Regain control
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').
Gonna need something better than that.
Shoot the guardian again. Hold my fire if any of my teammates gets into my line of fire.
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
Charge at the guardian and try to hit it in the legs with my 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 (Cut 4)
"Did it just throw away its weapon?" Auft asks, surprised but pleased. "This is wonderful news!" Oh, except then it came back on a chain. Oops!
"Well, this should be efficient then!"
Politely give That-Which-Was-Once-AsHul room to do things. Shoot at the locust if it goes for squishier members.
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 [6/7]
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
[15][18][12]
Clate takes another potshot but it goes wide. Alex charges in and brings his moon blade around in a hard slash at the creature's feet. The Guardian jumps up, avoids the blow, and kicks the handle of the weapon squarely, wrenching it from Alex's grip and sending it tumbling off. However, as the Guardian does this, it bends low, putting its head at a particular angle. An angle that, from Auft's perspective, puts it right behind Alex's left bicep and also right in the center of Auft's sights. She doesn't hesitate. The shot goes clean through Alex's arm, missing the bone, and strikes the Guardian dead center of the mask. The mask crunches inward as though hit with a sledgehammer. The guardian jerks straight, bluish ichor leaking through the cracks of the mask, and takes two spasmotic steps back before collapsing.
Toss the lighter at the tree, or into the foliage, then... well, if the expanding ball of clockwork parts isn't growing too fast, stay back near the riflemen, and be ready to defend them. If the clockwork stuff is growing fast enough to be a problem, return to the entrance, retrieve the murakumo, and then charge the guardian if it's visible, or the tree if it is not.
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 "I forget to change this thing, way too often".
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] (lying on the ground near the entrance)
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.
You toss the lighter into the tree and once again it goes up like flash paper. You look and, seeing that the Guardian is dead, decide to go grab your Murokumo.
The flow of time reaches its end point again and then begins to flow backwards. After a few seconds the tree unburns, just as it did before, though missing the chunk of bark from before. And, moments after the tree has returned, the guardian rises up in high speed reverse, its face popping back out into its unharmed form before leaping in reverse up into the tree.
No sooner has this happened than the cocoon of mechanical nightmares cracks open with a shriek of metal and something vaguely resembling Ashul steps out. He appears to be little more than a complex clockwork automaton, his mechanical innards mostly shielded from view by plates of metal, not unlike an insect's chitin. His clockwork eyes have been replaced by bulging iridescent lenses and dozens of rocket verniers in recessed pockets along his shell flex and pulse exploratory bursts of exhaust. With a newly minted 6 finger hand he reaches down and plucks the crescent moon staff off the ground where it fell. He looks at it for a moment before shifting his grip slightly and then swinging it hard. A crescent shaped blade of brilliant emerald light lashes out of the staff and spins off into the trunk of the tree. It cuts through without a pause and the entire tree groans and begins to topple over.
"A word of God? Are you sure? Really sure?" Vikkan wasn't an intellectual, but he was religious enough to be astounded by the find. "If it's true then this... this..."
Retreat a little more if necessary. Try to remember anything useful about the word of god.
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.
Words of GOD are supposedly connected to the creation of the world but...if you remember right they're also connected to the presence of Messengers.
"...Well, now that we know what is it, we should stay as far away as possible. Aren't all Saints just cthonics who died after interacting with their god?"
Do I, as a mole man, recognize the symbol?
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
[10]
No, you don't. You've never seen or heard of it.
Kara found the floating symbol to be cool looking but was not terribly impressed by it. Perhaps because she didn't really know what a word of God is exactly. So for now she works with what she does know.
"We should remain cautious. You said it yourself. These sort of things normally don't appear in this area. Maybe it's just a coincidence. Maybe something has changed in the surrounding area, a new messenger path perhaps. Or it could be that this is just a trap looking to lure and distract those of the Cthonic faith. After all, the church isn't the only organization that employs divers that could create such illusions. Golden Rule 9: What's shiny is not always valuable."
She checked the bore's surroundings, trusting the others to know what to actually do with that thing. And hopefully explain that to her.
"What do you do with that thing anyway? Do you... collect it somehow? Or somehow put it into your body? Because it reminds me some of those tattoos you sometimes see on mole people."
Scan the area for other people, traps, ambushes, hiding spots, that sort of thing. We need to make sure this isn't a trap.
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
[2]
You look around the tunnel carefully. There's no sign of anyone, not even normal pilgrims or other people on the move. The tunnel for as far as you can see in either direction is empty.
go to a window! Draw that sigil!
”What’s happening? Why’d we stop?”
Name: Lan’Ra Ollin
Description:
Ethral: Scholarly Moths prone to shyness and mask wearing. Able to glide and ignore falls, come with mask.
Gray, 4 arms, proboscis, slight hairiness
Doesn’t like speaking
Goals:
To learn everything about the occult, and also summon some friends, cause people from here aren’t all that easy to talk to(it’s really scary!)
Str:7
Dex:12
Spe:10
End:8
Awa:7
Cun:13
Kno:13
Ner:10
Skills:
Occult: +3
Stealth: +2
Diving: +1
Money: 20 fathoms
Inventory:
Generic balaclava(mask)
Self made Grimoire, half filled with some occult stuff
Candles
Quill
Field lighter
Empyrean needle(rituals)
Chalice(for liquids. To drink. Not from sacrifices, dummy!)
28 rounds of rifle ammo
35 rounds of revolver ammo
You go to the window and, by pressing a piece of vellum on the window and tracing the light that comes through, draw an accurate copy of the symbol.
[4] You look at the thing for a moment and you're about to open your black book when you realize what it is. You drop the book in shock and immediately grab Kara by the shoulder as she starts to leave the cockpit.
"Thats a word of GOD!" You shout, pointing at the thing, "A remnant of creation itself, echo of the words which made the universe." You press your hands up against the cockpit window. "That is power beyond mortal ken. The sort of thing that makes a Saint. But they're never seen outside the depths of divine tombs...why is it here?"
Try to remember whatever I know about these things. How is one supposed to interact with these?
Try to figure out how I could get near to the floating sigil, preferably without having to bring the bore itself extremely close. Perhaps we could angle to bore a little and then use the freight elevator to get closer?
Also pick my black book back up. I mean c'mon Adam, have some respect, sheesh.
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
[11]
You start trying to figure out how to reach the thing but as you talk to the other people around you about ideas, you quickly find something out: Everyone sees the word in a different size. Some people see it as roughly man sized, others as far larger. Its always in the same central location but the size is either expanded or not. If its as big as the largest estimate then you could go out and jump and slap the bottom of it. However if you go by the smallest you'd need to get a good 10 or more meters in the air.
This complicates matters somewhat. Regardless though, the easiest method to reach it, if only brief contact matters, is to attach a piton on the ceiling and then have someone swing from the bore into the Word. Like this the bore can remain a while away.
Author
Topic: DIG: Heresy (Read 386058 times)