look through the telescope
(Yes I wanted to take a few handfuls, so 3-10 handfuls? Let’s go with 4 handfuls if that’s ok.}
Name: Rhea Alcove
Description: A female human with blonde hear. She holds a Hooked Cleaver in her right hand and wears a Mail Shirt for protection. She wears a denim shirt and denim jeans, along with tennis shoes.
Goal: To explore and learn as much as she can
Stats:
Str:10
Dex:10
Spe:10
End:10
Awa:10
Cun:11
Kno:10
Ner:12
Skills:
Weapon Skill(Cleaver): 1
Diving: 1
Unarmed: 1
Persuasion: 1
Defense Skill(Mail Armor): 1
Survival: 1
Biological: 1
Caving: 1
Navigation: 1
Animal Handling: 1
Inventory:Free Clothing
Worm Blood x2
Organic Junk x2
Hooked Cleaver
Mail Shirt
4 handfuls of opals
(sure)
You look into the eyepiece. Instead of getting a good look at the interior of this cavern, you find yourself staring straight through stone. Its only in the center 60% or so of the view, but no matter where you turn it, you can peer straight through as though the lens is boring a hole straight off into infinity. You try messing with the adjustment dials and find that they can do things like adjust the depth of the "hole", its width, the standard zoom, etc. Oddly, living creatures (like the Moths hanging around in their structures on the edge of the cave, are not penetrated, nor are their equipment. Just the rocks around them.
Start reading the library, but go in hops and skips to try and identify the major events in this recorded history. Try to sketch out a rough timeline which includes the biggest events this way. Try to find the point where Adam starts to recognize the events from what he knows from history/where there is any overlap with what he knows.
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: 11
Dex: 11
Spe: 13
End: 12
Awa: 12
Cun: 11
Kno: 10
Ner: 14
SkillsDiving: +3
Stealth: +2
Occult: +1
Flammenvision! InventorySoldier's chestplate
Clothing: simple priest robes, currently worn long to hide the black veins
Rubber Suit
1 ethral rifle [10 rounds] (pierce 3)
2x black flame
2x smoke bomb
1 flashbang
3 Silent Night
4 worm blood
1 minor artifact
1 minor artifact belonging to Rhea
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
portal knives design
123 fathoms
-loaned 40 to Cara (Tiruin)
3 unspent skillpoints
Keep helping out my teammates with exploring, translating, opening stuff, etc.
Be sure to keep an eye out for things of interest that they might miss with their fleshy eyes, but I can notice with ym crystal sense.
Name: Clate
Race: Shluck
Description: To bring back the crystal race
Stats
Str: 12
Dex: 8
Spe: 10
End: 13
Awa: 12
Cun: 8
Kno: 14
Ner: 15
Skills
Natural +3 Caving
Natural +3 Geology
Natural Mute
Natural No clothing
Natural Stonesenses
Natural Stoneshaping
Unarmed: +2
Weapon skill: Stone Blade +2
Stealth: +1
Archeology: +2
Weaponsmith: +2
Navigation: +1
Armorsmith: +1
Chemical: +1
Inventory
Bladed Shovel - handle coated with Pseudomagnetic mortar
Knife (cut2, pierce2)
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)
100ft silk rope
6 Octahedrons - supposedly replicate materials
1 container of Pseudomagnetic mortar
labradorite/Obedience rod (on loan to Kara)
Silver ethral pendant: small silver pendant in the shape of a compound eye wreathed in white fire
Ethral archive promissory note
443 Fathoms
Crystal Babies
2. 8 sided diamond (looks like Ramiel from EVA and floats). 8 inches to an edge
5. Pryamid with stumpy limbs
7. snake golem. Its larger than the original by several times and rougher, sort of like a squirming line of uncut gemstones, each the size of a human fist.
Warehouse/bore storage:
Bomb Collar
Slate box
Spool of thermoreactive wire.
Acoustic guitar (Metal + guardbone, totally mundane.)
Mail shirt (Made to integrate directly into the exosuit, protecting surface that houses Shluck including head.Protect 3)
Rifle (pierce2, 6/10 magazine)
Small Knife from crystal barrel
Small bowl from crystal barrel
roll of very thin and flexible stone
small cube of the extremely dense material
sharp pyramid shaped wedge thing
3 structural junk
30 chemical junk
1 gold ingot
1. Dodecahedron, no limbs, rolls. Fist sized.
6. Rolling Orb
3. Crystal snake. hiss. 18 inches long.
4. Spiky daddy long legs like Irony has. 1 foot legs, fist sized body.
[7]
You begin reading through -or rather you have clate read selected slabs to you- and try to create a sort of rough timeline of the crystal race and their interactions with the outside world. Clate dutifully translates but you immediately have issues. There are many things named, places, people, times, races, but you recognize none of them.
"Jallus Uthgaurd, Son of Underlord Malric Uthguard, brought war to the Hydine in his year of DYU 128."
What are any of these things? Ugh. Still, you push on and through effort and pattern recognition manage to work out a few things.
There are 5 races listed aside from the crystal race, which just refers to itself as "The Crystal" for both the entire entity and individuals.
The Archae are the "churning amalgamations of fluids in a humanoid shape", apparently complex colony forms of some sort of bacteria. They are apparently rare, appear out of nowhere, and trade their seemingly infinite secrets and knowledge for piles of sugar and other simple things. They have no interest in material things beyond this and their concepts of time, life, death, and value are extremely hard to understand for other species, though the Crystal states they have a sort of kinship with them due to their "Correct thinking".
The Hydine are the Lizardmen. Their place in history seems to be that of occasional trade partner but most often brutish raider of outer settlements. They seem to have very little in the way of established society and appear nomadic with no central governing figure. Not much is said about them other than what amounts to "And then the Hydine raided another settlement" or "And then we killed a bunch of Hydine for raiding settlements". And so it goes.
The "Cluster of Slugs" appears nowhere in the record, at least the abbreviated version of it that you read. Or at least that you can make out. There is reference to a place called "The Slime" so they might be more of a location than a race.
The Armored Crabs are referred to as the "Eternals". They are apparently immortal, at least to age, and occupy a sort of mix of Corven and Honored dead roles, acting as a giant military for hire and police force. They trade mostly in weapons, armor, and mercenary services and are actually much larger than their statue when full grown. There are hints at a strange underwater society and individuals of such massive size that they spend most of their time in hibernation.
The "Stack of Crickets" are the Jombux. Their entire society is based around rapid evolution and specialization, with hundreds or thousands of subspecies or breeds handling different work. Or even singular aspects of work. The "Stack" recorded in the statue was apparently their "Negotiator collective" consisting of a base which carried them around and various other individuals that did things like make the correct gestures for each race or remember everyone's names. The Crystal states that the Jombux were a slave race created by some other dominant power, but after that dominant power died out the Jombux just continued muddling on. They are apparently running on a sort of autopilot; they maintain the empty palaces and empire of the former slave masters mostly through trade, but they don't inhabit them. They stay in their caves and adapt to the work that needs doing. The Crystal considers they may be useful sometime in the future
Of particular interest are the Birdmen, the Korax. They are remarked on in an almost dismissive way as being "Timid" and "Creatures born for different age". They apparently have a hard time in the underground, with few places to really stretch their wings in a literal sense. They are treated as a good natured but inherently primitive group, willing to trade what they had for shiny baubles and food.
As per the timeline, there is a great deal of it. But in general it is just a sort of back and forth of wars and trade and various goings on. No great world shattering events are recorded. But that might be due to the rather dry and matter of fact way the crystal records things. It would probably record the destruction of Empyrean as "Human city destroyed".
Can I reach any of the motes of light? Try to collect some light motes, and head toward the place the water is falling up from. Taste the water.
Name: AsHul
Description:Former human. Awful, ugly, indifferent.
Goal:To find God
Stats
Str:10 Dex:9 Spe:10 End:12 Awa:13 Cun:13 Kno:12 Ner:16
Skills
3 Diving
2 Animal Handling
1 Survival
3 Weapon skill: Guitar
Inventory
Relic Fragment
Black Book (Genuine)
Black Book (copy, strata 1,2,4)
2 Silent Night
4 Worm Blood
100 ft of rope
1 knife (cut/pierce 2)
2 Occult Junks
some kind of lightning tree from the plane of elemental forces
Song Book (Treasure, Vomit, Dissociate, Shred) (Shape Steel: untested, very hard to play)
neodymium collar
1 Bone-fretted haunted electric guitar
1 mundane acoustic guitar with wave patterns in abalone and turquoise
1 Crystalline Clate Guitar
156 Fathoms
You reach out and grab one of the motes. It feels slightly cold and vanishes in your hand. You try to collect more but they all fade away upon being touched. Oh well.
You slowly scramble down the rocks until you reach the bottom of the cavern and then walk along raised sections until you reach the mouth of the inverted waterfall. You stick a hand into the running water and begin to fall up as well. You pull your hand back immediately and drop the few inches you had rose back to the ground. Hmm. You taste the water on your hand. Its an odd taste; not just water but...well you cannot place the other flavor. Not bad, mind you, but just...its not like anything you've ever tasted before. You can't make a comparison. Slightly sweet.
Are you sure you want to drag a citizen of the city, kicking and screaming, out to the bore? Its a pretty long walk and Might cause a bit of a stir.
Of course not!
We'll knock him unconscious and restrain him first, of course. No kicking and screaming then. Also, Nyw will handle the guy, and carry him, because he's the honored dead. Presumably it's less weird for giant undead warriors to go around kidnapping criminals than for short middle-aged men to do so.
After he's secured at the bore, go head to that meeting location.
Name: Nyw'geuq Otin Sunam; calls himself "The Lords' Child"
Description:
((One murakumo!
))
Goal: Inscrutable, which is code for
"Talks like this.".
Stats:Str: 15
Dex: 9
Spe:11
End:14
Awa:14
Cun: 9
Kno: 8
Ner: 12
Skills:Unarmed: +1
Defense Skill: +3 (Full Plate)
Vehicle Skill: +1
Caving: +1
Navigation: +1
Murakumo: +2
Inventory:
Full Plate Armor [Protective 4]
Ornamental Mask of the Child
Extremely crude harness, holding all Nyw's weapons:
Crystal Murakumo [Cut 6, Pierce 3]
----Enchanted to remove fragility.
Giant Guardian Hatchet [Chop 4,
]
Three knives [Cut 2, Pierce 2]
Tungsten Toothpick [Pierce 5] (10/10)
Slave Trap
Three smoke grenades
Tunnel Clearer shotgun [5/5 shotshells] [shotgun 3] [Pierce 3] (5 spare shotshells) (3 spare slugs)
Guard rifle [Pierce 2] (10/10) (40 spare rounds)
Pistol [Pierce 1] (?/?)
300' of silk rope
2x Silent Night
2x Black Flame
2x Cave Spider Venom
30x Path markers
~25x Vials of Haze
Followers:
Gus (Young human with minimal training. Healthy.)
--Equipped with a small iron melee weapon. A knife or shortsword or something.
--Equipped with a low caliber ethral rifle. [Pierce 2] (10/10)
Baxter (Young human with minimal training. Healthy.)
--Equipped with a small iron melee weapon. A knife or shortsword or something.
--Equipped with a low caliber ethral rifle. [Pierce 2] (10/10)
Hireling Achievements That Probably Deserve a Reward:
--Catching the runner who was gonna report on Nyw interrogating the Haze-selling chemist.
![](http://Things taken from team fund:2 "ethral rifles" + ammo10 fathoms)
Help with restraining the guy and keep watch for any shady characters running off following the arrest. Head to the other meeting place once our newest prisoner has been brought to the bore.
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: 12
Dex: 11
Spe: 12
End: 12
Awa: 12
Cun: 12
Kno: 12
Ner: 12
Skills:Explosives 2
Mechanical 1
Survival 1
Caving 1
Chemical 2
Geology 1
3 Skill points
Inventory:Dynamo Lantern
Field Lighter
4 TNT (explosive 4)
Bladed Shovel (Cut 3)
3 Fathoms
Crystal box of golem limbsGolem buddy (flat disc and hooks)
Black Flame (Cut 3)
Rifle (Pierce 2) 3/10
Grappling Hook
Moon bladed staff (Cut 4,
?)
Silk shirt (oversized and bloodstained red)
Gas mask
2 lenses
A severed leg
5 ancient human books
20 copied ancient dictionary pages
[18]
The retrieval goes well enough. You knock the guy out with a flick to the face and carry him back to the bore. You tie him up and toss him in one of the unused rooms and head back out, with the intent to go check that meeting place. You open the hatch door and....down on the ground, about 20 feet from the hatch, is a group of 5 Ethral. Their masks all have a little golden eye symbol set into their foreheads. Oh and they're all pointing very nicely made machine guns at you.
[2,8]
Both Alex and Nyw dodge back into the hatch as bullets tear through the air all around them. Alex, covering his head as bullets hiss and ricochet around the small room, kicks the hatch door shut and the rest of the gunfire clangs off it like high speed hammer blows.
Kara stared at the idol.
"Just animal products and these statues. They were so different from us..."
She picked up the little thing to look at it from a different angle, running one of her fingers over a claw mark.
"And yet..."
She gently hugged the little idol. A few seconds later she realized how terribly embarrassing it would be if someone walked in on her while she was like that so she gently set the idol down and prepared some space for it in her pack.
"I'll make sure your beauty is seen by others. Your creator intended for it to be so. I'll fulfill their ancient ambitions and make them famous beyond famous, even if they're no longer able to thank me for it."
Take some of the Bird-people idols and some of the mole-people jewellery, especially the ones that depict that unknown beast.
Also take notes on the insect saddle, enough to hopefully be able to reconstruct it (with the proper materials).
Finally, how would I say those ancient mole-people compare to the modern ones? Do the modern ones still use the same technology and art style? It would be impressive if a society managed to survive for so long and remain more or less unchanged while the rest of the world changed so much around them.
When done here, try to get Crystal Friend to dig me an entrance to the vehicle Depot just like he did for the trade Depot and see if any of those "great movers" Clate said are in there looks like it could drive/walk/dig/flow out of here. If we're able to escape with all those wonders we've discovered here... The greedy archeologist birb in me can't accept leaving all those treasures behind for the moths to exploit and hide, not without at least trying to do something about it first. It belongs in a museum. My museum, to be precise.
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.
StatsStr:10
Dex:13
Spe:13
End: 9
Awa:12
Cun:11
Kno:12
Ner:11
SkillsRifle: 1
Medical: 1
Translate: 1
Acrobatics: 1
Caving: 1
Machine Control: 1
Stealth: 1
Geology: 1
Archeology: 2
Navigation: 1
Unspent: 1
InventoryHeavy Crystal Armour
Golden pin (in forearm)
Crystal Friend (with riding harness +
Obedience Rod)
Radio
35 fathoms (1% royalty for flame)
Ethral Rifle (scope+bipod) (rifle 3, pierce 3) 6/7
Ethral Rifle magazine 7/7
Ethral Rifle magazine 6/7
Crystal WeaponField Lighter (Fire 2)
Shiny interconnected colorful gems
Grappling Hook + Ethral Silk rope 200 ft
1 Dynamo Lantern (Light 3)
1 Knife (Cut/Pierce 2)
2 Slave Traps
Simple Clothes (with hood)
Cot
Book (Adventures of Pilgrim)
Deck of Cards
Notes on insect saddle construction
Ancient Bird-people idols
Ancient Mole-jewels depicting unknown beast
Kara's DiaryIn Storage15 chemical junk
22 mechanical junk
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)
Metal Card with the address of the Gilded Crow (corven Gangsters of Goldshore)
Mechanical Arm (not installed)
Bomb collar (unlocked)
All bomb collar remotes
A large number of shiny gold-like messenger path rocks
You carefully pack away some of the artifacts and take some notes on the saddle.
You don't know a whole lot about the moles, no one really does, but you can say that their art style is...mostly different. You can see the roots of the modern style via these things, but they did not remain unchanged. At least in terms of what you've seen. Their technology has also grown more complex.
The Vehicle depot is opened much like the trade depot is opened and within you find a strange place. The innards are more crystallized than the outer, but there are still things to see. The "Movers" are not unlike your crystal friends but are significantly larger. The largest, hanging from the ceiling, rivals the Bore, though it is significantly more slender. The movers are clinging to the walls and their general shape is that of a platform or large container atop a number of legs. A giant barrel on two back bending legs, a platform that looks like a walking table, a Diamond shape with 3 legs on either point, a cube with dozens of little legs on one side, and so on. The smallest of them are easily large enough to carry several men, the largest could carry dozens.
Author
Topic: DIG: Heresy (Read 414460 times)