"Everyone! Run for cover! It is doubtful that the monster will stay away!
Grab whoever is unable or unwilling to run for cover, and carry them into the building. Auft's thug counts, though the dude doesn't sound long for this world.
Name: Nyw'geuq Otin Sunam; calls himself "The Lords' Child"
Description:
((No murakumo anymore.
))
Goal: Inscrutable, which is code for
"Talks like this.".
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]
Ornamental Mask of the Child
---Shattered to powder: Crystal Murakumo [Cut 6, Pierce 3, Fragile]
Giant Guardian Hatchet [Chop 4,
]
---Given back to Alex: Moon bladed staff [Cut 4,
]
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.
"I doubt it will return that quickly, considering it got shot in the eye and lost some toes. Let's just go and find the next guardian already."
Retrieve my rifle and continue following the group.
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) 4/10
8 Structural Junk
Grappling Hook
Moon bladed staff (Cut 4)
Bird is gone. Check on AsHul. Stay solidly in the middle of the group so as not to get eaten or killed immediately.
Drett Medizin, MD
Join Auft in going to the building.
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, 6/10 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
"I underestimated the strictness of the discipline God bestows upon those who seek Him, and those who are called His children."
Arise and enter the building, assisting Nyw in the hauling of teammates, including Iron Teeth.
Examine the interior of the building carefully, alert for hostiles and dangers. Block any sudden attacks, preferably by grappling the assailant.
If it is safe to do so, (no immediate threats)
Telazch x3 Udyne x3 on Iron Teeth to restore him to some semblance of health.
4 path, 6 reinforce, 2 final rolls.
Name: AsHul
Description:Former human. Awful, ugly, indifferent. Currently a dream robot
Goal:To find God
Stats
Str:9 Dex:8 Spe:9 End:11 Awa:12 Cun:11 Kno:11 Ner:16 (-1)
Skills
3 Diving
2 Animal Handling
1 Survival
1 Weapon skill: Guitar
Inventory
Relic Fragment
Black Book (copy, strata 1,2,4)
1 Silent Night
5 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').
Everyone either walks into the building or gets dragged there bodily by the mildly annoyed zombie and clockwork man. And before I describe what its like in here, lets do Ashul's action to see if we have something more...pressing to worry about. Probably not, he's still drugged to the goddamn gills....yeah it passes. Ironteeth is restored just about to normal, his limbs are sort of less muscled then before, at least the ones that were healed. Nothing huge, noticeable, but not huge.
Now, the building itself begins with a small arched hall with paintings of strange beings all along it; demons, insects, furry creatures, beasts and men. You recognize some as beasts that used to occupy the surface world, recorded in stories and images passed down. The stripped thing with bony feet, a tiger you think its called, and the big gray thing with bone spears and a face arm. What is it? A whale? No, a walrus! Thats it. All of these things, and chimeric combinations of these things, are depicted. Past the tunnel is a large circular room, its ceiling sporting a skylight so large there's really only a ceiling just around the outer most few feet of the room. Wooden pillars, painted in shockingly bright red, hold up what roof there is and are covered in hanging tassels and fabric in a rainbow of colors. The tassels are each held in place by a human skull, carefully scrimshawed and painted to somehow match the clashing spray of colors. The floor of the room is flagstones, with a metal grate in the shape of a stylized sun in the center. There are bodies lined up like the spokes of a wheel around that drain, each tightly wrapped in a woven blanket and adorned with beads, jewelry, and other objects of value or meaning. In particular, the on in the center has a pair of what appear to be prayer wheel maces lying crossed on its chest. Through the skylight you can see not the normal -well, normal for the dream- sky, but a sky of dark and stars with the black spot of a new moon hanging oddly menacingly directly above. Black-gray feathers drift down through the skylight like a light snow, but somehow vanish before they can touch the ground.
"...Does anyone have any idea what that's supposed to be? When in doubt, I'll steer us to safety. I'm hoping Knot has already prepared at least a bit for the lava in case the wall doesn't hold properly."
Start plan "move away from weird fuckery and towards a safe spot". Try to remember whether Knot has some anti-lava or anti-horrible death measures they can trigger.
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 quickly scuttle the bore out of the tunnel while trying to remember or guess what the heck is going on. [2] No, this makes sense. From what you know almost every city worth its salt is going to have contingency plans for disasters like this. Probably diving or mechanical in nature. Maybe both? You'd have guessed mechanical from the Moths but....well, they're rather function before form so if it works it works. Still, its a good thing that someone let them know about the situation or they'd probably have caught a faceful of lava before they could have got their defenses up.
Be scared of the Lava. Ahhhh
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
Ahhh. Much sarcasm. ahhhh. Oh no.
Inspire the Vikkan Bore driver. Make them feel clever 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 )
You pat vikkan on the head with your tongue.
"Any ideas?"
In case no good ideas are forthcoming, see if bigger rocks can be dug out and put behind the wall of rocks as supports for the whole thing or if other smaller walls can be created to further slow the lava flow. Remember to stay on the correct side and skedaddle away with enough time to escape before the lava hits, though.
If there is time, perhaps drilling out a small horizontal plateau into the side of the slope would help prevent the rocks from sliding off all the time? Alternatively, dig out a single very long rock chunk that is too high to slide off into the tunnel, after which the rest of the rocks already dug out can fill up the holes at the side.
Try to determine what kind of diving effect is being put on the tunnel.
Also, would drilling out a little 'plateau' into the side of the steep slope help to keep the stones in place, and is there still time for a plan like that? What about drilling out a single long rock chunk that is too long to slide off into the tunnel?
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: 10
Dex: 10
Spe: 11
End: 10
Awa: 11
Cun: 10
Kno: 10
Ner: 13
SkillsDiving: +3
Stealth: +2
Occult: +1
Flammenvision!
Inventory1 soldier chestplate
Clothing: simple priest robes, shortened a bit so as to less restrict his movements
1 ethral rifle [10 rounds] (pierce 2)
1 black flame
1 Silent Night
4 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
You turn your new vision on the thing and again can see less than nothing; a hole in space where the dive should be.
[12]
You're pretty sure though, just going by what you know of diving, that its some sort of force field. A shield against something. Judging by the form, the overlapping colored light threads, its probably multilayered and multi-functional. All purpose defense shield. And it extends a fair bit around the tunnel too.
A plateau would probably work, but if it would be doable in time you're not sure.
1. Search for something matching the description of what ate my arm, that black tentacled shluck-like thing, as well as the snowy environment it resided in and the singing beings that lived in it. Knowledge is the first step to conquering your fear.
2. Search for true stories about legendary explorers and pioneers. Do such figures exist? Who are they usually aligned with? Or do they work well with all parties? Anybody in particular that stands out? It's good to have something to aspire to.
3. Are the maps of the molten heart accurate or just projections? If they are accurate, who was the brave explorer that mapped it? If they are projections, could the heart be even larger or go even deeper?
4. I know it's a long shot, but search for mention of a Gemstone People ruin near the molten heart. Maybe someone already discovered it but didn't bother facing its security because they didn't know how important it was.
5. What about mentions of the Weapon itself?
6. What about gemstone people maps? Do they exist? Are any in the archive?
7. Search for mention of Gemstone People military installations or communication hubs. Maybe those could hold clues to the location of the weapon or a record of their war with the starfish people or the reason for their race's disappearance.
8. Search for mentions of the material used in the Gemstone People ruins. Is this a naturally occurring material or something the Gemstone People created? Are there any known or suspected ways of getting more of it? If we had access to such a material, we could sell it to make the operation of the molten path much cheaper or even armor our bore to allow it to better survive high temperatures.
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
InventoryRadio
3 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
1. The thing has varying names but apparently its one of the monsters living in the valleys of retained memory in the sphere of Udyne. Singing was the cyclopean horse headed men who are the only civilized race.
2. True stories are difficult to parse. Many individuals exist but their exploits vary depending on account and depending on who is writing the account and the race and beliefs of both. Human and Ethral are most commonly depicted but considering they're the two races that have been generating documentation for the longest, its not really surprising. However, you find that the seemingly best and most accurate documentation comes in the form of "Pilgrim's Logs". These are literally the logs of church explorers in their trips to the depths. Compared to second and third hand accounts that make up most of the stuff, these are frank, contemporaneous, and first hand accounts of events. The few that the Ethral have are copies and relate to particular incidents of note for them, but the church probably has countless thousands of these things in its libraries.
3. They are about half and half. Bore crews probed the areas with thermometers and pulled back at a certain temperature. Their locations at each point of return were tabulated and the approximate shape of the Heart projected using that data. Its possible there are errors.
4. Nothing, aside from a few mentions of a "Lost" structure noted to be referred to as "Protected"
5. Nothing.
6. There's nothing here, but you find reference to a large plate map in the Eastern Archive.
7. Everything you find is pretty vague and doesn't provide any solid details or real world connections you can go off of.
8. According to chemical analysis done by Ethral geologists, it is a sort of crystalline cobalt though with a crystal matrix unseen in nature. Though the material is natural, the form it takes isn't so it must have been specially grown or molded. It can be replicated to a degree by mixing samples of it in with molten cobalt, though the result isn't quite the same.
10 minutes till lava fall.
Author
Topic: DIG: Heresy (Read 386137 times)