"Huh. I guess those gemstone people really like their constructs." Kara said to herself as she marveled at her surroundings and specifically the creature before her.
"I don't blame them, they look really shiny." she whispered as she slowly inched closer.
"I wonder..." she continued speaking to herself as she began unbuttoning her shirt. The chill of the room made her shiver, but she barely noticed. Her eyes remained focused on her target.
Sorry for the long action, but I want to get this done before the room blows up.
1. Do I know of any old languages the Gemstone people might have understood? If yes, try speaking to the construct in that language, ordering it to open the door. If no, try anyway using my language, maybe I'll get lucky. Also think that order at it really hard, in case it makes a difference.
2. Do I know if this thing is some sort of security construct or similar dangerous thing that is likely to harm me the moment I get close? If yes, then ignore the below.
3. If the above fails, slowly approach the creature as I remove my shirt. Try to approach it from behind, if possible. (Behind meaning the direction opposite to the one it's moving, so that it doesn't step on me).
4. If the creature doesn't react to me in a hostile manner, then use my shirt to grab its body and then turn it/push it towards the doorway. If some other way to herd it to the door becomes apparent, use that instead.
My main aim is to move it towards the doorway. If I'm lucky, maybe the doorway will open when it approaches. Be sure to follow it through before the door closes, if it does open.
Edit: And if the door does open, don't let anything bad happen to my new friend. You know, if there's a chasm on the other side turn it around before it falls, if there's lava turn it around before it walks in, stuff like that.
5. If I can herd it but can't use it to open the door, at least try to get it to cover.
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).
StatsStr:8
Dex:13
Spe:13
End:6
Awa:12
Cun:10
Kno:8 + 3 = 11
Ner:10
SkillsRifle: 1
Medical: 1
Translate: 1
Acrobatics: 1
Caving: 1
Machine Control: 1
Stealth: 1
Geology: 1
Archeology: 1
Navigation: 1
InventorySimple Clothes (no shirt)
Shirt
Ethral Rifle (rifle 3, pierce 3) 7/7
Field Lighter (Fire 2)
Kara's Diary
1. No one knows what their spoken language is like, only the written form has remained. You try ordering it in your language but it either doesn't understand or doesn't care.
2. [9] If it is a security construct its certainly bad at its job. You're almost certain this thing isn't a security device.
3. Not sure I ever specified size here but the thing is about 2 feet tall. You walk up behind it and catch it in your shirt. You lift it off the ground and its stumpy little legs continue to move as though walking for a few seconds and then go limp.
4.You walk over to the doorway and bring it near the slab of a door. Nothing happens. You press it up against the door and it sinks in as though the wall was made of a viscous goo. You find that, so long as you are holding it, you can pass through with it; you get your arms all the way through to the elbow before pulling yourself and the construct back.
"This is much better, now if they had only constructed their buildings like normal races."
Alex smiled as he looked at the doorway across the room. "Take cover, I'll create us a door." He said as he took out his TNT.
Wait until everyone has performed their actions then stick the TNT cube on the wall, light the fuse and take cover if they haven't managed to open a door.
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: 10
Spe: 10
End: 10
Awa: 10
Cun: 12
Kno: 10
Ner: 10
Skills:
Explosives 2
Mechanical 1
Survival 1
Caving 1
Chemical 2
Geology 1
Inventory:
Dynamo Lantern
Field Lighter
3 TNT
Bladed Shovel
Mail Shirt
8 Fathoms
Try to identify the crystalthing before it gets fondled! Stop them if it'd be dangerous to.
Desc: Coated wholly in downy white bugfur, he is crowned with two fuzzy antennae and collared by a just-as-fluffy mane. His limbs are dainty, almost gangly if it weren't for his 4 hand a half foot stature. His cloak is a mottled light gray, able to blend in better with the environment than his alabaster being. A silver mask adorns his face, with a circle carve in the top third, stylized lightrays splitting the mask in half and coming down in symmetrical angles. The eyeslits are angled, almost malevolent looking.
Goal: Concerned with the Light of Knowledge, Drett has taken it upon himself to study the complexities of biological organisms, and lesser so, how those organisms may bond and interact with the world around them. Having learned all he could of Ethrals, he has signed onto the bore in order to better understand those species he coexists with
Str:7 Dex:12 Spe:10 End:8 Awa:7 Cun:14 Kno:15 Ner:10
Medical +2
Biological +2
Mechanical +1
Chemical +1
Occult +1
Archeology +1
1x Doctor's Bag - 25
1x Field Lighter -3
6x Cave Spider Venom - 18
Fathoms - 10
Stand ready to attack the crystal being if it reacts to Kara in a hostile manner.
Name: Rick. No last name, just Rick.
Race: Mole-Man
Description: Rick is muscular and tall, even by mole-men standards. His fur is black and generally messy. His body bears many scars from past battles, most notably one over his left eye.
Goal: Rick's goal is to become stronger, maybe even strong enough to one day face the horrors of the surface.
Stats
Str: 12 + 1
Dex: 10 + 1
Spe: 8
End: 12 + 1
Awa: 10
Cun: 9
Kno: 9
Ner: 10
Skills:
Unarmed + 3
Survival + 1
Navigation + 1
Acrobatics + 1
Animal Handling + 1
Inventory:
7 + 4 + 7 = 18 + 20 = 38Ordinary Clothes (-0)
Mail Shirt (-20)
Grappling Hook (-10)
Cave Spider Venom (-3)
100 feet of Silk Rope (-5)
Take cover outside the doorway. If Alex blows himself up, loot his corpse.
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.
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:10
Dex:11
Spe:10
End:10
Awa:10
Cun:12
Kno:10
Ner:10
Skills
Weapon smith (3)
Mechanical (2)
Lucky Shot (1)
Inventory
Several large chunks of blue crystal
Lucky Shot (7 rounds)
Field Lighter
10 Path Markers
2 units structural junk
2 units mechanical junk
Wait for the explosion, then pickup some of the leftover chunks.
Name: Moku Youkou
Race: Abomination Shang-Gei
Description: A female Shang-Gei cloaked in a heavy and rough looking worm wool coat. Underneath the clothing, is a heavily mutated figure. Her scales has been coat in plastic, giving each one a iridescent sheen to them.Spikes of melded plastic, metal and circuitry are studded haphazardly, the largest one is a foot long, spearing right above her pelvis. Her tongues have been replaced with metal tendils that sneak in and out of her mouth when she is not paying attention.
Goal: To "find" her mate.
Stats:
Strength: 9
Dexterity: 8
Speed: 8
Endurance: 10
Awareness: 12
Cunning: 12
Knowledge: 11
Nerve: 11 (temp -2)
Skills:
Medical: +2
Machine Control: +1
Electronics: +1
Mechanical: +1
Armorsmith: +1
Occult: +1
Diving: +1
Stealth +1
Inventory:
Fathoms:16
Relic fragment
Bladed Shovel
Clothing with ? Balarim Jal
Gonna call these actions Moot since they no longer need to happen or can't happen because the explosion didn't happen.
"Bookshelf? Are those crystal books?
Grab some of those slabs on the left. Preferably before the church human gets his sweaty hands on them and presumably ascribes them to his god or something.
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: 7
Dex: 12
Spe: 10
End: 8
Awa: 7
Cun: 15
Kno: 13
Ner: 11
Skills:
Weaponsmith 2
Diving 2
Pistol 1
Bore 1
Translate 1
Stealth 1
Inventory:
Silk cloak
Copper mask
Ethral revolver 6/6
1 Fathom
Go grab those irregular stone slabs, grab a chair and pull it up if I can't reach. Anything interesting to be gleaned from them?
Oh, and if things are getting blown up, get out of the room or at least find some cover.
"Where to guys?"
"Through that doorway over there I suppose, though how we'll get through there remains to be se-"
Alex smiled as he looked at the doorway across the room. "Take cover, I'll create us a door." He said as he took out his TNT.
"BROTHER ALEX! Please, give us a moment to see if we can just open the door before you blow it up! "
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.
Goal: Plunge the secrets of the depths below to find an answer to the horrors above.
Stats
Str: 10
Dex: 10
Spe: 10
End: 10
Awa: 10
Cun: 10
Kno: 10
Ner: 13
Skills
Diving: +3
Stealth: +2
Occult: +1
Inventory
Clothing: simple priest robes, shortened a bit so as to less restrict his movements
1 minor artifact
1 black book copy
1 black flame
1 Silent Night
1 field lighter
23 fathoms
The shelf is a good 4-5 meters off the ground, up on a wall, so reaching it normally would be basically impossible. Saddled with such a task, Wiellste and Adam decide to team up- just this once- in the pursuit of Higher learning and "Phat loot". After a bit of negotiating and planning, the decide the best plan is for Adam to throw Wiellste and hopefully she'll be light enough to glide to it. [10] Adam's throw is a little too shallow and Wiellste ends of drifting past just under the shelf. [16] She tries to grab the wall or bounce off it, to jump back towards the shelf, but she ends up just sliding down the wall and landing with a puff of dust on the hard slab bed.
Take cover as Alex blows the place up.
Look around for clues without risking head to TNT explosion.
Nice sheet ya freaking dinosaur.
Clate stares at the ceiling barrels, mumbling slightly
"Yeah. Yeah, that there looks like good crafting."
If TNT is getting used, get in cover.
Can I reach these ceiling barrels somehow? If so, I'd like to take one down and inspect it, without trying to open it yet. Just see if I get a feel about how they're supposed to open. If nothing bad happens, gather as many barrels as I can carry with me.
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: 10
Spe: 8
End: 10
Awa: 9
Cun: 16 (+3)
Kno: 12
Ner:10
Skills
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.
Bladed Shovel
Silk rope (100ft)
TNT x3
Dynamo lantern
Field lighter
Path markers x10
1 structural junk
5 Fathoms
[14]
Hmm. They're up there pretty far. Made of stone too. They wouldn't be staying up there unless they were attached somehow, maybe fused into the stone? Maybe part of it. Getting up to them is going to be difficult without...oh a grappling hook or something. Maybe something like a pickax or two to scale the wall? These Crystal people manipulated stone so they probably would just cause these things to slide down and open up when they wanted something. Forcing it is going to be hard. Maybe one of their constructs might have the ability to manipulate the stone? Or maybe there's a tool they used?
Vikkan was a bit surprised by Kara starting to unbutton her shirt. The fact the Corven didn't have mammaries didn't make the action less strange thanks to ingrained culture about humans and their habit of keeping their upper bodies covered. The feeling of strangeness was partially mitigated when he figured out she wanted to do something risky with the crystal being.
"Yes, it might be a good idea to wait before resorting to explosions."
Look around for loot, escape and take cover in case anyone tries anything dangerous.
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.
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: 10
Dex: 10
Spe: 10
End: 10
Awa: 13
Cun: 10
Kno: 10
Ner: 10
Skills
+3 Vehicle (Bore)
+2 Navigation
+1 Defense (Mail Shirt)
Inventory
-Conductor's Clothes
-Dynamo Lantern
-Black Flame
-Black Book (Copy)
-Field Lighter
-Mail Shirt
-2 Fathoms
There are several items of potential loot in here but as the rest of your teammates are finding out, they're quite hard to reach by conventional means.
Move to the weird doorway in the wall and poke it a few times, see if it opens magically or something. Lay a hand on it and focus on it opening. Then maybe punch it a bit. Generally just molest the wall until it stops blocking our path, and go through once it does. If it doesn't, shrug and either follow whatever entrance has been created by another person's meddling, or leave the room and brace while Alex blows a hole in something. Then climb through said hole, if there's no magma or forest of crystal blades or whatever on the other side..
Name: Nyw'geuq Otin Sunam; calls himself "The Lords' Child"
Description:
((Without the murakumos.))
Goal: Inscrutable, which is code for "Explicitly stated goals are a boring way to get across what should be plain by roleplay".
Stats:Str:14
Dex:8
Spe:10
End:14
Awa:13
Cun:8
Kno:6
Ner:10
Skills:Unarmed: +1
Defense Skill: +3 (Full Plate)
Vehicle Skill: +1
Caving: +1
Navigation: +1
Inventory:
Full Plate Armor (Protective 4)
Ornamental Mask of the Child
After Kara is finished with her tests you perform a few of your own. You poke the wall, but unlike Kara and her construct, your finger finds the stone unyielding. You try again, this time focusing on opening it. It holds firm. You punch it, and it does what stone walls do. Hmm.
Continue doing nothing. Ride the Storm, be the Storm. Politely decline to have my head tinkered with by an unpracticed Diver.
Name: AsHul
Description:Former human. Awful, ugly, indifferent
Goal:To find God
Stats
Str:9 Dex:8 Spe:8 End:10 Awa:12 Cun:10 Kno:10 Ner:16
Skills
Diving: 3
Animal Handling: 2
Survival: 1
Inventory
Relic Fragment
Black Book (copy)
1 Silent Night - calming. gives advantage on diving rolls
4 Worm Blood - steadies nerves
2 Occult Junks
2 Fathoms (One magnetically welded to the wall of his room in the Bore)
If AsHul allows me to, take his Relic Fragment and use diving to cure him. I'm going to use Yengenze (Mind) then Udyne (Undo), with the intention of undoing the effects of the Silent Night. Reinforce both once.
Name: Lokam Pilgrim
Description: Lokam is an Ethral Aspirant of the Tenebrous Chruch currently on pilgrimage. His soft fur is pale yellow, his large and fuzzy mane is golden and antennae and wings are dark purple with white details. His antennae, unlike most Ethral, are also very long and fluffy. Most of the time, he's wearing his silky church robes, which also have a hood included. His mask is very dark purple, with bright yellow spirals and curves, similar to tentacles.
Goal: His goal is to just complete his pilgrimage and ascend in the chruch. He wishes to go as deep as possible and someday become a Living Saint, Stygian or even a member of the Council. But his dream is to someday go deeper than everyone, reach the center and finally find God.
Stats:
Str: 7
Dex: 12
Spe: 10
End: 8
Awa: 7
Cun: 13
Kno: 13
Ner: 13
Skills:
Diving: 3
Caving: 1
Navigation: 1
Survival: 1
Translate: 1
Inventory:
The Black Book (Real)
Black Flame
Bag of Path Markers
Silk Aspirant Gray Robes
Purple Mask
Lokam leans down to Ashul and asks, very quietly, if he can borrow Ashul's relic fragment to attempt a dive. Ashul doesn't say anything but he waves a hand dismissively. After Lokam just sort of sits quietly next to him for a few moments, Ashul looks up and croaks out a response.
"Better to tough it out than get my head erased. No offense."