((Sorry for the long post, going to have to conclude my business ASAP since RC is in a great hurry for some reason.))
First, find a representative of the Ethral Archives. Ask them if they know of any Giant Ant Nests near the intersection of God's Breath and Providence River. If not, then give them the coordinates with the request that they spread the knowledge to others so that nobody else accidentally stumbles upon it. Try to secure something in return, maybe some questions answered or a bit of favor or fame?
Second, find some church official and ask how we could set up a meeting with Deep Walker Leon. Mention the documents I have, if it would help. If it's a long process, I should probably start taking whatever steps are needed to set up the meeting. However, I don't want to have the meeting right now, since Oz said he really wanted to be there with us.
Finally, check the price for a bipod and scope for the Ethral Rifle.
...
If I added a scope, I assume it would no longer be able to use the Rifle skill on it and require the Sniper Rifle skill, right? I'm thinking I could probably mount the scope on a 45° angle and use a rotating bipod (or maybe just a rotating scope mount) to allow me to use either the normal sights or the scope. Since I'm going to need to set up to fire, might as well go all the way.
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
Inventory14 fathoms
Ethral Rifle (rifle 3, pierce 3) 6/7
2 Ethral Rifle magazines 7/7
Field Lighter (Fire 2)
Ethral Silk rope 100 ft
Grappling Hook
Simple Clothes
Kara's DiaryIn StorageCrystal Tablets (diary about some construction project, 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
1. You find a local office for the Archive and ask about the ants. They tell you that they have tracked a "Vein" of them that runs near the cave. They tell you it probably comes from somewhere deeper and that there are several more tunnels around there, but they haven't found the source. They tell you that information about the source of the ants would be something they'd pay for. But not what you have so far.
2. You take the crawler into town (-1 fathom) and find some of the church offices. You use the paperwork to talk to someone higher up who tells you that Leon is in the Cathedral of the Pilgrim, and your paper work should let you in to see him whenever you like.
3. 10 fathoms. Weapon skills are connected to the weapon itself, so modifications won't change that. However, the scope would give advantage while shooting at distant targets.
Look around this bookshop some more, any interesting books or scrolls they have? Especially pertaining to diving or magical artifacts (eg those knives that cut holes for transportation).
Then, get everything ready for us to go again, we still have a long trip ahead of 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.
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
Inventory1 soldier chestplate
Clothing: simple priest robes, shortened a bit so as to less restrict his movements
1 ethral rifle [10 rounds] (pierce 2)
2 black flame
2 Silent Night
5 worm blood
1 minor artifact
1 beaker artifact (found in crystal ruins)
1 crystal construct
Transport mission papers
1 black book copy
1 black book
1 empyrean city map
1 field lighter
1 radio
37 fathoms
-loaned 40 to Cara (Tiruin)
297 fathoms (payment from pilgrim escort)
1 unspent skillpoint
Information on diving and the artifacts created with it is jealously guarded by the church in most respects. Its their greatest weapon and their claim to power so they don't want to spread its secrets willy nilly. Information on it outside of official church documents that rarely make their way outside the Church's walls is rare. But within the holy city, you might get lucky.
You search through the documents and find a book entitled "Artifacts of Faith" which seems to talk about some of the instruments used by the church. The seller wants 30 fathoms for it. A quick flip through does show various sketches of items and diagrams but the seller harasses you constantly, berating you for reading it instead of buying it. You don't get too good of a look, but it looks promising.
”books!”
Ask the guy for any summoning spells, and also see if theres any occult junk.
There are no books of summoning spells. Which, considering the nature of Diving, its not surprising. A Codex about the animals of other spheres would probably be more useful to a would be summoner than a spellbook.
The book seller isn't selling junk but others are. There are plenty of relic sellers around with ashes and bones and jewelry they claim is from saints, as well as countless items they say have come in contact with holy places or holy people. Chthonic prayer beads, each bead said to have been brought to a different shrine or level of depth, are sold in the hundreds. Any of these things would work as occult junk.
Follow Kara. Try to have a look around the areas she goes to while she's busy talking and having meetings, so I don't have to wait while doing nothing.
Name: Kalagony
Description: Kalagony is a short but muscular Mole-man. He's a martial arts fanatic, and willingly replaced his healthy arm with a mechanical version just to improve his lethality in melee combat. He has a particularly large tentacled star-shaped snout and a small pair of black, beady eyes. His hair is dark brown.
Goal: His life goal is to challenge and fight against the best warriors in the world, to crush his opponents and claim the title of the strongest fighter.
Stats:
Str:15
Dex:11
Spe:8
End:13
Awa:11
Cun:10
Kno:10
Ner:11
Skills:
Unarmed: 3 (2+1 Mole-Man Claws)
Defense Skill: Mechanical arm Block: 3
Caving: 1
(1 Unused Skill Point)
Inventory:
Mechanical arm (Right arm, claw weapon)
Grappling Hook
Silk Rope (100 feet)
Field Lighter
Martial Arts Gi
(-1 fathom)
You follow Kara around, mostly just sight seeing as she goes about her business. The office for the Archive is small but has that Ethral craftsmothship that they're known for. Its located in the market district, a while outside the great stalactite towers of the Church, carved into a natural stalactite. All the buildings here are, each massive stalactite like an inverted sky scraper honeycombed with tunnels and buildings carved into the stone or anchored to it, connected to neighboring growths by a webwork of stone bridges. The office itself is very skinny, caught between two other structures. Its 5 stories tall and quite long but only about 15 feet wide. You never see much of it, the front is just a small room with a dividing wall separating it from the rest of the office. A bank teller sort of set up with an Ethral behind the wall, speaking through a glass window, is how Kara interacts with them. You can see through the window to a well organized room packed with shelving from floor to ceiling and tables covered in precisely aligned stacks of books and papers.
The church section of the city is of course the most impressive an ornate, though you never see much of it up close. The mist obscures everything except the broad details. You can make out the unimaginable size of the cathedrals and the sheer number of structures but nothing of their design. The office you get taken to is a purely functional thing, aside from some simple adornments, and it sits far out on the edge of the cathedral district.
"I'll explore a little. Does anyone want to come with me?".
Check if there are professional medics offering clockwork limb installations and how much it'd cost. Also see if anyone has any information on strange reactions caused by a black flame touching something.
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 can get your hand installed here for 20 fathoms.
You don't find any hard information, but you do find rumors that the black flames protect from otherworldly threats. It might activate in certain circumstances in reaction to things from other spheres.
Vive La Cuddle Puddle.
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)
14 fathoms
Continue cuddling while we're all nice and snuggled up in the bore.
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 )
Cuddle intensifies.
Auft trills happily.
"Never mind!"
Continue heading up path. Remind myself what happens to object taken or left in here when we return to the waking world.
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 [7/7]
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.
Objects left are lost. Some objects can be taken, though not all. It seems to be related to their significance in the dream.
"That was fairly easy, good job Nyw."
Follow the path, take the moon blade if no one else takes it.
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) 9/10
8 Structural Junk
Grappling Hook
You scoop up the moon bladed staff. It feels cold and tingly in your hands.
Follow along with Ashul. Keep my eyes peeled for anything interesting.
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, 10/10 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
Follow the group.
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 "Guarding others within this dive-trance-dream-thing which he does not understand".
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]
Crystal Murakumo [Cut 6, Pierce 3, Fragile]
Ornamental Mask of the Child
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.
Relic Team
"Yes, excellent work everyone. Especially you, Honored One.
Expect four more battles before we can collect the Core of this Relic, everyone."
Gather up my rope. Move up past the ruined part of the path with everyone else. Ifweencounter the next idol guardian this round, get a good look at them.
Name: AsHul
Description:Former human. Awful, ugly, indifferent
Goal:To find God
Stats
Str:10 Dex:9 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)
3 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:Anvil: Local parish: currently looking for 8 to do a communal vision with a minor relic to extract the relic core.
Travellers' guild is offering a relic retrieval job. Local hazards ('living').
a small garden or sitting area, hemmed in by a wooden fence painted bright red.
You're sitting on low stone benches arrayed in a circle around a two meter tall cairn.
Beyond the red fence are carefully tended trees.
Snow lies on the ground in an uneven layer.
Your garden is surrounded by stone walls.
A path made of smooth river stones laid into the earth curves out of the garden, through an arched entry in the stone wall and out onto a thin, carved rock path that immediately curves away to the right.
The entire place seems to be situated on a mountain peak;
on the opposite side of the archway there lies the gray black mass of the mountain and you can see further buildings up there, connected by a spiraling path that was cut into the stone. Structures cling to the rock or are carved directly out of it. It all looks quite idyllic and calm.
The entire massive chunk of stone-buildings and all- is bouncing down the side of an unimaginably vast mountain.
Everyone quickly skedaddles, jogging along through the smashed section of the hill and up the shattered steps towards the temple. The stairs lead to a square courtyard enclosed in a tall wall made of cob and painted in a sunny yellow with a sharp roof of sorts made from bright orange-red tiles. There's a final Torii gate serving as the actual gateway into the courtyard and when you pass through it something changes. The courtyard is maybe 50 feet square; at its center is a massive tree that must stand several stories high with branches that stretch out to cover over the entire courtyard like a roof. Other than that the entire area is a flat expanse of flagstones in expanding concentric circles, like ripples expanding from the tree. The flag stones around the tree are uneven and it is clear that the tree has grown greatly, lifting and pushing away the stones nearest to it. On the left and right side of the courtyard, the wall is not simply a wall, but a pair of parallel living quarters that extend out from the main temple itself. Its two stories tall, with rows of wooden doors set into the cob and red wood pillars holding up the overhanging roof that doubles as the pathway that allows people to reach the second story rooms.
As soon as you enter the courtyard the world goes wild. Instead of the falling mountain you see a normal sky, no churning or tumbling. Instead, as you watch, the sun drifts across the sky. It moves almost imperceptibly at first, then very slow, then quicker. The first day passes in the span of maybe 15seconds, sun replaced by quickly drifting stars and throwing the courtyard into darkness. During the maybe 10 seconds of that first night, torches alight along the left and right walls and then snuff themselves out again as day breaks. The next day lasts 10 seconds, then 5, than 3. The sun speeds its path until it is nothing but a streak of light, and then it goes even faster. The tree breaks into bloom, radiant pink and red flowers bursting like silent fireworks across its branches. The sky spins ever faster, night and day becoming a strobe of of darkness and light. Flower pedals fall with absurd speed, like a downpour of rain. And then the sky stops; stops instantly with suddenness that seems almost violent. And the world holds still, pedals holding in air. Then the sun begins to roll backwards, slowly at first but building up speed. Pedals drift upwards and reform into flowers, their speed increasing with that of the sun. Everything rolls back, exactly as it did before but in reverse. And then it stops, and begins to more forward once more, building up speed. The time for any of these cycles forward or back cycles is maybe a minute at most.
During the third forward cycle, amidst a storm of falling pedals, the second guardian drops from somewhere in the tree. It hits the ground like a ricocheting bullet and streaks towards the group. They can see it only for a split second, only get an impression of it. It looks something like a mantis and a man crossed, with four arms and head wearing the mask of an inverted triangle. A flash of insect wings, a glint of yellow carapace, and the gleam of a huge headsman's ax in the shape of a half moon.
[18][14][19]
Ashul is the one who lead everyone in and thus the one furthest into the the courtyard and closest to the guardian. He tries to dodge, but isn't fast enough. Nyw tries to interpose himself between Ashul and the attack, but he doesn't react quickly enough. The halfmoon ax flashes out, drawing sparks where it clips the flagstones and whips up in an arc that catches Ashul under the floating ribs and cuts straight to the spine before the force of the blow hurls Ashul away like a rag doll. The diver spins through the air, spraying dark red arterial blood in elegant spirals before he lands in a heap 20 feet away, near the far right wall.
The guardian, which at this range bares more a resemblance to a huge locust, springs backwards on its long, thin, spine coated legs. It does a backflip that carries it 30 feet and vanishes into the tree and the flow of pedals.
Author
Topic: DIG: Heresy (Read 410884 times)