"Hm, I do believe I need a more fashionable look."
Make my way over to a clothing merchant to see if there are any nice clothes available.
Name: Ozwald J. HamondDescription: A tall, square shouldered man with a handsome face. Looks middle-aged with a few grey hairs in his short black hair kept clean-cut and proper like his goatee. One might think he looks like the devil himself, from old-time newspapers depicting Satan. A silly coincidence...He also wears some plain but well-kept clothes, a collared shirt with a pair of black dress pants and polished leather slacks.
Physical Stats
Strength: d4 Dexterity: d8 Endurance: d6 Speed: d6Mental Stats
Knowledge: d4 Wisdom: d10 Perception: d6 Charisma: d8
HP: 24/24SP: 28/28Inventory:-
Neurobridge-
Fragment of the Void- (x2)
Stimulants- (x1)
BiogelMoney: 100
You squeeze through the crowd and head north along the metal plate road. You quickly pick up that this area is called "Leeches' Alley" by the Shipbreakers and "Iron Road" by the locals. The first clothing shop you come across is a bit...esoteric. Its built into one the large cargo containers the Shipbreakers are using to transport salvage, with the front doors open wide to create a sort of display area with clothing along the inside of either door and a scrap metal wall erected in the mouth of the container. The only sign is a flapping banner with a picture of a shirt and pants embroidered on it in red. The owner, who is laying curled up in front, appears to be some sort of giant red, white, and black banded snake. As you come closer the shop owner disentangles themselves a bit and rises up so its head is about the height of your own, revealing a dozen reptilian arms branching off its body in a centipede-like fashion. It gestures about itself with all its limbs at once, body swaying slowly, speaking with a language that hisses out between its scaly lips like bubbling tea kettles. When you just shake your head in confusion it produces a box from somewhere within its coils. It holds the box towards you and speaks again. Again its voice comes out as an incomprehensible staccato hiss but then the box begins speaking in a language you can understand.
"This one greets you, patron. Look upon my wares and find what pleases you. Custom garments are available as well."
You nod, which the snake mimics, and take a look at the clothing. The clothing is all quite loose and flowing stuff, the kind of thing meant to block sunlight and prying eyes more than shelter the body from any harsh weather. There are shirts, robes, pants, dresses, undergarments, all of it fairly simple in construction without flowing lace or complex shapes. They come in only warm colors: red, orange, black, white, yellow, tan, and gold. They lack any sort of complex geometric patterns or anything of the sort, instead relying on bands of color not unlike the bands of color on their creator. These bands follow patterns of color and relative size, though they're smaller and more numerous on sleeves, pant legs, and skirts than on the bodies of shirts or full dresses. You touch the fabric and are surprised to find that they appear to be woven out of websilk. Seems they have been trading with the Shipbreakers or maybe the Scavengers.
"Hm, I do believe I need a more fashionable look."
"My friend if you wanted fashion you should of came prepared! The fashion they sell here are probably only fit for blue collar workers and dogs I mean have you seen this place?" Steve chuckles "Here let me take you around I have experience finding diamonds in the rough in places like this afterall, im sure I can secure you something more fitting of a man such as yourself."
Lead Ozwald to the exact same place he was already going and attempt to secure him some quality clothing
Name: Steve Goldwin
Appearance: Steve is a standard human with short brown hair wearing his favorite pair of gold trimmed shades and a grey business suit he likes to wear almost 24/7.
Stats:
Strength: D6
Dexterity: D4
Endurance: D6
Speed: D6
Knowledge: D4
Wisdom: D6
Perception: D6
Charisma: D12
HP: 22
SP: 28
Weapons:
War Drum (Str/Cha)(d8/d12)
Armor:
Wearing armor at the cost of fashion?!?! Nonsense!
Carry Weight: 6
Items: 6/6
Whistle (1)
War Drum (300)
Oxygen Tank (100)
Specimen Container(30)
Small autocage(200)
Biogel x2 (200)
Money: 169 (Nice)
As Oswald examines the clothing on offer, you engage with the shop keep. [5] Haggling with an alien in a language you don't know via a translator is not the easiest thing, but you manage. You get the shop to promise to make a full custom suit for Oswald for only 50 credits. Oswald didn't particularly ask for this and doesn't seem to have noticed the favor you did him, at least not yet.
Check out the Grand Lodge.
Description: Young, mid twenties kid with skinny limbs and body. Ink enthusiast.
Strength d4
Dexterity d10
Endurance d6
Speed d10
Knowledge d4
Wisdom d6
Perception d6
Charisma d4
HP 30
SP 20
Filament Gun (100)
Death Ray (500)
Specimen Container (30)
Filament Cartridge (10)
Cash: 360
You head towards the East, along with most of the group fresh off the Cargo vessel. However, as they continue on towards the Engine in the distance, you split off to instead investigate the Grand Lodge.
The Grand Lodge is not a building, at least not a traditional one. As you get closer you can see the metal ramps and barricades around its base which hide the colossal verniers and thrusters which brought it here from orbit. It is a module of the much larger main ship that still orbits the planet, a temporary headquarters for as long as the Guild is on this planet. The buttresses which enclose it like a great ribcage are equal parts structural and ceremonial, its spires and spikes are anchor points as well as ornaments. Apprentices and Guildmen give you wary looks as you climb the precisely milled grand stairway up to the industrial sized airlock that serves as the Lodge's entrance. The doors of the airlock are locked open for the moment and you enter into the lobby. It is a long and very tall room, with what look like metal pillars set into the side walls. However, these pillars only stretch half way up the height of the room before blossoming out into busts of men and women. You have no idea who they are, but you assume they're important. The entire room is as sterile and spotlessly clean as a fresh surgical scalpel. At the other end of the room is a reception desk manned by young woman what looks like a military uniform. Her appearance and expression fit perfectly with this place.
"whoah, this place is huge"
go see the Temple to the Void Watchers
stat points: 15-3-6-1-3-1-1
Name: Jim
Appearance: a young and wiry looking man
Strength: d8
Dexterity: d10
Endurance: d6
Speed: d8
Knowledge: d6
Wisdom: d4
Perception: d6
Charisma: d4
HP: 32/32
SP: 20/20
Armor:
Helmet (d6 Head)
Tunic (d6 abdomen and torso)
Weapons:
Therma-ray (Dex)(d8)
Items:8?/8
Fragment of the void
Therma-ray
Helmet
Arc-Lamp
Log Book
Specimen Container
Filament Gun (loaded with filament container)
Websilk Tunic (logo of favorite sportsball team)
Money:1000-300-50-50-50-20-30-100-10-300=90
As you head down what the locals call "Iron Road" you eventually come across the small Void Watcher temple. The building, apparently constructed in the shell of some huge cylindrical electrical component, is little more than a shrine. It is a single large room with a magnetically contained fragment of Void floating in its center and three levels of metal benches welded to the bottom, middle and upper parts of the cylinder. The middle and upper seats are accessed by a ladder welded near the doorway and have a guard rail of sorts running in front of them to prevent worshipers from tumbling off. There are a few worshipers here now, scattered among the levels, all staring silently into the void. The room is surprisingly quiet, almost all noise from the outside is cut off and the only real sound is the soft hum of the containment system. An elder watcher, distinguishable by his black attire and matching black eyes greets you.
"Welcome, child of the Void, to our humble shrine. We grant refuge to new arrivals and to the few faithful within the shipbreakers. What may I do for you? "
"How did I get here?"
Go forth and see what kinds of guns they have for sale!
Name: Hobo Bob
Description: A dirty man with unkempt hair and beard.
Strength: d8
Dexterity: d6
Endurance: d8
Speed: d6
Knowledge: d8
Wisdom: d6
Perception: d8
Charisma: d4
HP: 28/28
SP: 26/26
Weapons:
Therma-Ray (Dex) (d8)
Armour:
Helmet (d6 armor, protects only the head)
Industrial Tunic (d6 Armor, protects Torso and Abdomen)
Items: 5/8
Oxygen Tank
Arclamp
Therma-Ray (Dex) (d8)
Helmet (d6 armor, protects only the head)
Industrial Tunic (d6 Armor, protects Torso and Abdomen)
Money: 450
You head down what locals call "Iron Road" until you come across a vendor selling weapons. The shop, a fairly spacious if crude box built of fused ship plating, has its back wall entirely covered in merchandise and its side walls lined with display cases and laser turrets. The turrets track you as you walk to the counter where an old man is sitting, leaning back in his chair with his feet up on the countertop. At his feet is a holo-projector, which is throwing a 3d representation of some kind of action movie into the air just above the man's toes. As you reach the counter the shop keeper swings his feet- both of which are cybernetic- to the ground with a grunt and turns in his chair to face you. He doesn't say anything, just stares.
You look around. The sign outside read simply "GUNS" and the selection is about as inspired as the name. This place is clearly designed to take advantage of those who came with little or no preparation in terms of weaponry. You search through the racks of peacekeeper rifles and de-regulated laser cutters for something better than your own weapon. [4] You eventually find a Thermo-Lash. Its a modified version of the energy tether used in zero g salvaging, this one burning with plasma and leaping to nearby targets instead of just tethering them together. It deals d8 damage to the first target, d4 to the next, and d2 to the third. Good for groups but a bit dangerous in a melee: could leap to friends.
Head out towards the buildings in the north-east.
"Feels good to be back in the harness after so long, feels like forever since I worked shipping."
Name: Lorin Veritz
Appearance: A spindly man whose form nonetheless dominates a room with the ever-present addition of his Autoharness.
Stats:
Strength: D8
Dexterity: D8
Endurance: D4
Speed: D8
Knowledge: D10
Wisdom: D4
Perception: D4
Charisma: D4
HP: 28
SP: 22
Weapons:
Compression Blaster(Dex Xd8)
Mono-wire(Spd d10)
Armor:
None
Carry Weight: 8
Items:
Autoharness
Log Book
Specimen Container
Filament Gun
10 Filament Cartridges
Money: 0
You head north, down the Iron Road, and finally out beyond the boundaries of the shipbreaker's Camp. The smooth baseplates of the camp are replaced with a thin layer of sand over alien metal. The Enigma rests just beneath the surface of the desert here, bits of it sticking up here and there like islands in a sandy sea. Further north the sand is replaced by bare metal as the ground slopes slightly upwards towards the yawning chasm of the
Steel Pit. Even from where you are, cutting a circumspect path around the hole towards the buildings in the North East, you can see the jagged edge of that pit bowing outward and upward. That hole is nearly a kilometer wide, and it wasn't made by the impact that sunk the ship into the sand: something was either torn off or burst out from within to make a hole like that. You think, far to the north, you can see what that something might have been. Through the heat haze and blowing sand you can't make out any real details but between the Northern most pair of engines is another colossal
thing. It looks to be resting in an unnatural position, like it was dumped there instead of purposefully attached.
You continue around to the North East and make your way towards the buildings. As you get closer you get a better look at what they all are. In the center there's another engine, though this one is much smaller than the other monolithic structures. All that you can see is the nozzle rising like a giant metal bowl out of the sands around it. Around the engine are some scattered buildings, maybe two dozen of them, mostly clustered on the southwest side facing the Shipbreaker camp. They are almost all made out of old cargo containers in various stages of disrepair, some stood vertically and others laid on their sides. As you get closer still you can see that one of the larger ones is actually fused to or perhaps penetrating into the wall of the engine nozzle.
You decide to skirt around those other buildings and head towards the one piercing the engine. Eventually you can see a sign made of welded metal that reads "Vernierville" above the entrance to that cargo container. There are a handful of locals hanging around the outer buildings as you approach but none of them make any moves towards you, so you head into the container. The interior of the container is lit only by a few strips of diode lights running along the roof of the roof, so you have to be careful of your footing as you climb the gentle slope through the container and out the other side.
The container is, as you expected, a crude tunnel of sorts through the wall of the nozzle and you step out into the inside of the giant bowl. There's a layer of sand forming a mostly flat surface on which many more buildings sit. These structures, generally made from smaller square shaped containers, are scattered around in small clusters. There are maybe 50 or 60 "Buildings" you can identify and much of the area within the nozzle is still open and unused. You see signs advertising a Void Watcher temple, general shop, armorer's, gunsmith's, the "Pilot Light" bar, a fight pit, and other "attractions". Finally, and most obviously, is a very out of place structure built along the curving wall near the entrance. The huge satellite dish and bright red and yellow colorations mark the prefab building as an outpost of the "Universal Survey" corporation.
"Wahaha! Well what are we waiting for, let's go get rich and dead!"
Jog merrily towards the engines overgrown engine, soak in the sights, and finally get some good exercise!
Name: Gambatta Ganyaro
Description: A kooky old man wearing an elaborate martial arts gi under his discount armor. As a proud grandfather and respected martial arts instructor, he's looking forward to retirement. His idea of retirement involves things you're not allowed to do when people are depending on you to be alive.
30/30 HP
24/24 SP
1d6 Strength
1d8 Dexterity
1d10 Endurance
1d6 Speed
-
1d6 Knowledge
1d6 Wisdom
1d6 Perception
1d6 Charisma
Items (5/6):
Industral Tunic (300): 1d6 Torso/Abdomen Armor
Helmet (50): 1d6 Head Armor
Human Bone Prayer Beads (300)
Galactic Slugger (150)
Small Autocage (200)
"Ready to go, dad? Shouldn't stand around looking clueless, people will rob us."
Keep pace with that old man. With a hand on the hilt of my blade.
Name: Xeriay Jattle
Appearance: A short and thin teenage girl, with hair bleached grey by the light of a harsh sun. The backs and palms of her hands are tattooed with eyes, and her arms with blades. Doesn't like to talk and jumps at unexpected sounds. She was recruited by a paramilitary cult from a young age and honed her skill with a blade until she was rescued by her adoptive father.
Strength: d6
Dexterity: d8
Endurance: d6
Speed: d10
Knowledge: d4
Wisdom: d8
Perception: d6
Charisma: d4
HP: 30/30
SP: 22/22
Armor: d6 head-torso-abdomen
Inventory 6/6
Mono-razor: (Spd) (Spd Roll, breaks on 1)
Therma-Ray: (Dex) (d8)
Biogel: (Recover d10 HP)
Arclamp: (Provides bright omnidirectional light.)
Helmet: (d6 armor, protects Head)
Industrial Tunic: (d6 Armor, protects Torso and Abdomen)
"Wahaha! Well what are we waiting for, let's go get rich and dead!"
"You're rather chipper, sifu." Hlaine says to the old man, running hand through his hair before putting the helmet back on. "Eager to get into the belly of the beast then?
Before we plunge inside, I'm rather keen on having a look around. Maybe try and loop around that hole in the middle? There's a couple of places between the further engines that we haven't seen anything of yet. "
Recieve my first psychic ability, if possible.
Walk with the old man (ironyowl). See if we can't visit/see what the two map points currently marked with ? are.
Name: Hlaine Lockley Appearance: A rather haggard looking man somwhere in between his early 40's and late 50's, it's hard to tell. Of average height, his skin looks pale and slightly sickly. He's a thin, wiry sort. He wears his hair shoulder length parted in the middle, and has a permanent unkempt beard going on. He wears a faded industrial overall, patched in a few places and the logo of the original company no longer legible, along with a pair of battered work boots and an old synthplas helmet. Strength: d4
Dexterity: d6
Endurance: d6
Speed: d6
Knowledge: d8
Wisdom: d8
Perception: d8
Charisma: d8
HP:22/22 SP:32/32 armour:Helmet: (d6 armor, protects only the head) A synthplas helmet in bright orange.
weapons:Therma-Ray: (Dex) (d8)
Items: Nim’s Parasite
Bait:(Kno) x3
Log Book: (Kno) (
journal)
Arclamp
Stimulant: Recover d10 SP.
Biogel: Recover d10 HP.
Stick with whoever’s doing something important.
Name: Terra Iris
Appearance: A stocky, brooding woman with dark hair and darker eyes
Stats:
Strength: D8
Dexterity: D10
Endurance: D10
Speed: D4
Knowledge: D4
Wisdom: D4
Perception: D4
Charisma: D4
HP: 32
SP: 16
Weapons:
Deathray (dex xd10)
Armor:
Helm (d6 head)
Tunic (d6 body and abdomen)
Carry Weight: 8
Items:
Deathray
Arklamp
Biogel
Industrial Tunic
Helmet
Money: 0
Name: Anton Barrick
Description: a generic human male.
Stats:
STR: d10
DEX: d8
END: d8
SPD: d8
KNO: d8
WIS: d6
PER: d8
CHA: d6
HP: 34
SP: 28
Carry: 10
Items:
Helmet (d6 armor, head only)
Therma-Ray (DEX) (d8)
Fragment of the void
Human bone prayer beads
Money:0
I Head to the temple of the void
“Hmm.”
Amon trails behind the old man suspiciously with SPEED and CHARISMA
Join the gaggle of people following Gambatta. The old man. Ironyowl.
Give the three filament cartridges to Maxwell Hardberger. Check to see if inventory mechanics can be cheesed by storing items inside the autocage, using it as a kind of backpack.
Name: Kander Jattle
Appearance: A heavily built middle aged man with a gentle look in his eyes, that contrasts with a silver scar on the right side of his face which runs from his temple to his chin. He's a veteran of a relatively minor uprising on a border planet, during which time he worked as a low level field officer. He retired most of a decade ago after a severe head injury, and has been living comfortably and quietly off of his earnings from service. He's enjoyed his quiet life, and isn't eager to go on dangerous adventures... but he was more or less begged to go on this expedition by his adoptive daughter, who was a child soldier he rescued during his military service.
Stats:
Str: d8
Dex: d4
End: d4
Spd: d4
Kno: d8
Wis: d4
Per: d8
Cha: d10
HP: 20/20
SP: 30/30
Items: 9/8
War Drum (1d8 str, 1d12 Cha Buff)
Small Autocage
Autoharness
Arclamp
Oxygen Mask + Tank
Oxygen Mask + Tank
Liquidoplas Bomb
Logbook
3* Filament Cartridges (Going to be given to someone else)
(Autocages can carry objects. For small autocages though the big issue is size. They're not very big so they can't carry much. From your path you can see the smaller engine to the north and the outer buildings, vaguely see the Steel Pit, but everything else is too far to see clearly thanks to sand and heathaze.)
Gambatta, Xeriay, Hlaine, Terra, Anton, Amon, and Kander all head towards the east and the engine looming beyond the Shipbreaker's camp. The group weaves through the housing area and circles around the Grand Lodge before crossing the remaining mostly empty baseplates until they reach the edge of the camp. For the first few hundred feet from the camp there's nothing but sand and the occasional exposed bit of alien metal. However, further east a carpet of small plants appears. These plants are not a single homogenous group; instead there are dozens or even hundreds of varieties. Many resemble ferns or succulents, with either many thin, frond like leaves or thick geometric shaped bulbs. They are almost all at least partially metallic red in color with secondary vivid oranges, yellows, black and even shimmering diamond dust white. Here, on the outer edge, they're tiny and huddled close to the ground, but the closer one gets towards the engine, the larger they become. Those at the base of the engine are, the group estimates, big enough to build a house inside while the ones actually clinging to the engine itself are even larger than that. What starts as a thin coating of plant life becomes a dense jungle nearer to the base of the engine.
Among this vegetation the group can see several interesting things. First, to the north, they can see what looks like maybe a dozen or so people gathering plants and loading them onto a giant autocage they've apparently retrofitted for this purpose. Second, this jungle is not inhabited only by would-be farmers: alien life of all kinds seems to inhabit it. They see bird like insects circling, dozens of hexapod...things crossing as a herd in the distance, and even something enormous moving through the denser parts. And finally, on the giant plants that cling to the engine and directly around it they notice an odd luminescence. Its almost like there's light pulsing through the plants like blood through tissue. Its quite difficult to see in the bright sun, but its still vaguely there.