare shots)
Alchemist gear
A decapitated mercenary's skull.
23 gold, 8 silver (Saeko owes him 400 gold... For someone with d12 sense, Ekrov can be pretty gullible.)
Paints, a dish, sands, glitter, water, general scrying supplies.
Pencil + Paper.
Expensive medical supplies.
Sketches of:
Gyrotourbillon's workings
Benedict the Griffon
TO-DO LIST:
Diagnose Benedict (can be done on trip)
Go to clockwork wreckage
Mess with Saeko's radiation pellet?
Collect thaum to convert steel into pure iron.
The wreckage is relatively near the capital but thanks to its location far off the main roads it has yet to attract attention. It appears to still be in the same state that Saeko described it; though a bit dustier.
Time to leave the city. Take catbird and fly back to the town outside the capital where I can land safely. I'm not going to keep him there, though, so look for a place for me and one guard to stay, that seems reasonably secure enough for my baggage. Cast a Steel spell on the steel scrap metal to change it into a more portable and valuable form, such as useful rods and bars instead of simple scrap metal.
Ekrov said he wanted to loot the remains of the Airship, and to that effect, he can fly Benedict back to the airship wreck, and take one of my guards with him while he's doing that. I'll likely be here for at least a few days raising money and equipment for the trip.
Japanese girl with a long black braid and a white and red fitted robe with long gloves. Clothing made of metallic thread. Pointy, somewhat elfish ears. Violet tinted eyes. Very faintly luminous. Missing fingernails on right hand.
Invoking Empath
Str d6 +1
Speed d8 +1
Endurance d10+2
Knowledge d6+1
Will d10+2
Senses d8 +1
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:
Items:
Two machine guns! with lots of ammo.
112 mana
37 gold
d8+1 armour: The outfit, and a shield. Weighs as if it were d6.
Shield.
Backpack
Waterskin
Black metal scrap, resembling woven cloth but steel hard.
Steel scraps
Cable-wrapped metal box of happiness.
Box of painting-golem
Compass
Goggles
Surgical tools
50 feet of rope
Magic Spyglass
~250 gold value of gold and silver ingots and precious gems.
Jade tablets with d8 View, d10 Steel, and d10 Speed.
Familiar. "Benedict" Cougar/red-tailed hawk, adequate flyer, elephant-sized with 60+ foot wingspan.
Natural weapons d6, d8 with swooooop.
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 and Ekrov fly back out to Mofette, parting ways with the mage breakers and their blimp outside the capital. Finding secure lodging is easy enough (2 gold a week) and you deposit your gear there while Ekrov flies out to loot the wreckage of the airship.
[1+2v2][-2 mana]
You pile the steel up and then cast a spell over it, converting it into ingots while also pulling the impurities out of it, leaving wonderfully shining dense bars of metal and a small black and brown pile of dust beside it.