Over radio and intercom: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived at our destination. Please disembark using the exit on your left and make sure that you do not leave any luggage behind. Thank you for traveling with our boreline." Adam said with his best flight attendant voice.
Take a peek outside through the periscope. If no monsters or demons or lawyers seem to be lurking and we are in a spot suitable for disembarking, help/guide the pilgrims out of the bore and receive their payment for services rendered.
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)
1 crystal construct
Transport mission papers
1 black book copy
1 black book
1 field lighter
1 radio
38 fathoms
-loaned 40 to Cara (Tiruin)
1 unspent skillpoint
"Please remove all items from the overhead storage bins and be aware they may have shifted during our trip."
You give them the exit speech over the intercom (which you installed right? Communication systems.) and then look outside with the periscope. You can see plenty of things out there; the giant cavern is filled with people. Tents, stalls, crawlers, the strange squidlike amphibious vehicles of the shluck clustered near the river side entrance. No Monsters or demons...but with the shluck around there's bound to be a lawyer or two. Still, close enough. You head down and guide the Pilgrims out. They walk out, looking around at the cave and its vast ramshackle economy of vendors and opportunity exploiters with awe. Hundreds are gathered round a Guide, who is delivering a sermon of sorts while leading the group away and into the cavern proper, walking slowly. Someone is selling Black Books, others are selling basic climbing gear, still others sell rations and water in prepacked fabric sets.
Follow Adam, if we disembark, help to provide area security around the bore.
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 walk out with Adam and stand near him, scattergun in hand but held casually. You scan the room and attempt to look relaxed, confident, and dangerous. Your incomprehensible lizard emotions and expression make you a little bit frightening to most.
Take a nap.
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 nap.
"We should be fine, but it doesn't hurt to be careful."
Make sure the disembark area is fine and safe before unloading the pilgrims.
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 carefully maneuver the bore to a position where offloading won't require any real effort on the pilgrim's part and settle the bore into a resting position, balanced on all its legs and the tip of the drill, taking up as little room as possible.
Wait for someone to tell me we’ve reached our destination
Name: Harmony “Harm” Li
Description: Lean and broody looking. This woman has short black hair and is partially covered in interlocking black tattoos. She wears simple black clothes, with a knee-length Maggot Wool Coat overtop. She wears a mail shirt underneath her clothes.
Goal: Overall, Harm would like to find a place where refugees and travelers could seek refuge without dealing with the dogmatic influence of the church. Right now, though, she just wants to get away.
Stats
Str:11
Dex:11
Spe:11
End:10
Awa:11
Cun:12
Kno:10
Ner:11
Skills
Weapon smith (3)
Mechanical (2)
Lucky Shot (1)
1 unassigned
Inventory
Radio
Mail shirt (protect 3)
Crystal cutting utility knife (free to borrow)
6 Octahedrons
Gold ingot (100-120)
5 Large branches of crystalline lead
Lucky Shot (6/7)(14 rounds)
Short sword (cutting 3, pierce 2)
Voice in the Eyes- and intricate mechanical eye
Field Lighter
10 Path Markers
2 units mechanical junk
2 mechanical arms (belong to Kara and Vikkan)
14 fathoms
The fact that people are all off loading is a pretty good hint that you're at the destination.
"Hey guys, do you think we should offer to pick these people up in case they change their minds? Maybe tell them we'll be back here in a week or something? It's not a large detour and it could net us some extra fathoms to cover our fuel expenses."
Kara also thought this would be a good opportunity to experience what a pilgrimage is like, but she didn't fancy the thought of going on her own along with these people. Maybe if the group manages to hire itself as bodyguards... Hmm... Now there's an idea.
"Hmm... I wonder how well off they are. If they offer a lot of money we could even offer to escort them until Faith's Needle. You know, maybe walk the bore ahead and wait for them to arrive, act as a place to rest and a resupply point?"
Try to talk to the Pilgrims, see if they would be open to meeting us here in ((a reasonable timespan, maybe a week?)) should they change their mind.
What would they be willing to offer us to escort them or meet them further down the tunnels (if they're interested in such things)?
They politely decline both offers. You get the impression that they feel like you're probably just trying to get more money out of them. They explain that they are quite sure they will continue their pilgrimage as planned and that accepting your help would undermine the "significance" of the journey.
"Hmm, no. I believe going alone will come over as less threatening. If I come running over here screaming like an adolescent because he's trying to murder me, I would appreciate someone coming to help me though. "
I will go towards the figure halfway up the path, keeping a respectful (and safe-ish) distance from him. Greet him as such: "Friendly greetings to you, gentlebeing. My name is Clate. I am here with a group of travellers. Who are you?"
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
The...its not really a man. As you get closer you can see its body has the appearance of an ornate insect in humanoid form. It clearly has a carapace of sorts but that carapace is highly stylized, covered in golden spirals and patterns of parallel lines, knobby growths of rings and like organic plate armor rise from the shoulders, back, arms, thighs and feet. Its arms are too long, with an extra joint between the elbow and wrist, and its hands are four fingered, with two digits opposing the other two like an organic clamp. Its legs are overlong as well, but have no feet; they end in points. He rises as you approach and is a good three meters tall when standing. He twirls the moon tipped weapon with distressing, almost mechanical ease between his four fingers.
He doesn't speak.
Relic Team
Observe each of the figures that resemble the idols carefully. Especially take note of how the idolguy reacts to Clate.
"I expect these fellas are used to receiving groups of pilgrims. Nevertheless, Nyw, Auft, Ironteeth, please be ready with your weapons. Honorable doctor, please stand back. Noble Schitter, be ready to support Mr. Clate in the negotiations should the figure prove stubborn but not violent."
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)
3 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:Anvil: Local parish: currently looking for 8 to do a communal vision with a minor relic to extract the relic core.
Travellers' guild is offering a relic retrieval job. Local hazards ('living').
a small garden or sitting area, hemmed in by a wooden fence painted bright red.
You're sitting on low stone benches arrayed in a circle around a two meter tall cairn.
Beyond the red fence are carefully tended trees.
Snow lies on the ground in an uneven layer.
Your garden is surrounded by stone walls.
A path made of smooth river stones laid into the earth curves out of the garden, through an arched entry in the stone wall and out onto a thin, carved rock path that immediately curves away to the right.
The entire place seems to be situated on a mountain peak;
on the opposite side of the archway there lies the gray black mass of the mountain and you can see further buildings up there, connected by a spiraling path that was cut into the stone. Structures cling to the rock or are carved directly out of it. It all looks quite idyllic and calm.
The entire massive chunk of stone-buildings and all- is bouncing down the side of an unimaginably vast mountain.
The dead one remains dead.
The idol Clate speaks to and gets close to reacts by standing up and spinning his weapon around but...he makes no overtly aggressive action.
Relic Team
Hm, Drett mutters, a quiet clicking sound emanating behind his mask as his mouthparts move beneath in contemplation, It seems as though combat may be required. Interesting.
If the corpse is a safe distance from the living idol, wait for the schluck to head up and then investigate the cause of death. See whether it was the damage on the idol that caused it or if it was the death of the body, if possible.
Drett's Character Sheet
[17]
You look at the body but...its like looking at a broken statue. You can't tell anything about it other than that its broken.
Be ready to shoot the figure should it attack Clate.
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) 10/10
8 Structural Junk
Grappling Hook
You settle your rifle onto your shoulder and wait. You don't put your finger on the trigger yet but you keep it close.
Walk up behind Clate, stay within arms' reach of him. If the figure turns hostile, grab him and drag him away immediately, then retreat away while staying between it and Clate.
Did Nyw's murakumo transfer over into this dream? I don't recall if that was ever stated.
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 "Guarding others within this dive-trance-dream-thing which he does not understand".
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]
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.
(Your weapon did transfer over. All items do unless otherwise specified.)
You loom behind Clate, no more than a foot or two away, ready to shove him away and interpose yourself between him and the idol creature, should things come to blows. You carefully shift the murakumo on your body, making it easier to draw quickly.
As Clate and his bodyguards stand off with the idol, the sky turns dark. The mountain rolls slowly in its tumbling bounce and the ground, now directly above, rushes to meet it. A point of stone slams into the field like a gigaton hammer as the peak bounces off the ground, its impact utterly silent. There is no great blast of force and air, no unbelievable sound of impact, no earth shattering shock wave to throw people off their feet. Nothing. The mountainside and the ground it struck do not shatter or fly apart, they rebound off each other unchanged, but the flowers, the Torii gates, the stone path, the stone staircase, everything from 20 feet behind the idol to 20 feet before the temple up the hill is reduced to ruin. One moment it is there, the next there is nothing but a crushed landscape of red splinters, rock fragments, and plant pulp. The Mountain top begins another slow bounce, the sky rolling back into view like some kind of high speed sunrise. The idol doesn't move an inch or even seem to notice as all this happens. It just keeps spinning its weapon idly.
Author
Topic: DIG: Heresy (Read 384392 times)