Sharn With Giant Robots Beta

[Magnus_Samma]

Morodoc nods curtly and waits for the rest of the report.

[The_Snark]

Dove begins her mildly belated report. She's a little touched that her teammates are willing to defend her personal rights, even if she hadn't hitherto thought of the right not to be partly dissembled by artifice labs as a particularly important one.

"Firstly, sir, keep in mind most of this report should be subject to close scrutiny, because it was information they were willing to give to a prisoner who might be released. It could be true, though, and I think parts of it are."

"The people behind the machines we've seen are remnants from an old civilization in Xen'drik, the same one that invented the magitechnology our suits are based on. They've seen the use we're putting our technology to, and don't think we're fit to govern ourselves, on account of having centuries-long wars and destroying countries with forgotten superweapons."

"There are, however, only five of them. Give or take a couple, we're not really sure. I'll give details on the ones I saw in a written report. They possess several things like mobile suits, except that they don't seem to need anyone piloting them—they called them mecha. I'm only guessing, but I think each of them probably has one."

"They're of the belief that the forces they have are powerful enough to defeat anything the Four Nations can field. They plan to complete the lion-shaped mecha that was aboard the ship, which will be the most powerful mecha ever created, capable of destroying enemies with falling stars. They didn't say how they were going to complete it or what they needed, though."

"Anyway... with that, they feel they can demonstrate enough superiority that the governments of the Four Nations will surrender so they can govern them. That was part of why they let me go—they want to make sure we know to surrender."

"There was one thing I wasn't supposed to hear, though. A pair of them came in and said somebody named Zerstorer had hit a snag, and they needed to do some planning. That was the only time Anavel was really considering not letting me go. They only did because they didn't think I could take the information to anyone who could do anything with it."

She's not sure how much Morodroc knows about the commander and the discovery of the suits, so she stops there, letting Kara tell more if she wants to.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"And," Rin picks up, "That's when they released Dove. We met that Keras guy again, he handed her over, we checked her over a safe distance away, then flew back here."

"From what I can tell, the enemy is a small, elite group relying on overwhelming arcanotechnological advantage and combat knowledge to engage in intimidation against the Four Nations. They can't possibly occupy us, but they can threaten to cause enough strategic damage to cause our governments to bend to their demands. They're basically your standard 'evil Wizard with a doomsday weapon threatening the world' shtick," she concludes. "It's not new, but they might have the firepower to pull it off, especially if a new major war starts up and everyone's distracted."

"In fact, and this is just a guess from a merc who hates politics, I think that's the significance of the mention of Zerstorer, as in Baron Levistus Zerstorer of Karrnath. He might be a turncoat in Karrnath intentionally fanning their little tiff with Thrane into a global conflict." Rin shrugs. "Or, he's nobody and they intentionally gave Dove a red herring. Or any of another hundred things. It's something that bears investigating, is all."

"Anyway, that's about what I think we know about them from Dove's little exercise. I can write up some tactical reports on the mech that attacked the ship and Keras's ride and get them...hey, what time is it?"

[Magnus_Samma]

(Hm, thought more of you would chime in than that. Oh well. Sorry for the late post, Christmas has had a grip on my testicles like you would not believe.)

Morodoc's expression changes very fractionally. You get the impression he's just bitten into something he'd really like to spit back out.

"That's... wonderful. Hn. Well, I suggest you call get some rest. The repairs will be complete enough for travel shortly- if we hurry, we'll only arrive a few hours late."

He turns and stiffly strides away. Kara lets out a long, angry breath as he leaves earshot.

"Dove should stay with one or more of us tonight," she says, "just in case."

[Nerd-o-rama]

(I think we might have lost a couple of people for the holidays)

Rin nods, satisfied. "Great! Glad that's. Settled. Excuse me..." she says, promptly falling asleep and collapsing backwards onto Achille without enough force to actually knock him over, and starting to snore despite the fact that she's still three-quarters upright.

[Winged One]

Achille catches Rin and starts moving her into a proper Pieta plagiarizing person porting position, gently so as not to wake her. "Um, I don't know any magic, so I can stay up with Dove. By the way, where's our, ah, quarters?"

[Magnus_Samma]

Kara lets her mask sink into her palm for a moment before motioning for the group to follow her. She leads you down a couple of corridors to a room that she unlocks and leads you into, flicking on the everburning torches as she does so. The barracks are small, as one might expect from the anemities aboard an airship, but the bunk beds look relatively comfortable, and there's more than enough for all of you.

"The crew's not at full combat strength at the moment so you do have individual quarters," explains Kara as she collapses onto one of the lower bunks. "But if we're gonna keep an eye on Dove we might as well have a slumber party. Smoke 'em if you got 'em."

[Winged One]

Achille tucks Rin into a bunk. While he's doing that, he says "Um, no thanks. I don't smoke."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin snortles and fidgets a bit, and her hair turns blonde.

[Elvith Jars]

Angel is busy with end-of-the-year-work but still manages to find a smidgen of time to collect perperment schnaps and enough glasses for everybody before going back to work while grumbling at bosses who want stuff done in such a way that no extra vacation time can be taken. "Cheers" she says after pouring drinks for everybody who wants one, and then downs hers in one shot. She looks ready to Par-tay, and then after realizing she hasn't had anything to eat, promptly passes out in a bunk conveniently placed between Kara and Rin.

[Winged One]

"By the way, will someone tell me when Rin's been asleep for, um, long enough to get her magic back?" Achille asks innocently.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax follows the Commander, but once the others enter, he wanders off into the bowels of the ship, seemingly looking for someone....

[Magnus_Samma]

Kara unbottens her coat and tosses it over a nearby chair. Fortunately(?) she seems to have put on some pants and a shirt since the last time you've seen her without the garment.

"Just go ahead and sleep, Achille. If Dove was alone it would be a simple matter for Morodoc to sneak someone into her room and do whatever perverted thing he was planning on doing, but all she has to do in here is squeak and then we'll be all over whoever we don't recognize like maggots on roadkill. He's not going to stand up to me that openly. We just have to keep him from doing it covertly."

That said, she flops onto one of the other beds, turns to face the wall, pulls off her mask/helmet, and covers herself with a sheet. She appears to be more or less dead to the world within moments.

Thrax would probably be able to find whatever it is he's looking for if he indicated to the DM just what it might be.

[Winged One]

Achille steals Karen's KnightMare Frame so that it can be reverse engineered. After he finds Kara, of course. "Um, I actually wanted to know that because of something that had nothing to do with watching Dove." Achille says, obediently starting to take off his armor. "What's perverted about murder, anyway?"

[Elvith Jars]

"Hey don't look at me, Jani," Angel mutters in her sleep, "Mom made you the next Pontiff, not me. It's not my fault you don't have any divine talent, maybe you'll get some from the Flame..."

[Winged One]

Achille raises his eyebrow at what Angel is saying in her sleep. He doesn't let it stop him from getting ready for bed, though. As he climbs in, he says "Um, Dove, could you wake me up just a bit before Rin's slept enough to get her magic back? And tell Thrax to get a bucket of cold water when he gets back?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

Rin very seldom dreams. What she does is recall memories.

Spoiler

Show

*SMACK*

"You know," said the tall elf, "most pickpockets run away when they're caught. Or at least after I've thrashed them once."

Rin, currently a dirty, lanky pubescent blonde, spit the little bit of blood that had entered her mouth. "You hit me. Twice. I can't just let that slide."

The elf looked slightly perplexed. "Well, you tried to steal from me. What would you have me do?"

"Duh, give me all your money and your horse. And those swords look pretty nice too. And the bow. Oh, and your clothes. They look ridiculous, but I could hock 'em no problem."

Vesharan, veteran of dozens of battlefields, master of four separate schools of swordsmanship, and honored Tairnadal...smirked. "Have you ever been outside of Aundair, little one?"

"Never been outsidea Fairhaven, 'sfar as I know," Rin replied, eyeing her opponent for a weakness. She found none, so she just leapt at him head-on, and got another mailed fist to her mouth for the troubles.

"You do know I'm going easy on you, right? If you had any chance at all of threatening me I would have drawn and sliced you open by now."

"Well, that might make this a little more fun. No one's come at me with a real sword before, it'd be worth a load of cash if I could grab it from you."

Vesharan sighed. "Look, as a professional fighter, I'm embarrassed here. You can't just leap at an armed enemy with no forethought and expect results. And for that matter, your stance is all wrong." Vesharan unhooked his knife from his belt and took up a proper fencing stance with the sheathed weapon in place of a sword. "You have to balance on the balls of your feet, ready to spring forward or back at any moment."

"Back? Why would I spring back if I'm attacking?"

"In case I do this," Vesharan explained, springing forward and giving another solid punch to the thief's midsection. "Seriously, I can tell you've got the muscles to be a proper highwayman - somewhere, under that bony frame of yours - but no technique! How are you expecting to rob a trained soldier?"

Rin, still doubled over, tried to leap forward and tackle him, which he quickly sidestepped. "Well, if you keep yammering on, eventually you'll get tired. You are, what, like 300 years old?" she suggested as she stood up from the mud on the alleyway's floor.

Vesharan outright laughed at that. "Only 180, little one. And in that time, I don't think I've met anyone quite as insane as you. And I've fought Daelkyr-spawn."

Rin stood up, eyes glaring death. "We'll see who's laughing when I wipe that smirk off your--" another surprise axe-kick from the elf, and down she goes again.

"Flatfooted again," he tsked. "I admire your tenacity, but I'm afraid I just can't allow myself to be robbed by as unrefined a fighter as you are. Tell you what. Grab that stick over there, and I'll show you how to rough someone up properly. Then, maybe you can give it another go."

Rin was again glaring, angrier than she'd ever been in her life, but she recognized an opportunity when she saw one. The old man was toying with her. That meant he'd drop his guard eventually, and she could make him pay. Not even money, at this point, just in VENGEANCE. Besides, free sword lessons never hurt.

[Magnus_Samma]

(Well, uh, honestly not sure what to do at this point. It seems like half our players are still out of action. I'll see if I can give Thrax a whack upside the head OOG or something. I like what I'm seeing in the meantime, though.)

[Nerd-o-rama]

(Yeah, if it were just me, I'd say skip ahead to next morning, but it looks like at least Thrax wants to do something.)

[The_Snark]

"Okay," Dove agrees, and as the others all start to fall asleep, feels rather happy. She isn't actually worried at the idea of being opened up for examination, but saying so would ruin the moment.

And it's a good moment. She has friends, who like her enough to stand up for her. She must be doing something right...

[Elvith Jars]

Angel continues to dream...

Spoiler

Show

"Granny Jaela? But you're so... young! You look younger than I am! Where is this, Flamekeep?"
"Yes it's Flamekeep, my little angel's angel. I look as I am now, but don't expect me to know you if we meet in person. Only my spirit recognizes yours due to our mutual connection to the Flame. The Flame burns free, unbound by the river's forks."
"River's Forks? Oh. Right. I'm not from around here..."
"Exactly."
"So, why am I here?"
"The Flame's ember burns pure within your soul. It is your guiding light."
"Uh, okay..."
"Mirrors don't always show our best side. Beware of your reflection."
"What the Khyber is that supposed to mean?"
"What colorful words you have. Goodbye, my little angel's angel."

The young (well old compared to many on the team) favored soul wakes up well past dawn with a puzzled expression on her face.

{I'm ok with skipping ahead}

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax continues wandering the ship, though he begins to wonder if he's perhaps going about this the wrong way....still, the prospect of meeting someone who might be able to further his growth keeps him intrigued enough to continue his search.......

[Magnus_Samma]

"Looking for something?" asks the shadows behind Thrax.

Standing there, arms folded, eyes hidden by the shadows reflected by his glasses, is Morodoc, wearing an unnatural smile.

[Winged One]

"Thank you." Achille says, looking at Dove while he says that and then lying down. He takes one last glance at Rin before going to sleep that's one part fondness, one part admiration, and one part malice.

Spoiler

Show

Giving The Snark a chance to reply, since it doesn't seem like it'll slow the game down to take my time.

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax turns slowly to regard Morodoc. His eyes betray little emotion.

"Hmmm...after a manner of speaking, I suppose. I'm sorry, sir, if I'm bothering you, I'll head back to the barracks..."

[Winged One]

If Dove doesn't have anything else to say, Achille goes to sleep. He does dream, but unless someone or something decided to contact him via his dreams they don't have anything to do with the plot. Their content can be easily extrapolated from his age, gender, and location.

[Magnus_Samma]

(Damnit. Nova I keep trying to ask you this on IRC but I never seem to be able to catch you. Has Thrax incorporated the items he found yet or are they tucked away in his bag or something?)

[Nova_Eclipse]

(Yeah, he has, Mags.)

[Magnus_Samma]

"I really didn't think you'd use it," Morodoc comments as Thrax turns away, "never found a warforged who could, and I've been looking long enough. Either you don't know what you've found, or you're a very unusual warforged, Thrax."

[Nova_Eclipse]

Thrax seems slightly surprised.

"You were the one who left the sheathe and dorje for me? And what do you mean, you've never found a warforged who could use it?"

He holds up the arm with the sheathe on it slightly, looking at it questioningly, then turns his gaze with the same expression to Morodoc.