Slide down. Get to the bottom first. Grab that artifact, wrapping it around my shirt. Then run away in the direction opposite to the one the possessed is. Imagine myself as the world's most fragile American football player.
Edit: If it looks like I and the others can't prevent her from reaching the artifact (I either can't get there in time or can't escape once there), then shoot her dead. If shooting doesn't work and I can't escape, then throw the artifact to someone else.
Edit2: Also shoot her dead if she tries to hurt Vikkan.
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
InventoryShirt
Ethral Rifle (rifle 3, pierce 3) 7/7
Field Lighter (Fire 2)
Simple Clothes (no shirt)
Kara's Diary
"Wrapping it around my shirt"
[15]
You leap from the doorway and onto the sloped floor, sliding down at high speed towards the artifact. You attempt to position yourself such that you can slide to the bottom, land on your feet and grab the artifact, but you end up doing a slide tackle into the artifact itself. You hit it with both feet and it shoots off up the opposite slope and into the spikes on the opposite side, wedging in place between three of them.
Follow Kara down, don't get in front of her in case she takes a shot. When she grabs the artifact, get between her and the floating abomination, then tackle it if it tries to intercept Kara. Rip the wires out of the lizard if it's caught. Do not release it, regardless.
"No. However, we may have something strong enough."
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
[3]
You slide down after Kara, remaining on your feet the whole time via some extremely skilled leaning and redistribution of weight. Kara ends up at the bottom in a heap so you slide in to stand over her, getting between her and the possessed lizard.
"Why, what will happen if they get the artifact?!" Vikkan asked as he quickly got the Black Flame off his neck and grasped it like a knife in his left hand. That wasn't the kind of thing he'd been expecting or hoping for. He was just a conductor, not a handler of possessed people!
Try to cut off one of the wires with the Black Flame.
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
[3,6]
You back up a few feet and then take a running leap towards the possessed woman. She's lowering herself down towards the center of the room so from the edge you actually have a good shot at reaching her. You fly through open air, arms and legs wheeling about, and slam into the possessed woman's lower body. You wrap yourself around her with three limbs and with your free hand pull your Black Flame pendant out from in your shirt. You shift your grip to bring its sharpened edge to bear and press it against the metal wire. This is a last ditch effort really, you don't expect the blade to cut through the solid metal, but something surprising happens. The instant the pendant touches the metal it ceases to be a simple sharpened chunk of obsidian. It erupts into true black flame, an impossible blade of burning nothing which seems to suck all the air out of the room while crushing everyone with incalculable pressure. The blade cuts through the wire in a spray of inverse sparks and then....
Kara, Nyw, Vikkan, and Moku find themselves sitting at the bottom of a sloped pit sort of thing. They look around. They have no idea why they're here. Last they they remember is going out into the hall or starting a dive in Moku's case. The stump of Vikkan's right hand is bleeding. This is very odd to him because he's never had a right hand so he's not sure why it would start bleeding now. They get up and get the impression that this room looks important. Kara, eye for shiny things, notices the flaming orb stuck up among some spikes. They're not really sure how, but they seem to have found the artifact!
[Vikkan -black flame, -right hand]
Try to wake up from being unconscious and get bearings.
Gonna assume you're with the two guys below.
Catch up with Kara and her group. Also remember how large the blast radius of TNT is.
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:
Crystal Creature
Dynamo Lantern
Field Lighter
3 TNT
Bladed Shovel
Mail Shirt
8 Fathoms
"Stupid crystal ruins."
Follow Alex, if he's moving anywhere. Try to think of any ways in which I could be helpful right now. Or anything I could do to increase my chanced of surviving this.
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
Alex, Wiellste and Aigresaur walk up to the sealed door to the artifact room. They stop and all suddenly come to the realization that they don't know why they're here. They have a vague recollection of chasing a group of others but...they don't know why. None the less they use the crystal to push through the sealed door and into the artifact room, joining up with the rest.
((TNT's blast radius is pretty big, bigger if you include potential debris flying out. 30 feet with some solid cover is probably ok; a good deal longer if you don't have cover))
Gods above and below... CUT THE DAMN WIRES! The last thing we need is for this thing to get that damnable artifact! Drett shouts, hoping anyone has any way of removing this threat, It's all our lives on the line!
Consider the cost to making a pneumatic syringe rifle. That would be really handy to deliver paralyzing venom and other drugs from a distance.
Drett Medizin, Ethral- Str: 07
- Dex: 12
- Spe: 10
- End: 08
- Awa: 07
- Cun: 14
- Kno: 15
- Ner: 10
SKILLS:- Medical +2
- Biological +2
- Mechanical +1
- Chemical +1
- Occult +1
- Archeology +1
INVENTORY:- Doctor's Bag x1
- Field Lighter x1
- Cave Spider Venom x6
- Fathoms x10
You find yourself standing on the edge of the artifact room with no real idea why or how you got here. You have this idea in your head about a dart gun but you can't say why. You think buying one would be like...20 fathoms or something? Why are you thinking about this?
"My victory candescence awaits, it would appear."
Now that I can see a bit, is there any way off this conveyor? up over the wall, perhaps? An Emergency stop cord or button?
If I can reasonably safely dismount before getting toasted, I'll do so.
If not, I'll grab hold of the Thing behind me and UnDive (aka back to Akhmah).
Goal is to bring the Thing with me, if possible.
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)
The conveyor appears to be entirely enclosed in metal, no buttons or cords or anything. Hmm. You place a hand on the nearest...thing...and wait to see what lies around the corner. If its death, you'll run. If not you'll stick around. You hit the turn in the conveyor and a moment later you're out in open space. The conveyor leads out of a hole in a seemingly infinite metal wall and into an equally infinite abyss. This massive expanse of open air is absolutely packed with an uncountable number of conveyor bets. They weave among one another in absurd fashion, braided and twirling, looping and defying gravity with their loads. And among them countless supports and scaffolding to hold them, and among these endless mechanical limbs tweaking, building, transporting, shifting loads from one belt to another. A furnace or crucible trundles by just overhead, its huge payload of molten metal visible as it hangs upside down. The spectacle is so grand, so vast, such a chaotic mess of motion, that you cannot even begin to understand it. What you can understand, however, are the mechanical arms up ahead that are picking these strange metal cones up off the belt and carrying them off somewhere above.
Curl and fall asleep in the ground out of boredom.
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
[Sleeping Moth Noises]
Try to break of some large branches of the tree to take with me.
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 (6 rounds)
Field Lighter
10 Path Markers
2 units structural junk
2 units mechanical junk
You grab one of the branches and give it a tug. It snaps easily so you do the same with several more, gathering 5 fairly large branches of crystalline lead.
"Hey, compatriot, if you manage some of those branches, mind if I take one for experimentation purposes?
Also, could you give me a hand here? We still have a third barrel to break open."
Neat. Check if I can see anything other than the magnetizing chrome foil in barrel 2.
If Harm gives me a hand, try to lift up the third barrel with the two of us and then drop it to the floor, in order to break it open. If she doens't, I doubt I could lift it by myself so just give it a few good whacks with the shovel instead.
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
You roll the barrel back and forth a bit. The foil covers most of the stuff in there but you think there are things under it.
Harm seems too busy picking toxic plants to help so you go to town with your shovel. [7] You hit it dead center with the shovel and the third barrel splits in half so cleanly and easily that you'd almost think it was designed to do that. Inside the barrel are more of those octahedron things along with a large rod of what looks like polished Labradorite, complete with its distinctive blue-green adularescence.
Author
Topic: DIG: Heresy (Read 414020 times)