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. 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 5 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,18 gold, a silver quiver thst looks like a rib cage,, a bow, and 3 silver arrows.
Materials: Lightsilver, Silver, Stone, Water, Mercury, Erode, Channel
“Here is the gold. Let’s visit a god of mischief”
Pay 15 gold and lead the way to the temple
I'll be honest, he's a bit taken aback by you actually paying for this errand. But he goes with you just the same and when you reach the place where you think the temple should be, there is nothing there. However, the man says that the disappearing temple itself is probably pretty good proof it was a mischief god. They love to do that stuff. He says the arrows you got from it probably have completely random effects on what they hit.
not caused by eating the fish.
Not caused by contact with the water.
Fishermen and only fishermen effected.
Some fishermen not all...
Talk to the fishermen who are not effected, learn what type of fishing they do, locations, techniques, etc. And what they know of the same of their effected colleagues. Is the effects focused on net-based, trap-based, hook-and-line-based, or other fishing? Is it effecting fishing from the shore, a boat, or standing in shallows? Is it only getting fishermen who fish from a certain area? Does it depend on who big their haul is?
I believe You misunderstood something or I misspoke.
All the fishermen, ie the people actively fishing, were effected. However, their families did not get infected. As per anyone else who may have consumed the fish, you'd have to check the market and the people who ate the catch. Since we're losing a turn here, I'll just tell you that the households who bought the fish do each have exactly one effected person, usually the father or head of the family.
Let Darwin teleport us away.
Should the guards reach us before he manages to do so, kick them away from us. Caw.
Name: Écalir Speedwagon
Appearance: barbarian, think Arnie from Conan the Barbarian (currently murderbird)
Magic path: Hunting flesh-scroll
Strength: d10+2
Speed: d10+1
Endurance: d8+1
Knowledge: d4
Will: d6+2
Senses: d6+1
Mana: 55 (-? from previous turn)
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
Throw all the smokebombs we have to avoid the guards from seeing anything, grab Ecalir and the artifact, then teleport away toward Fearce (let's say a quarter of the way).
Should we get out, take stock of the situation more. Do we need to buy new armor for Ecalir now?
Either way, continue walking toward Fearce.
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
Will: d8 + 2
Senses: d10 + 1
Mana: 53
2 bottles with 10 thaum each (20 total)
Ongoing effects: None
Magical materialsVacuum!
Reanimate
Sharpen
Viscera
Diamond
Rope
Inventory1 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]
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
402 gold
5 silver
Octopus core
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)
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
17 leather skins (30 gold worth)
2 doses of fast-working anesthetic for knocking out humans
"Well, this is a fowl situation."
[4+1 v 3]
Darwin unloads a literal armful of smoke and whips out the glass map as the entire room explodes into thick smoke. He grabs Eclair by the little wingy arm and slams 14 mana into the map while pointing at a space roughly between the capital and Fearce. The world swirls and goes liquid, tempesting around them, before suddenly going cold. The smoke dissipates rapidly into open air and gentle showers and they find themselves standing on a dark plain in the middle of the night. Darwin lights their lantern and uses it to carefully assess Eclair, in particular connection to his armor. His sealer suit ain't gonna work no more, and his fitted armor isn't going to fit....but, luckily, Darwin thinks he can salvage the fitted armor and at least get a few pieces to fit. It won't be as good as a full fitted set, but it will be better than losing it entirely.
Just needs some leather straps or something, and a hammer....
After a few awkward moments, darwin climbs up onto Eclair's back...shoulders?...and the giant bird takes off at a trot, heading for Fearce. They make it there around 10 in the morning the next day, damp and tired.
They have the artifact by the way, its safe and sound.
Finish prying this sarcophagus open and poke about for anything religious for my brain beetle. I don't want to spend a lot of time, so if it doesn't budge in a roll or two, use 2 mana and [force] it. If htat doesn't work, I can come back later. Then, head off to the outskirts of the resort to see what's what.
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: 68
Materials: Porcelain, Black Flux, Force, Toxin, Weapon, Break
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 the Blood material
40 gold
Note: bounties for lowlives, monster hunting, rumors of a high class immoral playground.
[6v6]
You finish prying the sarcophogus open and dig a questing hand into the folds of bandages and shawls within, returning with a golden effigy of some kind of crocodile god or something of that kind. You show it to the beetle and after a bit of deliberation it accepts it and rewards you. [+32 mana]
Flush with new mana and feeling strangely awake considering the hour, you decide to hitch a ride with the other people all charging over there. By the time the wagon reaches the structures, the fire is mostly contained. It seems to have started in a series of small out buildings and not damaged the major structures, though almost everyone has evacuated and is standing around or -in many cases- sitting on provided chairs, drinking refreshments. Even when the building is burning, the service is excellent. You tuck your hands in your pockets and search for Arachne, interested to see if she was the cause of this. You eventually find her with some other wait staff, shuttling carts of chilled alcohol out to the rotund clientèle. You both slip away and she starts telling you in a whisper that there is something in this resort. Something like her, but bigger and meaner and even worse. She goes on a lot in a sort of "I know I'm bad, but this is outrageous" sort of way until you interrupt and ask to get the actual details. She tells you that she had a nice fat snack and was just taking him out to the pools round back, near those out buildings, when she noticed something. Before she could really get a good fix on it, it had already pounced on her meal and started pursuing her. She lit the fires and used them to slip away.
"This place is a hunting ground. Not sure if its after the clients normally, or if its just feeding on the human wreckage that this place creates. Either way there's an apex predator here and it doesn't like me intruding."
Mm. Let's search the other structures. I need more WORDS.
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: 5
Method: Flesh-Inscribed Channel
Materials: Lightweight, Explosion, Toxic, Lightning
Strength: d10+1
Speed: d8+2
Endurance: d6+2
Knowledge: d8+1
Will: d8+1
Senses: d6+1
Ongoing effects: Permanently immune to nerve gas
Inventory:
160 Gold
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.
Silver axe-helm.
Salt the Condor-Winged Baboon
Strength: d8
Speed: d8
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d4
Will: d4
Senses: d6
Small bag
In Alcahest:
Wooden Arm-Guards (d4 armor)
Hemp sack
Kukri (d6 weapon)
Square-tip machete
[6v4]
Inscribed on a glass lens that looks like it once focused light, you find the magic for [SUNLIGHT]
What kinds of weapons did the combat robots have?
Spend most of a day studying a single specific thaumic flying machine. There's a few of them left intact, so just study it. Try to learn about thaumic machinery, and as always, sketch out the design as it's studied. Fully disassembling/destroying the thing is perfectly fine, as long as there's something to learn.
Also, since it's a war machine, what kinda weapons does it have?
Finally... think about whether the bodies of these clockwork robots could be repurposed towards creating some kind of powered armor. If they're human shaped, presumably their armor could be repurposed into a kind of platemail, and their actuators or w/e moves their limbs could be either moved to be external, or adjusted so that a human can fit inside the armor alongside. Would this be completely unreasonable, or just a fair bit of work?
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: 33 (300 thaum carried)
Magic Words: "Animate", "Cloud", "Banish", "Iron", "Human", "Clockwork"
Stats:Strength: d6
Speed: d6
Endurance: d6+1
Knowledge: d12+2
Will: d6
Senses: d12+1
Ongoing Effects: None.
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 (Saeko owes him 400 gold... For someone with d12 sense, Ekrov can be pretty gullible.)
LOTS of thaum.
Orb key thing, looted from long dead pilot corpse.
35 (!) Clockwork mainsprings capable of powering full robots
Enough pieces to reassemble a full combat robot.
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.
Two broken clockwork robots, shoved in crates. Details
here,
here, and
here. And a question about rewriting their minds
here.
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.
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...
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"
The combat robots you can find are not armed, though they clearly show signs of having weapons at one point. Some were built in, such as blades (now either torn away completely or broken off at the hilt) while ranged weapons appear to have been held as there are places for ammo storage and a rack on the right leg to hold what looks like a rifle. Either these things stripped their "Dead" of weapons or they were scavenged by someone else earlier. This is why I said they were "apparently" well armed because while they show definite signs of having weapons in the past, they don't now.
[11+2 v 18, 2]
You spend most of the day studying the Thaumic flying machine. The one you study, which isn't the same as all the others I should say, resembles something like a giant dragonfly with membranous wings made of stained glass and a body made of what appears to be lapis, jade, or some other kind of green blue stone. Its weapons are a sextuplet set of bladed limbs under the main body and a pair of what look like larger versions of the thaumic rifles. You start by studying the cockpit: its a bit difficult considering the thing won't even turn on without mana, but you get a general idea of how it functioned. It seems to have been semi-intelligent, almost like a golem, and was simply guided by the pilot. The controls, metal track balls under each hand, pedals on the floor, and a handful of controls on the console, seem to have been the equivalent of reins. You move back through the rest of the machine, spending 2 mana to open pannels, or momentarily activate machinery just to get a good idea how it works.
The gold "veins" spread to every surface like the artries of the body, starting at a centeral "Core" or heart. This heart looks something like a spherical lantern, with a massive branching golden root system growing out its top. There is a piece of Magicoal inside the core, obviously the fuel for the machine. Careful examination of the way the veins are spread and their general structure, as well as some of the stranger pieces within the body cavity gives you an idea of how these things are constructed and powered. But one thing still eludes you: How they are given their "mind". The machine cannot have functioned without being semi-sapient yet there's no physical structure within it that seems to hold this sapience, no brain as it were. The core provides power and the veins clearly spread it out to the entire structure, providing the means of animation, but...how does it know what to do?
Maybe if you activated it, saw it in action, you could understand. Or maybe you could ask it? It if is intelligent then it might be able to explain itself. Its fueled, you'd just need to start it up...though if its intelligent it might also be loyal to the citizens or its pilot, which could mean it sees you as a threat.
[9+2 v 10]
You spend the evening looking at the scattered robot chunks by the light of the camp's fires, shifting them about in the sand and consulting your old notes while penning new ones. You come to the conclusion that creating a sort of "robot armor" from these things is not impossible. It would, in fact, be fairly easy for a majority of it. These things have pulleys,cranks, ratchets, and cables instead of muscles; things that can be removed and reconfigured, slapped on to anything and work so long as they're adequately powered and anchored. Making a set of armor that uses these muscles to enhance a movement would be as easy as correctly setting up the muscle groups and activation protocols such that they moved as desired. The issue comes with making the armor sense the movement of the person inside and mirror their movements. The bots have piezoelectric and mechanical sensors under small plates that function something like a "Touch" sense, so it might be possible to use these sensors to "Feel" movement in the suit and go from there....but doing so would require extensive data as to which sensors are being activated in response to what movements...you'd need to run tons of tests with men in sensor suits, compile the data and then create your own "Logic modules" to handle the responses...maybe you could retrofit one using the image sensing gear boxes?
You shake your head and clear your mind. A suit of armor empowered by robot muscles is easy enough. Telling how those muscles should move and react is the complex part.
Give orders to search the technician areas with most everyone. Things to look for are more keys, suits of armour, maybe some special protective gear if found, and hopefully enough thaumic tools to set up three workshops, so we can sell two of them and still keep one. Look out for manuals or documentation, quantities of that thaumic wire, and, as always, mana batteries, magicoal, and small flight crystals like the big one we're looking for. (And the big one itself, natch, but don't take it if it shows up.)
Personally, get that lazy lout Benedict up in the air, and lets look somewhere else. Take one personal guard with me. Officers tend to be on top or up high, so lets look on the upper side of this broken chunk of city, and the collapsed towers around. Mostly just fly around, trying to figure out what kinds of places there are, looking in particular for something like a city hall or palace or military headquarters.
While looking, do keep an eye out for any words, and try to encounter one of those spirits. Coming with me would have to be less boring than living in this wreck, and I might find someone whom I can ask questions about this city.
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. Visibly glowing with a pinkish-purplish light. Missing fingernails on right hand.
Invoking Empath
Str d6 +1
Speed d8 +1
Endurance d10+3
Knowledge d8+1
Will d10+2
Senses d8 +1Materials: d12 Ape, d12 Grow, d12 Strengthen, d12 Expand, d8 Bird, d6 Force
Location: Ruins of Gravid.
Status: Fine. Missing fingernails on right hand. Slightly enhanced hearing.
Temporary Effects: d8 Grow Strengthen for hearing, day 7/30.
Familiar. "Benedict" Cougar/red-tailed hawk, adequate flyer, garage-sized with 120ish foot wingspan.
Natural weapons d10, d10+d6 with swooooop. 5/4+1 enchantments. d6 Strengthen Grow, d8 Strengthen Grow, d10 Strengthen Grow, d8 Strengthen Bird Speed, d12 Strengthen Grow over 1 week. Eats 3 gold/day worth of food.
Properly harnessed and well kitted out for riding and baggage. Equipped with a steel helmet.Str D20
Spd D6
End D12
Kno D4
Will D8
Sen D6Expedition Status:
Saeko, Ekrov, Zavi.
3 guards, 2 in personal service.
3 assistants and workers.
Excavation tools and equipment.
23 days worth of supplies.
Key orbs: Soldier, Technician
Accessable locations: unexplored: small bent path, large open room.
explored: Through soldier-locked door. leads to..
storage rooms
guard rooms
farm area
garbage disposal + magicoal furnace!
hangars
locked armouries.
more locked doors.
Loot:
8x suits of silk clothing.
8x suits of cotton clothing.
7x Thaumic sabres.
23x magic rifles
6x suits of magic armour
Broken magic armour bits.
Thaumic tools
Items:
Ghost Charm
Alchemist's Gear
Two machine guns! with lots of ammo.
94 mana (+60 converted, -6 spells, -4 tests.)
6 thaum
243 gold
d8+1 armour: The outfit, and a shield. Weighs as if it were d4.
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
Sealer suit material.
Surgical tools
Magic Spyglass
~250 gold value of gold and silver ingots and precious gems.
Jade tablets with d8 View, d10 Steel, and d10 Speed.
Alchemy SuppliesStashed:
Cable-wrapped metal box of happiness.
Box of painting-golem
Notes: Improving physical stats with strengthen, d4->d6 is d6, d6->d8 is d12, d8->d10 is d20 or more.
You send the team off as usual and then head out on your own to search for the dwellings of the higher ranking members of society.
[5+1v3][8+1v4]
A fly over of the debris path ends with you finding what seems to be the remants of a palace, or at least a well to do manor house of sorts. The thing has been smashed like an egg but you can still find some intact sections and bits and pieces scattered about. Most of the finery of the place thats left is carvings, frescos, inlaid metal work or statues; the other things have been taken or degraded or been buried with time. You dig here and there and by luck manage to find a mummified body in an overturned section of building. On her -you're pretty sure its a her judging by what remains of the clothing; there's no lower body- you find a key. Its different from the others: still vaguely spherical in shape but much more ornate and complex. It responds to one of the symbols they found before that you haven't gotten a key for yet. You also find a bowl with an inscription on it for [ICE d4].
As per spirits, you follow your tool over to where one is supposed to be but don't find it. Instead you find the wreck of a thaumic flying machine. Huh.
When you return your crew tells you that the first technician section they opened was damaged. When the door opened it spewed out a gas that had been pressurized behind it. The gas isn't poisonous, as far as they know, but was suffocating and, they believe, flammable. They're waiting for it to dissipate so they can do more exploring.