Okay screw catching up on this, just tell me what the fuck is happening. I should be somewhere on the bore.
If you're on the bore, then the following is happening.
1. The bore is going to get some gold from the goldshore.
2. On the way there, it ran into a Word of GOD, a big bad relic of creation that, according to people on the bore, foreshadows the appearance of a Messenger.
3. Radio ate it and gained some kind of vision.
4. You're now in Knot.
5. There is a sound like a distant river coming from the tunnel you took into town.
: Erm, guys? Are you feeling this? Perhaps we should get away from inhabited areas. : Kara nervously spoke into her radio.
Is the noise getting closer? Do I have some time before it gets here? If yes, then I think it's time for some EXTREME SPEED RESEARCH! Start skimming the Ethral texts (pay fee if necessary), looking for anything that might be helpful to the current situation. Ask the Ethral if it would be so kind to point me in the right direction and warn them about possible impending danger. Edit: Offer to transport them or their relics to safely with the bore if they need to.
If I don't have enough time get either to the bore or if I can't get there in time, get to cover/safety.
If the noise isn't getting closer, then just read some of the Ethral texts.
Name: "Kara" is what most humans call her, though the closest pronunciation would be Kr'ra-Kax
Race: Corven (advantage for climb, disadvantage for falls)
Appearance: She is a crow-like Corven with matte-black feathers. A bit short. Constantly moves her head around, examining her surroundings. Moves her tail up and down whenever she's excited.
Age: Adult, but just barely
Goal: Wants to find artifacts and experiences that she can use to make an (under)world-famous museum. Wants to prove herself to her mother and piss off her brother with her success (both financially and socially).
StatusSacrificed left arm to reverse time (eaten by giant Shluck-like thing). Bandaged and given spider venom for the pain.
StatsStr:9
Dex:13
Spe:13
End:7
Awa:12
Cun:10
Kno:12
Ner:11
Skills1 unspent
Rifle: 1
Medical: 1
Translate: 1
Acrobatics: 1
Caving: 1
Machine Control: 1
Stealth: 1
Geology: 1
Archeology: 1
Navigation: 1
InventoryRadio
3 fathoms
Ethral Rifle (scope+bipod) (rifle 3, pierce 3) 7/7
Ethral Rifle magazine 7/7
Ethral Rifle magazine 6/7
Field Lighter (Fire 2)
Grappling Hook + Ethral Silk rope 100 ft
Simple Clothes
Kara's DiaryIn StorageCrystal Tablets (diary about All-Eater and Great Destroyer, inventory, obedience rod instructions, construct assembly instructions)
Church Documents (document ownership and events, and recommend favorable treatment)
Cot
Book (Adventures of Pilgrim)
Deck of Cards
Mechanical Arm (not installed)
Crystal Friend
Bomb collar (unlocked)
All bomb collar remotes
Hard to say if its getting closer, but it seems to be getting louder, though slowly. Hard to say if it will show up here at all. Its too big, you can only tell the vague direction; the sound is reverberating everywhere.
[6]
You run over to the collection of books the Ethral indicated to be the more...secular approach to the Word of GOD. You flip through, skimming for anything interesting with a distinct feeling of impending doom. You find what you're looking for after a few moments. It says that the Words of GOD seem to act like path markers for the Messengers, appearing before a new messenger path is created. If it guides the messenger or if it simply acts as a sort of premonition is unknown, but there are no historical cases of those who have absorbed the Words -rare as they are- being "Chased down" by Messengers so its assumed the words don't work like that.
You feel a little better, but still you offer the nearest researching your aid and tell them that one of your boremates just absorbed a Word. They are immediately interested more in examining your friend then trying to get away. You try to focus them and they repeatedly assure you the archive is safe.
Get to the bore entrance
Cover Kara with the shotgun if they try to get back.
Also guard the bore against any dangers.
Name: Aigresaur
Description: A sexy lizard with a serpentine head, smooth pale scales, a slender velociraptor's body with lanky arms and legs...
Goal: it just wants to snuggle
Stats Shang-Gei
Str: 8
Dex: 15
Spe: 12
End: 8
Awa: 12
Cun: 10
Kno: 8
Ner: 10
Skills
shotgun: 3
acrobatics: 2
Unarmed: 1
Inventory
Tunnel Clearer 5/5
4 shells
Mail shirt (3 protect )
You stand outside the bore, shotgun in hand, scanning the pathways around you with a calm and distant glare.
"I have no idea what's going on, but for the safety of this place we should at least move away from it in case it's something sinister."
Move the bore back to the entrance to Knot, try to figure out what the sound is and if Adam needs to be booted off the bore because something is coming for the Word of GOD Adam absorbed.
Name: Vikkan Laerthe
Description: A human from Anvil and a moderate Chthonic who was born and raised close in the neighborhood of the Hammerfall boreyard, where his parents were employed as menial workers. Being so close to a place so filled with machinery and boring machines left a lasting impression on Vikkan, who became a furnace helper, then a drivemaster's apprentice until he finally reached the controls of a bore. He's quite good at conducting driving bores and, most importantly, he deeply enjoys his work.
Bore love aside, Vikkan is also generally quite friendly and good-humored even when he's not behind a bore's controls. He is, however, aware of his limitations out of the control room, and he'd rather leave most other matters to more skilled people. What he lacks in intellectual education he displays in polite curiosity, and he tends to be interested in listening even to topics he can only vaguely grasp, making for a good talking and drinking buddy if nothing else.
At odds with his friendliness, he looks rugged, if young. His hair is dark brown and cut short, and he has a well-groomed handlebar mustache (though he's been known to let it grow and style it into a horseshoe at times). A small diagonal scar moves from his right eyebrow to the bridge of his nose. His skin is brown and displays a few burns thanks to a few years of furnace and boiler work. He's fairly hairy, with his shirt's sleeves covering hairy arms and a few spots of scar tissue. His uniform is made of thick cloth and utilitarian, overalls, a long-sleeved shirt and a cap. His major concession to vanity is keeping his uniform and mustache impeccable.
He doesn't have a right hand.Goal: To deep driving bores and having fun while doing it. It's not a difficult dream, even if it can be hard at times.
StatsStr: 11
Dex: 11
Spe: 10
End: 11
Awa: 13
Cun: 10
Kno: 11
Ner: 11
Skills (1 point unspent)
+3 Vehicle (Bore)
+2 Navigation
+1 Defense (Mail Shirt)
Inventory-Conductor's Clothes
-Dynamo Lantern
-Black Book (Copy)
-Field Lighter
-Mail Shirt
-Short Sword
-Rifle
-Knife
-100ft silk rope
-142 Fathoms
-Neck chain (that used to hold a black flame that actually never existed)
-Black Flame
-Clockwork arm
1 Mission and counting
Level 0: +3 Awareness
Level 1: +1 Str, Dex, End, Kno, Ner. 1 skill point unused.
You Get the bore moving with Agire still standing in the doorway to an open airlock, shotgun in hand, not quite understanding how silly such a position is. You take the bore back to the entrance and the entire place has a quiet vibration to it. Like a Bore tunneling past nearby. You check the instruments and there's a slight change in temp between here and where you were. A few degrees hotter.
[2]
You're not totally sure, but when you think back you don't remember anything about people who absorbed the words getting fried by a messenger so Adam is probably fine but...You check the map. Knot is downhill from that pathway where Adam absorbed the Word...and if a Messenger comes through there and melts a new pathway...there's gonna be a lot of molten rock that has to go somewhere....
assuming I heard the roar, jolt up from cuddle puddle. Get dressed and get outside. I want to do a survey of the defensive capabilities of this city.
-Are there any defenses?
-A standing military?
-Are there any potentially exploitable features in the directing we came from? (Giant stalactite or something)
Get to the city and see if there are any heavy weapons or explosives stores or stockpiles. What kind of vehicles are here?
Name: Harmony “Harm” Li
Description: Lean and broody looking. This woman has short black hair and is partially covered in interlocking black tattoos. She wears simple black clothes, with a knee-length Maggot Wool Coat overtop. She wears a mail shirt underneath her clothes.
Goal: Overall, Harm would like to find a place where refugees and travelers could seek refuge without dealing with the dogmatic influence of the church. Right now, though, she just wants to get away.
Stats
Str:11
Dex:11
Spe:11
End:10
Awa:11
Cun:12
Kno:10
Ner:11
Skills
Weapon smith (3)
Mechanical (2)
Lucky Shot (1)
1 unassigned
Inventory
Radio
Mail shirt (protect 3)
Crystal cutting utility knife (free to borrow)
6 Octahedrons
Gold ingot (100-120)
5 Large branches of crystalline lead
Lucky Shot (6/7)(14 rounds)
Short sword (cutting 3, pierce 2)
Voice in the Eyes- and intricate mechanical eye
Field Lighter
10 Path Markers
2 units mechanical junk
2 mechanical arms (belong to Kara and Vikkan)
6 sturdy glass bottles
14 fathoms
You get up but Vikkan has already driven the bore over to the outskirts.
You look around. You see no military, no walls or guns or defenses, and the major way into the city actually enters through the ceiling of the cavern, right in the center of the city. Also this is an Ethral city and the Ethral are FREAKING PANSIES!
"Not Good."
During the vision managed to use my flammenvision to not just look at things in detail, but also to look through stone and such to things that lied beyond. Try to do that again, but look in the direction of the sound to try and see what is coming towards us.
Name: Adam Blavatsky Darvaza
Description: A young man of slightly pale complexion and eternal 9 o’clock shadow, he was raised in a small village. While the village priest and passing mystics droned with endless sermons of the Church and their teachings, what had always captivated young Adam’s attention more were the stories of his Granny.
Old stories of the world as it once was, before people were forced to flee to the caves and crannies of this damp hell. Of warm days where pleasant green plants tickled your feet as you walked through them and a cool breeze blew through your hair. Where food was plentiful, nature was benign and endless vistas reached as far as they eye could see.
Adam was nominally a card-carrying member of the church, though he mostly did it for the connections and perks that brought. They were powerful and had ancient lore, all things he would need to fulfill his true heart’s desire: to return to the surface, vanquish the madness that tainted their homeland and reconquer paradise.
After his encounter with a Word of God, the edges of his vision are flickering with black flame and his skin is extremely pale with what appear to be black veins instead of the normal blue ones. It also forced him to reevaluate
Goal: Plunge the secrets of the depths below to find an answer to the horrors above.
Stats Str: 10
Dex: 10
Spe: 11
End: 10
Awa: 11
Cun: 10
Kno: 10
Ner: 13
SkillsDiving: +3
Stealth: +2
Occult: +1
Flammenvision!
Inventory1 soldier chestplate
Clothing: simple priest robes, shortened a bit so as to less restrict his movements
1 ethral rifle [10 rounds] (pierce 2)
1 black flame
1 Silent Night
4 worm blood
1 minor artifact
1 beaker artifact (found in crystal ruins) => in locker
1 crystal construct
Transport mission papers
1 black book copy
1 black book
1 book "Artifacts of Faith"
1 empyrean city map
1 field lighter
1 radio
6 fathoms
-loaned 40 to Cara (Tiruin)
297 fathoms (payment from pilgrim escort)
1 unspent skillpoint
[11]
You look out in the direction of the noise and focus. The fire moves and covers your vision once again and you see the wall of the room your in. And then its almost like your vision is drifting forward, or that you're zooming in. The wall becomes cloudy and then transparent, then the walls beyond it, then the buildings in the way, then the cavern wall. You look out and out and out until you see it. What it is you can't tell; its like a blind spot in your vision, not like a blur or a hole, but no matter how hard you try to see it, you can't process it. You stop trying and look around it. Behind it is a tunnel, a new pathway, flowing with molten stone. Whatever the non-thing is, its burning through the stone like its paper, moving towards the path of the cord. You can see people in the pathway, other bores and crawlers and people on foot. Not a lot of them, but some.
"Hmm. It looks like a quick dash to the door will get us there safely, assuming we time it right, and assuming those dead remain still and silent. Even so, we should go in pairs or groups of three, rather than all in one go. Nyw, I believe that you and Iron Teeth should come last, ready to charge should the bird or other hostiles attack while any of us are crossing. Once we get a couple of riflemen on the other side to cover you, you should cross together as well.
I think the order of crossing should be:
Auft and Drett, followed by Myself and Alex, followed by Clate and Schitter, and then you two. Though, I am willing to take lead instead, to keep our doctor protected. What do you guys think?"
Signal the guys who stayed behind to make their way up to this point. Watch the bird to see what pattern it looks around with and determine the best timing to run across the flat place.
Name: AsHul
Description:Former human. Awful, ugly, indifferent. Currently a dream robot
Goal:To find God
Stats
Str:9 Dex:8 Spe:9 End:11 Awa:12 Cun:11 Kno:11 Ner:16
Skills
3 Diving
2 Animal Handling
1 Survival
1 Weapon skill: Guitar
Inventory
Relic Fragment
Black Book (copy, strata 1,2,4)
2 Silent Night
6 Worm Blood
100 ft of rope
1 knife (cut/pierce 2)
2 Occult Junks
59 Fathoms (One magnetically welded to the wall of his room in the Bore, one "shiny," 57 standard)
168 Fathoms (Team Account. Kept on AsHul's person for safekeeping. Stored separately from his personal funds.
Stored at warehouse during Relic Vision:
Firing Control Module (Brass Brain)
Book of sheet music (from Balaram) [stack of about 100 pages bound by three brass rings along the top of the sheets]
his former bomb collar - made of something like demagnetized neodymium.
One Bone-fretted haunted electric guitar
One mundane acoustic guitar with wave patterns in abalone and turquoise
Notes:
Travellers' guild is offering a relic retrieval job. Local hazards ('living').
You signal the others to come up before looking at the situation.
[5]
There's definitely no pattern. Guess its just up to luck.
"Hey Drett, could you take a look at my arm in a bit? Auft already bandaged the wound, but I think you should take a good look at it, and give me something to deal with the pain."
Move up to AsHul.
Name: Alex Wells
Description: A middle aged man standing 5'7" feet tall. He has short brown hair and an unkempt beard.
Goal: Exploring the depths and collecting its wealth.
Stats:
Str: 11
Dex: 11
Spe: 10
End: 11
Awa: 11
Cun: 12
Kno: 11
Ner: 11
Skills:
Explosives 2
Mechanical 1
Survival 1
Caving 1
Chemical 2
Geology 1
1 Skill point
Inventory:
Dynamo Lantern
Field Lighter
5 TNT
Bladed Shovel (Cut 3)
Mail Shirt
39 Fathoms
Crystal box of golem limbs
Golem buddy
Black Flame (Cut 3)
Rifle (Pierce 2) 5/10
8 Structural Junk
Grappling Hook
Moon bladed staff (Cut 4)
I suppose we are too far into this relic vision to turn back now. Let's go.
Well. No sense in tarrying. I'll have to move up anyway and I might as well do it with everyone having my back.
GO GO GO NO STOP MAKE IT SAFE
Character Sheet
You both move up and join Ashul.
Stay behind until everyone else is across, ready to charge out into the open if the bird spots someone. Wield the hatchet. Cross if everyone else makes it without issue.
Name: Nyw'geuq Otin Sunam; calls himself "The Lords' Child"
Description:
((Only one murakumo, but hey! Dual wielding them is stupid anyway.))
Goal: Inscrutable, which is code for
"Talks like this.".
Stats:Str:14
Dex:8
Spe:10
End:14
Awa:14
Cun:8
Kno:7
Ner:10
Skills:Unarmed: +1
Defense Skill: +3 (Full Plate)
Vehicle Skill: +1
Caving: +1
Navigation: +1
Murakumo: +1
Inventory:
Full Plate Armor [Protective 4]
Ornamental Mask of the Child
Crystal Murakumo [Cut 6, Pierce 3, Fragile]
Giant Guardian Hatchet [Chop 4,
]
Probably left in the warehouse:
A hooked cleaver [Cut 3]
Two knives [Cut 2, Pierce 2]
Guard rifle [Pierce 2]
A bunch of bloody guard garments, to be used as raw material.
You wait quietly, ready to act if needed.
"I'm feeling lucky"
Wait for a bit to see if there's a pattern to the bird I could figure out. Regardless, try to time my moment right to dash over to the doors of the first building.
Name: Clate
Race: Shluck
Description: Being a Shluck, Clate is rarely seen outside of his environmental suit. Inside, he is the standard albino mollusk, with his only true defining characteristic being the alternating white/borwn pattern of his beak, much like on a nautilus shell. His environmental suit and exoskeltons are full of scuff marks and small blemishes from work, but the knowledgable observer will notice that it is mechanically kept in tip-top shape. He wears a toolbelt and a satchel to store his tools and other knickknacks, and has a blue cap perched on top of his helmet.
Goal: To create great works of craftsmanship and become filthy rich in the process.
Stats
Str: 8
Dex: 11
Spe: 9
End: 10
Awa: 10
Cun: 16 (+3)
Kno: 12
Ner: 11
Skills (1 point unused)
Electronics 1
Mechanical 1
Biological 1
Chemical 1
Occult 1
Weaponsmith 1
Armorsmith 1
Stealth 1
Steal 1
Explosives 1
Inventory
Clothing: A tool belt that can be modified to fit the exoskeleton, a satchel and a blue cap with "If it ain't broke, fix it" embroidered on.
Mail shirt (Made to integrate directly into the exosuit, protecting surface that houses Shluck including head.Protect 3)
Bladed Shovel - handle coated with Pseudomagnetic mortar
Knife (cut2, pierce2)
Rifle (pierce2, 7/10 magazine)
TNT x5
Dynamo lantern
Field lighter
Path markers x10
"Muggy"(skull mug scrimshawed with "can we fix it?" on the side, "No, it's fucked." on the bottom. Has trigger on the inside of the spine-handle that, when squeezed, caused the mandible to open and close)
2 Octahedrons - supposedly replicate materials
1 container of Pseudomagnetic mortar
labradorite/Obedience rod
100ft silk rope
3 structural junk
30 chemical junk
1 gold ingot
143 Fathoms
Crystal Babies
2. 8 sided diamond (looks like Ramiel from EVA and floats). 8 inches to an edge
3. Crystal snake. hiss. 18 inches long.
Warehouse/bore storage:
1. Dodecahedron, no limbs, rolls. Fist sized.
4. Spiky daddy long legs like Irony has. 1 foot legs, fist sized body.
5. Thing looks like (see pic). about 8 inches to a side.
7. Wheel sort of thing that has a fat inside edge and tapers to a sharp edge on the outside. Foot and a half in diameter.
1 corpse (missing: skull, neck vertebrea, some bones)
Bomb Collar
Slate box with multicolour crystal toothpick - supposedly turns someone into a gemperson.
Spool of thermoreactive wire.
Acoustic guitar (Metal + guardbone, totally mundane.)
Box with "kidnapper bell"
6 Octahedrons - supposedly replicate materials
[15]
You watch the pattern. Or lack there of. Its a bird and it acts bird like. Erratic. However you do think of something. If it looks like its going to look, hiding with the corpses might work.
"Hmm. It looks like a quick dash to the door will get us there safely, assuming we time it right, and assuming those dead remain still and silent. Even so, we should go in pairs or groups of three, rather than all in one go. Nyw, I believe that you and Iron Teeth should come last, ready to charge should the bird or other hostiles attack while any of us are crossing. Once we get a couple of riflemen on the other side to cover you, you should cross together as well.
I think the order of crossing should be:
Auft and Drett, followed by Myself and Alex, followed by Clate and Schitter, and then you two. Though, I am willing to take lead instead, to keep our doctor protected. What do you guys think?"
Signal the guys who stayed behind to make their way up to this point. Watch the bird to see what pattern it looks around with and determine the best timing to run across the flat place.
Auft trilled thoughtfully. "No objections."
If Drett is down, dash across with him first. Otherwise dash across with my goon.
NICE SHEET
[18][ Various other rolls]
Nice rolls
Auft gets up and starts running as fast as her little legs can carry her, her goon running beside her. They make it maybe 30 feet. There's little difference in time between when the twin spotlights lock onto her and when the massive taloned foot pins them to the ground. The bird must have just leapt straight from its perch down in some sort if inazuma kick. When it lands, its wings aren't even open; if it weren't for the earth shattering sound, the burst of wind and the terrifying presence of a bird the size of a building looming over everything, the abruptness of it would be comical. Auft and her goon are both the bird's foot, its talons buried straight into the solid stone. Auft is mostly between two toes, pinned but not smashed. Her goon wasn't as lucky and is clearly at least partially pulped, though still alive. The Bird's eyes are still locked on both of them and it is regarding them with that avian stop-start movement, intentions unreadable.
Everyone else Hunkers down but Nyw doesn't hesitate. He hurls himself up onto the open ground and charges the bird with the ax, making as much noise as possible. The bird's attention snaps up to him and it shifts its weight to raise its free foot into the air and attempt to stomp down on him as well. [12] Nyw shifts into a crouching slide and brings his ax up to meet the stomp. It works, to some degree. The ax bites into the stony flesh of the foot and he gets out of under the descending claws, but the impact of the foot hitting the ground sends him tumbling and the ax stays behind, pinned under and in the foot.
Author
Topic: DIG: Heresy (Read 410836 times)