Communicate with my invader. Attempt to discern it's goal and if some kind of non-violent resolution is possible. Meanwhile consider AsHul's options regarding more aggressive resistance as in the spoiler:
nonviolent
1) maybe some permanent mechanical shrine in the natural world
2) fulfilling a gaes: a quest or ritual to enact on behalf of the entity, wiht terms and conditions and repercussions for failure
3) let AsHul retain his control of his own body but allow the entity some connection, like a readio transceiver or like an attached systes sphere or some such
4) ?
aggressive
1) sacrificing items and stats to attempt to push the being out
2) Diving to either undo or control the situation
3) Diving into Balaram to confront the source of the entity in a battle of wills
4) Diving to sever the link to the sphere
5) sacrificing body parts
6) attempting to drop out of the Vision, leaving the entity behind.
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)
2 Silent Night
6 Worm Blood
100 ft of rope
1 knife (cut/pierce 2)
2 Occult Junks
59 Fathoms (One magnetically welded to the wall of his room in the Bore, one "shiny," 57 standard)
168 Fathoms (Team Account. Kept on AsHul's person for safekeeping. Stored separately from his personal funds.
Stored at warehouse during Relic Vision:
Firing Control Module (Brass Brain)
Book of sheet music (from Balaram) [stack of about 100 pages bound by three brass rings along the top of the sheets]
his former bomb collar - made of something like demagnetized neodymium.
One Bone-fretted haunted electric guitar
One mundane acoustic guitar with wave patterns in abalone and turquoise
Notes:
Travellers' guild is offering a relic retrieval job. Local hazards ('living').
[15]
You are aware of your existence, which is a positive considering this thing is running around in your neurons and nervous system like worms through a burrow. However attempting to communicate with this creature seems a disastrous idea. The inhuman thinkers of the outer planes are not friendly and are often completely incomprehensible. You're pretty sure that the thing in you now is one of the machine beasts; they are obsessive, violent, and will change by force anything which does not fall into their guidelines. They are the maintainers of the planet spanning mechanisms of their particular sphere and everything runs like clockwork because of their influence.
You consider that you have one option; either force this thing out or somehow interfere with its control enough to let your companions restrain you.
DO THIS THING I DIDN'T END UP DOING LAST TURN
Should probably get an action in then!
Stay the FUCK away from both the guardian and the new demonspawn thing. I'm a doktor, not a fighter. Let them do their thing. Maybe fire off a retreating shot as time flows backwards.
Character Sheet
oops. Lets see...
[9]
Well fug. We'll say you shot him as time reversed. Not a good enough hit to straight out kill him, but you definitely injured him. One or two more like that and he'll go down.
"I'm alright, just don't make a habit out of it."
Observe Cyber-AsHul and how he's wielding the moon blade.
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) 7/10
8 Structural Junk
Grappling Hook
Moon bladed staff: Currently wielded by Cyber-AsHul (Cut 4)
Auft makes cute little sad trilling sounds.
"Sorry Alex, almost had him."
Treat Alex's arm while Machine Beetle deals with the locust. Have thug screen us.
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 [5/7]
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.
Thug
Knife (Cut/Pierce 2)
Soldier Chestplate
Slave Trap
Alex seems entirely concentrated on the angry radiator that used to be Ashul so Auft gets her thug to physically drag him over so she can provide first aid for the bullet wound. A wound Alex seems to be ignoring despite the rather messy chuck of missing bicep. [12] Auft works rapidly, applying a few sutures and then tightly bandaging the wound. It stops the bleeding at least.
[5] Alex stares at the Ashul thing and notices that when he throws out those blades of light, he's not doing anything different physically from a normal swing. He must be doing something extra-physically. Thinking about something maybe?
Let MechaAshul do his thing. Be ready to dodge should the big bad beetle guardian come for my ass.
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, 8/10 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
You do basically nothing, But I do know that you're here, at least.
The guardian, now bleeding from a hole in the the carapace of its chest, drops from the falling tree and springs at the Mech-Ashul. Ashul throws another blade of light, which goes wide and slices through several pillars on the side of the courtyard, partially collapsing the second story roof. The two clash, their blades clanging off each other. The guardian's blow is far harder and heavier but Mech-ashul manages to sweep it aside and into the flagstones. The falling tree slams into the side of the courtyard as time speeds up and crushes in half the building over there.
Time slows to a stop, getting ready to rush backwards again.
"That thing... I'm almost certain it's dangerous. Are you sure about this, Human? What if something goes wrong?"
"Am I certain that it is without danger? No, I cannot in good conscience say there is no risk whatsoever involved when interacting with what appears to be an echo from creation. But based on what I know of this entity I think the risk is acceptable, and I am willing to take said risk on myself to figure out what it is doing here. Of course I wouldn't want to expose anyone else to any avoidable danger, so if you can help us find a way for me to get closer while keeping the bore away that'd help a lot."
"You can always use the winch if you're certain you want to reach out. 300 feet of rope should be enough."
"Yeah, good point, but that leaves open the question of how to get close enough to that thing, preferably without swinging across half the cave? I'm a mystic not an acrobat!"
Could we fashion a simple ladder that could reach up to the 'core' of the word with what we have on hand on the bore right now?
For the piton swinging idea, I take it that would involved a dex roll not to comically smack into a wall somewhere? Would attaching the piton to the ceiling close to the thing, then having the bore back away so I can lower myself to the vicinity of the symbol be an option?
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) => 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
Possible to create a ladder. A rope ladder strung up from the ceiling would be easiest, but some scrap metal and welding could get a standing ladder.
Swinging wouldn't need a roll, since you're just kind of letting yourself swing back and forth and the side walls of the tunnel are plenty far away for this. Going from the ceiling to the floor would be an option, yes.
"I'm not enlightened enough to risk interacting with it." Vikkan commented.
And how are they connected to the messengers? Do they protect the Words or something else?
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.
If you remember correctly, they are found along the paths of messengers. Though...messengers are transitory energy beings which carve molten pathways as they move so...if this thing is heralding the coming of a Messenger then...that would be very bad to be standing next to if the thing decides to show up.
Do I know what messengers are and what they do? Are they dangerous to be near? Would I spot or sense one if it was nearby or coming this 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
Inventory3 fathoms
Ethral Rifle (scope+bipod) (rifle 3, pierce 3) 7/7
Ethral Rifle magazine 7/7
Ethral Rifle magazine 6/7
Field Lighter (Fire 2)
Grappling Hook + Ethral Silk rope 100 ft
Simple Clothes
Kara's DiaryIn StorageCrystal Tablets (diary about All-Eater and Great Destroyer, inventory, obedience rod instructions, construct assembly instructions)
Church Documents (document ownership and events, and recommend favorable treatment)
Cot
Book (Adventures of Pilgrim)
Deck of Cards
Mechanical Arm (not installed)
Crystal Friend
Bomb collar (unlocked)
All bomb collar remotes
[18]
You're not entirely sure, but they're beings supposedly created by GOD for a purpose. You know the central burnt core of a tomb is called a Messenger Path, so they might have to do with that.
Why are we shooting guardians?
If Guardian is threat to cuddle puddle, go out and fight. Pew it with the shotgun.
If not, cuddle everyone, but keep them safe and warm and loved.
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 )
Silly bi-locating cuddle beast. Back to your own universe.
Author
Topic: DIG: Heresy (Read 405233 times)