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[The Lupanian]

Get on the radio and listen to see what the situation down at the city is.

Spoiler: Harm (click to show/hide)

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

[Caellath]

"I'm guessing that's their defense system. We should stay out of the way and get to safety ourselves lest we end up hit by whatever it is, or mess up its activation. It should hold." Vikkan opined.

Get to safety and wait out the lava fest.

Spoiler: Vikkan Laerthe, Human Bore Driver (click to show/hide)

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.
 
Stats
Str: 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.

[Egan_BW]

Bah. Tell me about Udyne

Spoiler: Wiellste? (click to show/hide)

Name: Wiellste Gunsmithy

Description: A young Ethral, no taller than 4 feet. Her fur is unpatterned and a milky white. Usually wears a rather plain quilted brown silk cloak, and a polished copper mask with symmetrical, spiraling lines etched on the sides.

Goal: Wiellste is like many Ethral in that she seeks to gather knowledge about the world before all else. Though being an Ethral from Knot, her skills are largely more on the practical building side than the scholarly side. She isn't particularly invested in the teachings of the Tenebrous Church, but the idea of the spheres intrigues her, especially Balarim, with it's writings and technology.

Stats:
Str:  8
Dex: 12
Spe: 10
End:  9
Awa:  7
Cun: 15
Kno: 13
Ner: 11

Skills:
SKILL 1
Weaponsmith 2
Diving 2
Pistol 1
Bore 1
Translate 1
Stealth 1

Inventory:
Silk cloak
Copper mask
Human-made revolver (Pistol 3) (6/6)

Notes

1 Fathom

[IronyOwl]

Auft makes a whimpering sound.

"There's probably something bad in here."

Rifle at the ready, have Iron Teeth poke a corpse.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Auft Kindheart
Description: Standing 3'10", with even fluffier than usual snow-white fur, this Ethral radiates adorable innocence even by the standards of her kind. Her porcelain-white mask is a circular shape carved into slices, each bearing a smiling face with eyes and mouths arched in joy, and adorned with pink blush marks. Her cloak is similarly pure white and a little too large for her, adding to her cute and defenseless appearance.
Goal: To amass and improve loyal pets and slaves.
 
Stats
Str:  8
Dex:  13
Spe:  10
End:  8
Awa:  8
Cun:  16
Kno:  13
Ner:  10

Skills
+1 Medical
+1 Translate
+1 Acrobatics
+1 Persuasion
+1 Stealth
+1 Animal Handling
+1 Archeology
+1 Biological
+1 Chemical
+1 Occult
[1 Skill Point]

Inventory
82 Fathoms
Ethral Rifle [2/7]
Doctor's Bag
Dodecahedron Spider-Thing: Fist-sized dodecahedron body, long unjointed legs that move in very slow cascades. Ceased moving upon being picked up. Can be trained in simple commands via clear hand signals, bops, and repetition.
2 quarter-inch cubes of impossibly heavy black stuff: Estimated 50 lbs weight total
Thug with metal teeth in his mouth and on his arm
Mediocre Skull Mug: A mug made from a skull. It works, but it's pretty meh considering it's made from a skull.
Shitty Bone Pan Flute: Several long bones crudely strapped together, long to short. Despite this, the actual notes are arranged randomly, out of tune, and lack much range.
Inanimate Vertebra Scarab: A bug-thing with a single human vertebra for a body, fingerbones for legs, teeth for mandibles, and so on. Needs an appropriate sacrifice to animate, like a "large" insect.

Iron Teeth, Slightly Demuscled Thug
Knife (Cut/Pierce 2)
Soldier Chestplate
Slave Trap

[Aigre Excalibur]

Help keep Vikkan safe and warm.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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 )

[Pancaek]

"Yes, the wheel of corpses is somewhat disconcerning. However, look at all the knick knacks! There must surely be someting with interesting properties here."

Check the human skulls with tassels. If they look inert or otherwise not very dangerous, snag one.

Then join Auft in watching her boytoy poke a corpse.

Spoiler: Clate (click to show/hide)

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, 6/10 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

[Ozarck]

"The prayer wheel maces."

[Gentlefish]

Those maces make me think that is the guardian. However, this dream has been full of nothing but tricks.

Keep up my rather pitiful guard. Does the thing with the prayerwheel maces remind me of the guardian statues?

Drett. Doctor. Moth. CowardSurvivalist.

[Radio Controlled]

"Between our partial wall and the protection these people have set up themselves, I suspect this city is by now adequately protected. I agree, the best we can do for now is get out of their way, we have done our part."

Read in my book of holy artifacts while our pilot ferries us to safety.

Spoiler: Adam Blavatsky Darvaza (click to show/hide)

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 his views on the cthonic church and god.

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

Skills
Diving: +3
Stealth: +2
Occult: +1
Flammenvision!

Inventory

1 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

[Parisbre56]

Strike up a conversation with a librarian.

Tell them I'm part of a bore crew and might be interested in giving them some of our findings, now or in the future. But before I do so I'm interested in learning how they handle potentially dangerous knowledge or artifacts.

For example, they already know we have someone who has absorbed a word of God with us. What would they do to him if he agreed to be examined? How would they ensure his safety during their examination? What would they do with any potentially sensitive information they learned during their examination?

We have recently come to possess an artifact that could be dangerous if broken and could potentially be used as a weapon. How would they ensure the safety of such an artifact? How would they make sure nobody stole it or used it or the knowledge gained from it for evil?

If the Ethral knows and wants to tell me, I would also like to know its opinion on how the Church handles such matters (or any other major guilds, if it wants to share).

Spoiler: "Kara" the Corven (click to show/hide)

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).

Status
Sacrificed left arm to reverse time (eaten by giant Shluck-like thing). Bandaged and given spider venom for the pain.

Stats
Str:9
Dex:13 
Spe:13 
End:7
Awa:12
Cun:10 
Kno:12
Ner:11

Skills
1 unspent
Rifle: 1
Medical: 1
Translate: 1
Acrobatics: 1
Caving: 1
Machine Control: 1
Stealth: 1
Geology: 1
Archeology: 1
Navigation: 1

Inventory
Radio
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 Diary

In Storage
Crystal 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

[Hotfire90]

Stand guard with my rifle.

Spoiler: Alex Wells (click to show/hide)

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) 4/10
8 Structural Junk
Grappling Hook
Moon bladed staff (Cut 4)

[syvarris]

Tear down a long strip of fabric, and then hurry back outside, stopping for a moment to look around for the bird monster.  If it's not seen, go scoop the powdery remains of the crystal murakumo into the fabric, tie it shut, then return to the others.

Spoiler: The Unpronounceable Undead (click to show/hide)

Name: Nyw'geuq Otin Sunam; calls himself "The Lords' Child"
Description:

((No murakumo anymore.  ))
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
---Shattered to powder: 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.

[piecewise]

Get on the radio and listen to see what the situation down at the city is.

Spoiler: Harm (click to show/hide)

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

The situation seems to be general panic but you can hear voices of reason in there. It seems that while the population is scared, those in power are acting rationally.

Also seems like scared Ethral mostly just run in circles and do other things that are unhelpful but pretty funny.

"I'm guessing that's their defense system. We should stay out of the way and get to safety ourselves lest we end up hit by whatever it is, or mess up its activation. It should hold." Vikkan opined.

Get to safety and wait out the lava fest.

Spoiler: Vikkan Laerthe, Human Bore Driver (click to show/hide)

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.
 
Stats
Str: 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 make sure the bore is out of range of anything about to happen.

Bah. Tell me about Udyne

Spoiler: Wiellste? (click to show/hide)

Name: Wiellste Gunsmithy

Description: A young Ethral, no taller than 4 feet. Her fur is unpatterned and a milky white. Usually wears a rather plain quilted brown silk cloak, and a polished copper mask with symmetrical, spiraling lines etched on the sides.

Goal: Wiellste is like many Ethral in that she seeks to gather knowledge about the world before all else. Though being an Ethral from Knot, her skills are largely more on the practical building side than the scholarly side. She isn't particularly invested in the teachings of the Tenebrous Church, but the idea of the spheres intrigues her, especially Balarim, with it's writings and technology.

Stats:
Str:  8
Dex: 12
Spe: 10
End:  9
Awa:  7
Cun: 15
Kno: 13
Ner: 11

Skills:
SKILL 1
Weaponsmith 2
Diving 2
Pistol 1
Bore 1
Translate 1
Stealth 1

Inventory:
Silk cloak
Copper mask
Human-made revolver (Pistol 3) (6/6)

Notes

1 Fathom

[9]
Uh...well its one of the spheres. From what you remember its a snowy place where the valleys are filled with deadly monsters but the mountains cause anyone in them to gradually forget everything. The only sapient inhabitants are horse headed people who live in the middle ground and spend a lot of their time focusing to remember things about themselves and the world.

"Between our partial wall and the protection these people have set up themselves, I suspect this city is by now adequately protected. I agree, the best we can do for now is get out of their way, we have done our part."

Read in my book of holy artifacts while our pilot ferries us to safety.

Spoiler: Adam Blavatsky Darvaza (click to show/hide)

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 his views on the cthonic church and god.

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

Skills
Diving: +3
Stealth: +2
Occult: +1
Flammenvision!

Inventory

1 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

You sit down and read. A lot of the listed things are true relics and thus have no inherent special powers other than their ability to be deconstructed into powerful artifacts. Lots of pots with moving images, lots of statues that are somewhat animate, blood that flows upwards, paper that burns forever, that sort of stuff. Most are listed as just being "Secured" and have nothing about what is "inside" them.

Strike up a conversation with a librarian.

Tell them I'm part of a bore crew and might be interested in giving them some of our findings, now or in the future. But before I do so I'm interested in learning how they handle potentially dangerous knowledge or artifacts.

For example, they already know we have someone who has absorbed a word of God with us. What would they do to him if he agreed to be examined? How would they ensure his safety during their examination? What would they do with any potentially sensitive information they learned during their examination?

We have recently come to possess an artifact that could be dangerous if broken and could potentially be used as a weapon. How would they ensure the safety of such an artifact? How would they make sure nobody stole it or used it or the knowledge gained from it for evil?

If the Ethral knows and wants to tell me, I would also like to know its opinion on how the Church handles such matters (or any other major guilds, if it wants to share).

Spoiler: "Kara" the Corven (click to show/hide)

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).

Status
Sacrificed left arm to reverse time (eaten by giant Shluck-like thing). Bandaged and given spider venom for the pain.

Stats
Str:9
Dex:13 
Spe:13 
End:7
Awa:12
Cun:10 
Kno:12
Ner:11

Skills
1 unspent
Rifle: 1
Medical: 1
Translate: 1
Acrobatics: 1
Caving: 1
Machine Control: 1
Stealth: 1
Geology: 1
Archeology: 1
Navigation: 1

Inventory
Radio
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 Diary

In Storage
Crystal 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

They tell you that dangerous artifacts and knowledge are handled on a per instance basis and what is done to secure them varies. There are in house diving specialists that handle most of the containment problems, for instance. As per your word of god friend, they would mostly do a complete physical exam and recording of any special talents he seems to have acquired. They would take samples of what bodily substances they could and archive those, as well as ask for exclusive rights to the body after death. All things gained would be set up under an anonymous pseudonym if desired.

Multilayer physical and diving insulation for the dangerous artifact.

The Ethral confides that the church's containment methods are probably better than their own, but that they have a bad habit of making things disappear.

Stand guard with my rifle.

Spoiler: Alex Wells (click to show/hide)

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) 4/10
8 Structural Junk
Grappling Hook
Moon bladed staff (Cut 4)

Auft makes a whimpering sound.

"There's probably something bad in here."

Rifle at the ready, have Iron Teeth poke a corpse.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Auft Kindheart
Description: Standing 3'10", with even fluffier than usual snow-white fur, this Ethral radiates adorable innocence even by the standards of her kind. Her porcelain-white mask is a circular shape carved into slices, each bearing a smiling face with eyes and mouths arched in joy, and adorned with pink blush marks. Her cloak is similarly pure white and a little too large for her, adding to her cute and defenseless appearance.
Goal: To amass and improve loyal pets and slaves.
 
Stats
Str:  8
Dex:  13
Spe:  10
End:  8
Awa:  8
Cun:  16
Kno:  13
Ner:  10

Skills
+1 Medical
+1 Translate
+1 Acrobatics
+1 Persuasion
+1 Stealth
+1 Animal Handling
+1 Archeology
+1 Biological
+1 Chemical
+1 Occult
[1 Skill Point]

Inventory
82 Fathoms
Ethral Rifle [2/7]
Doctor's Bag
Dodecahedron Spider-Thing: Fist-sized dodecahedron body, long unjointed legs that move in very slow cascades. Ceased moving upon being picked up. Can be trained in simple commands via clear hand signals, bops, and repetition.
2 quarter-inch cubes of impossibly heavy black stuff: Estimated 50 lbs weight total
Thug with metal teeth in his mouth and on his arm
Mediocre Skull Mug: A mug made from a skull. It works, but it's pretty meh considering it's made from a skull.
Shitty Bone Pan Flute: Several long bones crudely strapped together, long to short. Despite this, the actual notes are arranged randomly, out of tune, and lack much range.
Inanimate Vertebra Scarab: A bug-thing with a single human vertebra for a body, fingerbones for legs, teeth for mandibles, and so on. Needs an appropriate sacrifice to animate, like a "large" insect.

Iron Teeth, Slightly Demuscled Thug
Knife (Cut/Pierce 2)
Soldier Chestplate
Slave Trap

"Yes, the wheel of corpses is somewhat disconcerning. However, look at all the knick knacks! There must surely be someting with interesting properties here."

Check the human skulls with tassels. If they look inert or otherwise not very dangerous, snag one.

Then join Auft in watching her boytoy poke a corpse.

Spoiler: Clate (click to show/hide)

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, 6/10 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

Those maces make me think that is the guardian. However, this dream has been full of nothing but tricks.

Keep up my rather pitiful guard. Does the thing with the prayerwheel maces remind me of the guardian statues?

Drett. Doctor. Moth. CowardSurvivalist.

Tear down a long strip of fabric, and then hurry back outside, stopping for a moment to look around for the bird monster.  If it's not seen, go scoop the powdery remains of the crystal murakumo into the fabric, tie it shut, then return to the others.

Spoiler: The Unpronounceable Undead (click to show/hide)

Name: Nyw'geuq Otin Sunam; calls himself "The Lords' Child"
Description:

((No murakumo anymore.  ))
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
---Shattered to powder: 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.

Clate reaches for one of the skulls but after a moment decides that maybe doing so isn't a good idea. They don't look dangerous but...something feels wrong about doing it. When He sees Nyw reaching to tear some fabric down, he intercedes, putting his hand on the Undead's arm.  Nyw looks at him and Clate shakes his...well he sort of shakes his entire torso since he can't really emote too well in his exoskeleton.  "Feels wrong."

Meanwhile Auft prods her bodyguard into action and he slinks forward carefully, moving between the bodies. As he does, Drett thinks back and realizes that one of the guardians did have a pair of weapons that looked like those. Ironteeth tip toes right up to the body and carefully prods it with one finger. Nothing happens.

[Caellath]

"Could you please stop touching me with your tongue? I think that's enough for now."

Wait?

Spoiler: Vikkan Laerthe, Human Bore Driver (click to show/hide)

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.
 
Stats
Str: 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.

[Pancaek]

"I don't know, nister deceased, I think we shouldn't be touching this stuff. I want to pilfer as much as the next guy, but something feels wrong. This room has some baaaaad feng shui."