The Clockwork Forge

[Gnerglenator]

Current Characters (Players):
Vern (Gorgondantes)
Ravenok (Angus)
Einsiedler (Greeniron)
Jade (Greystone)

ANGUS, GREENIRON and GREYSTONE. you are all just about to enter the story. It is assumed you went through most of the same stuff gorgondantes did, and that you all the same information as him. Since it has taken so long to get you into the story (much longer than i expected) i will be sending a message to each of you letting you know. When you get this message, please tell me so i know you are active. Thanks :)

Some more information: Do not roll for your HP, use the maximum dice roll each level, you are going to be taking a beating and you will need alll the HP you can get. Crits ARE possible. hitting a robot in the joint or engine is certainly critical in my book. Will add more info as it comes to me. Remember, this is a fast game. I'd like players to post at least once a day after they are introduced in the story.

Two weeks ago, the earth was teeming with activity. People were going about their daily lives as usual, children were playing, markets were selling, Animals were... doing whatever it is that animals do on a fine summer day. The world had been great so far, with the occasional dragon or evil sorcerer (or all-consuming monster) merely another days work for a small group or rather infamous adventurers. But if you were to look at the earth two weeks ago, and the earth present time, they would bear so little resemblance that they might be entirely different planets. This is because, for reasons best known to themselves, the gods decided they were bored of the whole thing, and therefor uncreated life. Every living thing, big and small, was torn from the world in less than a minute in a roar of a searing maelstrom that scraped the land clean of organic debris. It was the end of everything... except... there was one thing the gods left untouched. Perhaps they did not consider them, perhaps they did not expect them, perhaps they could not affect them, but for whatever reason, they were ignored. Now, just 15 days after this cataclysmic event, the planet is covered in rock and sand and fire. A fierce wind charges across the land, withering the stone but unfelt by its only inhabitants.
POSTING HAS BEGUN

[Gnerglenator]

To Vern:

Out of the darkness looms a dark gray shape... growing larger, is it coming toward you, or are you going toward it? Its hard to tell, your brain is fuzzy... it seems like a movie, playing without any control. The shape has come close enough to discern... stone walls... stone floor... a torch, and illuminated by its light, a person. They are sitting with their arms around their knees, and their head bowed. You move closer, marveling at how real it all seems...
The prisoner makes a movement as you draw closer. She raises her head to looks at you. Her face is beautiful, and incredibly familiar. Who is she? She looks so sad. Ah! You remember now, it seems so obvious, you don't know why you did not know it right away. She is your wife. Looking in her face, a world erupts around her, around you... A better world. The grass is green, the sky is blue, and she smiles so dazzlingly, you want nothing more than to be with her.
But as you reach for her, you see for the first time, your own hand. Its large, metallic, heavy. Suddenly you are back in the cell. The bliss has ended. You panic... lifting your hand toward her, it grows heavier, and she seems to move farther away, out of your reach...

A voice rings out, cold and clear as a bell. "I can give you life "

You awaken. The first thing you notice is that you feel nothing. Nothing at all. Its disturbing. But you can see. Looking around, you see you are in a cavernous room so large you cannot see anything in the dim light but the floor in front of you and things on the wall next to you. They are humanoid in shape, but metallic.

[Gorgondantess]

Vern gets up, and looks around alert and relaxed. He reaches for his mug, and scans the area for the origin of the voice. He calls out is a collected, dwfined voice. "Where are, you, what do you want? What do you mean by life? Where is my wife? If you have done anything to her, you'll know why they call me manhunter."

[Gnerglenator]

The silence is unsettling, you feel completely alone. even the humanoid things next to you are making no movements. Looking to your left and right, you see that they are in a long line, standing up against the wall, so far you cannot see the end of it. Your mug is not there.

[Gorgondantess]

Finding his protestations futile, Vern gets up and looks around the area for an escape, a useful item, anything.

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Ok, here's my character sheet. As of now, it's tenative; I'll probably change something.

[Gnerglenator]

Figuring the best way to fully explore the huge room, and find an exit, is to follow the wall, you set off. Against the silence, the unusual scraping and banging of your feet on the ground seem incredibly loud. As you move, you feel awkward. Its very strange to not feel anything, especially while walking. You stumble a few times. Finally, you reach the end of the wall. It ends with a large opening, about 10x10 ft, leading into a corridor. You cannot see how far the corridor goes. (Just a reminder, you have darkvision out to 60 ft) the wall that the opening is set into, that runs perpendicular to the one you have been following, continues on into darkness. More metal men are lines along it.

Make a listen check.

[Gorgondantess]

Vern looks over his body, mildly surprised. It proved to be quite a hinderance, but he'd get used to it, and in the end was probably more sturdy than his old body. [I]Still, the family would get quite a shock from it all...[/I] Vern chuckles at his own private joke, then stumbles once more. Glaring, he stops for a while, looking around the area. Whoever made this is a complete fool... such a large facility serves no purpose but for gaudy extravagance. It'll be hell getting out of here. Listening for any living thing and scanning the area for objects of interest, he goes over to one of the metal men, feeling it over, looking for any detatchable parts, joints, items of interest, etc.

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Try using spoilers for OOC comments. Anyhow, listen check: (1d20-1)[0]
search check for the metal man:(1d20+4)[11]
Ouch, natural one. That's... pretty bad. And the seven isn't much better either.

[Gnerglenator]

wow, 0 listen eh?

Well, you are apparently too interested in the metal people than listening. They appear to be warforged of some sort. Warforged are not new to you, they have been around for thousands of years, though no one ever understood why. Its made completely of metal, no wood or anything like that. At the joints, gears are visible. Its eyes are perfectly round and completely blank. By leaning past it, hitting your head on the wall in the process, you see that in the back of its head there is a large colorless crystal exposed an inch or so. It looks like the crystal continues into the cranium and takes up most of the room.
The visibility is quite clear, because you are providing your own light from your glowing eyes, allowing you to see these details easily in this darkened area.

You may make another listen check

[Gorgondantess]

For a while, Vern fiddles with the metal man. He wiggles parts, tries to pull things off, looks in joints, etc. After that, he continues on down the area.

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Another listen then...
(1d20-1)[15]
Ahhhh, a 15. That should do the trick.

[Gnerglenator]

The 15 does make it. As you examine the warforged, you realize that you are not as alone as your thought. A scraping noise of metal on stone is coming from the corridor near you. It sounds like the footsteps of another warforged, but judging by the volume, it sounds like its a lot bigger than you.

[Gorgondantess]

Vern looks around, looking for a way to hide... he tears the warforged down from the rack, pulls it over to a corner somewhere, then gets up and takes its place amongst the many, waiting and watching for the larger thing.

[Gnerglenator]

Clever. The thing is moving slowly, even after hiding, nearly 30 seconds pass, and though the sounds get louder, you can tell it's not quite to you yet. and that's when you hear a voice from your right (the passage is on your left).
You realize your eyes still glow right?
Behind the warforged next to you, another metal person with glowing green eyes is poking his head out from a secret door that he evidently just opened.
Quick, in here!

[Gorgondantess]

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Damn, I meant to mention something about that...

Vern attempts to stop the glow, whispering, "Oh? And why should I go with you, rather than whatever's coming? I see no reason to go along when I can stay here."

[Gnerglenator]

He says in a very impatient voice
Because I'm closing this door in 5 seconds weather you are in it or not. If want to be powered down then by all means, stay here
You can see a red glow coming from the passage to your left, and it sounds as if its almost to you.
HURRY!

[Gorgondantess]

Vern quickly slips in the passage, and follows his guide. "What is this place? Who are you? What do you want?"

[Gnerglenator]

Your guide closes the secret door quickly behind you.
No talking yet, just hurry.
He starts creeping as fast and quietly as he can down the passageway, which looks roughly dug. Behind the door you can hear the thing walking around in the room slowly.

You walk quietly for a long time, it seems like miles and miles down a steep narrow slope. As you sneak down the passage, you can sometimes hear machines grinding away behind the walls, at one point you can hear a sort of clicking, but your guide stays silent and keeps moving. Time stretches on, step after step, and the gradually, the sounds all fade. Even after its all quiet and all you hear is the crunch of your feet, you keep walking for some time before he finally says:
Ok. We should be deep enough now. You can talk, but keep walking.

[Gorgondantess]

Vern keeps walking, and repeats his previous questions.

[Gnerglenator]

He keeps walking ahead of you, without looking back he says:
This is the clockwork forge. I am Travis. And i want to escape.
After a moment of silence, he continues
You're pretty lucky, you know? That sentinel was about as far away as it was programmed to go on its patrol path, and I was fairly close. You don't want to go shouting about like that, every bot in the mountain will hear ya.
Travis seems to be built just like you, the only difference is his glowing green eyes as opposed to your blue ones. Except for his right arm, which looks... slightly melted.

[Gorgondantess]

Vern keeps a cool demeanor, asking clearly and orderly, "Well then, Travius, how do you propose to escape? And why are you here... for that matter, why am I here? How did I get here? Why am I a machine as opposed to a human, as I was last time I can remember? Are there any others? What was that sentinel supposed to be?"

[Gnerglenator]

He continues to walk. You round a corner and see on your right a huge pit of molten rock. Travis keeps walking past it, along a path against the wall.
Better questions. You died. I don't know how, but you died. The crystal in you head contains your soul, which is being used the power the construct that is now your body. The Forgemaster uses they soul gems to power all of his constructs. I can't fathom where he gets them all, but he must have thousands of them.
The caves you are walking through now seem to be a natural formation caused by the lava, less and less of it dug out by robot hands.
Sometimes the souls powering the warforged "Awaken", which is what happened to us, among others. Once awakened we can act on our own free will. Once that happens, we're no longer of use to the Forgemaster. That sentinel walks the corridors constantly, one of hundreds in this mountain. When they find an awakened, they break the gem and take the chassis up to the Forgemaster to be refitted with a new crystal.
You can hear voices up ahead
As you can imagine, I'd rather not be destroyed, and i assume everyone who awakens feels the same way. Thats why were trying to escape. Every night we search for new awakened. We're getting more and more each night. There were 6 of us this evening, and we should have more by now.

[Gorgondantess]

As Travis speaks, Vern's calm demeanor breaks. He stops, holding his head. "Wait... how did I die? What about my family. Are they dead too? Are they hanging on a rack in the corridor, never to awaken?"

[Gnerglenator]

Travis turns and put an arm on your shoulder.
Woah, woah, woah, calm down. There's no reason to believe your family is dead. Think back, can you remember how you died?
(DM NOTE: no players know about the apocalypse, all anyone can remember is going to bed then waking up warforge'd)

[Gorgondantess]

"No, you fool, I can't remember a thing! Even if I could, it wouldn't matter; I haven't seen them in years. All I remember is my jail cell- what's happened? Was I unconscious, killed? Why is this forge here?!?"

[Gnerglenator]

I don't know! I've only been here 3 weeks! and for your information i know how I died!
He takes a moment to collect himself, and you hear footsteps from further down the passage.
By the looks of it, just judging solely on the number of warforged and the amount of machinery here, all made by one person, I'd say this forge has been here for hundreds of years, mabey thousands. It must be somewhere far from civilization, otherwise people would have know of it. I assume anyone who came close was killed to keep its secret.
Another warforged with dark pink eyes comes running into view and skids to a halt behind Travis.
Travis... we found 3 more awakened.
She pauses, and in a forced, businesslike tone she adds.
Lonny is dead. Several guards are making their way down the tunnel he was using, and they are almost upon us.
S**t. Come on, we don't have much time.
With that, they both start running down the passageway.

[Gorgondantess]

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Wait... obviously female warforged? How does that work?

Vern sighs, blithely following after them and starting to regain his composure.

[Gnerglenator]

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Female voice, all the warforged have no clear gender.

After a hundred feet or so of uneven tunnel, the passage opens into a cavernous room, and for a moment, you are stunned at its complexity. Its about 150 feet in diameter in a large dome shape, with a pit of lava about 100 feet in diameter in the dead center. The room looks as if it was at first a natural cave, but then hollowed out into a perfect dome, 75 feet high. The walls of the room are a combination of rock and metal plates. Merged with one whole side of the room (on your right) are dozens of pipes of all sizes, with many other gears and devices that don't seem to be moving at all. They are all connected and centering on one large pipe in the middle of the room, which is running vertical, directly out of the lava. You can see that the pipe would have lead up into the ceiling, indeed, the whole for it is still there, but it appears to have been broken off and bent 90 degrees, about halfway up it. This pipe is surrounded at its base by about 5 feet of platform, suspended a few feet above the lava, with a bridge linking it with the rest of the room on your left. There are 3 Exits to this room; The one you just came through, one that looks built and probably was the original entrance to the room, which is close to the bridge, and another exit that looks dug out, like the one you came through, on the opposite side of the room as you.

There are 5 more warforged in here, who were facing the entrance across from you, but turned to look at you when you entered the room. One of the warforged stands out from the others. It is small, about 3 feet tall, with light yellow eyes. Another one has maroon eyes.

The remaining 3 warforged are player characters and i will let them describe themselves.

The moment he enters the room, Travis runs across the bridge to the central platform surrounding the pipe.

Dinah! Get to the crank, quick! and someone come help me with this d**n pipe! Everyone else, get ready for whatever comes through, but stay clear of the opening!

[Trodon]

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http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=113340 my character

A warfarged steps up to you with an outstretched hand. Hello i am Ravenok i was an apprentice mage before this happened he indicates his body but i hope i can continue my studies in this metal body He steps aside to let the others introduce themselves while taking out his spellbook

[Greeniron]

My name is Einsiedler says the warforged with soft blueish-white eyes, his body is oddly thin when compared to the others.

[Greystone]

Jade glances to he newcomer "Hey, who is the new guy?"

She is Tall and armored in black skin plates from head to foot. Unlike most warforged, Jade has a feminine shape, not fully but more hourglassed than most. Likewise her voice has a female tone to it. Her fingers are more dexterous and formed, and ending sharply. Green eyes glow from an ornately made face.

[Gnerglenator]

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The red is lava, gray is floor, brown is pipes and machinery. You entered from the south.

The sentinels have almost entered the room. They are too big for the tunnel, and are currently smashing their way through it.

DAMMIT THERE WILL BE TIME FOR INTRODUCTIONS LATER, NOW SOMEONE HELP ME WITH THIS PIPE!

He is bending the entire pipe to face the tunnel that the sentinels are coming from.

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Initiative please, use the dice roller here.